Monthly Archives: May 2012

The Church against Obamacare, cont’d

Featured image Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the archbishop of Washington, appeared on Fox News Sunday yesterday (video below). FNS host Chris Wallace and Wuerl discussed the 12 lawsuits brought by 43 Catholic institutions against officers of the Obama administration seeking declaratory and injunctive relief against the “preventive services” mandate promulgated (and to be promulgated) by the administration. The complaint in one of the 12 lawsuits — University of Notre Dame v. Sebelius — »

81/2

Featured image I’ve written for Power Line during eight and a half of the ten years it has been in existence. I don’t have 8.5 observations about that period, but I do concur with Scott’s thoughts. My main sentiment is gratitude to John for inviting me to blog with him and Scott, and for inviting me a second time after I failed to respond to the initial email because I didn’t have »

Wisconsin’s “orphan” left-wing activists

Featured image It’s no scoop that the Democrats are expecting an embarrassing defeat in Tuesday’s Wisconsin gubernatorial recall race. More than merely causing embarrassment, the recall campaign has succeeded in mobilizing Republicans to the point that Wisconsin appears now to be in play for Mitt Romney. As the Washington Post reminds us, George W. Bush twice came close to winning in Wisconsin, and the Republicans captured the State’s Senate seat along with »

Announcing the PL Green Weenie Award

Featured image So I’ve been giving out the coveted Power Line Enviro Loser of the Week Award for several weeks now, but I’ve decided to upgrade it to a new moniker.  But it’s really an old name that I’m surprised I didn’t think of before: the Green Weenie.  Actually, another blogger did: John, of the FollowFreedom blog out in Oregon, who offers the following account that tracks exactly what I was planning »

Ten Years: Ten Thoughts (plus John’s)

Featured image It was ten years ago this weekend — ten years ago today, I think, but maybe tomorrow — that John Hinderaker went to Blogger and set up Power Line. On Memorial Day that weekend he gave me a call and invited me to contribute. Once one of my kids helped me get into the publishing platform, we were off and running. Looking back, I thought I might take the occasion »

Obamacare pre-decision commentary: the left at its most juvenile

Featured image George Will writes about the left’s laughable attempt to “put the squeeze” on Chief Justice Roberts in the Obamcare case. Liberals are, in Will’s words, “waging an embarrassingly obvious campaign, hoping he will buckle beneath the pressure of their disapproval and declare Obamacare constitutional.” It’s a familiar tactic, used in school cafeterias across the land: If you do X (here, strike down Obamacare), we’ll make sure everybody knows you’re Y »

This day in baseball history

Featured image On May 26, 1962, the Detroit Tigers defeated the New York Yankees 2-1 at Yankee Stadium. With two out in the bottom of the ninth, Al Kaline preserved the win with a diving catch of an Elston Howard line drive. Without the catch, Hector Lopez might have scored from first base to tie the game. But the victory came at a big cost. Kaline broke his collar bone making the »

The Hinderaker-Ward Experience, Episode 26: The Amateur

Featured image Episode 26 of the Hinderaker-Ward Experience features an entertaining and explosive interview with Ed Klein, author of The Amateur. In turn hilarious and appalling, Klein’s book, based on 200 interviews with White House insiders and others, paints a picture of a president who has, quite literally, no idea what he is doing, and is too narcissistic to learn. In addition, Brian and I weighed in on the news of the »

The Muslim Brotherhood’s winning hand in Egypt

Featured image Lyndon Johnson reportedly once offered this assessment of the American electorate: Men worry about heart attacks; women worry about cancer of the [breasts]; and everyone worries about war. The Egyptian electorate might be assessed as follows: many worry about a restoration of the old regime; many worry about their relationship with Allah; and everyone worries about instability. If this assessment is correct, then Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Mursi has a »

A Fond Farewell to No Left Turns

Featured image Last week I noted here that Peter Schramm of the Ashrook Center at Ashland University is a loyal Power Line reader, but I am remiss in noting along with Jonah Goldberg over on The Corner that the long-running Ashbrook Center blog, NoLeftTurns, is ending its ten-year run.  Although it was our own Scott Johnson who first taught me how to code my very first blog entry (a comment here on »

Mrs. Warren’s profession, cont’d

Featured image We want to update the saga of Native American/Senator wannabe Elizabeth Warren. On Monday Howie Carr contributed the New York Post column “Elizabeth Warren’s little lies.” Yesterday Carr added “Another taxing problem for Elizabeth Warren.” Warren lost Carr long ago, but the Boston Globe has done its best to hold the fort down for her. Yesterday’s Boston Globe nevertheless brought us Mary Carmichael’s “Filings add to questions on Warren’s ethnic »

The Weekly Winston: On Woodrow Wilson

Featured image Wonder what Churchill might make of Barack Obama, leaving aside of course the calculated insult of Obama sending the Oval Office Churchill bust back to London?  Let’s check out what Churchill had to say about the man of whom Obama is in many ways the perfect epigone—Woodrow Wilson: The spacious philanthropy which he exhaled upon Europe stopped quite sharply at the coasts of his own county. . .  Peace and »

The Radical Transformation of Barack Obama

Featured image Barack Obama set out to radically transform America, but, as he nears the end of his term, a funny thing has happened: America has radically transformed him instead. The latest evidence of this is the Obama campaign’s most recent trial balloon: don’t believe that stuff about Obama being a big spender; really, he is a fiscal conservative. More than that, a virtual tightwad! Now, Obama never had any intention of »

Speaking of Injuns. . .

Featured image So while we’re on the subject of Indians Native Americans, have a look at a news story in today’s Wall Street Journal on how political correctness is backfiring on the Left.  It seems the sensitivistas of Oregon have banned Indian names and Indian mascots from all high schools, at the penalty of having state aid cut to any school that does not comply.  But some people are protesting—real, honest-to-God indigenous »

Peace, They Say: C-SPAN edition

Featured image We hosted Jay Nordlinger when he came to town to talk about his new book, Peace, They Say, a history of the Nobel Peace Prize. It is a brilliant, thought-provoking, enraging, inspirational, fascinating, moving book. Jay’s presentation on the book at the Center of the American Experiment lunch that we cosponsored was a great hit. Jay was interviewed last month on C-SPAN’s After Words by the Wall Street Journal’s Matt »

Bill Clinton’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy

Featured image During a fundraising event in Monaco, former president Bill Clinton was photographed with two adult film stars. According to one of the women, Brooklyn Lee, it happened this way: He kind of was looking over at us every once and a while. And we’re huge, psycho fans of Bill. We just think he’s really cute. So we end up wandering by. And we were going to approach him to take »

Egypt takes another step down a perilous path

Featured image Islamist Mohamed Mursi, of the Muslim Brotherhood, is the top voter-getter in Egypt’s presidential election. He appears to have captured at least 25 percent of the vote, well short of the majority needed to avoid a run-off. As I write this, it is unclear who the other candidate in the run-off will be. The Muslim Brotherhood told Reuters that, by its count, Mursi will face Ahmed Shafiq, a military man »