Monthly Archives: December 2012

Summoner-in-chief

Featured image President Obama has summoned congressional leaders to a Friday summit at the White House to talk about a deal that would avert some of the “fiscal cliff” measures that are scheduled to kick in on January 1. Everyone seems to agree that there isn’t enough time to avert all of these measures. Nor are all of them necessarily to be despised. Democrats believe that cliff-imposed tax increases for high earners »

Why disclosure of those with handgun permits encourages gun ownership

Featured image In response to my post about the decision of that New York State newspaper to publish the names and addresses of those with handgun permits in its locality, a friend and former colleague writes: We live in a rural area where most people own guns and would-be intruders would be wise to think so. We don’t have anything more dangerous in our home than a kitchen carving knife. If the »

Why Do Democrats ♥ Revolvers?

Featured image If I were a semiautomatic pistol, I would be getting a complex. What Democrats really hate is semiautomatic rifles, although it isn’t clear exactly why. True, the Sandy Hook killings were carried out with such a weapon, but in the scheme of things, rifles of any sort are rarely used as murder weapons. In 2011, according to the FBI, there were 14,612 victims of homicide in the U.S., down 14.7% »

Hagel’s trial balloon reportedly has “popped,” but not for want of a natural constituency

Featured image Mike Allen of Politico said on Morning Joe today that the trial balloon for a Chuck Hagel nomination as Secretary of Defense “has been popped” and is “really losing a lot of altitude.” Allen attributed Hagel’s woes to the view that no “natural constituency” exists for a Hagel nomination. Actually there is such a constituency. It consists of folks who dislike Israel; who want to keep U.S. and Israeli hands »

Democrats Seek the Holy Grail of Gun Control

Featured image Dianne Feinstein has announced that she will introduce sweeping gun control legislation in the Senate. Under her bill, countless standard handguns apparently would now be banned, and for the first time a federal register that may include many millions of gun owners, fingerprinted and photographed, would be created. This is how Feinstein describes her proposal on her web site: Following is a summary of the 2013 legislation: Bans the sale, »

“Amend the Bible,” says Piers Morgan

Featured image During an interview with Pastor Rick Warren, Piers Morgan proposed that we “amend the Bible.” Morgan believes the Bible should be amended because it’s out-of-date on the issues such as gay rights. Here is the exchange: Morgan didn’t spell out the process by which the Bible should be amended. Perhaps he wasn’t using the word “amend” literally. We can always hope not, anyway. The Bible isn’t like the U.S. Constitution. »

Barack Obama’s forgotten “earliest poltical inspiration”

Featured image If one is ever going to embellish significantly on the truth, a eulogy is probably the place to do it. But the embellishment should pertain solely to the deceased, not the eulogizer. In his eulogy for Sen. Daniel Inouye, President Obama spoke in some detail about his favorite subject — himself. In doing so Obama claimed that “Danny Inouye was perhaps my earliest political inspiration.” He explained that he learned »

Our history, and theirs: A word from John Lundstrom

Featured image Reader John Lundstrom writes to add a related note to John Hinderaker’s post “Our history, andi theirs.” He writes: I’ve been a devoted reader of Power line for years and was most interested in your post. I was gratified to see your reference to the glorious First Minnesota and your citing of Wayne Jorgenson’s excellent Every Man Did His Duty. Knowing of your association with Minnesota, I take the liberty »

Dietetically incorrect

Featured image I’ve struggled with my weight ever since I quit smoking thirty years ago, going up and down 30 pounds several times. All I can tell you is that it’s a helluva lot easier going up than it is coming down, though you probably already knew that. In his capacity as a general service operation, Glenn Reynolds has occasionally cited science writer Why We Get Fat. Taubes recommends a low-carb/no-carb diet, »

New York newspaper provides road map for burglars

Featured image A local New York newspaper, the Journal News, has seen fit to publish an interactive map that shows the names and addresses of thousands of residents of Westchester and Rockland counties who have handgun permits. The article, in explaining the decision to publish the information, pointed to the school massacre in nearby Newtown, Conn., and the concerns of some residents about which of their neighbors might have firearms. Ironically, the »

Our History, and Theirs

Featured image Here in Minnesota, there has been a political skirmish over the Department of Education’s adoption of new K-12 educational standards for social studies, including history. The current revision has been drafted by education professionals and is proceeding through the rulemaking process; the legislature need not adopt or consent to the new standards. A few days ago, Republican leaders in the House wrote to Governor Mark Dayton, asking him to “veto” »

Holy Murderer’s Row, Batman! “Climate Deniers!”

Featured image In the course of doing some background research for yesterday’s decision on the winner of the first annual Power Line Green Weenie of the Year Award, I discovered that the fun people at DeSmogBlog—the folks who “broke” the story of the Heartland Institute back in February that actually turned out to be about Peter Gleick’s theft of Heartland documents—have compiled a “global warming disinformation database” of the leading “deniers”—a veritable »

Since We Care So Much About Our Children, How About If We Don’t Bankrupt Them?

Featured image We definitely don’t want our children to be murdered in school shootings, as the post-Newtown furor has demonstrated. That is a sentiment with which I heartily concur. I also don’t want my children to be struck by lightning, which is considerably more likely than being shot in school, or to be killed in a bicycle accident, which is around ten times as likely as being murdered in school. But while »

David Gregory, scofflaw (update: NBC may have received conflicting legal opinions)

Featured image I’ve been of the view that it’s a bit silly for the police to investigate NBC’s David Gregory for violating D.C. gun laws by showing a high-capacity gun magazine during “Meet The Press” on Sunday. My inclination was to write the incident off as “show and tell” carried a little too far. But now, we learn that the local police told NBC it was “not permissible” to show the magazine »

Dred Scott Would Have Been Better Off If He’d Had a Gun

Featured image Opponents of gun rights have often misrepresented the manner in which the Second Amendment has been understood through American history. In fact, the amendment has generally been understood to protect the right of individuals (not just state-organized militias) to own and to carry firearms. Much has been written about this since the Newtown murders; one such commentary that I ran across noted that in the Dred Scott decision, Chief Justice »

State Department piles misdirection on Benghazi misdirection

Featured image There was always a whiff of misdirection in connection with the story that four State Department officials at or below the Assistant Secretary level would lose their jobs over the Benghazi killings. After all, it is highly likely that officials further up the chain knew of the dangerous situation in Benghazi and, quite possibly, of the requests for additional security there. Thus, there was reason to suspect that the State »

What to do following Newtown?

Featured image Ross Douthat is distressed by the lack of sophistication in the discussion over how to respond to the issues presented by the Newtown shootings, as exemplified by the comments of Mayor Bloomberg from the left and NRA executive vice president Wayne LePierre from the right. Douthat characterizes those comments as “the hubris of Bloomberg versus the humbug of LaPierre.” I find Douthat’s assessment too harsh. Bloomberg is justifiably concerned about »