Monthly Archives: September 2013
September 27, 2013 — Steven Hayward
As mentioned yesterday, the IPCC today began releasing its next major assessment report, starting with the Summary for Policy Makers Headline Writers, but withholding the actual 2,000-page report on the state of climate science until Monday. Just a quick perusal of the 36-page SPM this morning shows a number of refinements and changes from the 2007 IPCC report, but it will take a while to figure out what they all
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September 27, 2013 — Scott Johnson
In a sidebar to the rollout of Obamacare, the Associated Press reports on the latest Inspector General report involving the good works of the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Administration (ATF): Government agents acting without authorization conducted dozens of undercover investigations of illegal tobacco sales, misused some of $162 million in profits from the stings and lost track of at least 420 million cigarettes, the Justice Department’s inspector general said Wednesday.
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September 26, 2013 — John Hinderaker
Soldiers taking control of what is left of Nairobi’s Westgate Mall have found that al Shabab’s terror attack was more horrifying than previously known. The Daily Mail has the appalling story: Soldiers told of the horrific torture meted out by terrorists in the Nairobi mall massacre yesterday with claims hostages were dismembered, had their eyes gouged out and were left hanging from hooks in the ceiling. Men were said to
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September 26, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
The point of Hassan Rouhani’s presidency is not to persuade people that Iran can be dissuaded, through the easing or lifting of sanctions, from continuing its quest for nuclear weapons. No one, not even President Obama, seriously believes in that scenario. In my view, the point of Rouhani is to persuade people that Iran is now “normal” enough that we shouldn’t fear it having nukes. It’s not clear that Obama
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September 26, 2013 — Steven Hayward
One reason I’ve been dubious about the GOP fire-eating strategy of trying to block Obamacare by strangling its funding in the budget process is that Obamacare is going to collapse of its own weight before it even gets off the ground, while a government shutdown would give Obama a pretext to blame Republicans for Obamacare’s failures. (In this view I’m joined by George Will and Dan Henninger, both of whom
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September 26, 2013 — Steven Hayward
The Hill newspaper is reporting that Obama’s FERC nominee Ronald Binz—“Mercedes Binz” as I call him—is in deep trouble and may have to withdraw: The White House nomination of Ron Binz to chair the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission appears to be collapsing. Binz has faced strong opposition from Republicans, and Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) also opposes his nomination, endangering his path to confirmation. On Thursday, a Democratic spokesman on
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September 26, 2013 — Scott Johnson
The office of Senator Cruz convened a conference call to discuss the state of play on the continuing battle over Obamacare this morning. At one point Senator Cruz referred to the call as predominantly involving conservative bloggers, though big league reporters including Byron York (Washington Examiner), Shannon Bream (Fox News Channel) and others were on the line. Nevertheless, Senator Cruz pitched his remarks to the bloggers, pleading with them (us)
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September 26, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
The only thing unraveling faster than Syria is President Obama’s Syria policy. There is, of course, a relationship between the two downward spirals. This morning comes word that eleven of the biggest armed factions among the Syrian rebels have repudiated the Western-backed opposition to the Assad regime and formed an alliance dedicated to establishing an Islamic state. Jabhat al-Nusra, an al Qaeda affiliate, is the lead signatory to this new
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September 26, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Liberals hold that “hate crimes” are worse than crimes involving the same conduct but not the same attitude. But the application of this doctrine may depend on which group the perpetrator hates. If he hates a group that liberals desire for their political base, his crime will be viewed as particularly heinous. If he hates a group that liberals dislike, it may earn him an expression of ideological solidarity from
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September 26, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Senator Cruz put on an impressive performance with his marathon speech on the floor of the Senate in opposition to Obamacare. As Senator Cruz rounded into the home stretch, I read on Twitter about his close encounter with the Senate’s Big Dick, i.e., Senate Majority Whip Durbin. I’ve been looking for an account of their exchange and finally found it in John Podhoretz’s New York Post column on Senator Cruz’s
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September 25, 2013 — John Hinderaker
The ongoing spectacle of the Obama administration’s fecklessness in the face of Iranian nuclear ambitions and sponsorship of terrorism would be funny, if it were not tragic. Today’s installment began with in interview that Iran’s new president, Hassan Rouhani, gave to CNN’s Christiane Amanpour. CNN headlined: Iran’s new president: Yes, the Holocaust happened. Now, you might not think this is much of a breakthrough: the Holocaust happened! But CNN hailed
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September 25, 2013 — John Hinderaker
A knowledgeable reader points out that Obama administration shills in the press are peddling misinformation about how Obamacare’s individual mandate works, or doesn’t: Kabuki dance, or just stupidity? I often cannot tell when it comes to the Obama administration and their MSM flacks in discussions of Obamacare. In particular, the focus on the individual mandate has taken on a surreal character both among the pols and in the MSM. The
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September 25, 2013 — John Hinderaker
John Ondrasik, also known as Five For Fighting–it took me a long time to pick up on the hockey reference–has a new album out titled Bookmarks. I bought it on iTunes the day it came out, burned a CD and have been listening to it in my car. It is excellent, even by the high standard of FFF. The sound is upbeat, pop-flavored and accessible. While John’s music is certainly
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September 25, 2013 — Steven Hayward
Back in the Dark Ages before there were internet blogs (1996) NYU physicist Alan Sokal scandalized the humanities with his phony article for the postmodern journal Social Text, entitled “Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity.” Sokal, who describes his own politics as fairly left, described the article as “”a pastiche of left-wing cant, fawning references, grandiose quotations, and outright nonsense…structured around the silliest quotations [by postmodernist
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September 25, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Obamacare is an enormous engine of destruction. Michelle Malkin reports that it has hit home personally, resulting in the termination of her chosen family health insurance plan. The loss of her plan as a result of Obamacare directly violates one of Obama’s many promises about Obamacare, all of which will be proven false many times over in the fullness of time. “Obama lied,” as Michelle puts it, “my health plan
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September 25, 2013 — Steven Hayward
Update: When last we checked in on the seafaring antics of Greenpeace, we found that they weren’t faring so well up in Russian waters. The no-nonsense Russians said they were ready to open fire on Greenpeace ships that interfered with their Arctic energy projects. Better than firing on a Greenpeace ship? Arresting and charging them with piracy. From the Wall Street Journal today: MOSCOW—Russia has opened a piracy case against
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September 25, 2013 — Steven Hayward
One of the leading talking points of the climateers, repeated more often than the rosary in the Vatican, is the factoid that “97 percent of scientists agree” that human-caused climate change is real. As I’ve noted before, the only surprise is that the number isn’t 99.5 percent, as the question of whether greenhouse gases have a warming effect—all other factors being equal—is uncontroversial.* Of course, all other factors are not
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