Monthly Archives: December 2013
December 29, 2013 — John Hinderaker
For the second time in the last 60 days, terrorists have struck in the Russian city of Volgograd. A female suicide bomber–presumably a Muslim terrorist, although this has not yet been confirmed–killed as many as 18 people and wounded many more at the city’s train station: The explosion rocked a crowded area between the train station’s front doors and the metal detectors leading into the main hall at 12:45 p.m.
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December 29, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Who doesn’t like a good year-end retrospective top 10 list? I certainly do, and I thought readers might appreciate a sampling of the best, with only a little cheating on my part. Let’s take it from the top: 1. Ilya Shapiro Obama’s top 10 constitutional violations of 2013. 2. Peter Wood, The highs and lows of 2013: NAS picks higher ed’s top 10 stories. 3. D.G. Myers, 10 worst prize-winning
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December 29, 2013 — Scott Johnson
The Associated Press reports that Iran nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi has made an announcement. He says the country is building a new generation of centrifuges for uranium enrichment but that they need further tests before they can be mass produced. The AP attributes the announcement to an apparent desire to “counter hard-liner criticism of its nuclear deal with word [sic] powers.” The story continues in the second paragraph with
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December 28, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Julie Sobel of the National Journal presents her list of the top five Senators who are vulnerable to primary challenges. If the list is reliable, primary challenges to Senators are unlikely to cause any seats to change from one party to the other. The Senator most vulnerable to a primary is said to be Thad Cochran in Mississippi. It seems highly unlikely that the Republicans, who seem to have a
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December 28, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
The New York Times is out with a revisionist account of the Sept. 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. compound in Benghazi. The Times says that in months of investigating, it “turned up no evidence that Al Qaeda or other international terrorist groups had any role in the assault.” The Times also claims that the attack “was fueled in large part by anger at an American-made video denigrating Islam.” I
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December 28, 2013 — John Hinderaker
Sometimes I feel as though I have said everything I know about current events, and would rather talk about something else. Like, at the moment, boxing. So skip this post if your only interest is politics. I have always been a boxing fan, but my son has long surpassed me. He has a real job, but in his spare time he manages a fighter or two and promotes boxing cards
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December 28, 2013 — John Hinderaker
Rasmussen Reports says we are: Fewer voters now identify themselves as “socially liberal” than they have in the past. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 29% of Likely U.S. Voters now consider themselves liberal on social issues such as abortion, public prayer and church-state topics. That’s the lowest number of self-identified social liberals since early last year. Just as many (30%) consider themselves moderate on such
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December 28, 2013 — John Hinderaker
President Obama has gone to Hawaii on vacation, but he can’t escape the wave of disaster that is inundating his party as a result of Obamacare. Will 2014 be a “wave” election? It certainly looks that way. Michael Ramirez comments; click to enlarge::
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December 28, 2013 — Steven Hayward
Too hard to make a complete review and selection of the very best from our Week in Review galleries, but here’s a few new ones, and a few old ones, plus, of course, a brand new “guns and gams” weapons display for the close, because you just can’t have enough new ones of those. (Though maybe I should run the whole galley and put them to a reader vote? The
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December 28, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Preparing to speak at the Federalist Society National Lawyers Convention last month, I read the astounding book Mismatch: How Affirmative Action Hurts Students It’s Intended to Help, and Why Universities Won’t Admit It by Richard H. Sander and Stuart Taylor, Jr. The book came out to wide acclaim in October 2012. Amazon does not indicate that a paperback edition is forthcoming. You might want to pick up a copy of
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December 28, 2013 — Scott Johnson
This is the time of the year for the compilation of top-10 lists. I have compiled a list of lists — the top 10 2013 top 10 lists — that is to be posted soon. I want to give it another few days to make sure I don’t overlook any deserving late entries. Coming in at number 1, I am confident, is “President Obama’s top 10 constitutional violations of 2013”
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December 27, 2013 — John Hinderaker
It is almost unbelievable that Al Franken, a washed-up former comedian and reformed (I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt) coke-head with serious anger management issues, was elected to the Senate in 2008 from Minnesota, a state he hadn’t lived in for several decades. (“Elected” despite the fact that he almost certainly received fewer legal votes than Norm Coleman.) It is even more unbelievable that Franken stands an excellent
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December 27, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
A federal judge in New York City, not far from where the Twin Towers stood, ruled today that the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of millions of Americans’ telephone records is legal. William Pauley, a Clinton appointee, found that the NSA’s program is a valuable part of the nation’s arsenal to counter the threat of terrorism and “only works because it collects everything.” Judge Pauley’s ruling makes far more sense
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December 27, 2013 — John Hinderaker
The NRA, Brownells and Smith & Wesson are collaborating on a series of videos under the title “Patriot Profiles,” which is part of the NRA’s “Life of Duty” series. This “Patriot Profile” is on Medal of Honor winner Dakota Meyer. Meyer won his medal in Afghanistan, trying to save four Americans under attack by the Taliban, in the face of what seems like almost active interference from higher-ups. Both the
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December 27, 2013 — Steven Hayward
I’ve totally ignored both Duck Dynasty and the controversy over the Duck patriarch’s negative attitudes toward homosexuality. (Or maybe we should call him “Daffy Duck”?) If I wanted to take in guys with big beards, I’d look up old ZZ Top videos on YouTube. I think we’re all being played here. The entire controversy seems contrived to me, but very very good for everyone’s business. The gay rights grievance groups
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December 27, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Michael Barone has written an important column about the relationship between the breakdown of the American family and income inequality and lack of social mobility. Barone relies in part on Nick Shultz’s book Home Economics: The Consequences of Changing Family Structure which I have not read. Barone’s thesis — that growing up outside of a two-parent family means lower income, less social mobility, and less “human capital” — is not
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December 27, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden conceives of himself as a citizen of the world, or of the realm of Digitalia. He does not sound like anyone to be trusted with an assessment on our behalf the costs and benefits of the course of action he has undertaken, yet he remains the subject of adulation among our libertarian friends. That is not to say that the NSA should be free of
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