Monthly Archives: May 2014
May 31, 2014 — John Hinderaker
Six months ago, Carl Froch, holder of several belts as a super middleweight, fought his fellow Englishman “Saint” George Groves. Groves, ten years younger than Froch, gave the champion all he could handle: he knocked Froch down in the 1st and dominated the early rounds. Froch came back, however, and in the 9th had Groves in trouble. Even though Groves was never knocked down, the referee stopped the fight and
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May 31, 2014 — Steven Hayward
I managed to provoke fury in a graduate student earlier this semester when I expressed skepticism about animal rights by observing that I’d take the idea more seriously when we entered into labor contracts with our horses and livestock, and asked our pets for informed consent statements before subjecting them to the ministrations of a veterinarian. Expressing such distinctions between human beings and other animal species is nearly as politically
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May 31, 2014 — John Hinderaker
Leftists decided that their global warming scam needed a poster child, and polar bears were selected for that honor. For some years now we have been exposed to mournful photographs of polar bears floating away on ice floes, or otherwise appearing endangered: The theory on which polar bears are supposed to be endangered because their environment is becoming more benign has never been entirely clear, nor has there been data
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May 31, 2014 — Paul Mirengoff
On Monday, it becomes official: Fatah and Hamas will announce the formation of a Palestinian unity government. Fatah is Israel’s alleged “peace partner.” Hamas is openly dedicated to the destruction of Israel. Where does this leave the “peace process”? Israel has been clear on the subject. It will not negotiate with a Palestinian government backed by Hamas. What about the Obama administration? It too is clear in its own way.
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May 31, 2014 — Steven Hayward
The latest news about the infantilism that has overtaken colleges and universities is that Michael Bloomberg unexpectedly came to the defense of common sense and genuine liberal values in his commencement speech at Harvard this week: “There is an idea floating around college campuses – including here at Harvard – that scholars should be funded only if their work conforms to a particular view of justice. There’s a word for
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May 31, 2014 — Paul Mirengoff
According to Richard Engel, NBC’s chief foreign correspondent, you would be “hard-pressed to find” one country with which the U.S. has improved its relations since President Obama took office. By contrast, you can easily find countries where Obama has made our relations worse. Abe Greenwald finds plenty of such countries in just one region — the Middle East. Indeed, his article in the May edition of Commentary is called “He’s
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May 31, 2014 — Steven Hayward
We thought about outsourcing our Week in Pictures feature to the VA, but discovered that you wouldn’t get to see this week’s photos, memes, and cartoons until about Labor Day. And then we’d have to resign. And speaking of Jay Carney, it appears he’s gotten tired of lying every day. And because some of our readers have asked for equal time: And finally. . .
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May 31, 2014 — Scott Johnson
Reader Brad Swindell has posted the nicely produced, highly educational swindleVision video below on YouTube. The video carries an important message of thanks from “Barack Obama” to the millennial voters who contributed to his electoral victories in 2008 and 2012. Are they going to do it once more once for Ms. Hillary? Lord, please, no. Recall that Ms. Hillary supported the mandate at the heart of Obamacare when she ran
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May 30, 2014 — John Hinderaker
Mark Andrew is a former chairman of Minnesota’s Democratic (DFL) Party. He also writes an occasional column for the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Today he attacked Flint Hills Resources, which owns a refinery in Rosemount, Minnesota. Why? Because Flint Hills is owned by Koch Industries. What was the occasion? Flint Hills sponsors an annual “International Children’s Festival” in conjunction with the Ordway Theater in St. Paul, and the festival got underway
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May 30, 2014 — Steven Hayward
On Monday President Obama is expected to announce at the White House the EPA’s proposed greenhouse gas regulations that will be based on a very expansive rendering of the Clean Air Act. It is highly unusual for a president to make the announcement of new regulations like this, but then Obama owes his green base a lot after mostly ignoring them for his first term. (Environmentalists, the cheap dates of
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May 30, 2014 — John Hinderaker
Apologists for the Obama administration sometimes argue that the nation’s declining rate of labor force participation is largely a function of baby boomers retiring from the labor force. Unfortunately, this is not the case. This chart, prepared by the Senate Budget Committee, pretty much says it all. An unprecedented number of men–one in six–between the ages of 25 and 54, what should be their prime earning years, are either unemployed
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May 30, 2014 — Scott Johnson
At the UN, they are observing International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. I bet you thought every year at the UN was in solidarity with the “Palestinian people,” but no. Two thousand fourteen is special. Stop the UN — I want to get off. They are observing the International Year of Solidarity in a big way at UN headquarters in New York City. Anne Bayefsky writes to draw
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May 30, 2014 — Scott Johnson
I found President Obama commending himself for a job well done in his handling of various foreign policy challenges in his commencement address at West Point earlier this week. I wrote about the speech briefly in “More mush from the wimp,” noting that Obama more or less congratulated himself on his handling of Russia, Syria and Iran. I facetiously included Libya, which Obama somehow overlooked. In the video clip below,
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May 30, 2014 — Scott Johnson
Referring to my post a few weeks ago about my adventures in low carbohydrate eating, our friend Ammo Grrrll chronicles her own struggle to reduce to fighting trim. She writes: I read with great interest both Scott’s recent post on weight loss paradigms and the many sincere and helpful comments readers shared. For those success stories, mazel tov, and may you all go from strength to strength! Not to pull
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May 29, 2014 — Paul Mirengoff
During the 2008 campaign, one of my law partners explained to me why he was going to vote for Barack Obama. No explanation was necessary, the partner in question is a liberal Democrat. But he wanted to explain himself. My partner’s number one reason for supporting Obama was that electing him would improve our relations with the rest of the world. He took this to be beyond dispute. I responded
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May 29, 2014 — John Hinderaker
A point that we and other conservatives have made repeatedly about the VA scandal is that no one should have been surprised. The problem with the VA isn’t the person appointed to head the organization, and it can’t be solved by a few tweaks to the statute. The fundamental problem with the VA is that it is government medicine. When health care is uncoupled from the competitive market, what happens?
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May 29, 2014 — Announcement
Our iPhone app users have been writing in to us today with reports that the Power Line iPhone app isn’t updating properly. Since the Power Line iPhone app is in the hands of a third-party developer, we’re working with them to get the app working normally just as soon as possible. In the meantime, though, the solution is simple — and, in many ways, better than the app. Simply point
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