Monthly Archives: August 2014

Democrats: Still Seeking the Bottom of the Low Road

Featured image Fred Barnes notes in The Weekly Standard that “Democrats Take the Low Road” in their desperation to keep their Senate majority. Ratifying that judgment is the New York Times, which includes a story today entitled “At Risk in Senate, Democrats Seek to Rally Blacks.” The subhed is even more revealing: “Move to Channel Anger.” (Note: this subhed doesn’t appear on the online version of the story; it’s just in the »

Obama invokes success of Bush-Cheney security policy as grounds for his complacency

Featured image As we have often observed, and did so again in the post just below this one, Team Obama specializes in excuses for inaction and complacency in the face of the threat posed by ISIS and other Islamic terrorists. But I never thought that, among its excuses, would be praise for the policies of President Bush and Vice President Cheney. Yet, as Daniel Halper reports, President Obama used just that excuse »

John Kerry revives the “global test” to justify not taking strong action against ISIS

Featured image John Kerry takes to the pages of the New York Times to advance the nonsensical proposition that “the threat of ISIS demands a global coalition.” In reality, the threat of ISIS demands strong military action by the U.S. Without such action, a “global coalition” will accomplish nothing. With such action, that coalition is unnecessary. For Kerry, as for most leftists, the word “global” is magic. (Recall the “global test” for »

One More Reason the Administration May Want to Have a Strategy

Featured image These days, all eyes are on ISIS. But they are far from the only Muslim terrorist group about which we should be concerned. Remember Boko Haram? They led the news cycle back in April–which seems like a long time ago, given the disasters that have occurred since then–when they kidnapped and enslaved 270 girls, most of them Christians. Which reminds me: is #BringBackOurGirls still trending? Now, that was a strategy! »

Which States Are the Richest? The Answer May Surprise You

Featured image It has long been obvious that it takes a lot of money to live in New York or San Francisco, while you can get along on much less in, say, Nebraska. But only in April of this year did the Bureau of Economic Analysis systematically compute real per capita income for each of the 50 states, plus the District of Columbia. You can see the results for 2012, the only »

Uber Meets Liberalism Uber Alles

Featured image There are days when I wonder whether Salon is for real, or whether it’s an elaborate gag, similar to the theory that all of Paul Krugman’s and Tom Friedman’s columns are actually written by a bunch of madcap interns at the Heritage Foundation wondering how long it will take New York Times readers to figure out. We’ve commented here before about how Uber, the app-based car service, is catching on »

Stephen Hunter: Thoughts on Ferguson

Featured image We first got to know Stephen Hunter when he was the Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post movie critic. He is best known as a successful novelist, and he happens to know a great deal about guns. Sniper’s Honor is his new Bob Lee Swagger novel. Here he offers his reflections on the shooting incident in Ferguson and the media coverage of it. Submitted for your consideration: So much has been written »

Dweller on the threshold

Featured image Van Morrison celebrates his sixty-ninth birthday today. Singer, songwriter and musician, Morrison is an artist who has absorbed all the strains of American popular music and recapitulated them in his own unique voice. Born in Belfast, he stands shoulder to shoulder with the greats in the pantheon of the Cosmic American Music. Beginning with Astral Weeks in 1968, Morrison experienced a tremendous burst of creative energy that is also reflected »

The College Board: marching the U.S. to the left one history lesson at a time

Featured image In this post, I discussed the left-wing ideology behind the College Board’s development of new curriculum for the teaching of AP U.S. History. Here, I want to discuss how left-wing ideology is manifested in the College Board’s “Framework” for the AP U.S. History exam, which you can find here. One manifestation is, as you would expect from a leftist project, is the downplaying of our Founding. If you read the »

Why Renewable Energy Is Hopeless

Featured image At Watts Up With That?, Ed Hoskins spotlights the intractable problem with solar and wind power: much of the time, the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing. This means that in practice, solar and wind facilities can produce only a small fraction of their nominal capacities. This chart requires a bit of study; for three countries, the U.S., Germany and the U.K., it contrasts the nominal (“nameplate”) capacity »

Obama’s (G)Rand Strategy?

Featured image There is a decent case to be made that the United States is overextended in the world, or that the United States should not be, as the simpleminded phrase has it, the “world’s policeman.” Even short of that view, we often overestimate our capacities for intervening and controlling events in chaotic places like Libya. I thought Obama was actually correct to stay out of Syria, though if so he should »

Rams cut Michael Sam

Featured image The St. Louis Rams cut Michael Sam today, as they trimmed their roster to the limit of 53 players. Sam is bidding to become the first man to play in the NFL while openly gay. Despite being cut, Sam’s chances to play in the NFL remain decent, I think. Sam showed plenty of ability during the pre-season. In one game, he sacked Johnny Manziel (known, for some reason, as “Johnny »

Coming Soon to Climate Change: The “Rewind” Button?

Featured image As is well known—except to readers of the major media, which means most of the public—someone hit the “pause” button on global warming about 15 years back. We’ve covered some of the theories behind the pause several times here on Power Line (this post is the most recent, with links to the previous installments), including the leading theory that the “missing heat” is not missing at all, but is going »

The Week in Pictures: Strategery Edition

Featured image Yeah, go ahead and mock George W. Bush for his “strategery.” At least he had one—however it was pronewnced.  The Chicago Tribune‘s John Kass thinks Obama’s “killer rabbit moment” is surely nigh upon us. May I just point out that Power Line was way ahead of Kass on this one—more than once. But since Obama golfs instead of fishing—playing the angles instead of angling you might say—I’m predicting he’ll get »

Obama explains to the very rich

Featured image At a fundraiser in the home of an occasional Obama golf partner and former president of UBS Investment Bank, Obama spoke before an audience paying $15,000 a couple to bask in his aura. Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. They want to hear more Obama, and they can afford his policies. Speaking before a friendly crowd, Obama delivered real value. He »

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Criticism of Obama is OK, But We Draw the Line at Unfairness to Barney Fife

Featured image We have long been critics of Barack Obama, sometimes harsh ones. But we have always tried to be fair. So when unfairness comes to light, we feel obliged to object to it. That happened yesterday when Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert lit into Obama for his incompetent foreign policy. The Daily Mail has the story: Lawmakers are fuming over President Barack Obama’s admission on Thursday that his White House lacks a »