Monthly Archives: February 2016
February 29, 2016 — Paul Mirengoff
Today the State Department released the last batch of emails from Hillary Clinton’s private server. Of the mails released today, 261 contain information deemed to be classified. Within this subset, 23 contain “secret information,” according to the Washington Times. (The numbers vary slightly from source to source.) The 261 classified emails bring the final tally to 2,079. The total of “secret” emails stands at 45. 20 emails were previously deemed
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February 29, 2016 — Steven Hayward
From the Academic Gibberish file, I’ve found a winner for Power Line’s new Dissertation of the Year Award for 2015. Here’s the title and abstract, which is all you need: Solving for irrational zeros: Whiteness in mathematics teacher education by Warburton, Trevor Thayne, Ph.D., THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH, 2015, 327 pages; 10010629 Abstract: For many, mathematics and social justice are perceived as incompatible. Several mathematics education researchers have noted resistance to social
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February 29, 2016 — Paul Mirengoff
Josh Kraushaar of the National Journal suggests that if Jeb Bush hadn’t run for president, Donald Trump might not be a “formidable candidate.” He writes: Consider: a) Bush’s entrance in the race prevented any other mainstream alternatives from getting attention for months; b) his Right to Rise super PAC nuked the most-electable alternative in Rubio with millions in attack ads while spending much less against Trump; c) his candidacy defined
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February 29, 2016 — John Hinderaker
The great under-reported story of this year’s election cycle is the ongoing decline of the Democratic Party. We have written many times about the fact that at the state and local levels, the Republicans have become dominant. The GOP controls two-thirds of state legislative bodies and 60% of the nation’s governorships, not to mention both houses of Congress. To some extent, Republican ascendancy has been obscured by the fact that
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February 29, 2016 — John Hinderaker
In the early days of global warming hysteria, the alarmists understandably warned that warmer temperatures would cause, among other things, less snow. Jim Steele reminds us: [Kevin] Trenberth’s 1999 paper framing the effects of global warming on extreme precipitation declared, “With higher average temperatures in winter expected, more precipitation is likely to fall in the form of rain rather than snow, which will increase both soil moisture and run off,
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February 29, 2016 — Steven Hayward
The best thing that can be said in favor of Donald Trump is that he is the ideal vehicle for a critical mass of the American people—quite possibly a majority of Americans come November—to express the withdrawal of their consent for the way in which we are being governed. Which is to say that it is yet another mistake of the established political class of both parties and the media
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February 29, 2016 — John Hinderaker
What is it with the Black Panthers? They were exposed as a vicious criminal gang long ago, and liberals who fawn over them have been subjects of ridicule at least since 1970, when Tom Wolfe wrote Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers. Yet somehow, they keep coming back. I wrote here about the University of Minnesota’s disgraceful plan to honor two surviving Panthers, both of whom are available for
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February 29, 2016 — Steven Hayward
I can’t believe it took so long for someone to think of this. Courtesy of Jimmy Kimmel. It’s just so crazy it looks like it’s going to work!
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February 29, 2016 — Steven Hayward
Harry Jaffa, writing in 1972, anticipating our Trumpian moment? “The dilemma of political life consists above all in this: how to obtain an appropriate recognition of wisdom among the unwise, among those whose very unwisdom creates the need for wisdom in political affairs. The difficulty is not so much that the unwise always reject the claims of wisdom; on the contrary, they have sometimes been too prone to give power
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February 29, 2016 — Paul Mirengoff
Last week, Matthew Continetti, writing in the Washington Free Beacon, offered seven reasons why “Democrats should be terrified by Donald Trump.” Continetti’s seven reasons are: 1. Hillary Clinton’s lead over Donald Trump in the polls is quite small. 2. Trump’s positions are popular. 3. Trump will have months to find and occupy the political center. 4. Clinton is a terrible presidential candidate. 5. The country wants change. 6. Michael Bloomberg’s
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February 29, 2016 — Scott Johnson
The new issue of the Claremont Review of Books is in the mail and, thanks to our friends at the Claremont Institute, I have read it in galley to select a couple of articles to be submitted for the consideration of Power Line readers. At the heavily subsidized price of $19.95 a year, the CRB affords the most cost-effective political education available in the United States of America. Subscribe by
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February 29, 2016 — Scott Johnson
If you, like me, are looking for something completely different, you may want to check out Bill Kristol’s just-released conversation with former world chess champion and human rights activist Garry Kasaparov (video below). In the conversation Kasparov reflects on his upbringing in the old Soviet Union and his journey from questioning whether Communism could be reformed to his ultimate conviction that the Soviet Union had to go. Kasparov recalls his
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February 28, 2016 — Paul Mirengoff
Forget the Chris Christie endorsement; here’s the one that really matters — Jeff Sessions has endorsed Donald Trump. He did so at a campaign rally in Huntsville, Alabama this morning. This endorsement is more than a little consequential, coming as it does two days before a large cluster of Southern states — including Sessions’ Alabama — vote. And even apart from its timing, this endorsement comes from arguably the nation’s
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February 28, 2016 — Paul Mirengoff
At the end of a long, depressing article about Super Tuesday, Washington Post reporters Philip Rucker and Dan Balz write: “[Chris] Christie’s endorsement [of Donald Trump] sends a signal to mainstream Republicans that, hey, this guy might be all right,” said pollster Neil Newhouse, who advised Right to Rise. “That’s a very tough combination for Marco Rubio to overcome right now.” Sending such signals has become a Christie specialty. A
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February 28, 2016 — John Hinderaker
It is hard to explain Donald Trump’s refusal, on CNN this morning, to disavow the Ku Klux Klan. Jake Tapper gave Trump multiple opportunities to do so, but Trump could only respond by saying he didn’t know anything about David Duke, who reportedly has endorsed him. Here is the video: As Dan McLaughlin points out, Trump’s claim to be unaware of David Duke is demonstrably false. But then, who ever
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February 28, 2016 — Steven Hayward
Now this is some great satire: Converted Trump Now Running for Pope In shocking news first reported a week ago, businessman Donald Trump has converted to Catholicism and has now declared his candidacy for Pope. Today’s announcement coincides with critical statements Pope Francis made about Mr. Trump not being a Christian. Mr. Trump just held a rally outside of New York City. Although video is not available, A-CNN has just acquired the audio
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February 28, 2016 — Steven Hayward
Some times one thing leads to another, and you end up going down a rabbit hole of campus crazy. Wait—isn’t “rabbit hole” a speciesist metaphor? I’m sure it is somewhere. Will Rogers used to say that it’s no trouble being a humorist when you have the whole government working for you; my paraphrase is that who needs joke writers when you have most of the professoriate working for you. Have
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