February 22, 2012 — Steven Hayward
Scott notes below that today is George Washington’s birthday, but omits to mention that it is also — drum roll please — Scott Johnson’s birthday! I know it’s cool of Coolidge to be the only president born on the 4th of July, but it’s really cool to share a birthday with George Washington. And since we’re celebrating great men, I’ll just second Scott’s notice of the first George W. (since
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February 22, 2012 — Steven Hayward
I’m still getting the hang of Twitter (my latest contribution: “Carnivale in Brazil is like the Tournament of Roses Parade on LSD”), but for now I think the best Twitter feed around—and reason enough to join or follow—is the feed that supposedly comprises elevator gossip and quips from the hallowed halls of Goldman Sachs (featuring Goldman CEO Lloyd Bankfein in the photo thumbnail): GS Elevator Gossip @GSElevator Now that I have
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February 21, 2012 — Steven Hayward
So it’s Carnivale week here in Rio, and your intrepid Power Line Southern Command bureau chief decided to dress up in the scariest festival costume imaginable—American tourist—and take in the street scene last night. My keen journalistic conclusion: Carnivale is a cross between Pasadena’s Doo-Dah parade and the drums and space segment of a Grateful Dead concert, with a dash of the Stanford marching band thrown in just for some
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February 20, 2012 — Steven Hayward
Since it’s still Presidents Days for a few more hours, it’s worth taking up a challenge from one of our good-natured liberal commenters, an old pal from high school (are you paying attention, Eric?), who posted a comment on an earlier PIG book post of mine raising the question of the constitutional issues raised in the Iran-Contra scandal. Glad you asked. In fact, the Politically Incorrect Guide to the Presidents
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February 19, 2012 — Steven Hayward
Tomorrow (Monday) is Presidents Day, the mongrel holiday that mashed up Washington and Lincoln’s separate birthday observances into just another three-day weekend. Notice that all the Presidents’ Day mattress sales always feature portraits of Washington and Lincoln; no one ever seems to offer a John Tyler or Franklin Pierce mattress-sale theme. I’ll be out of communication most of Monday, making my way to Brazil to begin the Hillsdale College winter
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February 19, 2012 — Steven Hayward
Interesting and complementing lead stories in the Washington Post and New York Times this morning, and neither of them can be good for Obama. The Post’s lead story warns of “Taxmageddon” next year, when the payroll tax cut will expire, along with the Bush tax cuts; the Obamacare “surcharges” will also kick in on dividends and capital gains. In all, it will amount to about a $500 billion tax increase
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February 19, 2012 — Steven Hayward
Glenn Garvin of the Miami Herald brings to our attention a forthcoming book that ought to be a blockbuster but perhaps won’t for the simple reason that it’s being issued by an academic publisher—the University Press of Kansas—rather than a typical New York trade publisher that would get the author on the Today Show, etc. I should add quickly that the University Press of Kansas is an excellent academic press,
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February 18, 2012 — Steven Hayward
Leave it to Barron’s “Up & Down Wall Street” columnist Alan Abelson to point out the economic significance of the selection of Kate Upton as the cover model for the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition. (Power Line is determined to keep on top of this important story, needless to say.) Abelson’s column requires a subscription to read online, but here’s the relevant part. It turns out that the stock market does significantly
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February 18, 2012 — Steven Hayward
That’s not actually the headline of the lead story in today’s New York Times, but it could be. The actual headline (in the print edition—online slightly different of course) is: “Unwed Mothers Now a Majority Before Age of 30.” But the subhed is where Charles’s thesis comes in: “Most Rapid Growth Has Been Among White Women in 20s.” And the lede sentence circles back to Charles’s main argument: “It used
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February 17, 2012 — Steven Hayward
Well not really, but it makes for a good headline. My old sometimes pal Tevi Troy, lately of the Hudson Institute, recently took to the pages of the jaunty National Affairs journal with an especially jaunty article entitled “Devaluing the Think Tank,” in which he wonders whether the independent research institutes like the Heritage Foundation, my AEI, and the Center for American Progress on the left, have tilted the balance
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February 16, 2012 — Steven Hayward
John is extra busy with his day job this week, so I’m filling in a bit on his cheesecake beat, but it fits with my energy-environment beat. How so? Stay tuned. I’m sure you won’t have any trouble given the photos here. For a long time conservatives have wondered how Michigan Republican Rep. Fred Upton, otherwise a fairly orthodox conservative, could ever have sponsored that stupid ban on incandescent light
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February 16, 2012 — Steven Hayward
Why me, in fact–in USA Today, that is, with a column on why presidents might be more popular if they shut up more often. Some day, it might occur to a president that one secret of preserving public support is to talk less. Before the 20th century, presidents spoke publicly very seldom, and then usually in the most general terms. Rare appearances Our first 25 presidents gave an average of
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February 15, 2012 — Steven Hayward
We could fill up this space every day with new items about the latest environmental idiocy or green energy madness. I keep meaning to comment on a couple of the more notable ones, and highlight some good recent analysis on the issue from my pal Ben Zycher, but the greenfail news stacks up so fast in my in-box that I can’t keep up. But here’s a few recent stories of
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February 15, 2012 — Steven Hayward
People interested in a thoughtful observance of George Washington’s birthday Presidents Day next Monday might want to drop in (or tune in to the live webcast) AEI’s panel this Friday from noon to 1:30 (eastern) on the subject of “First Among Equals: George Washington and the American Presidency,” which will feature a reading of Washington’s Farewell Address from Leon Kass, and commentary from Richard Brookhiser, Diana Schaub, Harvey Mansfield, and
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February 14, 2012 — Steven Hayward
For Power Line’s DC readers, today’s PIG book event will be a book signing at the Barnes & Noble at Union Station at noon. Come by if you can.
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