May 25, 2013 — Steven Hayward
So take in this screen cap of the latest roster of headlines appearing on the AOL/HuffPo home page. Six of the ten headlines relate one way or another to terrorism or the problem of Islamic jihad. One of them sticks out like the proverbial sore thumb. The country’s in the very best of hands, as Glenn Reynolds likes to remind us.
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May 25, 2013 — Steven Hayward
There’s this much to be said in praise of Jonathan Turley, professor of “public interest law” at George Washington University Law School, and frequent bobblehead on cable TV shows: at least he isn’t a supercilious smug-mugger like Jeffrey Toobin. In addition, unlike Toobin, Turley often gets things right. But come on man, you’re only just discovering now that the federal administrative bureaucracy—the “fourth branch of government”—has become problematic? From Turley’s
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May 25, 2013 — Steven Hayward
Since summer sequel season in the movie theaters has arrived, we might as well treat ourselves to the memes and images of the ongoing Obama scandals. Speaking of sequels, I took in Star Trek: Into Darkness yesterday. Meh. It’s impossible to review without spoilers, so I’ll just say it is as unimaginative as a Washington scandal involving political influence at a bureaucracy. But the Obama scandals do give rise to
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May 24, 2013 — Steven Hayward
One of my favorite Facebook groups is “2nd Amendment Hotties,” and apparently more than a few other people like it too, as it has something like 16,000 “likes” on FB. Would seem an omission not to share some of its awesomeness with Power Line readers, especially since we’re still in a too-long hiatus of beauty pageants worthy of John’s coverage. So enjoy this respite from scandalmania for a holiday Friday.
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May 24, 2013 — Steven Hayward
If memory serves, Irving Kristol once remarked that the term “peace,” as it was used by the left, “is a Stalinist concept,” since the intent of the so-called “peace movement” was the unilateral disarmament of the West and the triumph of Communism. Today the term “diversity” works the same way: it has become a term meaning the opposite of its dictionary meaning, and is a vehicle for racial division and
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May 23, 2013 — Steven Hayward
There’s an old adage in the public relations trade that if you’re on the defensive, you’re losing the PR battle. And so it is rather delicious to watch Obama’s defenders on the left furiously spinning that no, no—no way is any of this like Nixon! Scott already took down Steve Chapman’s “false equivalence” column; the Washington Post editorial board—and who is more authoritative on Watergate than them??—thinks the comparison risible.
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May 23, 2013 — Steven Hayward
I’ve had occasion to write before about my enviro-dissident pals Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger of the Breakthrough Institute in Oakland (here, here, here, and here, and also in National Review), describing them on one occasion as “my existentially-challenged progressive pals.” Well, now they’ve really done it: a piece in today’s Wall Street Journal on why environmentalists should support nuclear power. Along the way, they really deliver some well-deserved smack
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May 22, 2013 — Steven Hayward
There’s an old saying in journalism—a story just “too good to check out.” You can tell the media’s bias not only from what they won’t check out, but what they won’t even consider checking out, let alone reporting. News item: a deranged young man, James Holmes, shoots up a Denver theater last summer killing 12, and ABC News’s Brian Ross goes on the air to note that there’s a “James
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May 22, 2013 — Steven Hayward
Now I know what you’re thinking: the obvious Green Weenie winner should be that former congresscritter who liked to tweet his big banana and who announced yesterday that he’s going to run for mayor of the Big Apple, to the audible squeals of delight from within the soundproof walls where Daily Show writers work. And Anthony Weiner certainly qualifies for a Green Weenie, as it turns out he was in
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May 21, 2013 — Steven Hayward
The news broadcasts of the Oklahoma tornado disaster that I saw last night and this morning were thankfully free of speculation that this tornado is proof of—wait for it—global warming, and therefore one more reason to hand over control of our energy sector to environmentalists. I am certain this will come from the usual people starting today, but for now, note the New York Times’ Andrew Revkin discounting the thesis:
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May 20, 2013 — Steven Hayward
I’ve expressed my puzzlement and disappointment here before about how Apple, like so much of Silicon Valley, is reflexively liberal in its politics. So it is with some curiosity that I note the story out last week about how Apple CEO Tim Cook was trying to “get out ahead” on the story of his appearance before a Senate committee tomorrow in Washington where he will essentially be called unpatriotic—by both
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May 20, 2013 — Steven Hayward
Cast your mind back about ten years or so to a series of speeches that got Bill Cosby in a lot of trouble, especially his 2004 speech to the NAACP Awards dinner. The Cos took aim at dysfunctions in the black community . . . and he was slammed for “blaming the victim” and taking focus away from white racism. Here’s an extended excerpt: Ladies and gentlemen, I really have to
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May 19, 2013 — Steven Hayward
CBS News reported yesterday that senior officials in the Treasury Department knew of the IRS targeting of conservative groups during the 2012 campaign. While this doesn’t yet place the matter inside the West Wing, it assures another leg to the scandal at least. To paraphrase an old Watergate-era slogan, “Follow the money-grubbers.” (CBS News) WASHINGTON – There were new questions Saturday night concerning if anyone in the White House was
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May 18, 2013 — Steven Hayward
If the old weekly Life magazine had managed to hang on until the Internet arrived, it might have survived as an online summary, but fortunately they left the space open to Power Line. And things are happening so fast we almost need to go daily with this feature. I’m guessing that the fury of Marines on seeing Obama’s appalling breach of Marine protocol will be lost on the media, but
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May 18, 2013 — Steven Hayward
It’s about time we start turning our attention to law professors who belong on the Power Line 100 list, and we’ve got a long list of them. As with the rest of the field of finalists, there is no particular order, so we’ll start with Jonathan Adler, the well-known interior designer whose baubles you can find at Bed, Bath & Beyond—no, wait, not that Jonathan Adler! We mean the Jonathan
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May 18, 2013 — Steven Hayward
How will we tell when Obama is slipping fully into Nixon territory? I predict it will be when The Daily Show juxtaposes the two images below (though as one commenter suggests, wouldn’t Walter Slobchak be screaming “over the line!”):
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May 17, 2013 — Steven Hayward
I had to doublecheck the calendar this morning to make sure I hadn’t woken up back on April 1, for a couple of the front section headines in today’s Wall Street Journal had me wondering. Such as: “As Hepatitis C Spreads, Scotland Steps In.” Scotland? Since when did it become the CDC? Or how about this: “Berlin Leftists’ New Target: Barbie Dreamhouse.” You can always count on the left for
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