Liberals
April 9, 2013 — Scott Johnson
In one of his routines on the justice system dating back to the early 1970′s, comedian Richard Pryor commented sarcastically (in language rated XXX): “You go down there looking for justice, that’s what you find: Just us.” Pryor was referring to the racial composition of the players involved in the administration of justice. Times have changed substantially in that respect, but reading Ben Shapiro’s account of President Obama’s gun control
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April 7, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post gives his “worst week in Washington” award to President Obama for his statement complimenting the looks of California’s Attorney General. Cillizza writes: For those who insist that Obama meant the looks comment as praise and that any outrage over it is manufactured, we ask this: Would he have mentioned how “handsome” Delaware State Attorney General Beau Biden is if he had been speaking at
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April 7, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Courtesy of Claremont Institute Chairman Tom Klingenstein, Bowdoin College was the subject of unwanted attention this past week. Tom funded a study of Bowdoin just released by National Association of Scholars President Peter Wood and his NAS colleague Michael Toscano. The book-length study sets out to answer the question What Does Bowdoin Teach? How a Contemporary Liberal Arts College Shapes Students. The Wall Street Journal’s David Feith answers a different
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April 6, 2013 — John Hinderaker
New York State is in the midst of a corruption scandal, which caused Mayor Michael Bloomberg to tee off on the political class yesterday: “The average legislator who has to make policy on things that influence our lives, our kids’ lives, our future, would they ever get a job in the private sector making policy on big things? No, not a chance,” the mayor said. “And yet these are the
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April 5, 2013 — John Hinderaker
A friend who has been on this particular case for a long time writes: Yet another NOW they tell us moment: President Obama had Senate Republicans nodding in agreement during a recent ice-breaking dinner as he described a basic problem for the nation’s fiscal future: For each dollar that Americans pay for Medicare, they ultimately draw about $3 in benefits. What’s more, he added, most people do not understand that.
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April 4, 2013 — Scott Johnson
We conclude our preview of the new issue of the Claremont Review of Books this morning with a humdinger. Thanks to our friends at the CRB for the privilege of previewing the issue for Power Line readers. Please think about subscribing here for the ridiculously low price of $19.95 and getting access to the whole shooting match online immediately in addition to home delivery of the hard copy at some
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April 3, 2013 — Scott Johnson
We turn the floor over to Andrew McCarthy: My column last weekend dealt with the travesty of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s apology to Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan, under great pressure from President Obama, for Israel’s self-defense against Turkey-based jihadists who attempted to break its lawful blockade of Hamas-controlled Gaza. Netanyahu not only apologized but added to the humiliation by agreeing to Erdogan’s demand that Israel compensate the “victims” of the
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April 2, 2013 — Scott Johnson
As I note below, the New York Post broke the story today that Weather Underground terrorist Kathy Boudin has landed an adjunct professorship at the Columbia School of Social Work and is also a “scholar in residence” at NYU Law. In his book Schools for Misrule: Legal Academia and Overlawyered America (Encounter, 2011), Cato Institute Senior Fellow Walter Olson writes about the propensity of sixties extremists (Bernardine Dohrn, Angela Davis,
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April 2, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Last week I pored over the magnificent new (Winter, just in time for Spring) issue of the Claremont Review of Books. The CRB is the flagship publication of the Claremont Institute and my favorite magazine. I want to persuade you to subscribe to it, which you can do here for the ridiculously low, heavily subsidized (don’t feel guilty!) price of $19.95 a year and get immediate online access thrown in
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March 31, 2013 — Scott Johnson
John Podhoretz argues in the editor’s note of the new issue of Commentary that it’s time for conservatives to get serious about Obama, or begin taking him seriously on his own terms. John takes Obama to be a conventional liberal and chides conservatives for painting him as an extremist, an exaggeration which proves to be to Obama’s advantage. If Obama is a conventional liberal, however, liberalism has moved to the
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March 26, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Thanks to Andrew Johnson and NRO’s Corner for drawing attention to the highly entertaining Anderson Cooper/Drew Griffin report on “Obama’s high-speed rail boondoggle.” Johnson writes: “Cooper and investigative reporter Drew Griffin reported that, while the administration sold its $12 billion in projects as high-speed rail, the funding has spent has largely been used to make existing trains slightly faster. In Washington State, for instance, $800 million have been used to
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March 23, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
If waterboarding, a procedure we inflicted on our own troops, can be considered torture, I suppose that almost anything one doesn’t approve of can be so deemed. And given the proven effectiveness of throwing the term torture around, the temptation to apply it to anything one doesn’t approve of must be difficult for the intellectually dishonest to resist. Thus, sure enough, we find U.N. bureaucrats attempting to define “torture” in
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March 21, 2013 — John Hinderaker
Sure, that’s an optimistic question to ask. But following the election, fissures have appeared in the Left’s coalition, and frustration is mounting. Here are a couple of examples. First, an email that MoveOn.org sent out yesterday on gun control. The email is long, so I will excerpt it: Subject: Argh! Dear MoveOn member, This is the nightmare scenario: “Reid guts Senate gun control bill.”1 “Tuesday’s developments are a major win
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March 15, 2013 — John Hinderaker
Readers of a certain age will recall the battles over missile defense that raged during the Reagan administration. Virtually all Democrats opposed all forms of missile defense, deeming the concept not only unfeasible–”like hitting a bullet with a bullet,” as though that were impossible–but destabilizing as well. John Kerry’s denunciations of missile defense were typical: “a dream based on illusion, but one which could have real and terrible consequences,” As
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March 6, 2013 — John Hinderaker
Earlier this evening, Paul suggested that Republicans should be open to a “grand bargain” as long as it includes significant entitlement reform. In principle, I don’t disagree. But is there any realistic possibility that the Democrats will agree to entitlement reform? One might think so, since everyone acknowledges that the current regime is unsustainable, and if entitlements are not reformed they either will be repealed, or our economy and our
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March 5, 2013 — Scott Johnson
A reader forwards this photo snapped on a cell phone at a Dunkin’ Donuts in the heart of Bloomberg City. The spirit of the place has become that of the Nanny State in the land of the moderately free. Add your own sugar and flavor swirl, while you still can!
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February 28, 2013 — Steven Hayward
For all of the liberal caterwauling about disparities in wealth, one thing I don’t understand is why no one, not even the socialist senator from Vermont Bernie Sanders in full bulging-neck-vein mode, has started channeling Huey Long and calling for a serious wealth tax. After all, even if you raise the top marginal income tax rate back up to the Krugman nirvana level of 91 percent, it won’t touch the
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