News you can use
April 18, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Ed Driscoll reviews the news of the day yesterday under in “Through the looking glass.” He quotes David Burge, who condenses much of it in fewer than 140 characters: “Bombing at Boston Marathon, mushroom cloud over Texas, Elvis ricin attack, presidential temper tantrum. #newsinbrief.” Our prayers for all those suffering in the ordeal of the Texas fertilizer plant to which Burge refers. Missing from Burge’s summary is Jenny Sanford’s confirmation
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March 29, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Over at NRO’s Corner, Veronique de Rugy draws attention to the Freedom in the Fifty States Index just released by Professor William Ruger and Jason Sorens. Professors Ruger and Sorens have a companion column on the index in USA Today. The index ranks states based on public policies affecting economic, social, and personal freedoms (e.g., bans on trans fats and the audio recording of police, licensing laws, taxes, mandated family
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March 28, 2013 — Scott Johnson
You may recall the case of the shoeless beggar found on a New York City street this past November by a NYPD officer. A passerby photographed NYPD Officer Lawrence DePrimo kneeling beside the man on a cold November night in Times Square, giving him a pair of boots. The photo, shot by tourist Jennifer Foster on her phone, went viral. I originally found the story here via ABC News. The
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March 24, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Reader EC advises: We interrupt this forum for a special bulletin: *****NPR HAS GONE ROGUE***** They just broadcast an hour-long episode of “This American Life,” which was a devastating critique of the disability program. Devastating. They called it the new default welfare program, pointing out that it costs the taxpayers vastly more than all other welfare programs put together. They went on and on and on and on and on
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March 19, 2013 — Steven Hayward
Okay, so this may be the weirdest Power Line headline ever. You’ll have to bear with me here, though maybe I should say “bare” with me. Because I was briefly inclined to post an embedded video of “Secrets of a Sports Illustrated Body Paint Model” (because this is clearly an important topic, even though I’m crazy busy this week), but then after reviewing the video several times (quality control you
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March 6, 2013 — Steven Hayward
So I’m out of pocket for one whole day, and what happens? The stock market makes a new all-time high, despite—or perhaps because of?—the sequester. Yesterday it was reported late in the day that Obama was picking up the phone and calling Republican leaders seeking some kind of deal to end the sequester. Sounds like someone just blinked, as John notes was a distinct possibility in his post yesterday. As
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January 5, 2013 — Steven Hayward
As a person who, like Scott, has occasionally flirted with joining the minority group known as “Hefto-Americans,” I tend to follow news about obesity and nutrition. And like Scott, I’ve become a huge fan of Gary Taubes—though a little less “huge” than I was a few years ago because of Taubes’s advice. But the news reported in the New York Times the other day that overweight people might actually have
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December 12, 2012 — Scott Johnson
My friend Bill McClay writes: You might want to post something on PL about this. Ken Dryden is a friend and a solid jazz journalist, both on radio and in print. He’s written liner notes for literally hundreds of albums. (Joe Biden has not entirely ruined the word “literally” for me, not yet.) I haven’t heard this particular show yet, but I’ve heard other things Ken has done on Brubeck,
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November 13, 2012 — Steven Hayward
I’m making my students this semester produce time-series charts and graphs as part of their assignments for a variety of reasons in addition to the usual sadism of all classroom instructors. Chiefly because a good data graph can tell a story more dramatically than straight prose, which you may not take in or believe anyway. So here are a few stunners out right now. From Slate.com, this wonderful chart showing
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June 20, 2012 — Scott Johnson
Responding to my complaint about being trapped in CNN hell at Newark’s Liberty International Airport Gate 62, several readers pointed out the handy TV B Gone device. This is a device ranking in necessity with the neck pillow for the long distance traveler. The site explains: Your TV-B-Gone® universal remote control resembles other TV remote controls, but is different in two important ways. First, it only has a power button
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June 1, 2012 — Steven Hayward
How’s this for irony: USA Today is reporting that the Esalen Institute, home of new agey spirituality, is facing a mid-life crisis. Sort of like the welfare state itself, of which California is a prime example, having decided to adopt a Mediterranean fiscal policy to go along with its Mediterranean climate. I’ll let USA Today tell some of the best parts: But today, as this iconic hot springs spa and
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May 9, 2012 — Steven Hayward
So I was at a private wine-tasting event yesterday at Adelaida Cellars in Paso Robles, and lo and behold, I ran into . . . Power Line readers! You just never know where you’ll run into discerning readers . . . and wine drinkers. I suspect there is a metaphysical connection here.
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April 18, 2012 — Steven Hayward
Michelle Obama, the nation’s pre-eminent childhood nutritionist, has been arguing that much of the childhood obesity problem is due to the fact that too many urban children live in “food deserts,” lacking access to fresh fruits and vegetables, etc. But, as the New York Times’ Gina Kolata reports today, it isn’t true: But two new studies have found something unexpected. Such neighborhoods not only have more fast food restaurants and
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April 12, 2012 — Scott Johnson
We get an amazing — amazing to me, anyway — number and variety of complaints from readers. They range from the the font size of comments (too small) to the occasional Obama ads (we shouldn’t allow them). We try to respond, usually through the intervention of our publisher, Joe Malchow, when the complaint is reasonable and we are able to do something about it. Joe manages to take care of
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April 7, 2012 — Scott Johnson
ABC News reports that buyers in record numbers are flooding into gun stores. Ammo is flying off the shelves: “The reasons for the spike, last seen in 2009, include fears that a second Obama administration might restrict gun ownership and the popularity of TV shows devoted to doomsday preparation and killing zombies.” ABC does not present these explanations as mutually exclusive. On the contrary, they are mutually reenforcing. They are
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March 4, 2012 — Scott Johnson
I am still unable to add Picks to our panel above. Here is what I have been looking at around the Web. Andrew Ferguson takes a look at the proposed Frank Gehry design of the Eisenhower Memorial in the Weekly Standard editorial opposing it. The closer you look, the uglier it gets. I thought that President Obama deserved credit for events leading to GM’s temporary suspension of production of that
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March 3, 2012 — Scott Johnson
When we redesigned this site, we added the “Picks” feature above so that we could note news as it was breaking, bring items of interest to the attention of readers about which we didn’t necessarily have anything to say, or take note of pieces that were otherwise worthy of your attention. For some reason I am unable to add Picks this morning. It’s the kind of software glitch that seems
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