June 13, 2013 — John Hinderaker

Liberals, Race and Immigration

Featured image Paul noted last night that the Democrats “probably need fewer than two dozen House Republican votes” to pass the Gang of Eight’s bill, or some other amnesty proposal. The number depends, obviously, on how many Democrats defect. Which raises the question: how many members of the Congressional Black Caucus–if any–will be willing to stand up and oppose the immigration bill? The mass importation of unskilled Mexican labor contemplated by the »
June 13, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff

David Brooks and the shape of things to come

Featured imageI respect the work of David Brooks even though I often disagree with it. But this Brooks column on immigration reform leaves me shaking my head. Brooks argues that “immigration opponents are effectively trying to restrict the flow of conservatives into this country.” What does he mean by this? First, I assume that Brooks isn’t talking about restricting the number of conservatives “flowing” into the U.S., but rather restricting the »
June 13, 2013 — Scott Johnson

CRB: The Road to Freedom

Featured imageThe Spring issue of the Claremont Review of Books (subscribe here) is out with the magazine’s usual ration of high-quality reviews and essays. Yesterday we previewed Colin Dueck’s review/essay on the folly of liberals, who mistook the end of the Cold War for the end of geopolitical competition. Today we turn to our very own, very prolific Steven F. Hayward’s review of two books on the postwar revival of free »
June 13, 2013 — Steven Hayward

Liberals and Race

Featured imageJohn’s post last week on “What Did Lee Atwater Really Say” is a hugely important piece of revisionist journalism, and its theme deserves sustained attention, as the Left these days defaults immediately to calling conservatives and Republicans “racist” because their arguments are otherwise so weak.  Notice, in this regard, the new ABC News poll out yesterday finding that a whopping 76 percent of Americans oppose race-conscious college admissions.  Rather than »
June 12, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff

Ron Wyden’s reprehensible stunt

Featured imageMarc Thiessen makes a point I was preparing to write up, and wish I had written: The real culprit behind James Clapper’s false testimony to Congress regarding NSA data collection isn’t Clapper, but rather Sen. Ron Wyden who asked the question to which Clapper responded. Since Thiessen went first, I’ll let him explain: What is outrageous is not that Clapper tried to protect classified information in an open session, but »
June 12, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff

In the House too, the fix may well be in

Featured imagePaul Ryan tells a Washington audience assembled by the National Association of Manufacturers that “earned legalization is an issue I think the House can and will deal with.” In other words, as CNBC’s John Harwood tweeted, “Paul Ryan tells me House will pass immigration ‘path to citizenship.’ Despite flak on right, ‘House can/will deal with earned legalization.’” Earlier this year, when comments by Ryan caused me to suggest that amnesty »
June 12, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff

Two Everton players among Europe’s top 20

Featured imageEvertonians Marouane Fellaini and Leighton Baines are listed among Europe’s top 50 players in a ranking by Bloomberg Sports that rates players based on new performance statistics. Fellaini comes in at 12th place; Baines at 16th. Liverpool star Luis Suarez slots in between the two at 15th place. Former Everton players Wayne Rooney and Mikel Arteta are listed at 26th and 46th, respectively. These rankings are only as good as »
June 12, 2013 — John Hinderaker

The Gang’s Bill Makes Immigration Law Enforcement Worse, Not Better

Featured imageI have written repeatedly about the fact that emphasis on border security, in the context of the Gang of Eight’s immigration overhaul, is misguided. The big problem with the bill is that it authorizes somewhere between 30 million and 57 million new legal immigrants, overwhelmingly low-skilled and marginally assimilable. Compared to that reality, the continuation of illegal immigration is relatively insignificant. Still, it is worth noting that the Gang’s bill »
June 12, 2013 — Scott Johnson

On David Brooks

Featured imageOver at InstaPundit, Glenn Reynolds makes a shrewd observation about David Brooks that seems to me worth rescuing from the stream of links. Glenn writes: WHEN WOMEN COMPLAIN ABOUT THE DISAPPEARANCE OF CHIVALRY, I’m prone to point out that chivalry was a system, one that imposed obligations of behavior on women and girls as well as on men. Likewise, when David Brooks complains that Edward Snowden is an unmediated man, »
June 12, 2013 — Steven Hayward

Times Struggles to Keep Climate Hope Alive

Featured imageThe latest chapter in our climate change endgame series comes courtesy of the New York Times, which struggled mightily on Sunday to cope with the inconvenient news that temperatures have been flat for more than a decade now.  In “What To Make of a Warming Plateau,” Times reporter Justin Gillis leads with the most compelling scientific argument yet: “luck.” As unlikely as this may sound, we have lucked out in »
June 12, 2013 — Scott Johnson

¿Por qué no te callas?

Featured imageJosé Millán Astray was the founder of the Spanish Foreign Legion and a supporter of Francisco Franco. In a famous confrontation at the University of Salamanca early in the Spanish Civil War, he is said to have responded to a statement of Unamuno with the imprecation (variously reported): “¡Abajo la inteligencia!” (down with the intelligentsia). In his brilliant contribution to National Review’s fifteenth anniversary issue in 1970, Jeffrey Hart began »
June 12, 2013 — John Hinderaker

Could Our Immigration System Be Even More Irrational? Sadly, Yes

Featured imageThe U.S. has a terrible immigration system, which was designed largely by Ted Kennedy for the purpose of increasing “diversity,” without giving any thought to American interests. If we would simply adopt the Canadian system, it would be a vast improvement. Unfortunately, the Gang of Eight’s bill does not move in the right direction, i.e., an immigration policy that is designed to serve the best interests of the United States. »
June 12, 2013 — Steven Hayward

Closing Thoughts on Weaver

Featured imageWilliam F. Buckley remarked that he found it impossible to define conservatism in one sentence, but whenever someone insisted that he offer a one-sentence definition he would “punish” them with Richard Weaver’s: “Conservatism is the paradigm of essences towards which the phenomenology of the world is in continuing approximation.”  (“With a straight face,” Buckley added.) This suggests one of the reasons why Weaver has never acquired a wider audience, even »
June 12, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff

Rand Paul embarrasses himself again

Featured imageImmigration reform isn’t the only issue as to which Rand Paul is embarrassing himself these days. The Senator’s “Fourth Amendment Restoration Act of 2013” represents a stunning combination of ignorance and hysteria. Andy McCarthy demonstrates Paul’s ignorance. He writes: [T]he bill is unacquainted with the Fourth Amendment — either the one given to us by the Framers or even the one enlarged over time by Supreme Court jurisprudence. . . »
June 12, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff

Ted Cruz and Mike Lee outshine Rand Paul on immigration

Featured imageOnly 15 Republican Senators voted against the motion to allow debate to proceed on the Schumer-Rubio immigration reform bill. The 15 “no” votes were cast by: John Barasso, Wyoming John Boozman, Arkansas Mike Crapo, Idaho Ted Cruz, Texas Mike Enzi, Wyoming Chuck Grassley, Iowa Jim Inhofe, Oklahoma Mark Kirk, Illinois Mike Lee, Utah James Risch, Idaho Tim Scott, South Carolina Jeff Sessions, Alabama Richard Shelby, Alabama David Vitter, Lousiana A »
June 12, 2013 — Scott Johnson

CRB: Geography and world politics

Featured imageThis past weekend I pored over the magnificent new (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 price of $19.95 a year and get immediate online access thrown in to boot. As has become the custom, »
June 11, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff

This day in baseball history — a prolonged duel of ace relievers

Featured imageOn June 11, 1963, relievers Dick Radatz and Terry Fox dueled for more than seven innings in a game between the Boston Red Soc and the Detroit Tigers. Boston eventually prevailed 7-3 in 15 innings. Radatz and Fox were two of the very best relief pitchers in baseball. Radatz was known as the Monster (Detroit baseball writer Joe Falls quipped that “the Red Sox don’t warm him up, they assembled »