March 30, 2023 — Steven Hayward

The Daily Chart: On the Gun Merry-Go-Round Again

Featured image So Steven Rattner, one of the architects of the auto bailout in 2008, thinks this: As has been pointed out many times, if you remove gang violence, of the murders concentrated in just a handful of American urban areas (mostly gang driven), the U.S. place on this chart would fall right in line with the cluster here. But we don’t ever want to talk about gang violence, or why the »
March 30, 2023 — John Hinderaker

Insurrection in Tennessee

Featured imageLeft-wing extremists violently storm the state capitol in Tennessee, disrupting the work of that state’s legislature. Let’s arrest them for insurrection and give them 11 months in solitary confinement before we bring them to trial. 🚨 BREAKING: Leftists storm the Tennessee Capitol demanding more gun control measures. h/t: @TheTNHoller pic.twitter.com/d2K0Kb5t1c — MRCTV (@mrctv) March 30, 2023 »
March 30, 2023 — John Hinderaker

Here We Go Again

Featured imageIn the wake of Audrey Hale’s murderous spree, we are hearing the familiar calls for more gun control legislation. Left unexplained is how adding one more to the hundreds of gun control statutes and regulations that already exist will magically stop murders (or some categories of murders) from taking place. As usual, the default left-wing policy is a ban on “assault weapons.” Never mind that such a ban was implemented »
March 30, 2023 — Elizabeth Stauffer

Sorry, Liberals, Audrey Hale Is Not the Victim

Featured imageOne New Year’s Eve in the 1990s, I was seated on a train out of Manhattan when a huge man dressed as a woman took the facing seat directly across from me. Although he had caused quite a stir as he moved through the car, he seemed oblivious to the eye rolls from my fellow passengers. With his bare midriff, I remember thinking he must be cold given the freezing temperatures »
March 30, 2023 — Scott Johnson

Of Mice and Walz

Featured imageMinnesota Governor Tim Walz seeks to portray himself as a champion of freedom. Those of us who were subjected to his one-man rule during the Covid emergency have found him to be a petty tyrant. The Star Tribune is Walz’s handmaiden and most valuable player in Walz’s puffery, as in Brianna Bierschbach’s “Gov. Tim Walz draws contrast between Minnesota and conservative GOP-led states.” Bierschbach opened with Walz’s theatrics: Gov. Tim »
March 30, 2023 — Scott Johnson

Jamaal Bowman explains

Featured imageDo not get within spitting distance of Dem Rep. Jamaal Bowman when he is instructing the press (“ask them every day — what are they going to do about gun violence?”), expounding on the need for “gun control” (“Why the hell won’t you do anything to save America’s children?”), and condemning colleagues who who disagree with him (“they’re all cowards,” “they’re freaking cowards,” “they’re gutless,” etc.). You are highly likely »
March 29, 2023 — Steven Hayward

Thought for the Day: The Problem with Satire

Featured image“The trouble about writing satire is that the real world always anticipates you, and what were meant for exaggeration turn out to be nothing of the sort.” —C.S. Lewis, 1945 The Babylon Bee, this week: When satire becomes reality: Nearly 100 Babylon Bee joke stories have come true JUPITER, Fla. – The Babylon Bee has had nearly 100 joke headlines turn into prophecies after the stories eventually came true, the »
March 29, 2023 — Elizabeth Stauffer

As Matt Taibbi Testified About Weaponization of the Government, the IRS Made a Housecall

Featured imageA funny thing happened while journalist Matt Taibbi was testifying before the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government in Washington, D.C., nearly three weeks ago. Agents from the Internal Revenue Service showed up at his New Jersey residence. Because Taibbi was not at home, they left a note on his door, asking him to contact them the following Monday. The Wall Street Journal reported: Mr. Taibbi was »
March 29, 2023 — John Hinderaker

Fighting Back on the Border

Featured imageI meant to put these up yesterday. Department of Homeland Security head Alejandro Mayorkas testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday. Ted Cruz scorched him on the Biden’s administration politically-motivated erasure of our Southern border. Via RedState: Under questioning from Ted Cruz, Biden’s DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas refuses to say if there is a crisis on the border: Cruz: “1 word. 1 syllable. 3 letters. That's how someone answers »
March 29, 2023 — Scott Johnson

After Joe hit his mark

Featured imageJohn noted President Biden’s apparent need for adult guidance when he hit the ground in Durham, North Carolina yesterday. Biden’s remarks on the ground in Durham were at least equally notable. The White House has posted the transcript here. Nick Arama has posted excerpts and accompanying video here at RedState. Biden omitted his usual tribute to chocolate chip ice cream and skipped to exploitation of the tragic murder of students »
March 28, 2023 — Steven Hayward

Thought for the Day: Charles Murray on Identity Politics

Featured imageCharles Murray speaks for me in this early passage from Facing Reality: Two Truths About Race in America (2021) about how identity politics broke out from the faculty clubs into every corner of American life today: I didn’t take identity politics seriously for a long time. I thought that the academy was once again indulging in its fondness for recreational radicalism. Surely no one outside academia except the extreme left »
March 29, 2023 — John Hinderaker

Thoughts on the Nashville Murders [Updated]

Featured imageThere is much that could be said about the murders committed by Audrey Hale on Monday, but for the moment I want to address just one issue, in a series of related observations. * Police say they found a “manifesto” written by Ms. Hale, and apparently other writings as well. So far the contents of these writings have not been disclosed. I assume they will come out in due course, »
March 29, 2023 — Steven Hayward

The Daily Chart: Not So Fast on Cultural Doom?

Featured imageOur Monday Daily Chart on the Wall Street Journal survey (which has garnered widespread attention beyond Power Line) showing the precipitous decline of traditional American values such as patriotism and religious faith was very sobering—and perhaps a little suspicious. Huge shifts such as were shown in their findings ought to prompt a closer look at the methodology. Sure enough, Patrick Ruffini, a very shrewd political analyst and survey designer with »
March 29, 2023 — Steven Hayward

The Week in Energy: California Follies, Chapter 12,186

Featured imageAs everyone knows, California is leading the bandwagon to have an all-electric car and truck fleet as soon as 2035. The assumption is that people will charge up their batteries overnight when electricity demand drops. The defect in this plan is that while electricity demand starts to fall later in the evening (except during heat waves), California’s supply of electricity also falls because it is lopsided toward wind and especially »
March 29, 2023 — Scott Johnson

Nebraska Fats or Minnesota Thins?

Featured imageMinnesota Governor Tim Walz is conducting a rampage of lies with the support of the Star Tribune. One or two of his lies have even been “fact-checked” by mainstream news outlets such as Reuters, but the Star Tribune continues the cheerleading on what seems like a daily basis. See, e.g., Brianna Biershcbach’s story “Gov. Tim Walz draws contrast between Minnesota and conservative GOP-led states.” Walz is leading the way to »
March 29, 2023 — Scott Johnson

A Walter Hudson footnote

Featured imageYesterday I posted video of the remarks of newly elected Republican Rep. Walter Hudson opposing the DFL bill seeking to establish Minnesota as a “trans refuge.” I posted the video here. It warrants viewing if you haven’t watched it yet. At about 1:00 of the video, Walter mentions “this interesting Venn diagram between what is considered gender-affirming care and what is elsewhere to be considered crime….” The author of the »
March 28, 2023 — John Hinderaker

Another Horrible Food Idea

Featured imageLiberals aren’t just coming for our automobiles, gas stoves and air conditioners. They also want to change the way we eat, because of the climate, doncha know. What else? The Telegraph recounts a particularly nasty instance of liberals’ nouveau food: fake woolly mammoth meat. A mammoth meatball has been created using the resurrected flesh of the long-extinct animal. It was produced by a cultivated meat company as part of a »