Monthly Archives: February 2005

February 19, 2005 — John Hinderaker

Social Security Follies

The Washington Post, official voice of the Democratic Party, weighs in on Social Security, in an article titled “Poorest Face Most Risk on Social Security”. The Post tracked down a poster child for the welfare state: No group of Americans would be affected more by President Bush’s Social Security plan than those earning the least. Just ask 46-year-old Brent Allen. Allen, who recently lost his job at a Massachusetts paper »
February 19, 2005 — John Hinderaker

Radio Post Mortem

The Trunk and I had a great time last night, filling in on KSTP AM 1500. The 8 to 10 pm slot on a Friday night is normally a graveyard shift for political commentary, so it was wonderful to have readers calling in from all over the country to help us keep the conversation interesting. Thanks to everyone who called, even the lefties, who helped keep things lively. Thanks, too, »
February 19, 2005 — John Hinderaker

Confidential

Remember when Ann Landers used to put brief responses to readers who didn’t want to receive letters at home at the end of her column, with titles like “Confidential to Lonely in DesMoines”? This is kind of like that. If you are a central figure in a news story, or purported news story, who tried to contact me in my office last week, my secretary apparently took down your number »
February 19, 2005 — Scott Johnson

Alternate history

Soul man extraordinaire James Brown covered his life through the time of the publication of his 1986 autobiography: James Brown: The Godfather of Soul. He’s had a pretty eventful life since 1986, although none of the highlights are musical. He has now revisited the years in which he forged a musical revolution or two and brought the story up to date in a second autobiographical volume whose title trades on »
February 19, 2005 — John Hinderaker

Dean Smackdown Update

Little Green Footballs has video footage of the attack of the shoe bomber–OK, shoe thrower–on Richard Perle in Portland. It’s nice to see that even in liberal Portland, the crowd’s reaction to the attack was uniformly negative. We’re told, too, that CSpan has moved its broadcast of the Howard Dean-Richard Perle debate up to tonight, at 8 and 11 eastern time. Popular demand, I suppose. »
February 19, 2005 — John Hinderaker

Coming Soon to Great Britain

Reader Katy Whelan pointed out this excellent article by Iain Duncan Smith in today’s Guardian, titled “Bloggers Will Rescue the Right.” Smith begins with a good summary of the blogosphere’s impact on American politics, noting how much benefit America’s conservative movement has reaped from the blogs. He continues: You would also expect this electronic revolution to be good for the Democrats, but the American left’s relationship with the internet has »
February 19, 2005 — John Hinderaker

Have They No Shame? No, Actually, They Don’t

The American left has been guilty of many contemptible actions over the past twenty years, but few are so deeply offensive as its treatment of Jim Guckert, aka Jeff Gannon (His real name is Guckert, but he adopted Gannon as a pen name). Gannon is, apparently, a homosexual with a rather sordid past, including stints working as a gay escort. He is now trying to make a career for himself »
February 19, 2005 — Scott Johnson

Hell on a very small island

Today is the sixtieth anniversary of the invasion of Iwo Jima, the beginning of the unbelievably brutal 36-day battle for the first island of the Japanese homeland reached by American forces. Marines bore the brunt of the battle and suffered horrendous losses. Don’t miss this Kerrville Daily Times article on the Legend of Heroes Memorial created by Danielle Girdano: “Iwo Jima sixty years later.” Or Arthur Herman’s OpinionJournal tribute: “Iwo »
February 19, 2005 — Scott Johnson

The deep meaning of Ward Churchill

Roger Kimball of the New Criterion and Armavirumque returns to the subject of Ward Churchill to diagnose the “deeper disease” of which Churchill is a symptom: “Ward Churchill: Six degrees of separation.” »
February 19, 2005 — Scott Johnson

Business Week gets it wrong

Yesterday I linked without comment to the Business Week story on the Eason Jordan affair by BW senior writer Stephen Baker: “Don »
February 18, 2005 — John Hinderaker

A Joke…

…to start off the weekend. Via Tomfoolery of the Highest Order, a site I just discovered through InstaPundit. When Osama bin Laden died, he was met at the Pearly Gates by George Washington, who slapped him across the face and yelled, “How dare you try to destroy the nation I helped conceive!” Patrick Henry approached, punched him in the nose and shouted, “You wanted to end our liberties but you »
February 18, 2005 — John Hinderaker

Media Alert

A reminder: The Trunk and I will be doing our first ever (maybe last ever, who knows) Power Line branded radio show tonight from 8 to 10 on KSTP AM 1500 radio. KSTP’s web site is here; the station has a web stream so you can listen online. We were lucky to get two great guests lined up. Mona Charen will be on during the first hour, and Steve Hayward »
February 18, 2005 — John Hinderaker

Dean Smackdown Update

We posted yesterday on the debate in Portland last night between Richard Perle and Howard Dean, which we predicted would be the most one-sided affair since the Little Big Horn. Reader John Arcari has a report: I just read an account of the debate held last night between Richard Perle and Howard Dean wrritten by a left winger who attended the debate. The highlight of the report is when some »
February 18, 2005 — Scott Johnson

The Jordan iceberg?

The Daily Standard has posted an excellent column by Ed Morrissey — Captain Ed — that meticulously reconstructs the events that culminated in Eason Jordan’s resignation as head of news for CNN: “Eason’s fable.” See also Michelle Malkin’s “Waiting for Bret Stephens to call.” Ed seems to have no doubt that the “outside story” — the trail of the visible controversy over Jordan’s January 27 remarks — led in a »
February 18, 2005 — Scott Johnson

The ordeal of Cool Hand Larry

I’ve been trying to follow the self-abasement and surrender of Harvard President Lawrence Summers in connection with the faculty response to his remarks on the possible sex-based intellectual differences between men and women. I simply haven’t been able to keep up, but Rick Richman of the Jewish Current Issues blog has been doing an outstanding job. Most recently, Rick has linked to the transcript of President Summers’s January 14 remarks »
February 17, 2005 — John Hinderaker

A Music Plug

Last week the Trunk, our resident music expert, posted a tribute to Jimmy Smith, a jazz musician who pioneered the use of the Hammond B-3 organ as a jazz instrument. If you like the Hammond, or if you’re curious as to how an organ can be played that way, I’d highly recommend that you check out one of my favorite jazz records, New Groove Blues. New Groove Blues is by »
February 17, 2005 — Paul Mirengoff

Going to the source

Tomorrow morning, I’m heading to Boston with my daughter and her fellow high-school debaters for the Harvard debate tournament. My blogging will be light to non-existent over the next few days. The debate event that I judge is always held in Harvard’s Science Center. In light of the controversy involving Harvard president Summers, I’ll keep a close eye on the extent to which females are represented among science students. I »