Monthly Archives: July 2008

A note on the Indian bombings

One of our faithful readers writes to comment on John Hinderaker’s post “More bombings in India.” Our reader writes: Thanks for covering the bombing in Ahmadabad, India. That is my home town – I grew up there and one of the hospital bombed was where I did my internship. The bombing locations are also close to where I grew up. You mentioned Narendra Modi – who is the chief minister »

Study Finds Support for Terror in British Universities

A study of British universities commissioned by the Centre for Social Cohesion found that a third of Muslim students believe it is acceptable to kill in the name of religion, and also support establishment of a world-wide caliphate. One caveat: the organization that sponsored the study, which polled 1,400 Muslim and non-Muslim students, obviously has an axe to grind. One can’t tell from the linked article how sound the study’s »

McCain Hammers Obama on Troop Cancellation

In recent days, John McCain has stepped up the pace of his attacks on Barack Obama. Now he’s lost no time in going after Obama for canceling his visit to wounded soldiers in Germany, even though he had time to go to the gym and sightsee in Berlin. This is the new YouTube ad: Brutal. In the end, this character-revealing blunder may be the only thing voters remember about Obama’s »

More Bombings In India

For the second day in a row, terrorists have launched coordinated bomb attacks in India. This time, more than a dozen bombs went off within 36 minutes in the western city of Ahmedabad. At least 29 are dead and more than 100 wounded; two of the bombs targeted hospital emergency rooms to which victims of earlier bombs had been rushed. Many of the victims were struck by flying nuts and »

A Different Kind of Politician

In recent weeks, Barack Obama has been revealed as an old-fashioned sort of politician: less than honest, pandering to every special interest in sight, obsessed with fundraising and his own political prospects to the exclusion of nearly everything else. So it’s worth noting that there really is an iconoclast running for President. Only it isn’t Barack Obama, it’s John McCain. McCain’s op-ed last week on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac »

Don’t Let Them Fake It

Senate Republicans have taken a strong stand on energy: they won’t cooperate in bringing legislation on any other topic to the floor until the Democrats allow a vote on expanding our domestic energy supplies. Mitch McConnell says: We think there is nothing more important that we can do right now than to deal with the Number One issue of the country. This is the biggest issue since terrorism right after »

Another day in the Twin Cities

Last week we wrote (here and here) about the murderous July 4 gang assault on the father of a 12-year-old girl who was sexaully harassed at the local Twin Cities-area Valleyfair amusement park. The assailants knocked the girl’s father to the ground and took turns stomping on his head. The Star Tribune has failed to report any information on the criminal records of those charged with the assault. Easily accessible »

Randy Pausch, RIP

Carnegie Mellon computer science professor Randy Pausch gave his riveting “last lecture” this past September. Fortunately, Wall Street Journal columnist Jeffrey Zaslow was in attendance to cover it. Zaslow’s column about it, together with the related videos, brought Professor Pausch to our attention. We wrote about Zaslow’s column here. Carnegie Mellon posted the video of Pausch’s last lecture here. Zaslow and Pausch collaborated to convert the column into a phenomenally »

Heh

From Henry Payne: »

Cotto-Margarito

Tomorrow night Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito will fight for the WBA welterweight title in one of the year’s most anticipated bouts. I asked my son, who is a more knowledgeable fight fan than me, to preview the match: Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito are fighting for the welterweight championship on Saturday night from the MGM Grand Garden Arena. This is probably the most anticipated fight of the year, as »

McCain Hits Hard

Before a military audience in Denver today, John McCain launched his strongest attack yet against Barack Obama. The attack was devastating because it is true. Here are some excerpts; McCain began by recalling the beginning of the surge: Senator Obama and I also faced a decision, which amounted to a real-time test for a future commander-in-chief. America passed that test. I believe my judgment passed that test. And I believe »

A More Perfect (European) Union

The text of Barack Obama’s sermon to the Germans in Berlin yesterday is an incredibly rich and revealing document. Prerhaps more than anything else, it was almost perfectly calibrated to tell the Germans what they want to hear. The fecklessness of the UN shows how little it means to be a “citizen of the world.” It means something, though, to be a citizen of the EU, and Obama espoused distinctly »

The gospel according to Gerard

London Times American correspondent Gerard Baker expounds the Obamessianic gospel in “He ventured forth to bring light to the world.” Thank you, brother Gerard. To comment on this post, go here. »

Another day in Arafatistan

The Jerusalem Post reports: An IDF elite unit operating in Jenin discovered on Tuesday a large explosive device planted in a car that was likely on its way to explode in an Israeli city, the military released for publication on Wednesday. The car was stopped during a Border Police operation in the West Bank city and was found to contain a 12 kilogram explosive device connected to several gas balloons »

Rush knows what moment it is

On his show yesterday, Rush Limbaugh provided his take on Obama’s sermon to the Germans as it was delivered. At one point Rush explicated this key portion of the text: People of Berlin, people of the world, this is our moment. This is our time. I know my country has not perfected itself. (cheers) At times we struggle to keep the promise of liberty and equality for all of our »

The Washington Post nails it

I’ve alluded to the Washington’s Post outstanding editorial from yesterday about Barack Obama and Iraq, but it merits more attention than that. I’d like to focus in particular on two points that may not have received sufficient emphasis on this blog and others. First, Prime Minister Maliki’s statements (which are not fully in line with Obama’s anyway) do not reflect the views of Sunni leaders in Anbar province. As the »

The Nearly Men

British sportswriters sometimes refer to an athlete as “a nearly man.” The phrase is not an attack on the subject’s masculinity, but rather a reference to the fact that he had the promise of greatness but didn’t quite deliver. Former Everton starlet Francis Jeffers is a nearly man. Kieron Dyer, as well. The “nearly man” label comes to mind when I think of potential running mates for John McCain. There »