Monthly Archives: October 2009

October 18, 2009 — John Hinderaker

Five For Fighting, the Podcast

John Ondrasik of Five For Fighting–it took me a couple of years, at least, to figure out that the reference is to the hockey penalty, not the number of band members–is one of the world’s truly great guys. He has just released a terrific new album called Slice. We were lucky enough to catch up with him yesterday on our radio show. My radio partner, Brian “St. Paul” Ward of »
October 18, 2009 — John Hinderaker

When American Movies, Were

Big Hollywood is doing a series on conservative movies. It promises to be a real treat. Today’s instalment is on the great John Ford; in particular, his Navy career and his film They Were Expendable: At forty-seven years of age, after three decades of trying, John Ford was finally a soldier. Ford served without pay, traveling across the globe and dodging enemy bombers and U-Boats to fulfill his duties as »
October 18, 2009 — John Hinderaker

Europe? Not Us, Not Yet, Not Ever

Michael Barone makes a vitally important point: Americans may have just elected their most-European president ever, but that doesn’t mean they want to be like Europe. In fact, sentiment is moving in the opposite direction: Last year America elected a president who, in attitudes and policies, is closer to the elites of Western Europe than any of his predecessors. Yet in the nine months that he has been in office »
October 18, 2009 — Paul Mirengoff

The limits of sophistry

My day job and related commitments have prevented me from blogging much lately. However, I did manage to complete my Examiner column. It’s about President Obama’s impending decision about whether to fight to win in Afghanistan or whether, instead, to adopt the liberal alternatives to fighting to win, which are (1) fight somewhere else, (2) fight someone else, or (3) redefine victory. Here’s what I wrote: During last year’s presidential »
October 18, 2009 — John Hinderaker

Shut Up, They Explained

The administration’s war against Fox News has reached something of a low point: [White House Communications Director Anita] Dunn also criticized Fox’s Chris Wallace for referring to the administration as filled with “crybabies.” (“We kept ourselves from … responding, ‘I am rubber, you are glue,'” Dunn said). Of course, if she had actually “kept herself from responding” with that elementary-school riposte, she wouldn’t have responded with it. Sort of like »
October 18, 2009 — John Hinderaker

Close Encounter With Craziness

I think there was a time when Chris Matthews wasn’t stark, raving mad, but it’s hard to remember for sure. Here, he invites the head of the Texas Tea Parties on to his show, and then attacks him with a series of bizarre questions involving birtherism, etc. It turns out that what Matthews really wants to do is argue about New Deal history, of which he is evidently ignorant (he »
October 18, 2009 — John Hinderaker

Lucky Al

In his Wall Street Journal column titled The Race Card, Football and Me, Rush Limbaugh noted the absurdity of reporters’ seeking comment on his involvement in a potential NFL owners’ group from Al Sharpton: In 1998 Mr. Sharpton was found guilty of defamation and ordered to pay $65,000 for falsely accusing a New York prosecutor of rape in the 1987 Tawana Brawley case. He also played a leading role in »
October 18, 2009 — Scott Johnson

Flim and flam of the world

Whoever is responsible for the text of Barack Obama’s Dreams from My Father is a gifted writer. For an informed appreciation of the literary qualities of Dreams, see Andrew Ferguson’s “The literary Obama.” Ferguson denies that “anyone who reads it could doubt that Dreams from My Father is the work of a real writer; a young writer, it’s true, with a young writer’s mannerisms.” Obama’s failure to display literary gifts »
October 17, 2009 — Scott Johnson

Don’t Go Breakin’ My [Baitsim]

Wikipedia helpfully recalls that “Don’t Go Breakin’ My Heart” was written by Elton John with Bernie Taupin under the punning pseudonym “Ann Orson” and “Carte Blanche.” Elton performed the song as a duet with Kiki Dee, and had a huge smash with it in 1976. Wikipedia notes that the song was intended as an affectionate pastiche of the Motown style, notably the various duets recorded by Marvin Gaye and singers »
October 17, 2009 — John Hinderaker

Cold Turkey

Turkey was long the model Islamic state: pro-Western, democratic, relatively modern and secular. But since Islamists won control of Turkey’s government in 2002, that country has steadily been slipping out of the Western orbit. A decisive moment came in 2003, when Turkey refused to allow American forces access to invade Iraq from the north. Last week, Turkey effectively canceled an international military exercise by refusing Israeli participation at the last »
October 17, 2009 — Scott Johnson

Inside Iran’s nuclear program

Does any modestly well informed person seriously doubt that Iran is engaged in a secret military program to build nuclear weapons? One could say say only a fool would doubt it, but not even President Obama pretends to entertain doubt on the subject, does he? He just doesn’t care about it that much, or doesn’t think it represents a threat to the United States. Hey, after all, according to Obama, »
October 17, 2009 — Scott Johnson

Guess who’s coming to dinner

Paul Mirengoff has been tracking the sponsoring hosts of the gala first annual dinner/conference to be held by the phony pro-peace, genuinely anti-Israel organization J Street in posts here and here. Michael Goldfarb adds that J Street “has been hemorraghing sponsors as Senators and Congressmen learned of its true agenda. Just in the last few hours,” Goldfarb wrote yesterday, “Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) and Reps. Michael McCaul (R-TX) and Leonard »
October 17, 2009 — Scott Johnson

Big Breitbart

James Taranto profiles our friend Andrew Breitbart and lets Andrew speak for himself in “Taking on the ‘Democrat-media complex.'” Among other things, Andrew is the founder Breitbart News as well as the sites Big Hollywood and, most recently, Big Government. Andrew is a genius a couple times over, with an instinctive sense of how to turn the power of the left back on itself. Discussing the strategy he employed to »
October 16, 2009 — John Hinderaker

No Summer, No Fall

A few things in life are better than sitting in an oceanside Caribbean bar, drinking rum punch and listening to a local band play Bob Marley’s “No Woman, No Cry,” but I can’t offhand remember what they are. Here in Minnesota, though, we are far removed from Jamaica sunsets. We didn’t have much of a summer, and now we aren’t having much of an autumn. You could rewrite the lyrics »
October 16, 2009 — John Hinderaker

Tune In Tomorrow!

I’ll be on the radio with Brian “St. Paul” Ward tomorrow from 11 to 1 central, as usual. You can tune in to AM 1280 the Patriot if you’re in the Twin Cities; if, more likely, you’re not, just go here to listen online. At 11:30 central, we’ll be talking with Pete Hegseth, founder of Vets For Freedom, about Afghanistan. As I’ve written on this site, I’m worried about whether »
October 16, 2009 — John Hinderaker

Stark Raving Mad vs. Only Mildly Crazy

Byron York documents today’s schism on the Left: the internet-based wackos who were the core of President Obama’s support last year are now turning on him. And, even more entertainingly, vice versa: “Can I speak freely about the liberal whiners?” asks a well-connected Democratic strategist. “These are the same people who have never participated in, much less won, a campaign, who have no idea what it takes to maintain a »
October 16, 2009 — John Hinderaker

“Pay Czar”?!

Today the Obama administration’s “pay czar” demanded that Ken Lewis, Chairman of the Board of Bank of America, work for free. The “czar,” Kenneth Feinberg, pressured Lewis not only to forgo all remaining compensation for 2009, but to repay the $1 million he has already received this year. Lewis acquiesced, saying that “he felt it was not in the best interest of Bank of America for him to get involved »