Monthly Archives: June 2010

Reflections on The Speech

Steven F. Hayward begins The Age of Reagan: The Fall of the Old Liberal Order, 1964-1980 with “the seemingly small scene” of Ronald Reagan in the studio about to make a nationally televised speech on behalf of Barry Goldwater. The speech was titled “A time for choosing”; it would also be known as “the Speech.” Hayward quotes Reagan: “We have a rendezvous with destiny. We’ll preserve for our children this, »

Two faces of the tea party

As a staff writer for the Weekly Standard, Matthew Continetti has become one of the brightest lights among young conservative journalists. I first met him a few years ago when he was in Minnesota researching a Weekly Standard story on Tim Pawlenty. When Matt was in town last year researching a story on Minnesota Sixth District Rep. Michele Bachmann for the New York Times Magazine, we had him over for »

The World Cup — looking ahead to the semi-finals

When the World Cup is played in Europe, we tend to get predictable semi-finalists, consisting mostly of the highly touted European teams. In 2006 (in Germany), the last four were Italy, France, Germany, and Portugal. In 1998 (in France), they were France, Brazil, Holland, and one surprise package — Croatia. In 1990 (in Italy), Germany, Argentina, Italy, and England reached the semi-finals. But when the World Cup is held elsewhere, »

More Signs of Conservative Resurgence

It’s been true for a long time that conservatives outnumber liberals by around two to one; now, according to the latest Gallup Poll, they out number moderates too. Currently, 42 percent of Americans call themselves conservative: The problem, of course, is that the goalposts keep changing. As our governing class moves farther to the left, the definition of “conservative” is drifting leftward as well. For example, years ago, just about »

Immigration reform and Ronald Reagan — this time, let’s trust but verify

In a post called “Immigration — what would Reagan do and should it matter?” I analyzed various claims by Peter Robinson about how Ronald Reagan would view the current immigration reform debate. I agree with most of Peter’s claims on this subject. However, I blamed Reagan in part for the current immigration mess, arguing that the 1986 immigration reform act, which he supported, was a predictable failure. I wrote: Reagan’s »

He’d like to teach the world to play in perfect harmony

Unlike many soccer fans, I’m not obsessed with the sport’s popularity, or lack thereof, in this country. Still, I admit that, other things being equal, it’s a good thing if the sport becomes more popular here. On the other hand, I wonder whether other things actually are equal when new soccer fans make idiotic observations about the sport, such as: I think the big issue everywhere in the world today »

Rashad Hussain explains Obama

We have written a lot about Rashad Hussain, America’s special envoy to the Organization for the Islamic Conference (OIC), the Saudi-based body formed in 1969 to “protect” Jerusalem from the Israelis. Hussain is a piece of work. See the posts collected here. Notwithstanding his flaws, Hussain has made a great contribution to understanding Barack Obama. This week in a speech a the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, »

Return of the Mummy, or the Creature, or…

The 1950s were an era of great horror movies, but I tend to get them mixed up, as I hardly saw any of them. Somewhere in that genre there is a monster, wrapped in tape, who emerges from a swamp trailing bandages (or whatever) and commits mayhem. This image, though, may be a hybrid of The Mummy and the Creature From the Black Lagoon. Let’s stick with the Mummy for »

“Juden Raus!”

In a disconcerting echo of the 1930s, a Jewish dance group was stoned by Arab youths in Hanover, Germany earlier today: Arab youths threw stones at a Jewish dance group during a street festival in Hannover, injuring one dancer and forcing the group to cancel its performance, German police and dance officials said Thursday. The teenagers also used a megaphone to shout anti-Semitic slurs during the attack Saturday, Hannover police »

Tea Party Stats

Today’s Rasmussen Reports has two surveys that relate directly to the Tea Party movement. The first is in Nevada, where Sharron Angle leads Harry Reid by 48-41 among likely voters. Eight percent prefer “some other candidate;” those, presumably, are the ones who would like to get rid of Reid but have serious reservations about Ms. Angle. Attitudes may change, in either direction, as voters learn more about the Republican nominee, »

A question for Rory

Nevada gubernatorial candidate Rory Reid is of course the son of the Senate Majority Leader. Reid the father is the man whom Rush Limbaugh calls Dingy Harry. Reid the son is a chip off the old block, but he’s not publicly advertising the fact this year. The Daily Caller notes: Rory Reid, the son of Senate majority leader Harry Reid, has been careful to distance himself from his unpopular father »

Debating the Kagan nomination

The Federalist Society, as part of its online debate series, is holding a debate about the Kagan nomination. I’m honored to be one of the participants. My first contribution is now up. You can follow the debate here. »

World Cup questions

Why did it take italian manager Marcello Lippi until 45 minutes from the end of Italy’s World Cup run to figure out that Fabio Quagliarella was the most effective forward he brought to South Africa? (Lippi used four other forwards before giving the Napoli man a try.) If Lippi’s countryman Fabio Capello had waited that long to finally figure out that England needed Jermaine Defoe, would England have also exited »

“Crazed Sex Poodle”?

This is a clear case of too much information. Is it true? Who knows; but if detail lends credibility, it certainly qualifies as credible. What is most interesting to me about the story, however, is that a Portland newspaper had the story in 2007 or 2008, but chose not to publish it: In 2007 or 2008, then-Portland Tribune reporter Nick Budnick made a public records request and obtained the Portland »

The Blago tapes

The portrait of Rod Blagojevich that comes through on the tapes introduced at trial against him is that of a man of many faces. One face that shines through the AP report on the tapes heard in court yesterday is that of a nut, but there are others. Attention must be paid. President Obama is a subject and object of Blago’s dreams; Obama’s rise has a lot to do with »

Birds of paradise

“May the bird of paradise lay a ta-ta on your tutu,” Johnny Carson said to one Tonight Show audience that laughed insufficiently at one of his jokes. As I recall, that was only one variation of the curse he called on for uncooperative audiences. Johnny’s use of the curse seems also to have provided the inspiration for the Jimmy Dickens country song “May the Bird of Paradise Fly Up Your »

Is Soccer Catching On?

As regular readers know, Paul is a long-time, very knowledgeable soccer fan; not only that, a fan of the Everton Toffees–Toffees?–which is sort of like being a Washington Senators fan, which Paul once was, too. Scott and I, on the other hand, are as uncomprehending of soccer as most American sports fans. For as long as I can remember, soccer was supposed to be the next big thing on the »