Monthly Archives: December 2011
December 17, 2011 — Steven Hayward
My existentially-challenged progressive pals Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus show up in the Washington Post today with an op-ed article that notes the extensive federal government role in developing the hydraulic fracturing technology and some of the related technologies, such as 3-D seismic mapping and directional drilling technology, that have made possible the current natural gas revolution. Many often point to the shale gas revolution as evidence that the private
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December 17, 2011 — Scott Johnson
Last week in “What price Ayers?” we reported on the Illinois Humanities Council’s remarkable online fundraising auction item: dinner for six with Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, the unrepentant terrorists and former friends of Barack Obama. In search of funds, the IHC made the item available for immediate purchase for $2,500; at the time it had attracted one bid of $350. The IHC offered supporters the priceless opportunity to walk
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December 17, 2011 — Steven Hayward
Continuing the ideology series, herewith a few thoughts on the different modes of moral-political reasoning between right and left: Two things need to be observed about the conflicting modes of moral reasoning between left and right. The conservative’s innate caution rooted in the anchor of human nature and established experience leads him to evaluate any ideas according to the potential consequences, and especially with regard to the often counter-intuitive unintended
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December 16, 2011 — John Hinderaker
The national labor unions have accumulated more than 500,000 signatures on their petition to recall Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin, so they are getting close. There is no process, apparently, for validating the signatures, so it is impossible to say how many are fraudulent. But it seems probable that one way or another, a recall election will take place in May. Will that election be a triumph for the Democrats?
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December 16, 2011 — John Hinderaker
All politics is local, some sage said. That isn’t quite true, of course, but the local element often predominates. Today, Minnesota’s Republican Party had a brutal day. In order of significance: First, the GOP took control of the Senate in 2010 for the first time since partisan elections were inaugurated. It was an extraordinary breakthrough, and Amy Koch was named Majority Leader. She did a terrific job in that position.
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December 16, 2011 — John Hinderaker
That’s what Prime Minister David Cameron says. He is concerned about his country’s social decline, and invokes Britain’s Christian heritage as an antidote: Britain is a Christian nation and should not be afraid of standing up for Christian values to help counter the country’s “moral collapse”, Prime Minister David Cameron said Friday. In a rare foray into religion by a British premier, Cameron said “live and let live” had too
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December 16, 2011 — Scott Johnson
We’ve been writing about the de facto incandescent light bulb ban since Congress enacted Subtitle B of Title III of the Energy Independence and Security Act, and President Bush signed it into law, at the end of 2007. In “A nation of dim bulbs” Ferguson discussed the rationale of the de facto ban. Environmental enthusiasts don’t like the light bulbs we’re using now. They reason, therefore, that we shouldn’t be
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December 16, 2011 — John Hinderaker
We have been covering the Democrats’ effort to improve their 2012 electoral position by beating back the efforts of numerous states to prevent voter fraud. Eric Holder is the point man for the Democrats in this campaign. While stirring racial division may help energize the Democrats’ base, it appears that the anti-ballot integrity movement will not be popular with the broader electorate. Scott Rasmussen finds that an overwhelming 75% support
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December 16, 2011 — Steven Hayward
Because of stupid articles with this title, from Gene Lyons in Salon.com yesterday. Is another pathetic catalogue of recent extreme weather events—Lyons lists “drought . . . catastrophic floods . . . warm winter temperatures across Russia . . . low Arctic sea ice . . . wildfires in Texas . . . tornadoes on the great plains”—really going to change anyone’s mind? And what about more hurricanes, as we
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December 16, 2011 — Steven Hayward
Continuing the classroom series I began with Part 1 and Part 2, here’s Part 3–a short sketch on some of the problems of different understandings of the principle of equality: The differences between left and right about reform, the use of reason, and progress are susceptible to some degree of consensus or compromise on both the conceptual and practical level. Contrasting views of the idea equality are more difficult to
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December 16, 2011 — Steven Hayward
The news of Christopher Hitchens’ death from cancer is not a surprise. People I know who spoke with him in recent weeks said that his writing was keeping him alive, but there was less and less of that emerging from his hospital bedside. It appears that his very last article will be his much commented upon recent meditation on Nietzsche’s axiom that “whatever doesn’t kill me makes me stronger,” which
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December 15, 2011 — John Hinderaker
How many times have New York Times editorialists and columnists railed against companies that reward failed executives with golden parachutes in the form of bonuses and fat retirement packages? How many times have they grumbled that bank executives, in particular, haven’t gone to jail but rather have been lavishly rewarded, even though their banks have tumbled in value and shareholders have taken a bath? Too many to count. Of course,
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December 15, 2011 — John Hinderaker
A journalism professor at the University of Iowa–well, let’s be specific: it was Stephen G. Bloom, who describes himself as “Professor and Bessie Dutton Murray Professional Scholar at the University of Iowa”–wrote an anti-Iowa screed in the Atlantic. Bloom offered a snide vision of Iowa which sounds like it comes from the 1930s: In this land, deep within America, on Friday nights it’s not unusual to take a date to
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December 15, 2011 — John Hinderaker
That is today’s sensational news headline: Census shows 1 in 2 people are poor or low-income. Half of all Americans are living in near-poverty? The Associated Press paints a grim picture: Squeezed by rising living costs, a record number of Americans—nearly 1 in 2—have fallen into poverty or are scraping by on earnings that classify them as low income. … About 97.3 million Americans fall into a low-income category, commonly
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December 15, 2011 — Steven Hayward
While many environmentalists and their toadies in the media are trying to paint the latest UN climate meeting in Durban as a significant breakthrough, Nature magazine, which usually follows the talking points of climate orthodoxy slavishly, is having nothing of it. In this week’s editorial, ‘The Mask Slips,” Nature says “It takes a certain kind of optimism — or an outbreak of collective Stockholm syndrome — to see the Durban
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December 15, 2011 — Steven Hayward
If you’re looking for good Christmas book selections, our pals at the Claremont Review of Books have asked their all-stars for a list of suggestions. Mine are on page 3 of this link. (What? You don’t get the CRB delivered to your mailbox? Subscribe to the CRB here.) Meanwhile, here’s an advance look at the front and back cover of my next book, due out in February (click to enlarge):
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December 15, 2011 — John Hinderaker
We have been following the Obama administration’s effort to team up with left-wing activists to promote voter fraud and stymie the states’ efforts to protect ballot integrity. At Big Government, Warner Huston reports from Austin, Texas, where Eric Holder spoke at the LBJ Library, and where a pro-ballot reform group held a counter-demonstration: On Tuesday, December 13 a rally was held near the LBJ Library at the University of Texas,
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