Monthly Archives: April 2012
April 18, 2012 — Steven Hayward
As we know courtesy of The Warmlist, climate change is implicated as the cause or contributing factor to everything from Afghan poppie crop failure to zoonotic diseases, but did you know it can also be implicated in outbreaks of witchcraft in the Middle Ages? That’s the argument of two recent academic papers, which attempt to connect the nearly 1 million women put to death for witchcraft in the Middle Ages
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April 18, 2012 — Scott Johnson
Ishmael Jones is the pseudonymous former Central Intelligence Agency case officer who focused on human sources with access to intelligence on terrorism and weapons of mass destruction. His assignments included more than 15 years of continuous overseas service under deep cover. Mr. Jones is also the author of The Human Factor: Inside the CIA’s Dysfunctional Intelligence Culture, published by Encounter Books. When it was issued in paperback he contributed the
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April 17, 2012 — John Hinderaker
Michelle Obama made a campaign appearance in Nashville today. She said: This President has brought us out of the dark and into the light. One wonders: do Mrs. Obama and her speechwriters really not understand how discordant this sounds to most Americans? The messianic bit was over the top in 2008, but now? Now, with unemployment up, employment down, the economy stagnant, the debt exploding, the “green jobs” program a
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April 17, 2012 — John Hinderaker
The Democratic Senate has not adopted a budget in three years. This is not only flagrantly irresponsible, it is a violation of federal law. Outgoing Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, who is retiring at the end of the year, apparently felt pangs of conscience, because he decided it was finally time for his committee to mark up a budget. He announced that the committee would do so, starting tomorrow. A
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April 17, 2012 — John Hinderaker
The Buffett Rule went down to defeat in the Senate yesterday, 51-45 (60 votes were needed for passage). No surprise there; the vote was understood by everyone to be nothing but political theater. Of course, there is nothing wrong with bringing proposals up for a vote even though you know they won’t pass. On the contrary, this can be a valuable means of identifying differences between the parties and the
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April 17, 2012 — Scott Johnson
Daniel Johnson reviewed David Clay Large’s Munich 1972 in the weekend Review section of the Wall Street Journal this past Saturday. The review is titled “Terror at the games.” Johnson hails the book, just published yesterday, as representing “an almost ideal matching of historian and subject.” The subject of the book is the murder of the Israeli Olympic athletes by the Arab terrorist group Black September. Johnson refers throughout his
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April 17, 2012 — John Hinderaker
Yesterday Barack Obama addressed the Summit of the Americas in Colombia and spoke about the conflict between the United Kingdom and Argentina over the Falklands. Obama seemed to tilt toward Argentina by calling the islands the “Malvinas” rather than the Falklands, which Argentina insists is their proper name. Only Obama didn’t say Malvinas, he said Maldives–an entirely different group of islands located thousands of miles from the Falklands in the
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April 17, 2012 — Scott Johnson
Idan Raichel is the Israeli pop star who made waves with his 2006 recording The Idan Raichel Project. He has followed up with subsequent recordings that Amazon has collected here. Commenting in the New York Times on Idan’s original recording, Jon Pareles perfectly captured my reaction: The Idan Raichel Project was a huge hit in Israel for good reason: it envisions a modern, multicultural nation where voices of young and
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April 17, 2012 — Steven Hayward
A couple weeks back I jumped the gun in lumping in A123 Systems, a car battery maker that received $279 million in Obama loan guarantees, on a list of bankrupt green energy companies. I promptly corrected the post when the company flagged the mistake. Yesterday my pal Robert Bryce, writing over at National Review Online, says it’s only a matter of time until A123 become the next Solyndra: Here’s my
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April 16, 2012 — John Hinderaker
The Wisconsin recall race is nearing a climax, as Democrats will hold a primary on May 8 to select a challenger for Governor Walker, and the general election will take place on June 5. The recall election is expected to be close, with pretty nearly everyone in Wisconsin already having made up his or her mind on the race. On the other hand, one of the Democrats’ problems is that
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April 16, 2012 — Steven Hayward
Another bad week for the climateers. Of course, you could write this headline every week for the last five years, but we want to keep Power Line readers up to date on the highlights of recent developments. First up, keep in mind that this June, the world’s leaders will re-assemble in Rio for the 20th anniversary of the UN’s first Earth Summit, to reappraise what progress we’ve made since the
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April 16, 2012 — Steven Hayward
Back in October I noted here the passing of William Niskanen, the distinguished economist and long time chairman of the Cato Institute. (It was his passing that touched off the current fight between the Kochs and Cato’s president, Ed Crane.) Now, Cato is out with the following 12 minute video tribute to Bill. (Hat tip to Cato’s Caleb Brown.) I turn up very briefly at about the 9 minute mark,
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April 16, 2012 — Steven Hayward
I have often posed the following thought experiment to students and adult “civilians” to see not only the kind of answers it might elicit but whether there was any discernible generational difference. The thought experiment is this: how would the Watergate scandal have been affected if the Internet, social media, and the 24-hour cable news world existed in 1972-74? Would it have cycled faster? Or would the speed of Internet
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April 16, 2012 — Scott Johnson
Kyle Smith is the developer of the Debt Bomb application for mobile devices. The Daily Caller published a brief item on the app last week. We have gone straight to the developer for the story. Kyle Smith writes: In the late winter and early spring of 2011, there was a lot of media coverage regarding the national deficits and debt. Americans understand that these amount to staggeringly large numbers, yet
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April 15, 2012 — Steven Hayward
Since everyone is focused yesterday and today on the centennial of the Titanic disaster, I might as well offer up Churchill’s reflections on the matter, put in a letter to his wife three days later. (WSC was First Lord of the Admiralty at the time.) The Titanic disaster is the prevailing theme here. The story is a good one. The strict observance of the great traditions of the sea towards
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April 15, 2012 — John Hinderaker
It isn’t surprising that a Muslim extremist has offered a $10 million bounty on the heads of George Bush and Barack Obama, but it is a little shocking that the extremist in question is a member of the House of Lords: Following are excerpts from a report on the announcement that appeared in the Pakistani daily The Express Tribune: In an expression of solidarity with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) Chief Hafiz Muhammad
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April 15, 2012 — John Hinderaker
For three years, in stark violation of federal law, the Democratic Senate has refused to write and adopt a budget. Over time, pressure on the Democrats has grown, but Harry Reid still says that he will not permit any budget–even a Democratic one–to come to the floor of the Senate. But Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad seems to be feeling pangs of conscience, perhaps because he is retiring at the
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