Monthly Archives: September 2012

This day in baseball history

Featured image On this day, September 22, 2012, Washington Nationals pitcher Gio Gonzalez won his 20th game of the season. You’re probably asking yourself when the last time was that Washington had a 20-game winner. The answer is 1953, when Bob Porterfield won 22 games. To put Gonzalez’s accomplishment into further perspective, Washington’s top winner last season (a decent year in which the Nats won 80 games) was John Lannan, with 10 »

Grill a Burger, Go to Jail–The Video Sequel

Featured image With my post earlier in the week about how environmental regulators have designs on grilled burgers, I thought perhaps the best way to end the week was with a totally transgressive meal of grilled red meat and decanted red wine (I mean, what would Michelle and the climate campaigners say?), accompanied by a background Beat beat (you’ll see).  So, here it is–from Power Line Films, a 2 minute preview of »

The Weekly Winston, Obama Campaign Edition

Featured image Oh what the heck.  I see Scott beat me to it this week.  But really–can you ever have too much Winston?  No, of course not.  Especially during campaign season.  From a 1950 WSC speech: I am sure that class hatred and class warfare, like national revenge, are the most costly luxuries in which anyone can indulge. And from a 1903 speech: You may, by the arbitrary and sterile act of »

The Weekly Winston: Man up edition

Featured image Now comes word that President Obama will have yet more to say about the Muhammad video, this time at the UN next week. What an embarrassment. This pathetic cowering has already become a tiresome ploy. It’s getting to be about time for Obama to do something more to show his solidarity with the Muslims rioting against the United States around the world. How about burning an American flag? Steve hasn’t »

Sessions Blasts Democrats’ Irresponsibility

Featured image Senator Jeff Sessions delivered the Republicans’ radio address this morning. He took the opportunity to excoriate President Obama for lying about his budget plan, and Senate Democrats for ignoring their legal duty to adopt a budget. He addressed his listeners as though Americans, preparing to vote in November, were a jury: Hello. I’m Jeff Sessions, United States Senator from Alabama. I’m also the Ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee. »

Lives saved or preserved

Featured image James Taranto rounds up the stories on the apology ad (video below) that the practitioners of smart diplomacy in the United States Department of State have arranged to run on seven Pakistani networks. Despite the best efforts of our practitioners of smart diplomacy, yesterday’s riots in Pakistan yielded a death toll of at least 20. Does that mean that the $70,000 reportedly spent by the United States government to broadcast »

Lessons for Latinos

Featured image Obama’s Univision interview this week was intensely interesting. It was revealing, even if it didn’t reveal anything we don’t already know about him. It put his obvious and deep dishonesty on display to an audience of presumed supporters to whom he was otherwise eagerly pandering. Nowhere was this truer than in his discussion of his failure to enact comprehensive immigration reform as promised in the course of the 2008 campaign. »

Live from Dartmouth

Featured image Jill Biden made news introducing her husband at Dartmouth yesterday afternoon, testifying that she has seen Joe up close, making a wide motion with her hands. The reaction of the students in attendance strongly suggests what was on their minds, though Vice President Biden’s remarks predictably focused on the size of handouts rather rather than hands out of size. Biden effectively embroidered his pitch with allusions to the Romney video. »

A Brief History of Muslim Outrage

Featured image The Religion of Perpetual Outrage has been with us for a long time, but somehow the Obama administration apparently didn’t notice. According to Barack and his enablers, turmoil across ten or more Muslim countries, the storming of American embassies and consulates, the burning of countless American flags and the murder of an American ambassador are all due to a stupid video on YouTube. Sure. Haul the video guy in for »

Scott Brown won last night’s debate, voters say

Featured image According to a poll by Kimball Political Consulting, Massachusetts voters believe that Scott Brown won his debate last night with Elizabeth Warren. 50 percent of likely voters who watched the debate said that Brown won, compared to 40 percent for Warren. Six percent thought the debate was a tie and 4 percent were undecided. The poll also found that 55 percent of likely voters watched the debate. Kimball, it should »

Photo of the Week

Featured image “Reid Vapor Pressure” (RVP) is a technical term integral to petroleum engineering that refers to the volatility of gasoline at various ambient temperatures.  The U.S. Senate’s “Reid Vapid Pressure” (S-RVP) refers to the intellectual volatility of the Senate majority leader from Nevada; it measures the ratio of his IQ to ambient room temperature.  I am reliably informed that the S-RVP ratio is always well below 1.0. In any case, the »

Mitt Romney’s Taxes and Barack Obama’s Record

Featured image Mitt Romney released his 2011 tax returns this afternoon, which should put an end to one of the many squirrels that Democrats have hysterically pointed to, in order to distract attention from Barack Obama’s dismal record. For 2011, Romney reported $13,696,951 in income, mostly on investments. He gave $4,020,772 to charity and paid $1,935,708 in federal and state income taxes. Romney actually paid more in federal income taxes than he »

Why would anyone doubt the prospects for peace in the Middle East?

Featured image Driving around this morning, I listened briefly to a Friday news roundup show on public radio (the two local sports radio stations were running ads). During these few minutes, the discussion turned to Mitt Romney’s statement expressing deep pessimism about the prospects for a peace agreement in the Middle East. A female panelist, or perhaps the host, said in that smug, dismissive tone we often hear from MSM types, that »

Reprehensible and disgusting

Featured image “Reprehensible and disgusting” was the judgment rendered by the Obama administration on the Muhammad YouTube video, but it is a judgment that more aptly applies to the Obama administration itself. The administration is a fount of falsehood and disinformation. Jennifer Rubin usefully rounds up the whoppers served up in connection with the murder of our ambassador to Libya and three fellow Americans in Bengazhi. That this is the gang that »

No retreat on taxes

Featured image The Washington Post (print edition) breathlessly announces: “Republicans say they’ll retreat on taxes if Obama wins.” Actually, the Post’s accompanying story doesn’t quite support the headline. Reporters Lori Montgomery and Paul Kane quote only one Republican legislator who is talking about retreat, per se. That Republican is Tom Cole (Okla.), a senior member of the budget committee. He told the Post: This [election] is a referendum on taxes. It the »

Campaign Ads in the Powerpoint Era

Featured image There’s a Forbes.com article out right now on Jeff Bezos and “the end of Powerpoint as we know it.” The next time you deliver a PowerPoint presentation that matters—a product launch, investor pitch, new client meeting— take a cue from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and ditch the bullet points. When Bezos unveiled the all-new new Kindle Fire HD this week, his presentation slides were light on text and heavy on »

Correlations?

Featured image News item #1: Oil prices stuck between $90 and $100 a barrel. News item #2: North Dakota oil production surpasses Alaska. News item #3: Shell Oil postpones—again—new Alaska drilling project. News item #4: Alaska Permanent Fund payout of oil revenues to citizens falls to lowest level in a decade. Think there might be some connections here?  What was that about “all of the above” energy, Mr. Obama? »