Monthly Archives: April 2014
April 27, 2014 — Scott Johnson
Obama administration foreign policy long ago passed the stage of self-parody. Yet it has written a new chapter in self-parody as State Department spokesman Jen Psaki engaged last week in “hashtag diplomacy” on Twitter to counter Russian aggression in Ukraine. ABC News picks up the story in “#That’sCold! Russians, US in hashtag battle.” Long story short: the Obama administration has opened up another front in which it is losing to
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April 27, 2014 — Scott Johnson
Walt Whitman famously observed to a friend in 1863 that “the real war will never get in the books.” Whitman knew what he was talking about, so the proposition can’t be discounted. But in the case of the Civil War, if the real war hasn’t gotten into the books, it’s not for lack of trying. Louis Masur even made a good book out of Whitman’s challenge. I have Whitman’s feeling
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April 26, 2014 — Paul Mirengoff
Two years ago, I wrote about academic fraud involving the department of African and Afro-American Studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. The fraud extended to more than 50 different classes. It ranged from no-show professors to unauthorized grade changes for students. Many of the students who took the bogus courses were members of the football or basketball team. Seeking to protect the image of its lucrative athletic
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April 26, 2014 — John Hinderaker
We went to the Twins game against the Detroit Tigers this afternoon. It was a fun game; starter Phil Hughes was excellent and the Twins won 5-3. We had terrific seats, front row in center field. There were five balls hit off the right field wall or to the warning track, and by leaning forward we had a great view of them. It was our first game of the season
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April 26, 2014 — Paul Mirengoff
The Obama administration’s plan to enable certain prisoners convicted of drug-related felonies to obtain clemency is, as I argued here, a usurpation of congressional power and is designed to help the Democrats in a trying election year. Andy McCarthy amplifies this objection. But what about the merits of the new clemency program which applies to prisoners who: (1) have no history of violence, (2) have no ties to criminal organizations
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April 26, 2014 — Steven Hayward
Not long ago the journal Issues in Science and Technology (a consortium publication of the National Academy of Sciences, Arizona State, and three other institutions) challenged me to write a piece about “Conservatism and Climate Science,” and the long piece is just now available online. But it’s really not about climate science, but rather climate policy, and the heart of the article is a lengthy consideration of the problem of
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April 26, 2014 — John Hinderaker
Mark Steyn believes (this is my characterization, not his) that he is engaged in an Armageddon of sorts; that free speech in America is under serious attack; and that the future of our mostly-free society hangs in the balance. Many consider such fears overblown. At the same time, there has always been some question about how committed most Americans really are to free speech. That skepticism got a boost from
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April 26, 2014 — Scott Johnson
Mahmoud Abbas is serving the tenth year of his four-year term as president of the Palestinian Authority. What he lacks in legitimacy he makes up in consistency. Back in January, Abbas spoke to a group of Arabs in Jerusalem and commented on the alleged Palestinian right of return. Repeating an assertion he had made before and has made since, Abbas said that he could not negotiate away the absolute right
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April 26, 2014 — Scott Johnson
Our old friend Ammo Grrrll has an important declaration to make. She declares that she loves (“LOVES”) her guns. Ammo Grrrll speaks: Bill Maher, famous One-Percenter donor of one million dollars to Obama’s 2012 campaign, wants us to know that despite looking like he would lose a pillowfight with Pajama Boy, he is one macho, strapped-up, packin’ dude who has at least one gun. But – unlike those crazy, wacko
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April 26, 2014 — Steven Hayward
President Obama is over in Asia on a trade mission. Great idea: can we trade him for a player to be named later? Heck–forget a trade. They can keep him for free. In fact, can we pay the Indonesians or Malaysians to keep him? Doesn’t Obama really need to stick around until they find Flight 370, which I now believe contains Obama’s real birth certificate in its cargo hold? Anyway,
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April 25, 2014 — John Hinderaker
Here are two completely different videos for Friday night (or Saturday morning) viewing. The only thing they have in common is that they are short. This one is from the National Rifle Association. It debuted this afternoon at the NRA’s convention in Indianapolis, and responds to Michael Bloomberg’s announcement that he will spend $50 million to try to limit our Second Amendment rights. The people you see are contributors to
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April 25, 2014 — Paul Mirengoff
At yesterday’s AEI conference on al Qaeda, terrorism expert Bruce Hoffman of Georgetown University said that there has been a spate of arrests of terrorists who possess nerve gas. The arrests have occurred mainly in Turkey and Israel. Hoffman infers from the arrests that al Qaeda may be planning a chemical attack on the West. Such an attack would most likely occur in Europe, but the United States could be
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April 25, 2014 — Steven Hayward
Conservatives used to like to joke that spotted owls taste great slow roasted over a campfire, but who knew that environmentalists would eventually have to own this joke? Los Angeles PBS station KCET reports: A report just made public by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service documents a disturbing amount of bird injuries at three large California desert solar power plants, and says that there are no easy fixes to
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April 25, 2014 — John Hinderaker
At CNN and on Twitter (via Twitchy), Jake Tapper notes that President Obama has once again failed to follow through on his promise to acknowledge the Armenian genocide: For the sixth year in a row, President Barack Obama has broken his promise to the Armenian community, made when seeking their votes as a senator and a presidential candidate, to use the word “genocide” to describe the massacre of an estimated
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April 25, 2014 — Paul Mirengoff
Rank-ordering the lies of President Obama is a daunting task. But high on any sound list, though absent from most actual ones, is Obama’s claim that al Qaeda has been “decimated” and is “on the path to defeat.” This claim was ripped to shreds yesterday at an AEI conference called “Getting it right: A better strategy to defeat al Qaeda.” You can watch that event here and I encourage you
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April 25, 2014 — John Hinderaker
Wednesday morning on the Bill Bennett show, Bill and I talked about Tom Steyer, the Democrats’ top money man, and my post The Epic Hypocrisy of Tom Steyer. They have sent me the audio file of the interview, so you can play it right here. It is around 16 minutes long, and includes some calls: Bill has a great show; among its many virtues is the fact that, as you
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April 25, 2014 — Paul Mirengoff
The Obama administration has unveiled a plan to enable certain felons who have been imprisoned for at least ten years to obtain clemency. As I understand the plan, which would apply only to federal prisoners, a prisoner will be eligible for clemency if he or she (1) has no history of violence, (2) has no ties to criminal organizations or gangs, (3) has a clean prison record, (4) has already
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