Monthly Archives: November 2014
November 30, 2014 — Paul Mirengoff
Hosni Mubarak, his sons, and other close aides have been acquitted of the criminal charges against them. The charges pertained to actions taken by the Mubarak regime to maintain power during the 2011 revolution. The acquittal says nothing about the merits of the charges, just as a guilty verdict under the Muslim Brotherhood’s regime would have told us nothing. The verdict should, I think, be viewed as a political decision.
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November 30, 2014 — John Hinderaker
At Watts Up With That?, Bob Tisdale explains how the oceans temper any global warming that might otherwise be occurring. It is hard to comprehend the vast capacity of the oceans, which average 4,000 meters deep, to absorb heat: It is often said that more than 90% of the heat caused by manmade greenhouse gases is absorbed by the oceans. But as skeptics often note, the absorbed heat has little
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November 30, 2014 — John Hinderaker
I previewed the 2014 Miss World competition, the finale of which will take place on December 14, here, and posted a few photos. Preliminary competitions are already under way; you can read about them, if so inclined, at the Miss World site. The contestants are here, but the photography is so bad–a recurrent problem with the Miss World pageant–that they are hard to evaluate. Nevertheless, betting odds are starting to
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November 30, 2014 — Paul Mirengoff
The Washington Post, in an editorial called “Benghazi debunked,” claims that the House Intelligence Committee has “dump[ed] cold water on the GOP’s conspiracy theories” regarding Benghazi. The Post cites three alleged “GOP conspiracy theories:” (1) that the White House tried to obscure the fact that al Qaeda-linked terrorists were behind the attacks, (2) that stand-down orders were issued to those who were in a position to aid the compound, and
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November 30, 2014 — Steven Hayward
It’s Winston Churchill’s 140th birthday today. Needless to say, I doubt there will be an observance in the White House. I wonder what Sir Winston would have made of Obama? Not much. I was casting about for a passage from the great man that might apply to Obama, and came up with this fragment from an obscure essay dismissing H.G. Wells for his various unfounded resentments against Britain. It’s not
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November 30, 2014 — Steven Hayward
After the fetish for renewable energy that’s expensive and intermittent, the greatest fixation of the utopian left is mass transit, especially light rail—a 19th century technology for 21st century mobility needs. (Who says the left isn’t reactionary?) It has long been an embarrassment that the cars for our various light rail systems that taxpayers have been massively subsidizing come mostly from overseas manufacturers. That’s why one of the items buried
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November 30, 2014 — Scott Johnson
Our friend Senator-elect Tom Cotton appeared on Meet the Press with Chuck Todd for a brief interview this morning. He proved to be unflappable and untouchable, though Todd came loaded for bear with an audio clip setting up a question, I will say, intended to embarrass him. Whether or not Chuck Todd is sad, I’m guessing that Senator-elect Cotton’s deft response left Todd glum. He immediately moved on. Video via
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November 30, 2014 — Scott Johnson
President Obama went shopping yesterday for books with this daughters at the Politics & Prose Bookstore near the White House. The New York Post reports that Obama took a look at Chuck Todd’s new book about Obama, Stranger in the White House. According to the Post, Obama jokingly called Todd “sad.” Was this a rare instance in which Obama publicly lurched into the truth? NBC reports that Obama was referring
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November 30, 2014 — Steven Hayward
Time to update our Civil War on the Left series, which is set to run longer than Cats. Paul has already dilated Sen. Charles “Chuck” Schumer’s tergiversations from the White House party line about Obamacare, but this is likely just the beginning of the bloodletting on the left as 2016 approaches and it becomes apparent to desperate Democrats that Hillary Clinton is a really terrible presidential candidate. The problem is
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November 29, 2014 — Paul Mirengoff
The indefinite suspension of Ray Rice, the NFL running back who brutally assaulted his then-fiance, now wife, has been lifted on appeal as the result of an arbitrator’s decision. Rice has been reinstated by the League and is free to sign with any team. The appeal was decided by Barbara Jones, a former U.S. District Court Judge, who served as the arbitrator. As reported by ESPN, Jones ruled that the
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November 29, 2014 — John Hinderaker
The United Kingdom is going through a battle over immigration that sheds light on what is happening here in the U.S. Under the European Union’s guarantee of freedom of movement, the U.K. has been unable to restrict the flow of immigrant from other EU member states, many of whom are drawn by Britain’s relatively lavish welfare programs. Currently, around 400,000 EU immigrants are receiving welfare benefits in the U.K. In
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November 29, 2014 — John Hinderaker
I had thought that my next firearm would be a revolver, but I shot my brother’s AR-15 on a visit to South Dakota, and enjoyed it. So I wound up buying one from Bison Armory. They custom built it to my specifications, in .223 caliber. They were great to deal with and the rifle is quite beautiful, I think: So far I have had time to get to a rifle
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November 29, 2014 — Scott Johnson
I take it that the mullahs who run the show in Iran have been pursuing nuclear warheads to hitch to ballistic missiles for about as long as the regime as been in business. They have sacrificed much in pursuit of their goals and they are within shouting distance of success, mostly minus whatever sacrifice imposed by the sanctions crafted by Congress against the will of the Obama administration. Watching the
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November 29, 2014 — Steven Hayward
This week we learned that Hagel is not Hegel: he does not represent the end of Obama’s historical mission to return the U.S. to its isolation of the 1920s and 1930s. (But nice of Obama to give Iran seven more months to build a Bomb. It must be frustrating to Obama that it is taking so long.) And people are starting to catch on to Obama’s imperial presidency. Oh yeah,
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November 28, 2014 — Steven Hayward
Back in May I posted an account of the time a flyer brought a pig on an American Airlines flight on the pretext that the pig was a “service animal” like a seeing eye dog. It didn’t end well. That was back in the year 2000. It has happened again just a few days ago, this time on US Airways (which is currently in the process of merging with American).
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November 28, 2014 — John Hinderaker
In Seattle, a crowd gathered to watch the lighting of a Christmas tree. A group of children ages seven to 10 were on stage, preparing to sing. But a group of “Ferguson” protesters showed up and commandeered the stage, leaving most of the children in tears. The story was told on Twitter: Kids, 7-10, here to perform carols ended up surrounded by #ferguson protesters on stage. All in tears. —
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November 28, 2014 — Paul Mirengoff
Daniel Pipes argues that the debate over sanctions against Iran, and thus over the P5+1 negotiations, is “peripheral and even diversionary.” He reasons that “the apocalyptically minded Iranian leadership will do everything it can to acquire the Bomb,” and therefore “economic sanctions only serve to slow its course, not to stop” the Iranian nuclear weapons program. For Pipes, all that really matters is whether some government will use force to
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