Monthly Archives: February 2015
February 26, 2015 — Scott Johnson
Secretary of State John Kerry testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee yesterday. In response to a question posed by Rep. Gerald Connolly, Kerry cast doubt on the adverse judgment rendered by Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the deal in process with Iran. As described by the AP, the terms of the coming deal will put Iran on a glide path to the acquisition of nuclear weapons over a
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February 26, 2015 — Scott Johnson
Former CBS News investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson asks herself how the media would treat a given behavior if it were practiced by a Republican. If the media would go ballistic, Attkisson suggests, the same behavior ought to be deemed newsworthy when a Democrat practices it. As she explains in her memoir Stonewalled, she calls it The Substitution Game. There is more than one reason why Attkisson resigned her employment with
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February 25, 2015 — John Hinderaker
It has long been remarked that a certain Dogpatch air hangs over Bill and Hillary Clinton. They have, apparently, led separate lives for quite a few years, but one quality that they share is greed. Indeed, they seem unable to restrain that grasping instinct even when it undermines their presumably more important goals–as, for example, when Hillary extracts $300,000 from universities for 45 minutes of platitudes. Tomorrow’s Washington Post reports
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February 25, 2015 — John Hinderaker
Three men, two in Brooklyn and one in Florida, have been arrested as two of them were about to depart for Turkey to join ISIS. Their names are Abror Habibov, Abdurasul Juraboev and Akhror Saidakhmetov; Juraboev and Habibov are from Uzbekistan, while Saidakhmetov is from Kazakhstan. Saidakhmetov is a legal permanent U.S. resident. Habibov entered the U.S. legally, but overstayed his visa. As has usually been the case with domestic
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February 25, 2015 — Steven Hayward
Let’s start by axing a simple question: If I say “two plus two equals four,” does the truth of that proposition depend on whether I’ve received a grant from the Charles G. Koch Foundation? Apparently it does for Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), the ranking member of the House Committee on Natural Resources. He has sent letters to seven universities targeting seven academics who, according to the Democratic spokesman for the
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February 25, 2015 — Steven Hayward
Following up on my first installment a few days ago from Michael Oakeshott’s classic essay “On Being Conservative,” herewith my second-favorite passage from the essay, which I find can be effective in getting students to understand why Aristotle (among others) thinks the young are unsuited to the study—let alone practice—of politics: Everybody’s young days are a dream, a delightful insanity, a sweet solipsism. Nothing in them has a fixed shape,
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February 25, 2015 — Scott Johnson
In its annual Dubious Achievement Awards, Esquire magazine never failed to include a photo that captured Richard Nixon in an uncharacteristically humorous moment with the caption: “Why is this man laughing?” It was a joke of which Esquire never tired. Someone needs to bring the joke back in honor of the unspeakable Obama national security adviser Susan Rice, who yuks it up with Charlie Rose in the video below. Rice
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February 25, 2015 — Scott Johnson
Secretary of State John Kerry testified yesterday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and an appropriations subcommittee. The Washington Post covers his testimony here. The Post reports: Much of the questioning was about negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program. Kerry denied media reports here and in Israel that negotiators are considering a plan to limit Iran’s nuclear activities for 10 years, with sanctions gradually eased over that period. Kerry appears to
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February 25, 2015 — Scott Johnson
Ray Stevens has been creating novelty hits since I was a child; his recording career dates back to 1957. I haven’t heard about Stevens for a long time and didn’t know his creative juices are still flowing. I was therefore delighted to discover when we received a message from Stevens’s Nashville publicist yesterday that in his newly released video (below), Stevens “claims the world’s biggest superstar, Taylor Swift, is watching
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February 24, 2015 — Steven Hayward
We reported here over the weekend that Rajendra Pachauri, the railroad engineer and sometimes smut novelist who somehow headed the UN’s IPCC climate change circus, was in trouble for some kind of chakra-releasing problem. Today he resigned as head of the IPCC: The head of the UN climate change panel (IPCC), Rajendra Pachauri, has resigned amid sexual harassment allegations. In a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Mr Pachauri
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February 24, 2015 — John Hinderaker
A blockbuster peer-reviewed paper in the Science Bulletin, authored by Christopher Monckton, Matt Briggs, David Legates and Wei-Hock (“Willie”) Soon, is roiling the global warming Left. The paper identifies flaws in the computer models that predict major global warming–which shouldn’t be a surprise, since the models’ predictions have flopped. It concludes that due to mathematical errors, the models overstate the impact of CO2 on the climate by a factor of
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February 24, 2015 — John Hinderaker
I don’t think we have great debates in the Senate any more, but occasionally we have great speeches. A great speech requires a momentous occasion, and the effort to block President Obama’s unconstitutional usurpation of power, while defending American workers, is such an occasion. I am not sure what machinations are unfolding in Washington. Some reports suggest that Mitch McConnell and the Senate Republican leadership are in the process of
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February 24, 2015 — Steven Hayward
We already noted yesterday the tendentiousness of the “gender pay gap” theme that made an appearance at the Academy Awards Sunday night—an entertainment moment that seems to be reverberating like like Cady Stanton at Seneca Falls or something. (In his typically provocative way, Glenn Reynolds suggests Republicans pass a bill mandating equal salaries for men and women lead actors of equivalent billing in all Hollywood productions, and watch hilarity ensue.
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February 24, 2015 — John Hinderaker
The Department of Justice announced today that it will not pursue a federal civil rights charge against George Zimmerman, arising out of his fatal altercation with Trayvon Martin. That was pretty much a foregone conclusion, but the Associated Press took the opportunity to revisit the case: George Zimmerman, the former neighborhood watch volunteer who fatally shot Trayvon Martin in a 2012 confrontation with the teenager, will not face federal charges,
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February 24, 2015 — Steven Hayward
I related in National Review how I ran afoul of the gender police by mocking here on Power Line the ever-changing acronyms of sexual correctness—“what goes by the LGBTQRSTUW (or whatever letters have been added lately) ‘community.’” Well, at Wesleyan University it is now LGBTTQQFAGPBDSM. Here’s the full explanation of “open house” at 154 Church Street, which is apparently not a parody: 154 Church Street Open House is a safe space
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February 24, 2015 — John Hinderaker
Barack Obama’s scofflaw administration has revealed some ambiguities or omissions in our Constitution–loopholes, if you will–that should be closed via constitutional amendment, to eliminate the possibility that future administrations may also act lawlessly. I have in mind three amendments that should accomplish that purpose. First, President Obama has asserted the power to issue decrees or executive orders that have the force of law. This seems plainly at odds with the
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February 24, 2015 — Scott Johnson
An Arab practitioner of violent extremism attacked an Israeli Jew in Jerusalem on Sunday. The practitioner was wielding a knife; the attack took place at Tzahal Square in central Jerusalem. Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat and his security detail happened to be on the spot and swung into action. A bodyguard pulled his gun and the mayor tackled the terrorist. The Jerusalem Post reports the story here. As the Mall of
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