Monthly Archives: November 2015
November 30, 2015 — Paul Mirengoff
The trial of the first of the first of six Baltimore officers charged in the arrest and death of Freddie Gray began today in Baltimore with jury selection. Officer William G. Porter, 26, faces charges of manslaughter, second-degree assault, misconduct in office, and reckless endangerment because he allegedly did not get medical help for Gray when he complained of injuries after his arrest. None of the 75 potential jurors in
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November 30, 2015 — John Hinderaker
In the nation’s capital it is commonly believed that the Clintons and the Obamas can’t stand one another. I pretend to no insider status with regard to such D.C. conflicts, certainly not on the Democratic side. But the latest batch of Hillary Clinton’s State Department emails, released today, offers some support for that belief. The State Department released several thousand emails today. Out of curiosity, I searched for “Sid” and
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November 30, 2015 — Scott Johnson
Bill Bennett has invited me to appear for a segment on his Morning in America radio program tomorrow morning to discuss my Weekly Standard article “The threat from ‘Minnesota men.'” I’m scheduled to appear at the top of the hour around 8:05 a.m. (Eastern). You can find a local station carrying Bill’s show here. I think you can also listen to the show via live stream accessible here. I’m grateful
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November 30, 2015 — Steven Hayward
I’ve employed here the term “climatista” to refer to the thermageddonites because of their Stalinist-like zeal and fanaticism about the issue, which has done more to discredit serious consideration of both climate risk and climate policy than anything the so-called “skeptics” or “deniers” could ever hope to do. But once and a while a real climatista—that is, a direct heir to the Sandinista sympathizers of the 1980s—shows up for duty.
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November 30, 2015 — Steven Hayward
We take the brief time out from the climate apocalypse in Paris—also known as “thermageddeon”—to make note of the official cancellation of the “Bee-pocalypse.” From the Washington Post: Call off the bee-pocalypse: U.S. honeybee colonies hit a 20-year high You’ve heard the news about honeybees. “Beepocalypse,” they’ve called it. Beemageddon. America’s honeybees are dying, putting honey production and $15 billion worth of pollinated food crops in jeopardy. The situation has
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November 30, 2015 — John Hinderaker
I was a pro football fan as a boy back in the 1960s, when our local TV station in South Dakota featured Chicago Bears and, later, Green Bay Packers games. After that, for a long time I rarely watched a pro football game. This year, not being as busy as in the past, I have seen more NFL games than in any recent season. Yesterday I was home nursing a
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November 30, 2015 — Paul Mirengoff
Yesterday, John and I wrote about suggestions that harsh criticism of Planned Parenthood is to blame for the attack on a PP facility in Colorado. Pointing to the attack on the Family Research Council two years ago, I noted the selective nature of this type of argument. Jim Geraghty has compiled a thorough history (complete with links, a few of which I have omitted) of the double standard at work
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November 30, 2015 — Steven Hayward
Today is the 141st birthday of Sir Winston Churchill, and as such we ought to recur once again to Leo Strauss’s eulogy, delivered in class in 1965: The death of Churchill is a healthy reminder to students of political science of their limitations, the limitations of their craft. The tyrant stood at the pinnacle of his power. The contrast between the indomitable and magnanimous statesman and the insane tyrant–this spectacle
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November 30, 2015 — Paul Mirengoff
Fox News reports, via the Associated Press, that as secretary of state, Hillary Clinton “opened her office to dozens of influential Democratic party fundraisers, former Clinton administration and campaign loyalists, and corporate donors to her family’s global charity.” The report is based on a review of State Department scheduling calendars. According to the AP: The woman who would become a 2016 presidential candidate met or spoke by phone with nearly
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November 30, 2015 — Scott Johnson
The December 7 issue of the Weekly Standard carries my article “The threat from ‘Minnesota men.'” It’s now posted on the Standard’s revamped site. I noted it on Thanksgiving in the post “Desperately seeking ISIS.” Please check out the article if you have any interest in the issues raised by the flow of refugees who raise special issues for law enforcement. Given the local issues raised by Minnesota’s swelling Somali
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November 29, 2015 — Steven Hayward
I’m not sure what’s going to be more fun over the next 10 days—watching John “Long Face” Kerry prattle on, or reading the predictable stories in the media about how the conference is “deadlocked,” “going into overtime,” and announcing, at the 11th hour, a “breakthrough!” that will save the planet—at least until we can all meet again next year to repeat the farce. But above all I think we’ll need
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November 29, 2015 — Paul Mirengoff
The Manchester Union leader has endorsed Chris Christie for President. I’ve long thought that New Hampshire Republican primary voters might warm to Christie. He has a bit of John McCain’s pugnaciousness, but also a some of Mitt Romney’s good government pragmatism. McCain and Romney collectively won the last three contested New Hampshire primaries. Moreover, Christie is campaigning hard in the Granite State. And in doing so, he tends to follow
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November 29, 2015 — John Hinderaker
Petrophysicist Andy May has prepared a poster-sized chart that shows the current state of knowledge about the Earth’s climate over the last 18,000 years, along with a history of human civilization during that time. You could spend a long time studying the chart, which tells you most of what you need to know to understand why climate alarmism, as currently manifested in the Paris conclave, is–scientifically speaking–a joke. You also
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November 29, 2015 — Paul Mirengoff
Thanksgiving is a time to be thankful for many our blessings among the foremost of which should be our family. But according to Chuck Ross, disgust trumped thankfulness at many family Thanksgiving dinner tables this year, as folks were dismayed to discover that family members intend to vote for Donald Trump. The discovery shouldn’t have been surprising. After all, Trump is supported by around 30 percent of registered Republicans, according
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November 29, 2015 — John Hinderaker
Whenever there is a high-profile shooting incident, liberals scan the news eagerly, hoping that political hay can be made out of it. With the Planned Parenthood murders perpetrated by Robert Dear, they apparently think they have hit the jackpot. Perhaps, in political terms, they are right, but I doubt it. Unnamed law enforcement sources are being quoted to the effect that after his arrest, Dear said something like “no more
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November 29, 2015 — Steven Hayward
We’ll be doing wall-to-wall coverage of the off-the-wall climate talks in Paris this week, but I can hardly do better in setting this up than to recall some of the testimony I presented to the House Foreign Affairs Committee back in 2011. Here are a couple of excerpts: I will begin with my contentious conclusion, which is that the international diplomacy of climate change is the most implausible and unpromising
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November 29, 2015 — Scott Johnson
Minnesota Fifth District Rep. is an old-time race hustler straight out of the Nation of Islam. He was a self-identified member of the Nation of Islam as recently as his first run for office in 1998. I wrote about his extensive and thoroughly discreditable race hustling background in the Weekly Standard article “Louis Farrakhan’s first congressman.” I posted copies of some key sources in “Keith Ellison for dummies.” Ellison shuns
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