January 17, 2019 — Steven Hayward
This episode offers another of my lectures for the William F. Buckley Program at Yale, this time on the subject of equality. Borrowing from the taxonomy of the legendary political scientist Aaron Wildavsky, I explain why 600 percent of the American people are victims of oppression! I also review some of the disagreements among prominent conservative thinkers about the principle of equality, since it is so badly abused by modern
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January 17, 2019 — Steven Hayward
• I assumed that the following letter from President Trump to Speaker Pelosi was a fake, like yesterday’s fake edition of the Washington Post, but no—it’s real, and it’s spectacular! The White House has clarified that all congressional junkets will be postponed, not just Pelosi’s trip, which was supposed to depart this afternoon according to press reports. • Speaking of Democrats, save up for this, which sounds like the best
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January 16, 2019 — Steven Hayward
The fun news out of Washington this morning is that some merry prankster was passing out phony copies of the Bezos Bulletin (better known as the Washington Post): Fake editions of The Washington Post claiming that President Trump was leaving office were handed out Wednesday morning at multiple locations in Washington. . . Copies of the bogus papers were handed out at locations around Washington, including outside the White House and
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January 16, 2019 — Steven Hayward
You’ve heard of Occam’s Razor—that the simplest explanation is usually the correct one. Well now behold Gillette’s Razor—the simplest explanation for it being that Gillette’s ad agency has been taken over by the Oberlin College gender studies department. (Hat tip: Christina Hoff Sommers.) I guess Gillette thinks that, among other things, men shouldn’t “objectify” women. Like this for example: It’s almost as though Gillette was sitting around asking, “How can
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January 14, 2019 — Steven Hayward
President Trump today hosted the Clemson Tigers NCAA football championship team, and served them fast food in the Oval Office: Trump really is a genius, because faster than you can say C. Everett Koop, a leftist was triggered. In this case it is David Roberts of Grist and Vox, who writes some really excellent energy articles on Vox, but suffers from an advanced case of Trump Derangement Syndrome: Um. .
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January 14, 2019 — Steven Hayward
Okay, I’m managing to stifle my non-stop laughter at the “Green New Deal,” sobered partly by the realization that our coveted Green Weenie Award is not big enough to cover the serial madness that will be the Green New Deal once the specifics of it start to take shape in actual legislative proposals. Right now it is at the vague generalization stage. Except that environmentalists are making clear what they
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January 14, 2019 — Steven Hayward
Oh goody. A researcher over in England named David Klemperer has come up with a “Class Struggle Index” to rank the Democratic presidential field now taking shape. Not surprisingly, Bernie does best, but Beto better find a more working class encounter than dental hygiene to Instagram next time, as he’s clearly trailing the progressive pack. Good to see we’re back to open “class struggle” in American politics. A sure loser
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January 13, 2019 — Steven Hayward
• Yeah, yeah, I know—I haven’t posted anything yet on AOC’s beloved “Green New Deal,” but that’s because I can’t stop laughing. I’m sure a “Green” New Deal will be just as effective as the original New Deal, which prolonged rather than ended the Great Depression, though it did succeed in vastly expanding the permanent power and reach of government, which was its real goal of course. • As a
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January 12, 2019 — Steven Hayward
As the government shutdown enters its fourth week, we’re still not done dunking on Chuck and Nancy, who really are the gift that keeps on giving. But if you think Democrats are upset now, just wait to see what happens if Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg decides to retire from the Supreme Court. I’ve already got my full Road Warrior regalia unpacked and at the dry cleaners getting ready for it.
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January 11, 2019 — Steven Hayward
What do you do with a bunch of stray thoughts that don’t quite add up to Loose Ends? A new periodical category: Week-End Thoughts. • If you want an indication of how far down the road to superficial celebrity politics the Democrats have gone, consider the small pantheon of Democratic legends known by their three initials: FDR, JFK, LBJ, and now . . . AOC. Seriously, Democrats? And all of
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January 11, 2019 — Steven Hayward
Democrats and the media—but I repeat—are moving into full panic-mongering mode about the continuing government shutdown. NBC News reports this morning that we could be facing “economic doomsday” if the shutdown continues for several more weeks. I immediately went into the body of the story to see who or what evidence was cited in support of this apocalypse, and found to no surprise the solitary testimony of Mark Zandi, a
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January 11, 2019 — Steven Hayward
Robert P. George of Princeton offers this prediction: You will be able to watch something as if in slow motion over the course of the next few years: the collapse of support for Israel by Democratic Party politicians who harbor ambition for national office. It will follow the pattern we saw of collapse of support for the pro-life cause by leading Democrats in the period of 1973-80 (and particularly 1973-76).
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January 10, 2019 — Steven Hayward
I’ve been meaning to post an omnibus review of all the latest indicators of California’s steady road to becoming Venezuela, which is going into high gear now that we—finally!—have a governor named Gavin (long overdue), but news items have piled up faster than human excrement on a San Francisco street (about which, see below). So just a couple of new highlights. First, how long until there’s a Road Kill Cafe
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January 9, 2019 — Steven Hayward
According to Democrats and the news media (but I repeat myself), President Trump threw a tantrum and stormed out of a meeting with congressional leaders today. Here’s how The Hill reports it: Republicans said tense negotiations over resolving the government shutdown at the White House ended when President Trump stormed out of the meeting with a stern warning to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA.): “Don’t call my bluff.” “It ended with
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January 9, 2019 — Steven Hayward
One thing where you’d think Democrats would get consistently good advice and help from Hollywood and their media pals is about doing TV. Think of Don Hewitt touching up JFK’s makeup for the Nixon-Kennedy debates in 1960, or how the Bloodworth-Thomases helped stage Bill Clinton. I imagine the Hollywood/media glitterati were cringing last night at the Schumer-Pelosi response to Trump. Jeff Greenfield said they looked like they had been embalmed.
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January 9, 2019 — Steven Hayward
This episode is the second installment of my conversation with Chris DeMuth, taking up Chris’s “origin story” with his work on regulatory reform starting in the Reagan Administration, and reviewing the story of neoconservatism through its transformations in the 1990s and 2000s. Our conversation ends with Chris’s observations on the current hot button phenomena of populism, nationalism, and the revolt against the out-of-touch transnational elites. (If you missed the first installment,
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January 6, 2019 — Steven Hayward
I have an unofficial “No TED-Talks” policy for Power Line, because of the overproduced style of the things, and the vacuousness of 90 percent of the content. This “thought leader” spoof gets the problem just right. Also this one. And this one, too. And . . . yeah, they’re almost endless. But I do make occasional exceptions. Such as anything by the late Hans Rosling. Especially his talk on “the
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