July 21, 2018 — Steven Hayward
It finally came back to me. Monty Python had a sketch way back when that involved a made-up entity that is a perfect headline for this week—the “Institute of Going in Bit Red in Helsinki,” in which Dr. Carl Gruber (related to Hans?) who tests embarrassing words and phrases on people like “Wankel rotary engine.” (You can take in the sketch here.) If the sketch was updated, you’d have to
»
July 20, 2018 — Steven Hayward
The ranks of Green Weenie Award contenders this week is longer than usual, but it looks like some of the greenies of Colorado will come out on top. Turns out that Starbucks, which can’t seem to do anything right these days, has put out a series of coffee mugs that have images depicting aspects of each of the 50 states. But woe unto their Colorado mug: it includes the images
»
July 19, 2018 — Steven Hayward
We reported here last month that a California lawsuit brought against major oil companies for their role in climate change was dismissed by a federal judge, and a different federal judge has today dismissed a similar suit brought by the city of New York. The judge, John Keenan, a Reagan appointee, ruled on similar grounds, namely, that climate change is not an issue suitable for remedy through litigation: The court
»
July 19, 2018 — Steven Hayward
One sentence of Paul’s post from this morning stands out for further reflection: “an experienced intelligence hand articulated it to me: If we know the Russians hacked the Democrats, it’s probably because the Russians want us to know.” This would not be the first time that a seeming anomaly ought to stop us in our tracks, but unfortunately most of the media and analysts have a child’s grasp of the
»
July 18, 2018 — Steven Hayward
Let’s see if I have this straight: Trump is now retracting his previous retraction of the first retraction about how he flubbed the use of the double-negative about Russian election meddling. Got that? At least that’s what I take from this Washington Examiner story just out: President Trump was “very strong” with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the prospect of future Kremlin-linked interference in U.S. elections, he stated in a
»
July 18, 2018 — Steven Hayward
You may have heard that an initiative to split California into three states had qualified for the November ballot. It is the brainchild of Tim Draper, one of the founders of Netflix, and a couple other successful tech startups before that. Whether the idea could actually happen would require action from Congress, and I doubt there is much appetite to expand the number of U.S. Senators by four, regardless of
»
July 18, 2018 — Steven Hayward
Okay, so now we have Trump’s word for it that he got tripped up by an insufficient grasp of the use of double-negatives, but at least he didn’t say, “I did not have inappropriate syntax with that man, Mr. Putin.” It also puts me in the frame of mind of an old story I think attributed to the largely forgotten philosopher Morris Cohen, who in a lecture one day remarked
»
July 17, 2018 — Steven Hayward
I’ve been wanting for several weeks now to post up an article on the current mania of the Green WeeniesTM to ban plastic straws, but I’ve been swamped with work, so let it slide. Fortunately, John Stossel and the good folks at ReasonTV are on the job, and offer this short video which exposes the whole nonsense of this in a compact four minutes—definitely worth your time: So I guess we all
»
July 16, 2018 — Steven Hayward
The New York Times has an online animated feature called “Trump Bites”—gee, there’s a lot of subtlety there—and today’s offering is “Trump and Putin: A Love Story.” I don’t think it is either talented or especially amusing. Here are a couple of still frames from it to give you the flavor of the thing: There’s just one problem with this cartoon. Wait for it! Can you guess? Why yes: It
»
July 16, 2018 — Steven Hayward
For all readers in the environs of the greater Pittsburgh/northwestern Pennsylvania area, next month, on Saturday, August 11, I’ll be giving the wrap-up keynote address for the two-day summer conference of the National Association of Scholars, which is being held at Grove City College. The conference is open to the public, though there is a modest registration fee and the deadline to sign up is Friday of this week. It’s
»
July 16, 2018 — Steven Hayward
I have been wanting for at least a couple of months to start a thread/series involving the whole Power Line team on “Ten [or 15, or 20] Ways to Think About Trump,” as this maddening, erratic, seemingly undisciplined, cantankerous, disruptive, sometimes brilliant, often embarrassing, and always unpredictable man rampages on the world stage, much of the time to good effect—at least so far. Too soon to tell, for example, whether
»
July 16, 2018 — Steven Hayward
Did you know that this month marks the 150th anniversary of the enactment of the 14th Amendment? (Actually the date of final passage out of Congress was July 9, 1868.) I am surprised that with the confirmation hearings of Judge Kavanaugh hard upon us, there hasn’t been more notice of this anniversary in the mainstream media by all of the usual suspects, if for no other reason than as a
»
July 15, 2018 — Steven Hayward
We noted here the other day that California Senator Dianne Feinstein could be facing a tough race in November from a candidate to her left, State. Sen. Kevin de Leon, and this will make her ratchet up her antics in the forthcoming confirmation hearings for Brett Kavanaugh. (Feinstein is the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, so the pressure is on.) Last night the California Democratic Party endorsed de
»
July 14, 2018 — Steven Hayward
Have you heard? Democratic socialism is the bright new future. New and improved! Not like that old kind of socialism that produced gulags, corrupt governments, and mediocre economies. It’s kindler, gentler socialism, all warm and fuzzy and friendly. And . . . oh, wait: Chaser:
»
July 14, 2018 — Steven Hayward
Want a good measure at how total is Trump’s humiliation of the Democrats? Consider this: he’s got them borking mad by nominating a guy named “Brett” to the Supreme Court, and the party that brought us Pajama Boy and the Life of Julia is making fun of his first name, calling him a “frat boy” and comparing his name to a waiter in an LA bistro. Also arching their eyebrows
»
July 13, 2018 — Steven Hayward
Yascha Mounk of Harvard University, who numbers among the liberal thinkers overwrought about populism and Donald Trump (Mounk is the author of The People Vs. Democracy: Why Our Freedom Is in Danger and How to Save It), has posted on Twitter a list of “Ten Commandments of Liberal Inquiry” by Bertrand Russell from way back in 1951. Back in those days, intelligent liberalism meant Reinhold Niebuhr, Lionel Trilling, Isaiah Berlin,
»
July 13, 2018 — Steven Hayward
I recall seeing Larry Kudlow, whom I know a bit, on the Sunday morning network news shows a few weeks back and thinking that he looked terrible, like he’d aged 10 years in just the month he’d been working for Trump. A few hours later he was hospitalized for a heart attack. It was a minor heart attack (if there is such a thing), and he was out of the
»
