News you can use

Return to Boulder

Featured image Paging all Boulder, Colorado, area Power Line readers: I’m coming back! Not for a whole year like last time—just next week, to participate in the University’s annual, and very gonzo, Conference on World Affairs. I’ll be on nine panels, plus doing a debate at the law school about why we should dump the Paris climate treaty. The ideological balance of the CWA tends to run about 25 to 1 liberals »

From the Archives: A Power Line Flashback

Featured image Courtesy of one of those time machine widgets on social media, it turns out that today, January 30, is the sixth anniversary of my very first Power Line article, on the subject of monster trucks. I had a look back, and thought it worth reposting, with the caveat that if I’d been more perceptive, I might have recognized a clear sign of Trump’s America taking shape. We all know about »

Remy: The Ballad of Ikea

Featured image New, from the great Remy Munasifi, the perfect ballad for that most horrible of consumer excursions, the trip to Ikea, where the misery really starts after you pay and leave the store. For I am convinced that “Ikea” means “self-torture” in Swedfinorgian, or whatever Nordic language it comes from. »

News for DC Readers

Featured image For our DC area readers, I’ll be back in Washington Tuesday afternoon participating in a conference about the election and its aftermath at the National Press Club, sponsored by my host organization at Berkeley, the Institute of Governmental Studies. Here’s the link with the complete rundown of people on the panels, and the EventBrite link to RSVP if you want to attend this free event. I’m pretty sure there will »

Updates, Previews, and Reminders

Featured image • I had almost forgotten one of the late M. Stanton Evans’s greatest quips, suddenly more salient. Stan, my first professional mentor out of college in 1981, liked to say: “It was really hard for us young conservatives to recover from the Goldwater defeat; it was all the worse because in those days we had no grief counselors.” Behold today’s college campuses. Stan would not have been surprised. And I’m »

Upcoming Events

Featured image Now here’s some news you can use depending on where you live: I’ve got three public events over the next two weeks that I’d be delighted to see local Power Line readers attend if you have the time and inclination. • First, for Bay Area residents, on Monday afternoon I’ll be part of an “Election Eve” panel discussion from 4 to 5 pm on campus at Berkeley, sponsored by my »

National Review Infiltrates San Francisco

Featured image Splendid evening last night in San Francisco, at the annual William F. Buckley Prize dinner hosted by National Review Institute, this year honoring the great George Shultz, secretary of state under Ronaldus Magnus, and Michael Grebe, the long time head of the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation. Shultz is 95, but still has it going on, telling some of the great old stories about bringing down the Soviet Union back »

Some Power Line Victory Laps

Featured image It’s always nice to see folks catch up with the stories that we were on to early. • My old AEI colleague Desmond Lachman worried in The Hill a couple days ago that “An Italian financial crisis poses huge threat to global economy.” Do tell. In fact, we did, back in late July, in “Keep Your Eye on Italy.” • The Washington Post yesterday took note of how conservatives are »

Today’s Dose of Crazy. . .

Featured image First up, this tweet from the New York Times over the weekend, which was apparently not a self-parody: Yeah, because we’d all be so much better off if we were still hunter-gatherers. It would have saved us from Joe Camel and Philip Morris. Incidentally, there is evidence in evolutionary biology that the enlargement of the human brain may be linked to our species’ use of fire. One biologist I know »

Bottom Stories of the Week

Featured image I hate to keep picking on vegans—and I wouldn’t if so many didn’t make a righteous ideology out of it*—but this story (which wouldn’t be a news story if there weren’t an agenda behind it in the first place) is just too irresistible: Woman trying to prove ‘vegans can do anything’ among four dead on Mount Everest For Maria Strydom and her husband, Robert Gropel, climbing Everest while adhering to »

Radio Daze: The Bill & Bill Show

Featured image This week was very likely my last time guest-hosting Bill Bennett’s radio show, because he’s giving up his morning slot at the end of this month, though he’ll still be doing radio in a different format later in the day. (Stay tuned for details.) In any case, I decided on Monday to tell the story of the first time I ever met Bill Bennett, more than 25 years ago. The »

Media Alert: Radio Days Ahead

Early risers should tune in tomorrow and Tuesday morning as I’ll be guest-hosting the Bill Bennett show both days (6 – 9 am eastern time). We’re still working on the guest list, but tomorrow we’ll have for sure Henry Olsen at 6:35 am, and Prof. Joshua Dunn, co-author of an important new book just out, Passing on the Right: Conservative Professors in the Progressive University, needless to say a subject »

Hello, Boulder, I’m Baaaack!

Featured image For Boulder area Power Line peeps (and I remember a lot of you from our great meetup in August 2013 at the Bohemian Bier Garden on 13th Street), I’m making a return visit to campus on Monday, to participate in a panel discussion on “Climate Change After Paris.” (Short answer: Same as before Paris. Footnotes to follow.) It will be in Eaton Humanities Room 150. If I’m not too worn »

Tomorrow on the Radio

Featured image I’m back behind the mic for the Bill Bennett “Morning in America” radio show again tomorrow morning from 6 – 9 am eastern. If there isn’t a local station in your area, you can listen online at BillBennett.com. The guest lineup includes, at 6:30 am, Henry Olsen of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, and co-author of Four Faces of the Republican Party; at 7:05 am, I’ll be joined by »

Another Media Alert!

Featured image For early risers everywhere, I’ll be guest-hosting Bill Bennett’s “Morning in America” radio show tomorrow morning, and again Thursday. Because why should John have all the fun? Anyway, my guest tomorrow include energy guru Mark Mills of the Manhattan Institute, Rep. Tom McClintock of California to talk congressional politics, and, hopefully, Reihan Salam of National Review (we’re still working out telephone logistics). I’ll probably talk about D—– T—-, too. And »

Headlines

Featured image The New York Times is off to a rousing start in 2016. The first headline that caught my eye in the print edition this morning is this one on the front page: U.S. Uncertain Of How Many Overstay Visas I’d work up my shocked face, but my face muscles are still sore from reacting to yesterday’s Stanford beat down of Iowa in the Rose Bowl. (Stanford overcame the point spread »

The Case for Meat

Featured image Have you heard the one about how you can tell someone is a vegan? Answer: Because they’ll f****** tell you. Sounds about right. Meanwhile: why should you eat meat? Don’t just answer with the obvious and self-evident truth: Because it really tastes great—especially grilled! Turns out eating meat may be essential for your mental health. From Women’s Health Magazine (just to show there’s no limit to Power Line’s efforts to »