News you can use
October 31, 2015 — Steven Hayward
Back in the bad old days of the Soviet Union, one of the tricks a dissident might attempt to communicate subversive ideas in a subtle way would be to quote a good paragraph or two from Adam Smith or Hayek, surrounded on either side by boilerplate propaganda about why this imperialist dogma is wrong. The perceptive reader would pick up on the sense of the excerpts from Adam Smith, and
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October 20, 2015 — Steven Hayward
In case you’re hiding under a rock—or are one of our faithful readers who wait exclusively for Power Line to certify what is truly important news—tonight the newest trailer for the forthcoming Star Wars movie was released. You’re welcome.
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October 13, 2015 — Steven Hayward
For any Las Vegas area readers, I’ll be appearing this Saturday on two panels of the Vegas Valley Book Festival. Yes—you read that correctly: the Vegas Valley Book Festival, not the Vegas Valley Bookie Festival, as you likely assumed if you read too quickly. And by “book” they do mean the printed kind with intelligent words, and not the kind where you make your Sunday bets on the NFL. Click
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October 11, 2015 — Steven Hayward
For a coastal Californian, it borders on cultural negligence that I have not noticed before now the fad of dolphin-assisted childbirth. Yes—it’s a real thing among the sufi-yogan new age crystal-gazing gluten-conscious set. Apparently some devotees of this method believe that newborns will be acquire an innate ability to understand and communicate with dolphins. And of course it is a stupid idea. If you want to take in how truly
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September 18, 2015 — Steven Hayward
Are you an advanced student or young professional in academia, public policy, economics, national security, journalism, law, business, or the military? Then I’ve got the program for you to check out: The Hertog Foundation’s “Great Figures of the 20th Century” seminars. The full program consists of four weekend seminars on Churchill, Reagan, Thatcher, and David Ben-Gurion, beginning in January of next year and held in Washington DC. See the link
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September 15, 2015 — Steven Hayward
Okay, I’ve got the guest lineup set for the Bill Bennett “Morning in America” show tomorrow. We’ll be doing a comprehensive preview of the GOP debate tomorrow night, and I’ll offer a couple of novel predictions of my own that I haven’t heard anyone else make so far. At 6:35 eastern I’ll welcome Pete Wehner, to talk about, among other things, his recent Commentary column “Donald Trump: What the Founders
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August 3, 2015 — Steven Hayward
Decisions of the Supreme Court understandably get a lot of attention, but what about the decisions of the Circuit Courts of Appeals, not to mention District Court and state appellate courts? Their decisions are often very important to the evolution of case law, but receive much less attention and often don’t get appealed successfully to the Supreme Court (except, it would seem, for the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals because
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July 15, 2015 — Steven Hayward
“The love boat for policy wonks” is how the New York Times describes The Nation magazine Caribbean cruise, setting sail in December from Miami. I got the email from The Nation with a rundown on the speakers: Katrina vanden Heuvel looks ahead to Election 2016. Ralph Nader decries the toxic influence of money and politics and shows how we can do better. Patricia Williams explores the alarming American ritual of
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June 25, 2015 — Steven Hayward
The philosopher Alfred North Whitehead supposedly once said (I say “supposedly” because this quote is too good to check out) that “There are two kinds of people in the world: the simpleminded, and the muddleheaded.” Always better to be simpleminded than muddleheaded I say. Also better to be a Power Line VIP subscriber. Only $4 a month gets you ad-free access to the site (better than Ad Blocker, which sometimes
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June 16, 2015 — Steven Hayward
For early risers, I’ll be on the Bill Bennett show tomorrow (Wednesday) morning at 8:05 eastern time, to talk chiefly about the Pope’s forthcoming encyclical on climate change. We’ve mentioned it here before and will be again, but for the meantime, take in Bjorn Lomborg in USA Today on what’s wrong with what we know so far about the forthcoming encyclical: But the Pope after his letter is officially published,
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May 31, 2015 — Steven Hayward
For commuters in the east and early risers elsewhere, I’ll be a guest on Bill Bennett’s “Morning in America” radio show at 8:05 am eastern time tomorrow (Monday) morning, to talk about the latest in climate science, and other topics. Tune in to your local station, or you can listen in online at BillBennett.com. Call in! Love to say hello to Power Line readers.
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May 13, 2015 — Steven Hayward
As a public service announcement, any Power Line readers with daughters heading off to college next fall ought to have a look at NeW, the Network of Enlightened Women. No—seriously—I know what you’re thinking: “Enlightened” is often a euphemism for leftism, but in this case NeW is a nice twit of NOW (National Organization for Women), which really ought to be thought of as THEN (Thoroughly Harridan Egalitarian Nonsense), and
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April 21, 2015 — Steven Hayward
Scott clears his spindle from time to time, and I have my own spindle of weird but oddly compelling news. Like video of Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott downing a beer in seven seconds at a victory celebration of an Aussie soccer football team. Good on ‘ya, mate! I knew there was a reason I liked Abbott. Speaking of consumption, any traveler along Interstate 40 or the old Route 66
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April 16, 2015 — Steven Hayward
I think I’ve found my first dust jacket blurb for my next book (which I’m going to start writing soon—stay tuned for details). From the second letter to the editor in today’s Wall Street Journal: Steven Hayward’s honest pursuit of the truth is attractive to promising students seeking understanding, who have not yet been corrupted by an inability to think for themselves. . . By preserving brilliant academics like Steven
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April 11, 2015 — Steven Hayward
Reihan Salam, executive editor of National Review, bon vivant, and neck-and-neck with National Review’s Ramesh Ponnuru as smartest man in America (except for when Paul Krugman dines alone)—that’s who. He loves Power Line so much we had to do two takes!
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March 26, 2015 — Scott Johnson
I learn (via InstaPundit, of course) that Newsmax has announced its Top 50 Conservative Blogs of 2015. Accepting the award on behalf of InstaPundit, Glenn Reynolds comments: “It’s always nice to be number one.” In a competitive field, Power Line comes in at number 4. As we approach the end of our thirteenth year online, that’s not too shabby either. We try harder. The Newsmax Top 50 demonstrates familiarity with,
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March 25, 2015 — Steven Hayward
Two current controversies combine to suggest . . . a summer vacation idea! The Pacific Research Institute’s indefatigable leader Sally Pipes speculated some time ago that if the government continues to wreck health care with regulation and mandates, perhaps the answer would be offshore health clinics and hospitals—not like “offshore” banks in the Caymans or something, but offshore on ships, beyond the territorial boundaries of the United States, therefore making
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