January 24, 2012 — Steven Hayward

On Black Holes and Other Democratic Party Voids

Featured image The Washington Post Science section today carries an interesting story about how astronomers estimate that the black hole at the center of our galaxy has a mass equivalent of 4 million suns, and moreover that they are hoping to take a photo of it.  “The thing we will actually see is light just barely escaping from the black hole,” the Post quotes one hopeful astronomer. By why look so far »
January 24, 2012 — Steven Hayward

Footnote to 1000 Days

Featured imageFurther to John’s post below on the shame of the Democratic Senate for failing to pass a budget for 1,000 days, Rep. Jim Jordan, chairman of the House Republican Study Committee, notes that the last time the Senate passed a budget, “you had never heard of the iPad, Tiger Woods was only known for his golfing abilities, General Motors had never declared bankruptcy, you had never heard of Swine flu. »
January 23, 2012 — Scott Johnson

AFSCME’s Newtron bomb

Featured imageHugh Hewitt draws attention to the astounding news that the AFSCME arm of the AFL-CIO has bought $800,000 worth of television time to run this ad attacking Mitt Romney’s tenure at Bain. (Hugh credits Conn Carroll for the inside dope.) AFSCME’s ad gives voice to some of the same sort of high-minded concerns about Romney’s work at Bain that Newt has voiced. The ad will run throughout the state of »
January 23, 2012 — John Hinderaker

Democratic Senate Staffer Charged With Betraying National Security

Featured imageWe have written many times over the years about liberal newspapers, in particular the New York Times, which have published classified information in violation of the Espionage Act. They did thus to undermine the foreign policies of the United States, and in particular to attack the Bush administration. Today the curtain was raised on one of those episodes, as a former CIA official who was more recently a Democratic staffer »
January 23, 2012 — John Hinderaker

A Not So Merry Christmas

Featured imageIn the Islamic world, that is. At Middle East Forum, Raymond Ibrahim details the persecution of Christians during the Christmas season, which Islam considers an abomination. If you go to his post, all items have links: Around the Muslim world, Christmas time for Christians is a time of threats, harassment, and fear. One can point to any number of Muslim attacks on Christians to prove this—whether churches attacked, burned, or »
January 23, 2012 — John Hinderaker

1,000 Days

Featured imageTomorrow will be the 1,000th day since Senate Democrats last passed a budget. The Democrats’ fecklessness is not only irresponsible, it violates federal law. But the Democrats don’t care: they simply can’t allow the American people to see, in black and white, their plans for spending and taxes. Since the Democrats last passed a budget, just three months into the Obama administration, the federal government has spent $9.4 trillion and »
January 23, 2012 — Scott Johnson

Obama and Obamism

Featured imageShortly before the 2008 election Barack Obama proclaimed: “We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.” What did he mean by that? Last year we posted Stanley Kurtz’s speech to David Horowitz’s Wednesday Morning Club in Los Angeles. In his remarks Kurtz gives an overview of the results of his research for Radical-in-Chief: The Untold Story of American Socialism. It is the most effective presentation »
January 22, 2012 — John Hinderaker

Obama’s Government vs. Your Family

Featured imageToday Barack Obama released a proclamation commemorating the 39th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, the low water mark of American constitutional jurisprudence since the Dred Scott case. Obama’s proclamation was not widely noted, except in circles that take (as Scott put it long ago) the sacramental view of abortion. But I happened to read it, and was struck by this brazen bit of Obama BS: As we mark the 39th »
January 22, 2012 — Steven Hayward

Trouble in Potomac City

Featured imageI couldn’t help it.  With apologies to Meredith Wilson and The Music Man, herewith an update of “Trouble in River City”: Prof. Harold Charles Hill: Well, either you are closing your eyes to a situation which you do not wish to acknowledge, Or you are unaware of the caliber of disaster indicated by the presence of a Gingrich in your political party; Well, ya got trouble my friend, I say, »
January 22, 2012 — Scott Johnson

Nattering nabobs of Newtism

Featured imageNewt Gingrich’s stunning victory in the South Carolina primary last night suggests that Newt owes a major debt to Juan Williams of Fox News, Brian Ross of ABC, and John King of CNN, without whom…the result would not have been so astounding. I’m thinking that these liberal media figures are, inadvertently, the nattering nabobs of Newtism. The result exposes the weakness at the heart of the Romney campaign: Mitt’s weakness »
January 23, 2012 — Steven Hayward

Another Applied Hayek Moment

Featured imageA couple weeks back I skipped over the big story of the newly released minutes of Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC) meetings from back in 2006, which showed a complete lack of interest in and complacency about early warnings that the housing bubble might burst with disastrous consequences.   Today Robert Samuelson brings the story back up again in his Newsweek/WaPo column.  And though Samuelson doesn’t say so, his account »
January 22, 2012 — John Hinderaker

Does Newt Own a Beet Farm?

Featured imageWhen a photo of Newt Gingrich as a young college professor hit the internet a week or two ago, my wife was stunned, because he looked almost exactly like a certain TV star. She wasn’t the only one who noticed the resemblance. All American Blogger notes the affinity between Newt and Dwight K. Schrute of The Office: Separated at birth, indeed! »
January 22, 2012 — John Hinderaker

U.S. Deleveraging, Unlike Some

Featured imageMcKinsey Global Institute has produced an interesting report on international debt and deleveraging. It finds that a few of the world’s largest economies, including the U.S., have made significant progress in reducing debt since the second quarter of 2008, while others, mostly in the EU, have continued amassing more debt. This chart requires a little study; it shows total debt (government, household, financial institution and non-financial corporate) for ten countries »
January 22, 2012 — Steven Hayward

Let Us Renew Our Praise for Harding

Featured imageI’ve had occasion here before (“Mister We Could Use a Man Like Warren Harding Again“), more than once in fact, to praise the unjustly underrated legacy of Warren Harding, but don’t miss today’s article in the Washington Post (yes, the Post!) from James Grant, noting how Harding quickly cured the depression of 1920-1921 with precisely the medicine that causes Krugmania Dementia, austerity: Our Great Recession ended 2½ years ago, according »
January 21, 2012 — John Hinderaker

Congratulations, Newt

Featured imageNewt Gingrich won big tonight in South Carolina, about as big as Mitt Romney did in New Hampshire. To some extent that reflects the differences between those states, but also, certainly, it is the result of momentum flowing in Newt’s direction as a result of the South Carolina debates and, somewhat weirdly, the ABC interview with his ex-wife. This afternoon I was at a shooting range, and the guy working »