Monthly Archives: November 2011
November 30, 2011 — Scott Johnson
In the current installment of Uncommon Knowledge Peter Robinson interviews Wall Street Journal deputy editor Gerard Baker and Weekly Standard senior editor Andrew Ferguson. Baker has pursued a distinguished career as a journalist at the BBC, the Financial Times and the Times of London before undertaking his current responsibilities at the Journal. In addition to his work for the Standard, Andy also writes the Press Man column for Commentary, covering
»
November 30, 2011 — John Hinderaker
I wrote about the EPA’s “environmental justice” initiative here, here and here. The environmental justice program is based on an executive order by Bill Clinton, which was mostly ignored until Barack Obama’s EPA ran with it. The fundamental problem with “environmental justice,” apart from the fact that no one has any idea what it is, is that the EPA has no legislative authority to pursue such an agenda. Accordingly, the
»
November 30, 2011 — John Hinderaker
Every time federal taxes have been cut–without exception, as far as I know–part of the deal has been that the overall tax structure becomes more progressive. That was the case with the Reagan tax cuts of the early 1980s and the Bush tax cuts of the early 2000s. In both cases, upper-income taxpayers wound up paying a larger share of the tax burden. The result is that today, the United
»
November 30, 2011 — John Hinderaker
Retronaut is a fun site that I don’t get to often enough. You can spend a lot of time there. Last night I stumbled across something of which I was not only unaware, but which I would have assumed to be impossible–color photographs of Shackleton’s ill-fated expedition to Antarctica, which began in 1914. There are a number of great photos at the link; here are just a couple:
»
November 30, 2011 — John Hinderaker
Is paranoia a bad quality in an Attorney General? One would think so, and I speculate that Eric Holder’s tenure may be drawing to a close. Yesterday, Holder had a bizarre encounter with a Daily Caller reporter: Embattled Attorney General Eric Holder today demanded The Daily Caller stop publishing articles about the growing calls in Congress for his resignation because of the failed Operation Fast and Furious gun-walking program. As
»
November 30, 2011 — Scott Johnson
Occasional contributor Mark Falcoff writes to comment on the story that a Chilean judge is charging a US military officer with the 1973 murder of two Americans: I don’t know how many Power Line readers have ever seen Costa-Gavras’s 1982 film Missing. Even if they have, they probably have forgotten the details. The story is alleged to be true, although it deals very carelessly with the facts surrounding the military
»
November 30, 2011 — Steven Hayward
I’m still making my way through the new batch of emails from Climategate 2.0, and as there are more than 5,000 of them it is an overwhelming job. But keep your eye out for this space–I’m working on an article for the next edition of the Weekly Standard out this Saturday. But I can’t resist this one short excerpt that I haven’t seen mentioned in any of the coverage so
»
November 29, 2011 — John Hinderaker
Conventional wisdom holds that when a president runs for re-election, the campaign is a referendum on his performance during his first four years. I think history confirms that that view is correct. So, given that President Obama has been mired in the doldrums of unpopularity and disapproval for the large majority of his first term, does he have a chance to be re-elected? At U.S. News’ Washington Whispers, Paul Bedard
»
November 29, 2011 — John Hinderaker
Today the government of Iran mounted an attack on Britain’s embassy compound in Tehran. Its purpose was to produce shock and consternation. The “students” who carried out the attack appeared to be firmly under the control of Ahmadinejad’s regime; the Washington Post quotes a description of the Basij militia members who stormed the compound as “government-controlled rent-a-mobs who are at the beck and call of Iranian security forces.” This is
»
November 29, 2011 — John Hinderaker
A long-time reader asks a reasonable question: if we assume Herman Cain is out of the race–not official as of this evening, but looking like the probably outcome, soon–then where to anti-establishment Republicans go? Will they really coalesce around Newt Gingrich, who has spent decades longer in Washington than Mitt Romney? Our reader writes: Herman Cain is assessing whether to continue with his faltering presidential campaign. Even if he assesses
»
November 29, 2011 — John Hinderaker
We are home from taping an MPR Bright Ideas show before a studio audience that included a number of friends–Clark and Sima Griffith, my wife Loree and oldest daughter Laura, podcast partner Brian Ward and his wife Rachel, and many more. Brian got home and posted this on Facebook: Just got back from MPR taping of “Bright Ideas” with John Hinderaker. Bravura performance by the man, making a strong, articulate
»
November 29, 2011 — Scott Johnson
Anyone thinking that Herman Cain may have been wronged by the woman who has stepped forward to discuss their recently ended 13-year affair may want to take a look at the statement released yesterday by Cain’s attorney to the local Fox affiliate that broke the story. It is a statement that Cain supporter Erick Erickson fairly characterizes as “the guiltiest-looking no-comment statement in the history of politics” while helpfully emphasizing
»
November 29, 2011 — Steven Hayward
Everyone should read the opposition press, not just to keep tabs on what the opposition is thinking and saying, but also because it is possible to learn from error. In the old days I read The Nation chiefly for Christopher Hitchens’ literary criticism, which was always the best offering of the magazine. If I wanted to sample the latest in Communist apologetics, Victor Navasky had no peer. In more recent
»
November 29, 2011 — Scott Johnson
There has been an amateur hour quality to the campaign of Herman Cain for the GOP presidential nomination. That makes sense because Cain is a political amateur. In the latest installment of the perils of Herman, one Ginger White of Atlanta has acknowledged a 13-year affair with Mr. Cain. The details of her story are persuasive. Cain’s denial to CNN is on the lame side: “It is someone that I
»
November 29, 2011 — Scott Johnson
Occasional contributor Bill Katz holds down the fort at Urgent Agenda. Today Bill writes to pay tribute to Jacques Barzun: Consider please the following argument, written in March, for Columbia University to re-admit ROTC, which it has now done: The armed forces have drawn some of their most celebrated leaders from Columbia. Not one but four commanders in chief, including the incumbent, studied or worked there. Educating citizen-soldiers is necessary
»
