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These are discouraging times, but once in a blue moon a bit of hope appears. I am pleased to report on the bit of hope delivered in March of 2011 by Michael Spence, a Nobel prize-winning economist, assisted by Sandile Hlatshwayo, a researcher at New York University. The two economists have taken a careful empirical [...]
If Americans needed another reminder of why the Democratic Party is absolutely worthless, they got it during last week’s Patriot Act extension debate when Senate Majority leader Harry Reid again behaved exactly like the Bush-era Republicans he once vigorously opposed. In 2005, Reid bragged to fellow Democrats, “We killed the Patriot Act.” Today, Reid says [...]
Filed under: Conservatism, liberties, Politics
“We need to be honest with the president, with the Congress, with the American people” about the consequences of cutting the defense budget, said Secretary of Defense Robert Gates in his valedictory policy address to the American Enterprise Institute. “(A) smaller military, no matter how superb, will be able to go fewer places and do [...]
Sarah’s had her own flight suit stunt, and she looks great in helmet and shades. Michael Dukakis isn’t telegenic; beetle-browed, diminutive, an expression that tends toward disdainful. Running for president and looking to butch-up his image as a liberal pacifist (that now quaint creature) he infamously donned a tanker’s helmet and went for a ride. [...]
Filed under: Conservatism, Politics
It has not been a good week. To be sure, Bibi is finally gone but the Patriot Act has been renewed without any debate through political chicanery by Harry Reid. And there is considerable danger that the “overseas contingency operations,” as the Obama Administration refers to its war on terror, will increase in number after [...]
Filed under: Greatest Hits, Terrorism
“Right now, socially, we are disintegrating.” So says Mohamed ElBaradei, former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency and potential candidate for president of Egypt. Indeed, post-revolutionary Egypt appears to be coming apart. Since the heady days of Tahrir Square, Salafis have been killing Christians. Churches have been destroyed. Gangs have conducted mass prison breaks. [...]
Filed under: World
Whenever I start to think that I’m overly cynical and paranoid about the government, I read something like this and realize that, if anything, my paranoia is completely insufficient for the off the wall schemes our government concocts. In fact, the only thing that appears to keep government officials from engaging in Parallax View style [...]
Filed under: Law, libertarianism, Scandal, Terrorism
When President Obama said last week that Israel should return to its pre-1967 borders, Benjamin Netanyahu declared “Israel will not return to the indefensible boundaries of 1967.” Israel’s Prime Minister was clearly not pleased. But perhaps even more perturbed was the American Right, with the potential 2012 Republican presidential candidates offering the following reactions: Former [...]
Filed under: Conservatism, Foreign policy, World
Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s media company, long known for its coverage of the financial world, is throwing its hat in the crowded ring of opinion journalism — this week launching Bloomberg View. And the Duke of New York’s deep pockets have afforded a starting lineup that includes many marquee names, including Michael Kinsley, Jamie Rubin, Jonathan [...]
Filed under: media
She had seen May Day parades when people were still enthusiastic or did their best to feign enthusiasm…[a]s a group approached the reviewing stand, even the most blasé faces would beam with dazzling smiles, as if trying to prove they were properly joyful, or, more precisely, in proper agreement. –The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan [...]