The Corner on National Review Online

Saturday, November 07, 2009

Tea and Sympathy [Mark Steyn]

The Nothing-to-see-here media continue to do a grand job. Chris Matthews:

We may never know if religion was a factor at Fort Hood.

That's almost certainly true in your case, Chris.

As for yelling "Allahu akbar" as you open fire, Michael Tomasky, one of the American lefties on The Guardian's payroll, explains it for us know-nothings:

The fact that Hassan reportedly shouted the above is meant, I suppose, to imply that he was an extremist fanatic.

I'm not sure that it does. My understanding is that it's something Arab people often shout before doing something or other. It's used in many different situations. It doesn't mean the guy is an al-Qaida mole any more than my drinking a cup of tea would mean I was a tea partier.

Shouldn't that be "teabagger", as you chaps say? Still, it's good to know if someone shows up shouting "Allahu akbar" it's just a sign he's about to "do something or other". No need to dive under the table.

On the other hand, if you're still invested in Major Hasan's PPTSD (unique case of pre-Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder), you may prefer Kate McMillan:

"Allahu akbar." It's the new "cry for help".

PS If in doubt, blame English Catholics:

Today is Guy Fawkes Day - the anniversary of a plot by a Catholic dissident to blow up the English Parliament then dominated by Protestants). If the shootings were motivated by some sense of grievance against US foreign/military policy, then the date is surely significant.

Surely.

11/07 08:35 AM Share

Huge Vote Today on Stupak Pro-Life Amendment [Ed Whelan]

In an encouraging development, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been forced to agree to a vote on fellow Democrat Bart Stupak’s amendment that would prevent the health-care legislation from leading to widespread federal funding of abortion. An excerpt from this LifeNews.com report:

Douglas Johnson, the legislative director of the National Right to Life Committee, told LifeNews.com … that the vote on the Stupak [amendment] could be the most important abortion-related vote cast in Congress since Roe.

"This will be one of the most important roll call votes that U.S. House members ever casts on a pro-life issue," he said. "Any lawmaker who votes against the Stupak-Pitts Amendment is, in effect, voting in favor of establishing a federal government program that will directly fund abortion on demand, with federal funds."

Johnson urged all pro-life advocates to call both the Washington and in-state offices of their representatives in the U.S. House to urge support for the Stupak-Pitts Amendment.

The vote is expected to take place today. Information on how to contact your House member is available here.

11/07 06:20 AM Share

Friday, November 06, 2009

Gun Control on Military Bases [Michael Ledeen]

Lots of folks have wondered why there weren't more soldiers with guns at Ft. Hood, and I'm one of them. Our younger Marine is home for the weekend from The Basic School at Quantico, and Barbara and I asked him if there were Marines with guns on the base. There are. Lots of them. And they move around all the time, checking places where Marines congregate, from classrooms to outdoor obstacle courses and parade fields and barracks. Apparently it occurred to the base commander some time ago that it was a bad idea to leave his men and women unprotected.

11/06 11:44 PM Share

More Than One GOP Aide [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

expressed concern to me earlier tonight that the Dems walk out of this marathon leadership session with a faux compromise that fools folks into believing abortion won't be funded. Thankfully the likes of Doug Johnson, the stalwart factchecker from the National Right to Life Committee, exists to keep things in check. The key question, though: Will the Catholic bishops be stalwart like Doug? That may mean a key bishop or two fighting against the get-along instinct of some of the bureacrats at the bishops' conference.

(Fr. Thomas Williams has a good piece on Catholics and health care, BTW. And you may be interested in Bishop Conley from Denver who says the legislation they are looking at is: inadequate, baffling, insulting, and dangerous.)

11/06 11:10 PM Share

House Dems Are Not Sleeping [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

as Steny Hoyer tries to play down abortion.

11/06 11:06 PM Share

Yuval Levin's Favorite Congresswoman [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

says there is no deal, in an exchange with NRO.

Background for the Yuval reference here.

11/06 11:04 PM Share

Abortion Is a Problem [NRO Staff]

Waxman admits as much.

11/06 11:02 PM Share

Shooting Raises Fears For Sanity Of Entire Western World [Mark Steyn]

The Headline of the Day, from the BBC:

Shooting Raises Fears For Muslims In US Army

Really? Right now the body count stands at:

Non-Muslims 13
Muslims 0

I was reading from some of this kind of coverage on the Rush Limbaugh show today. Even if you are concerned that it would be terribly unfair if all Muslims were to be tarred by Major Hasan's brush, it is, to put it at its mildest, the grossest bad taste to default every single time within minutes to the position that what's of most interest about an actual atrocity with real victims is that it may provoke an entirely hypothetical atrocity with entirely hypothetical victims. I refer you yet again to this note-perfect parody:

British Muslims Fear Repercussions Over Tomorrow's Train Bombing

This kind of media coverage is really a form of mental illness far more advanced than whatever Major Hasan's lawyers eventually enter in mitigation, and apparently pandemic, at least among the western media.

On a related note, from David Horowitz: "Is everybody out of their mind?"

Bonus: "We're the ones who love death - our own."

11/06 06:28 PM Share

Are All Religions Equally Violent? [Michael Rubin]

Regarding the ongoing discussion of Islam's role in terrorists' justification of their actions in general and Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan's self-justification in particular, there's a tendency among the government, academics, and the media to engage in religious equivalency and suggest that Islamic extremism is really no different than Jewish and Christian extremism.

To counter such notions, Raymond Ibrahim's article, "Are Judaism and Christianity as Violent as Islam?," is certainly worth a weekend read.

11/06 05:47 PM Share

This Weekend [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

keep an eye on "The Corner" (for the usual and unusual) & "Doctor! Doctor!" (live reporting from the Hill) & "Critical Condition" (health-care policy analysis) for continuing health-care and other coverage. (And don't forget to read your Saturday Steyn tomorrow!)

11/06 04:34 PM Share

Re: Abortion Is a 'Loving Decision' [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

Another link for options for pregnant women.

11/06 04:28 PM Share

Mr. President, Is It Getting Any Better as the Answers Come In? [Andy McCarthy]

President Obama today in the Rose Garden, speaking about the Muslim mass-murderer who killed many more Americans yesterday than were killed by the Muslim mass-murderers who bombed the World Trade Center in 1993: "We don't know all the answers yet. And I would caution against jumping to conclusions until we have all the facts."

So, at the Investigative Project on Terrorism, Steve Emerson marshals some of the answers that have come in about Nidal Malik Hasan: "Born in Virginia, sent to medical school by the U.S. Army, the psychiatrist was chastised for proselytizing to his patients about Islam. Asked his nationality, he didn't identify himself as an American but as a Palestinian. He appeared pleased by the shooting death of a Little Rock Army recruiter in June and reportedly was heard saying, 'maybe people should strap bombs on themselves and go to Times Square.' In the fateful moment before he opened fire on his unarmed victims, he shouted Allahu Akhbar!'"

President Obama has had no problems jumping to conclusions about everything from the stimulus (it was going to keep unemployment below 8 percent) to Honduras (the administration pronounced it a lawless coup when, as the answers came in, it was shown to be the opposite of that). In fact, based on what it acknowledged was no "specific information," his Homeland Security Department concluded that the country was about to experience a surge of violence from "rightwing extremists." I don't know what further answers the president is going to need here, but it seems some pretty obvious conclusions are in order.

By the way, as Steve points out, CAIR has also weighed in. They say . . . we don't know all the answers yet and we shouldn't jump to conclusions.

11/06 03:48 PM Share

Good for the Soul [Peter Wehner]

My wife Cindy and I got away from politics and parenting last night to attend a wonderful event at the Kennedy Center: the Apollo Ensemble, one of Europe’s leading baroque chamber-music groups. It was an evening hosted by Pro Musica Hebraica, a new organization — Charles Krauthammer is the chairman and Robyn Krauthammer is the chief executive officer — dedicated to presenting lost and neglected masterpieces of Jewish classical music in a concert-hall setting. It was a thrilling and uplifting evening, one of the nicest we have attended in quite some time.

It is always a joy to be around things that uplift the human spirit and put human excellence on display. Pro Musica Hebraica does that. Do yourself, and your soul, a favor and find out more about it by going here. You won’t regret it.

11/06 02:59 PM Share

An Intelligent Voice on Ft. Hood [Ramesh Ponnuru]

Check out Thomas Kenniff's Q&A with Washington Post readers.

11/06 02:46 PM Share

Re: Adoption [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

An e-mail:

Bravo on mentioning the once-common institution of adoption. I had an out-of-wedlock child back in the late 1960s, and she was placed for adoption through Catholic Charities in Pittsburgh. I stayed at Rosalia Foundling Home and Maternity Hospital, and those nuns were wonderful to us (in those days there were such places, and they did great work). I've always thought it a bit odd that the only choices anyone has recognized in subsequent years are abortion or single-parenthood. Sure, adoption was hard. It tore my heart out for a while. But you know there are lots of things in life that tear your heart out. I can't imagine that trying to raise a child by yourself as a teen-aged single mother doesn't present you with an endless succession of them, and they go on for years.

In regard to the Foundling — there are still such places, thank goodness.

11/06 02:45 PM Share

Re: Peters & 'P.C.' [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

An e-mail:

He is correct in his assessment and conclusions. I would however ask that he and everyone else cease using the term Political Correctness. It is in fact Purposeful Disingenuousness and Misleadingness. Time to call it for what it is - there is nothing polite (nor politic) about it.

11/06 02:42 PM Share

Quran vs. Quran [Michael Rubin]

As an addendum to my last post, since most Muslims do not read, speak, or truly understand Quranic Arabic and so simply interpret or memorize what they are taught the Quran says, it is worth keeping in mind that English renditions of the Quran are not all the same; many are influenced by ideology. San Diego State University's Khaleel Mohammed surveys English translations of the Quran, here, and starkly illustrates how ideology permeates. If, as some news accounts suggest, the shooter handed out Qurans to his neighbors, it would be worth knowing which editions. Likewise, if the shooter studies a Quran, which version?

11/06 02:35 PM Share

Shooting in an Office Building [NRO Staff]

in Orlando.

11/06 02:29 PM Share

Re: 'Railing' [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

An e-mail:

Here's something else 30 years of railing against abortion has accomplished: The knowledge that you/we have stayed in the fight for 30 years, and the strength that knowledge gives us to continue the fight for another 30 IS an accomplishment.

Winning hearts and minds takes persistence. 30 years of persistence is an accomplishment when the deck is stacked against you.

11/06 02:28 PM Share

Ralph Peters vs. Deadly Political Correctness [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

New from the New York Post:

Hasan isn’t the sole guilty party. The US Army’s unforgivable political correctness is also to blame for the casualties at Ft. Hood.

Given the myriad warning signs, it’s appalling that no action was taken against a man apparently known to praise suicide bombers and openly damn US policy. But no officer in his chain of command, either at Walter Reed Army Medical Center or at Ft. Hood, had the guts to take meaningful action against a dysfunctional soldier and an incompetent doctor. . . .

Now 12 soldiers and a security guard lie dead. 31 soldiers were wounded, 28 of them seriously. If heads don’t roll in this maggot’s chain of command, the Army will have shamed itself beyond moral redemption.

There’s another important issue, too. How could the Army allow an obviously incompetent and dysfunctional psychiatrist to treat our troubled soldiers returning from war? An Islamist whacko is counseled for arguing with veterans who’ve been assigned to his care? And he’s not removed from duty? What planet does the Army live on?

For the first time since I joined the Army in 1976, I’m ashamed of its dereliction of duty. The chain of command protected a budding terrorist who was waving one red flag after another. Because it was safer for careers than doing something about him.

11/06 02:24 PM Share

Root Causes of Ft. Hood Massacre? [Michael Rubin]

Over at The Weekly Standard, Mike Goldfarb castigates President Obama for obsessing about root causes without considering the poisonous influence of a radical Islamist ideology. The problem, unfortunately, is not limited to the Obama administration but is rather broader: Not all terrorism is motivated by religion, but much of it is. The problem is that the issue of religious motivation for terrorism has become a forbidden subject in government policy analysis. Remember the Pentagon's sacking of Stephen Coughlin toward the tail end of the Bush administration? From the Washington Times:

Stephen Coughlin, the Pentagon specialist on Islamic law and Islamist extremism, has been fired from his position on the military's Joint Staff. The action followed a report in this space last week revealing opposition to his work for the military by pro-Muslim officials within the office of Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England.

Sometimes political correctness kills. Since I've left the Pentagon, I have sat through about 100 lectures on Islam to U.S. military audiences, many at Fort Hood. Too often, government officials limit discussion of Islam to "true Islam" defined by whatever theological trends promote tolerance, moderation, and compassion. For policy, law-enforcement, and military purposes, it would be wise to leave the debate about what "true Islam" is to the academic community and instead focus on religion and religious ideology in terms of what any religion's practitioners believe it to be. Rather than, for example, explain to troops in tedious lectures that Islam forbids suicide, it might provide more insight and understanding if specialists would instruct policy and military practitioners what exegesis extremists use to justify suicide terrorism or other manifestations of extremism.

For what it's worth, on the rare occassions when I lecture on the topic of how extremists use Islam to justify terrorism (including sometimes at Ft. Hood), I often draw from these Middle East Quarterly articles:

"Contrasting Secular and Religious Terrorism"

"Peace of Jihad: Abrogation in Islam"

"The Religious Foundations of Suicide Bombings"

"Beheading in the Name of Islam"

11/06 02:21 PM Share

Just Trying to Be Helpful [Ramesh Ponnuru]

Moderate Democrats in Congress have been having a bad week, with the bad election news. My advice: If you're going to vote against Pelosi on health care, announce it now. Pelosi, Hoyer, et al have so many congressmen to arm-twist that they won't have time to yell at you. You won't be at the top of their arm-twisting list, either, since you'll have an announced position.

11/06 02:19 PM Share

ACORN, Continued [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

BigGovernment.com reports:

ACORN’s New Orleans Office Raided by Louisiana Attorney General’s Office

11/06 02:17 PM Share

Re: 'Railing' [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

It has achieved some legal improvement and contributed to a decline in the abortion rate. If you care about such things, that's not nothing. In fact, it's lifesaving.

11/06 02:04 PM Share

Maureen Dowd's Sister Act [NRO Staff]

Kathryn Jean Lopez responds to Maureen Dowd’s comment that nuns are second-class citizens in today's episode of Off the Page.

11/06 02:00 PM Share

The Dede Effect [Maggie Gallagher]

Stephen Hayford, a reader and a friend, proposes a new term: "The Dede Effect":

FYI, our best bet up here is that SSM may come to a vote Tuesday, but will not pass.

I am encouraged by the NYT story in which Malcolm Smith admits that NY Republicans may be becoming even warier of voting for SSM because of what just happened to Dede Scozzafava up north. See here.

With this in mind, I hereby coin a new phrase: "The Dede Effect." The Dede Effect is the conservative backlash that "moderate" Republicans in New York can expect to face in their next reelection bids if they vote to redefine the institution of marriage. (Yea, Conservative Party! Yea, NOM! Yea, Doug Hoffman!!) I think this is a very real thing, and I think it's something we should talk about whenever we get the chance. I just did a radio interview with Citizen Link/Family News in Focus and talked about the Dede Effect; hopefully they will air that part of the interview.

11/06 01:32 PM Share

Re: Conservative Values Conflict [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

There's no conflict. If you want to assume humans have no reason and can't be encouraged to exercise sexual discipline for the sake of self-respect, if nothing else — which I do not — there is another a word that avoids the "abort or be a single-mother" distraction equation: adoption.

That's not always an easy solution. But it actually is one that avoids ending a human life.

11/06 01:27 PM Share

Real Numbers vs. Budget Numbers [John J. Pitney Jr.]

On the day that the unemployment rate officially tops 10 percent, the White House claim about “jobs created or saved” takes another hit. From the Sacramento Bee:

Up to one-fourth of the 110,000 jobs reported as saved by federal stimulus money in California probably never were in danger, a Bee review has found. California State University officials reported late last week that they saved more jobs with stimulus money than the number of jobs saved in Texas – and in 44 other states. In a required state report to the federal government, the university system said the $268.5 million it received in stimulus funding through October allowed it to retain 26,156 employees. That total represents more than half of CSU's statewide work force. However, university officials confirmed Thursday that half their workers were not going to be laid off without the stimulus dollars.

And here is the money quote:

"This is not really a real number of people," CSU spokeswoman Clara Potes-Fellow said. "It's like a budget number."

— John J. Pitney Jr. is the Roy P. Crocker professor of government at Claremont McKenna College. With James Ceaser and Andrew Busch, he is co-author of Epic Journey: The 2008 Elections and American Politics.

11/06 01:26 PM Share

The Most Important Question No One Is Asking about 'Stimulus Jobs' [Brian Riedl]

Those dissecting the White House claim that the $200 billion spent on the stimulus has created or saved 650,000 jobs have focused on the arithmetical errors in counting the hirings. They are ignoring a much more fundamental issue. Before Congress could inject $200 billion into the economy, they had to borrow $200 billion out of the economy. So the more central question is thus: If injecting $200 billion into the economy supported 650,000 jobs, then how many jobs were lost by first borrowing that $200 billion out of the economy?

The White House says zero. Their job numbers assume all $200 billion is “new” and supports jobs that would not otherwise exist.

This is absolutely implausible. How can adding $200 billion to one part of the economy support 650,000 jobs, but removing $200 billion from another part of the economy not cost a single job anywhere?

Some assert that this $200 billion is new spending because it was borrowed from savers. But that assumes the people who lent Washington the money would have otherwise saved exactly 100 percent of it. Even if one conservatively assumes they’d have saved half of it, then (by their Keynesian theory) only $100 billion would be “new” spending supporting new jobs. The other half merely replaced private spending/jobs with government spending/jobs. So cut the jobs created/saved figure in half.

But wait, there’s more. Even the money borrowed from savers isn’t “new money.” Savings do not fall out of the economy. They are invested or deposited in banks — which then lend them out to others to spend. Even when recession-weary banks hesitate to loan money, they invest it in Treasury bills instead. They don’t hoard customer deposits in massive basement vaults. Consequently, one person’s savings quickly finances another person’s spending. (And even foreign borrowing is financed by an increased trade deficit, negating the effect.) So borrowing from savers doesn’t add new spending, either.

Thus, it is possible that all $200 billion in government spending (and jobs) merely displaced private spending (and jobs) dollar-for-dollar and job-for-job. And this is why the unemployment rate is not dropping.

The White House is telling us that adding $200 billion to one part of the economy created/saved 650,000 jobs, but removing $200 billion from another part of the economy has not cost a single job. They need to be taken to task for such implausible economics.

— Brian Riedl is Grover M. Hermann fellow in Federal Budgetary Affairs at the Heritage Foundation.

11/06 01:24 PM Share

All Politics Is Local [John Derbyshire]

One of the biggest upsets at the local level in Tuesday's election was the defeat of liberal Democrat Andrew Spano by Republican Rob Astorino in deep-blue Westchester County, N.Y. How did this happen? Walter Olson spills the beans.

The federally brokered ["affordable housing"] settlement is itself of interest far beyond Westchester, if only as the occasion of a truly remarkable rhetorical flourish from an Obama Administration official, HUD deputy secretary Ron Sims: "It's time to remove zip codes as a factor in the quality of life in America."

If you think "health-care reform" is the most inflammatory phrase in the political lexicon, wait till "affordable housing" gets up to speed. It's been a sleeper up to now — I wrote about it seven years ago — but with characters like Ron Sims in charge, this one will really catch fire.

If you care about your neighborhood — or even just your zip code — get ready to fight for it.

11/06 01:18 PM Share

Conservative Values Conflict [John Derbyshire]

Sheesh, Mark, I was only opening the thing for discussion.

And where, exactly, was my failure to apprehend the unempirical nature of the Left? Half Sigma, the blogger I quoted, isn't even on the Left. Among his last 20-odd posts I note:

Nov. 4: "The elites who control the Democratic Party strongly support gay marriage even though it’s not uniformly supported among Democratic voters …"

Nov. 3: "Good news for people who hate liberals and Democrats …"

Nov. 3: "All of the other institutions which tell people how to think, such as Hollywood, the mainstream media, colleges and universities, the public education bureaucracy, the Norwegian Nobel Committee, etc., are all controlled by liberals …"

Nov. 2: "The fact that Scozzafava has endorsed the Democrat, Bill Owens, shows us that she was no good. No real Republican would ever endorse a Democrat …"

Oct. 29: "The NY Times Magazine preview demonstrates that the MSM still loves the Obamas …"

Some Leftie. As to your assertion that:

The notion that abortion is pro-family because it reduces single motherhood is hard to reconcile with the fact that demographic groups with the highest rates of abortion — such as, say, the African-American community — also have the highest rates of single-parent households …

It seems to me rather easy to reconcile. A high-abortion-rate community with high rates of single-family households, would presumably have even more such households but for abortion. There's your reconciliation right there. Was it really so hard?

The guy is pointing up a conflict between two conservative values: the pro-family one, and the anti-abortion one. He thinks the pro-family one should have more weight. People who think abortion is a profound wrong will of course disagree, duh, but they might still acknowledge the conflict. And other conservatives might, like Half Sigma come down on the other side, for pragmatic reasons, there being at least some possibility of progress there. Thirty years of railing against abortion hasn't accomplished much, has it?

11/06 01:17 PM Share

Jay on Dr. K [NRO Staff]

In today's episode of Off the Page, Jay Nordlinger comments on Charles Krauthammer, whom he profiled for the Nov. 23, 2009, issue of National Review.

11/06 01:00 PM Share

Luther Would Be Proud [Mike Potemra]

Conservative Protestant Christians in the market for a study Bible should consider the new Lutheran Study Bible just released by Concordia Publishing House, which uses the formal-equivalent English Standard Version translation. It’s impressively produced, with easily readable type for a work of its size and density; its notes are copious but not quite as overwhelming as those in the excellent ESV Study Bible published last year. (N.B.: Please do not confuse this new Lutheran version from Concordia with the one published under the same title by Augsburg Fortress earlier this year. The Augsburg Fortress edition is very skimpy in the help it gives the reader; and it uses the New Revised Standard Version translation, which, while it is generally accurate and at least somewhat formal-equivalent in its philosophy, sometimes engages in purposeful and clunky mistranslations in order to conform to canons of political correctness.)

11/06 12:48 PM Share

More of Pelosi's Millionaire Tax [Veronique de Rugy]

On Wednesday, I wrote about the surtax of 5.4 percent on individuals making $500,000 and couples making more than $1 million that the House bill has in mind to pay for the high cost of the health-care reform. Among other things, I said that this surtax, which wouldn't be indexed to inflation, reminded me of the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT). It seems that I am not alone (here and here and here)

The Tax Policy Center has some numbers on the inflation creep that will inevitably occur if this tax is adopted:

TCP figures that just 400,000 taxpayers will pay that increase in 2011, less than three-tenths of one percent of all taxpayers. However, because the millionaire’s surtax is not adjusted for inflation (at least not yet), within a decade many more are scheduled to fall victim to the tax hike. By 2019, TPC figures nearly 800,000 would be in the bulls-eye, although that is still fewer than 1 percent of all taxpayers. Over the decade, the surtax is projected to raise nearly a half-trillion dollars. But because income subject to the surtax does not increase with inflation, annual tax revenues would grow from about $30 billion in 2011 to $70 billion in 2019.

11/06 12:11 PM Share

The Fall of the Berlin Wall [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

Watch Reagan Library discussions today here.

George Weigel, Peter Robinson, Michael Rubin, Dinesh D'Souza, and more react to President Obama's decision not to go to Berlin here.

11/06 12:08 PM Share

Re: Implications of the 10.2 Percent [Veronique de Rugy]

One of the obvious implications is that the stimulus spending is far from having the impact promised by the administration back in February. It is also a rather burning indictment of Christina Romer's ability to predict job-creation numbers. Remember that the statement about unemployment reaching 8.8 percent next year without the stimulus?

Here is something intriguing: According to this piece in yesterday's New York Times, worker productivity in the U.S. has surged in the third quarter:

In the first report, the Labor Department says productivity, the amount of output per hour of work, was rising at an annual rate of 9.5 percent in the third quarter, much better than the 6.4 percent gain economists had expected. Unit labor costs fell at a 5.2 percent rate.

Usually, a productivity surge is the sign of looming recovery. In this case, it isn't. Are we about to become like Europe, where many economies have high productivity and high unemployment? Or are we entering a lost decade, as the Japanese did in the 1990s?

11/06 12:03 PM Share

Doing More of the Things That Caused the Financial Meltdown [Veronique de Rugy]

Here's part of a speech that Candidate Obama gave in Ohio in October 2008, a few weeks before he was easily elected president of the United States.

Part of the reason this crisis occurred is that everyone was living beyond their means—from Wall Street to Washington to even some on Main Street. CEOs got greedy. Politicians spent money they didn't have. Lenders tricked people into buying homes they couldn't afford and some folks knew they couldn't afford them and bought them anyway. We've lived through an era of easy money, in which we were allowed and even encouraged to spend without limits; to borrow instead of save.

Here the president identifies several state actions that caused or enabled the financial meltdown, ranging from problems in the financial sector to the collapse of housing prices. He noted both monetary and fiscal policy that made money incredibly cheap, thus incentivizing anybody who could to borrow more and more money. The government spent too much money AND he tips his hat to government programs designed to increase the percentage of people who owned homes.

Yet, all he has done since he took office is to do more of the same things that got us in this mess in the first place — just at a bigger scale. The extension and expension of the $8,000 tax credit is a good example of that. The cost of the whole thing is $11 billion. And who wants to bet it will be more, not to mention the terrible distortions such a program introduces to the economy?

Keep reading this post . . .

11/06 11:56 AM Share

Alternative to the (Very Cool) FlipTree [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

Here.

11/06 11:45 AM Share

The 'Forgotten' President [Victor Davis Hanson]

In his remarks yesterday to Native American leaders, the president said, "I know what it means to feel ignored and forgotten, and what it means to struggle. So you will not be forgotten as long as I'm in this White House."

I don't quite know what "ignored" and "forgotten" means in this particular context (apparently it was not a reference to the behavior of Obama's absent Kenyan father or the caring custodianship of his grandparents). The president went to prep school, the elite and exorbitantly priced private Occidental College, the Ivy League's Columbia University, and Harvard Law School, either through grants and scholarships or government-subsidized loans. In truth, American society did a great deal to ensure that Barack Obama was neither "ignored" nor "forgotten" but in fact given opportunity at the nexus of American privilege and influence.

Nor do I think (cf. the implication of Obama's "this White House" comment) that either the Clinton or Bush White Houses "forgot" Native Americans; in fact, they actually increased spending on so-called Indian affairs and looked favorably on the multibillion-dollar Native American gaming industry.

The president has repeatedly communicated the message that various groups — African Americans, Native Americans, Hispanics, Muslims, etc. — have been maltreated by past generations of illiberal Americans, though not by our president, who is exempt from such sins and belongs to the "ignored" and "forgotten" victim category that is forced to "struggle."

Politically, I think this only reminds one that the Ayers/Pfleger/Wright issues continue to resonate.

11/06 11:42 AM Share

'The Turnaround Fallacy' [Ramesh Ponnuru]

Maybe instead of trying to restructure failing schools, we should close them. Andrew Smarick writes:

We shouldn’t be surprised then that turnarounds in urban education have largely failed. The surprise and shame is that urban public education, unlike nearly every other industry, profession, and field, has never developed a sensible solution to its continuous failures. After undergoing improvement efforts, a struggling private firm that continues to lose money will close, get taken over, or go bankrupt. Unfit elected officials are voted out of office. The worst lawyers can be disbarred, and the most negligent doctors can lose their licenses. Urban school districts, at long last, need an equivalent.

The beginning of the solution is establishing a clear process for closing schools. The simplest and best way to put this into operation is the charter model. Each school, in conjunction with the state or district, would develop a five-year contract with performance measures. Consistent failure to meet goals in key areas would result in closure. Alternatively, the state could decide that districts only have one option—not five—for schools reaching NCLB-mandated restructuring: closure.

11/06 11:26 AM Share

Behold the Flip Tree! [Ramesh Ponnuru]

Some friends of mine (and of NR) are behind this nifty new product. If you want to set up a Christmas tree with no hassle, check it out; I'm definitely using one.

11/06 11:17 AM Share

Anyone Can Vote But the Voters [Ramesh Ponnuru]

Jo-Ann Armao, writing about same-sex marriage for the Washington Post, argues that "the inalienable rights of human beings cannot — and should not — be subject to a popularity contest." Is she against legislators voting on the issue? No. Judges? No, again. It's only when the electorate at large votes that she has an objection. Maybe there is a good reason for thinking that these issues should not be decided by a popular referendum; but this argument about popularity contests, although widespread, is not one of them.

11/06 11:12 AM Share

Doctor! Doctor! [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

Bob Costa is reporting on health care from the Hill. Stay tuned to the latest NRO blog over the next 24-36 or more hours.

For analysis of what's happening from health-care policy experts, read "Critical Condition." New posts from Grace-Marie Turner, James Capretta, Tevi Troy, and more are up this morning. More to come.

11/06 11:07 AM Share

Despair [Maggie Gallagher]

Despair is a spiritual weapon, and it is the gay-marriage movement's single most powerful weapon.

I understand that, and therefore I understand why gay-marriage advocates use it so often. But why do we pro-marriage conservatives use it on ourselves so often?

Maggie's rule: Don't say about any cause you think important, "this cause is hopeless," unless you want people to give up. That's the only good reason to say it. Culture wars are over, like all wars, when one side is persuaded to give up the fight.

You feel hopeless about a cause? I understand. There's lots of good work to be done in the world — go do something about which you have hope. But don't get in the way of those of us who are in the middle of the fight. Because, after all, it's the future we are talking about — and you could be wrong!

I suspect the reason pro-marriage conservatives say it so often, is that is has become a magic talisman of intellectual sophistication. "I am not part of the stupid party, I understand reality."

(I love Rod Dreher by the way, who is unfailingly kind to me even though every time I comment publicly about something he writes I am ranking on him.)

Can the powerful gay-marriage movement be stopped? I don't know. I promise you one thing though: I am going to find out.

11/06 11:03 AM Share

Mind the Mandate Gap [Rich Lowry]

My take on the election here. Obama's basic problem? He's got a mandate gap.

11/06 11:03 AM Share

Abortion Is a 'Loving Decision' [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

Northland Family Planning Centers features a chilling video —"Everyday Good Women Choose Abortion" — on their website, convincing women of the "goodness" of abortion. A woman reads from a sign they seem to consider their motto there: "We do sacred work that honors women and the circle of life and death. When you come here, bring only Love."

It breaks my heart to think a woman who is thinking about an abortion might happen upon it. Or a woman who is living with the pain of her choice would be pushed into deeper denial by it.

If you are pregnant and scared or have had an abortion and are looking for something other than brainwashing about the goodness of your choice to end a child's life, here and here are a start.

11/06 10:57 AM Share

Political Correctness and the Ft. Hood Shooting [Stephanie Gutmann]

"Overseas, you are ready for it. But here, you can't even defend yourself," said Jerry Richard, a Fort Hood solider who was nearby when Major Nidal Hasan went on his shooting rampage.

What do the Pentagon bureaucrats have to say about that? If soliders on this base had been allowed to carry the weapons they use overseas, the service weapons they train with, Hasan would have been able to shoot perhaps one or two people, not 41. (As of this writing, 13 are dead, 28 wounded.)

"It's a tragedy to lose soldiers overseas and even more horrifying when they come under fire at an Army base on U.S. soil," said President Obama.

Indeed. How ironic: Survive Iraq or Afghanistan then get picked off like a game bird in a bland, institutional "Soldier Readiness Center" in Texas.

Soldiers in other countries are allowed to carry arms on base and even when they are off-duty. In Israel, for instance, soldiers are issued a rifle and then . . . it's theirs. One sees slender 18-year-old girls, traveling from base, home to the suburbs for Shabbat dinner, still slung with a massive M-16 rifle almost as big as they are. The prevelance of arms doesn't mean the country experiences the kind of random mass murders seen in the United States. It means that the few times someone has gone crazy with a gun in a city street, he was taken down fast by bystanders.

But not American soldiers. When asked if ordinary soldiers nearby had been carrying their service weapons, Fort Hood spokesman Lt. Gen Robert Cone said piously, "We do not carry weapons. This is our home." Defense is out-sourced to military police, or even — oh the indignity! — to civilian policemen.

This is not the first time American soldiers have been victims of politically correct policies. In 2000, Navy brass were so concerned about appearing to be "sensitive guests" in Yemen's Port of Aden, that sailors patrolling the deck of the U.S.S. Cole were not allowed to carry loaded weapons. The ship did not deploy "picket boats" and establish a perimeter. In other words, the destroyer was totally unprotected when a small motorized skiff packed with explosives steered by two men, now believed to have been al-Qaeda, plowed into it's hull, killing 17.

Even two hours after the attack, as the wounded ship listed in the harbor, sentries spotted yet another small skiff motoring deliberately toward the them. One of them raised his rifle and aimed, not to shoot them — he couldn't have — but in the spirit (as he told Navy Times) of "Nobody's getting near this ship." Almost immediately, his superior told him, "Let me tell you somthing about the rules of engagement. You can't point a loaded weapon at these people. That's an act of aggression."

The U.S. military would like to pretend it's not about defense and aggression, and it's sacrificed many young men and women to maintain this fiction. How many more victims of political correctness can we afford?

— Stephanie Gutmann is the author of The Kinder, Gentler Military: How Political Correctness Affects Our Ability to Win Wars.

11/06 10:46 AM Share

The Progressive Delusion Cont'd [Jonah Goldberg]

From one of my Wall Street Guys:

Jonah,
I’m quite torn over what I’d like to see the Obama Whitehouse do with the economy. So far, every economic move he’s made has been pedestrian and straight from the progressive playbook. And since we on Wall Street have all seen this movie before, what comes next has been highly predictable. I’m a portfolio manager at a large hedge fund so I make my living predicting results not hoping for growth. That has made Obama a boon for me personally.

As an American I’d love it if he’d embrace the free market reality and start doing things that would actually help create jobs. But the economy will recover eventually no matter what he does. In the meantime, as a professional investor I’m delighted to see him embrace the bat guano. It’s bad for America but good for me personally. There’s more than a little irony in that because as a (comparatively) rich, white, southern, quant who works on Wall Street and has built a career trading derivatives, I’m almost certainly the guy that they would most like to punish for any success.

I have a friend who is a currency trading legend (and also a major AEI money man) whose conservative credentials are beyond doubt. He’s a little older and can remember what it was like to trade the markets during the Carter administration. When I was lamenting Obama’s impending election with him last year he said to me, in a glass half full fashion which is typical of him:

“It’s never easier to make money in the markets than when there is a Democrat in the Whitehouse who thinks he’s smarter than everyone else”.

So far he’s been dead on, but I think it would be better for all of us if he wasn’t.

11/06 10:28 AM Share