http://corner.nationalreview.com The Corner is the premiere blog of National Review Online, the Internet's number-one source for conservative opinion and analysis. en-us © National Review Online 2009. All Rights Reserved webmaster@nationalreview.com (NRO Webmaster) Sat, 07 Nov 2009 11:39:01 -0500 Sat, 07 Nov 2009 11:39:01 -0500 NRO RSS Generator v1.0 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 5 http://www2.nationalreview.com/images/nro_rsslogo.jpg http://corner.nationalreview.com 144 80 National Review Online webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NjFkOTAzMTMwMTA4ZmI4NWFlZjU4YjIyZDVhNWYyYTA= <a href="http://campaignspot.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZWUyMmQwNjM3MTE1YzRlZTRhZGRiZjM3ZTg4NDQ0Y2U=">Jim Geraghty offers a cautionary tale for Democrats</a>.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NjFkOTAzMTMwMTA4ZmI4NWFlZjU4YjIyZDVhNWYyYTA= Sat, 07 Nov 2009 11:04:52 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NjBhYzU4NGY3NjExZTYzZTdlOTRhYzExNmUwNjg0YjY= That's the GOP message this morning, as reflected in <a href="http://www.wlos.com/template/inews_wire/wires.national/35d342f5-www.wlos.com.shtml">their radio address</a> from Haley Barbour:</p> <blockquote> <p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="-small;"><span>WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republicans say Democrats should scrap their ambitious health care legislation in favor of more modest changes.</span></span></p> <p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="-small;"><span>The House is expected to vote today on Democrats' sweeping overhaul legislation that aims to extend coverage to tens of millions of uninsured Americans while banning some insurance industry practices.</span></span></p> <p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="-small;"><span>In the GOP's weekly radio and Internet address, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour says the plan should be "withdrawn and reworked," arguing it's too expensive and will "clobber small businesses" and hinder job growth.</span></span></p> <p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="-small;"><span>He also said Tuesday's elections, in which Democrats lost two governors' races, sent a message that voters care about jobs, not growing the size of government. <br /></span></span></p> <p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="-small;"><span>He called the elections a "fire alarm" and said they'll get Washington focused on job creation and economic growth.</span></span></p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NjBhYzU4NGY3NjExZTYzZTdlOTRhYzExNmUwNjg0YjY= Sat, 07 Nov 2009 10:25:40 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MjQ5ODMwYTkwNGZlYzc5ZGQyYmY1NGNiZTdkMDhiNGI= I've been getting a few e-mails like this one over the last ten hours or so:</p> <blockquote> <p><span><span style="-small;"><a href="http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OGZiYmNhYWVkN2RjZWZhMjI3NzMwZjE2MDBkODIwNDY=">Your email</a> from a woman who spent time a Rosalia founding home who gave her baby girl up for adoption through Catholic charities in Pittsburgh brought a tear to my eye this morning.  For I was born in the late 1960's, in Pittsburgh and adopted through Catholic charities, though I am male.  What a different world this would be if those events were more common today.  All the lost treasure and talent.  </span></span></p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MjQ5ODMwYTkwNGZlYzc5ZGQyYmY1NGNiZTdkMDhiNGI= Sat, 07 Nov 2009 10:22:16 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MDA1ODkyYmJlMjI4ZGJiZWI1YmM3MTM1OWM3OTVlMjA= <a href="http://cbs11tv.com/wireapnewstx/George.W.Bush.2.1298076.html">visited Fort Hood families last night</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p><span class="cbstv_attribution" style="padding-right: 4px;">FORT HOOD, Texas (AP) ― </span> Former President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, visited wounded soldiers and their families near the site of the worst mass shooting on an Army post in the United States.<br /><br /> The Bushes made their private visit to Fort Hood's Darnall Army Medical Center on Friday night. Bush spokesman David Sherzer said in an e-mail that the couple thanked Fort Hood's military leaders and hospital staff for the "amazing care they are providing."</p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MDA1ODkyYmJlMjI4ZGJiZWI1YmM3MTM1OWM3OTVlMjA= Sat, 07 Nov 2009 10:20:19 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MWE3YzhkYzIwNDg2NjliOTY1YWMwNWU1MjIyNTkzNmQ= And some arguments that might encourage them may be in <a href="http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=OGM0ZTFiMmViY2MzNDZmYjUxZmVkM2QyMDYwOTdkYjU=">our editorial</a> this morning. This is the summation:</p> <blockquote> <p><span>There are other ways to reform health care<a class="iAs" style="border-bottom: 0.075em solid darkgreen ! important; font-weight: normal ! important; ! important; text-decoration: underline ! important; padding-bottom: 1px ! important; ! important; background-! important; background-image: none; padding-top: 0pt; padding-right: 0pt; padding-left: 0pt;" href="http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=OGM0ZTFiMmViY2MzNDZmYjUxZmVkM2QyMDYwOTdkYjU=#" target="_blank"></a>. There are more sensible, market-based, moderate approaches — and, more important, there is no need to pack every reform into one sweeping bill, larded up with special favors and irresponsible spending, that will radically remake the American economy and health-care system. Radicalism may be in fashion in Nancy Pelosi’s district and in the salons in which Barack Obama was educated, but it may be less so in south Texas, rural Ohio, northeastern Pennsylvania, western Colorado, and other places where Democrats will have to face the voters again soon enough. Let us hope that enough of them are willing to show some restraint — and to put the national interest over President Obama’s ambitions — that they are able to put the brakes on this mess before we go any farther down this road.</span></p> </blockquote> <p><span><a href="http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=OGM0ZTFiMmViY2MzNDZmYjUxZmVkM2QyMDYwOTdkYjU=">Read the whole thing</a>. Maybe send it to a friend and member of Congress, too.<br /></span></p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MWE3YzhkYzIwNDg2NjliOTY1YWMwNWU1MjIyNTkzNmQ= Sat, 07 Nov 2009 10:10:47 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Andrew Stuttaford) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YzEyZGEwZjMwNzQwZjkyMjVhOWYyZGVhYjZhNTU2MmE= <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Al Gore is notoriously keen on imposing new laws in the interests of fighting <span style="mso-ansi-language: EN;" lang="EN">“</span>climate change,<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN;" lang="EN">”</span> but to him some laws (or so it seems from <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/06/gore-copenhagen-climate-civil-disobedience" target="_blank">this interview</a> with Gore in the <em>Guardian) </em>are more equal than others:</p> <blockquote> <p class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="EN"><span style="-small;">Amid increasing incidents of climate protesters disrupting the operations of fossil-fuel industries and airports in Britain and elsewhere, Gore suggests the scale of the emergency means non-violent lawbreaking is justified. "Civil disobedience has an honourable history, and when the urgency and moral clarity cross a certain threshold, then I think that civil disobedience is quite understandable, and it has a role to play," he says. "And I expect that it will increase, no question about it."</span></span></p> </blockquote> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN;" lang="EN">And who defines “urgency,” and who “moral clarity,” Mr. Gore? </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN;" lang="EN"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: " lang="EN">After all the screeching and whining about the tea-party crowd’s alleged disdain for the usual democratic process, I will look forward to hearing how the White House and its claque respond to what Gore has just said. </span></p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YzEyZGEwZjMwNzQwZjkyMjVhOWYyZGVhYjZhNTU2MmE= Sat, 07 Nov 2009 10:10:09 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ODFjOTA1MDAxZGJkMDZjYmIwZmYwN2RkMGNmMDI0ODg= <a href="http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/note.php?note_id=168828228434&ref=nf">FB, natch</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>What’s in this bill? The “death panel” provision is in it. Medicare cuts are in it. Coverage of illegal immigrants is in it. And federal funding for abortion is in it. I commend the many Republicans and Blue Dog Democrats who are taking a principled stance to fight this. <br /> <br /> I had a message for Speaker Pelosi in a speech I gave last night for the Wisconsin Right to Life - “please, please don’t break the ‘transparency promise’ by prohibiting at least a vote of your colleagues on funding abortion-on-demand.” <br /> <br />Speaker Pelosi has already broken many promises thus far in this “reform” exercise. She promised that this would be a bi-partisan effort, but the bill she’s pushing isn’t bi-partisan. She promised that the final version of the bill would be posted online 72 hours before it comes to a vote so that the American people could clearly see what’s in it and how we will pay for it. But she broke that promise too when she decided to rush the bill to a vote this weekend. <br /> <br />The speaker must be held accountable for her broken promises. Now is the time for Americans who believe in the free market and who believe that we need policies that promote job growth instead of job loss to say once and for all, “Enough!” Stand up and make your voices heard before it’s too late. Call and email your representatives and tell them to vote “no” on Pelosi’s train wreck of a health care bill, or else we will vote “no” to sending them back to Washington when we go to the polls in less than 12 months. <br /> <br /> - Sarah Palin<br /> <br /> PS: For an idea of the bureaucratic maze that the Pelosi bill would create, take a look at <a title="http://republicanleader.house.gov/blog/?p=670" href="https://mail.nationalreview.com/owa/redir.aspx?C=b881e6f6d6f24e74b30471e5cd9f61e6&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.facebook.com%2fnote_redirect.php%3fnote_id%3d168828228434%26h%3d2fbc817047b64a3010a3d76558b2fa04%26url%3dhttp%253A%252F%252Frepublicanleader.house.gov%252Fblog%252F%253Fp%253D670" target="_blank"> this new chart</a> put out by the Joint Economic Committee.</p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ODFjOTA1MDAxZGJkMDZjYmIwZmYwN2RkMGNmMDI0ODg= Sat, 07 Nov 2009 10:07:00 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MGRkYTVjNDIzZWVkZWQ4MTM1YWM5ZmY3NjAwZWM5ZTk= Keep an eye on "<a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/doctor/">Doctor! Doctor!</a>" today, Bob Costa's on the Hill to find out!<br /><br />Paul Ryan on Pelosi's "destiny moment" <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/doctor/post/?q=MTZjZDBiYWFiMWYxYmUzOGIxNGUxOWEyNTdhZmMyNzA=">here</a> and the high-cost burden on the shoulders of Blue Dogs <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/doctor/post/?q=MDdhYTA0ODZkYjMwOWQ4M2Y1ZTQ5NGEyMTExNGJmYzA=">here</a>.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MGRkYTVjNDIzZWVkZWQ4MTM1YWM5ZmY3NjAwZWM5ZTk= Sat, 07 Nov 2009 10:02:24 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Jonah Goldberg) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MTU4ZDBmMmRhMGQ0MDZlMjk1YWE4MzcxNDVmMzI5ZDM= From <a href="https://news.fidelity.com/news/news.jhtml?articleid=200911070714RTRSNEWSCOMBINED_TRE5A60NF_1&cat=Top.Investing.RT&IMG=Y">Reuters</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>World governments should consider urgently a levy on banks to fund future bailouts, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Saturday, departing from London's longstanding resistance to a global tax.</p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MTU4ZDBmMmRhMGQ0MDZlMjk1YWE4MzcxNDVmMzI5ZDM= Sat, 07 Nov 2009 09:31:38 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Jonah Goldberg) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ODczZWFhNzI5YjA1ZTQ2ODQ5MTQ1MTY0YWU1NDc3NDc= <a href="http://charliefoxtrotblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/viva-reagan.html">Hah</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>Democrats counter that their agenda has kick-started a recovery on Wall Street,<em><strong> even if it hasn't trickled down to the job market yet, and that Republicans are putting what they've begun at risk.</strong></em></p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ODczZWFhNzI5YjA1ZTQ2ODQ5MTQ1MTY0YWU1NDc3NDc= Sat, 07 Nov 2009 09:03:20 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Mark Steyn) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MWRjODhlYWE4YzViOTFjMWExN2Y2MDA0N2VkNzdkMmI= The Nothing-to-see-here media continue to do a grand job. <a href="http://hotair.com/archives/2009/11/06/chris-matthews-we-may-never-know-if-religion-was-a-factor-at-fort-hood/">Chris Matthews</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>We may never know if religion was a factor at Fort Hood.</p> </blockquote> <p>That's almost certainly true in your case, Chris.</p> <p>As for yelling "Allahu akbar" as you open fire, Michael Tomasky, one of the American lefties on the <em>Guardian</em>'s payroll, <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/michaeltomasky/2009/nov/06/fort-hood-allahu-akbar" target="_blank">explains it for us know-nothings</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>The fact that Hassan reportedly shouted the above is meant, I suppose, to imply that he was an extremist fanatic.</p> <p>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.</p> </blockquote> <p>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 "<a href="http://www.iol.co.za/general/newsview.php?art_id=ct20011127190343896P450397&click_id=3&set_id=1" target="_blank">do</a> <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/1458582/Allah-is-great-and-we-are-going-to-die-killing-shouted-one-of-the-terrorists.html" target="_blank">something</a> <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2626825.stm" target="_blank">or</a> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/05/international/europe/05scene.html?_r=1" target="_blank">other</a>." No need to dive under the table.</p> <p>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 <a href="http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/archives/012599.html" target="_blank">Kate McMillan</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>"Allahu akbar." It's the new "cry for help".</p> </blockquote> <p>P.S. If in doubt, blame <a href="http://blog.beliefnet.com/cityofbrass/2009/11/fort-hood-shooting-on-guy-fawk.html" target="_blank">English Catholics</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>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.</p> </blockquote> <p>Surely.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MWRjODhlYWE4YzViOTFjMWExN2Y2MDA0N2VkNzdkMmI= Sat, 07 Nov 2009 08:35:32 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Ed Whelan) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NTAzMjViYTBjNmY5MWY3MjAwNDNjNGM4NzI1MTE5ODk= <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An excerpt from this LifeNews.com <a href="http://www.lifenews.com/nat5629.html">report</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p class="MsoNormal">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.<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">"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."<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">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.</p> </blockquote> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">The vote is expected to take place <em>today</em>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Information on how to contact your House member is available <a href="http://www.capwiz.com/nrlc/callalert/index.tt?alertid=14236481&type=CO">here</a>.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NTAzMjViYTBjNmY5MWY3MjAwNDNjNGM4NzI1MTE5ODk= Sat, 07 Nov 2009 06:20:07 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Michael Ledeen) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZjZhODVjMzg0MGNmNzk2OTU2YzI0MTQyY2Q2YTdkOTE= 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.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZjZhODVjMzg0MGNmNzk2OTU2YzI0MTQyY2Q2YTdkOTE= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:44:40 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MWM2OWM5ZWZiMGYxNmVjMzM1NWIyNDk4ZjVjMDcxYmI= 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.<br /><br />(Fr. Thomas Williams has a <a href="http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=OTQwZDBjZDhmMTkxMzY4ZDE5ODlhNDEyOTBiMzYxOTg=">good piece</a> on Catholics and health care, BTW. And you may be interested in Bishop Conley from Denver who <a href="http://healthcare.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZjY1ZGZkYjRhNGNlZGNkNjVlYzUzMWU5NmRmNjI1NmU=">says</a> the legislation they are looking at is inadequate, baffling, insulting, and dangerous.)</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MWM2OWM5ZWZiMGYxNmVjMzM1NWIyNDk4ZjVjMDcxYmI= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:10:14 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MjE5ZmQxMWJlOTE2NWMwMDA4NDI1ZTc5MDRlNDk1NDI= <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/doctor/post/?q=MDdhYzM2NDFmMmY2NTkxMWRjZWRhYzMyY2FhOGUzNDU=">as Steny Hoyer tries to play down abortion</a>.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MjE5ZmQxMWJlOTE2NWMwMDA4NDI1ZTc5MDRlNDk1NDI= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:06:38 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YTY4NzEwZjI4MmFkNjA2NDIzNjM1MzA0OGI5NWIzNzE= <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/doctor/post/?q=ZTVkYzgzZTRlODA4MWRhMTY1OTM5ZGU1YzI3MjQ2Y2U=">says</a> there is no deal, in an exchange with <em>NRO</em>.</p> <p>Background for the Yuval reference <a href="http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YTNmYjFjMTI0NmE0ZWJmMTFmNmM5Yzc1MGRiNTNhZWI=">here</a>.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YTY4NzEwZjI4MmFkNjA2NDIzNjM1MzA0OGI5NWIzNzE= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:04:27 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (NRO Staff) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MmJjMDA2NTVhMTRlMWMzN2I1MzllNTNmYjA1NGE2Mzk= <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/doctor/post/?q=YmRmMzg4MmQ1NzYxNDEyY2EzNWM0ZDZjZDhhM2QyM2Q=">Waxman admits as much</a>.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MmJjMDA2NTVhMTRlMWMzN2I1MzllNTNmYjA1NGE2Mzk= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:02:21 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Mark Steyn) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NjlhMTk3YjhiMWNiNTE0OTBmOTc1ZjQ4MzM0MjFlMWQ= The Headline of the Day, from <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8347586.stm" target="_blank">the BBC</a>:</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;"><strong>Shooting Raises Fears For Muslims In US Army</strong></p> <p>Really? Right now the body count stands at:</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;">Non-Muslims 13<br />Muslims 0</p> <p>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 <a href="http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NzA2Y2E2MDU2YjQzOTQwZjUzNjcwZDA0OTE3YmFkYzg=">note-perfect parody</a>:</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;"><strong>British Muslims Fear Repercussions Over Tomorrow's Train Bombing</strong></p> <p>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.</p> <p>On a related note, from David Horowitz: "<a href="http://newsrealblog.com/2009/11/06/our-brain-dead-country/" target="_blank">Is everybody out of their mind?</a>"</p> <p>Bonus: "We're the ones who love death - <a href="http://deborahgyapong.blogspot.com/2009/11/david-horowitz-asks-is-everybody-out-of.html" target="_blank">our own</a>." </p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NjlhMTk3YjhiMWNiNTE0OTBmOTc1ZjQ4MzM0MjFlMWQ= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:28:42 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Michael Rubin) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZDlmMjE2MGI2MGFmYWI2Y2UxNTcxZDE0NWRkM2Y4NDQ= 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. </p> <p>To counter such notions, Raymond Ibrahim's article, "<a href="http://www.meforum.org/2159/are-judaism-and-christianity-as-violent-as-islam">Are Judaism and Christianity as Violent as Islam?</a>," is certainly worth a weekend read.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZDlmMjE2MGI2MGFmYWI2Y2UxNTcxZDE0NWRkM2Y4NDQ= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:47:08 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YzZlYjU0MGI0NDk2NTE4MzU4OTg2ZDEwOTllMjgzYzU= keep an eye on "The Corner" (for the usual and unusual) & "<a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/doctor/">Doctor! Doctor!</a>" (live reporting from the Hill) & "<a href="http://healthcare.nationalreview.com/">Critical Condition</a>" (health-care policy analysis) for continuing health-care and other coverage. (And don't forget to read your Saturday Steyn tomorrow!)</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YzZlYjU0MGI0NDk2NTE4MzU4OTg2ZDEwOTllMjgzYzU= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:34:12 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MmNhMGU2MWQ5Njc3MjU0ZDcxZjZkOWFmZGE4NTdiMDg= <a href="http://www.heartbeatinternational.org/">Another link</a> for options for pregnant women.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MmNhMGU2MWQ5Njc3MjU0ZDcxZjZkOWFmZGE4NTdiMDg= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:28:19 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Andy McCarthy) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZmE4NTdmOTVmNTI5MmJkNzMwNjdmNTUxOTZlMzVlYTE= President Obama today in the Rose Garden, <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iwYEFasV3WqznkJoN2-BwTxAN4fgD9BQ67B80">speaking about</a> 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."</p> <p>So, at the <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org:80/1500/introspection-not-rationalization-needed-in-wake">Investigative Project on Terrorism</a>, 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 <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120138496" target="_blank">proselytizing</a> to his patients about Islam. Asked his nationality, he didn't identify himself as an American but <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1225712/Fort-Hood-shootings-Who-Nidal-Malik-Hasan.html" target="_blank">as a Palestinian</a>. He appeared pleased by the shooting death of a Little Rock Army recruiter in June and reportedly was <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/6511591/Fort-Hood-shooting-Nidal-Malik-Hasan-said-Muslims-should-rise-up.html" target="_blank">heard saying</a>, 'maybe people should strap bombs on themselves and go to Times Square.' In the fateful moment before he opened fire on his unarmed victims, <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,572448,00.html" target="_blank">he shouted</a> Allahu Akhbar!'"</p> <p>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.</p> <p>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.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZmE4NTdmOTVmNTI5MmJkNzMwNjdmNTUxOTZlMzVlYTE= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:48:51 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Peter Wehner) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NmIxYzVhM2JjYTZmMDc0OTFjZGM0Y2MxNmFmNjI3YTU= <span>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.<br /> <br /> 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 <a href="http://www.promusicahebraica.org/"><span>here</span></a>. You won’t regret it.</span></p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NmIxYzVhM2JjYTZmMDc0OTFjZGM0Y2MxNmFmNjI3YTU= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:59:53 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Ramesh Ponnuru) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NTk3MDVjODJmNjgyYzQyZWU4NTRiNTE2ZTI3M2Q0M2E= Check out <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2009/11/06/DI2009110601285.html">Thomas Kenniff's Q&A</a> with <em>Washington Post</em> readers.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NTk3MDVjODJmNjgyYzQyZWU4NTRiNTE2ZTI3M2Q0M2E= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:46:23 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OGZiYmNhYWVkN2RjZWZhMjI3NzMwZjE2MDBkODIwNDY= An e-mail: </p> <blockquote> <p>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.</p> </blockquote> <p>In regard to the Foundling -- <a href="http://www.nyfoundling.org/">there are still such places</a>, thank goodness.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OGZiYmNhYWVkN2RjZWZhMjI3NzMwZjE2MDBkODIwNDY= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:45:48 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YTllMmZmNDdlZjU1ZmY4NTgxOTNkMjk4MTIwZGM3ZjQ= An e-mail:</p> <blockquote> <p>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.</p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YTllMmZmNDdlZjU1ZmY4NTgxOTNkMjk4MTIwZGM3ZjQ= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:42:02 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Michael Rubin) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NjU5Mjc3YWI3YmFhN2FhMDI5OWY4OGJkZDAzYjZiZjY= As an addendum to my <a href="http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YTllNTkxYWZlMmM2NGYyMTJiYWE2MGQ0ZDMzMzhhNWQ=">last post</a>, 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, <a href="http://www.meforum.org/717/assessing-english-translations-of-the-quran">here</a>, 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?</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NjU5Mjc3YWI3YmFhN2FhMDI5OWY4OGJkZDAzYjZiZjY= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:35:38 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (NRO Staff) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=Mjg5MTRhODZhYWNiYmRiYmEzYWJjY2VkZTdmODM1ZDQ= <a href="http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-shooting-reported-downtown-orlando-20091106,0,2423882.story">in Orlando</a>.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=Mjg5MTRhODZhYWNiYmRiYmEzYWJjY2VkZTdmODM1ZDQ= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:29:04 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MDhkMjczZjdjOTE0NTc1Njc3ZmZiYTNjNDYxODg5NjY= An e-mail: </p> <blockquote> <p>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.   <br /><br />Winning hearts and minds takes persistence. 30 years of persistence is an accomplishment when the deck is stacked against you.</p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MDhkMjczZjdjOTE0NTc1Njc3ZmZiYTNjNDYxODg5NjY= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:28:41 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZDFkMWRhZTQxNDJmNzcwYWZkOWVlODlkMmUxMDkyNGY= <a href="http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/fort_hood_xjP9yGrJN7gl7zdsJ31vnJ#ixzz0W6qNBJmR">New from the </a><a href="http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/fort_hood_xjP9yGrJN7gl7zdsJ31vnJ#ixzz0W6qNBJmR"><em>New York Post</em></a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>Hasan isn’t the sole guilty party. The US Army’s unforgivable political correctness is also to blame for the casualties at Ft. Hood.</p> <p>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. . . .</p> <p>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.</p> <p>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?</p> <p>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.</p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZDFkMWRhZTQxNDJmNzcwYWZkOWVlODlkMmUxMDkyNGY= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:24:59 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Michael Rubin) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YTllNTkxYWZlMmM2NGYyMTJiYWE2MGQ0ZDMzMzhhNWQ= Over at <a href="http://weeklystandard.com/Weblogs/TWSFP/TWSFPView.asp"><em>The Weekly Standard</em></a>, 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 <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/jan/04/inside-the-ring-83234302/"><em>Washington Times</em></a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>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.</p> </blockquote> <p>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.</p> <p>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 <em>Middle East Quarterly </em>articles:</p> <p>"<a href="http://www.meforum.org/1826/contrasting-secular-and-religious-terrorism">Contrasting Secular and Religious Terrorism</a>"</p> <p>"<a href="http://www.meforum.org/1754/peace-or-jihad-abrogation-in-islam">Peace of Jihad: Abrogation in Islam</a>"</p> <p>"<a href="http://www.meforum.org/1003/the-religious-foundations-of-suicide-bombings">The Religious Foundations of Suicide Bombings</a>"</p> <p>"<a href="http://www.meforum.org/713/beheading-in-the-name-of-islam">Beheading in the Name of Islam</a>"</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YTllNTkxYWZlMmM2NGYyMTJiYWE2MGQ0ZDMzMzhhNWQ= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:21:42 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Ramesh Ponnuru) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZGViNDc4NzYzMGU4OTY0YTZjZjU4Y2RkYmRhNGU3ZDc= 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.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZGViNDc4NzYzMGU4OTY0YTZjZjU4Y2RkYmRhNGU3ZDc= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:19:01 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OGRkZThlY2ZmNmNjM2MxNmFmMjczZmMzMjFiNDM3YTM= <a href="http://biggovernment.com/2009/11/06/breaking-acorns-new-orleans-office-raided-by-louisiana-attorney-generals-office/">BigGovernment.com reports</a>:</p> <blockquote> <h2><a href="http://biggovernment.com/2009/11/06/breaking-acorns-new-orleans-office-raided-by-louisiana-attorney-generals-office/">ACORN’s New Orleans Office Raided by Louisiana Attorney General’s Office</a></h2> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OGRkZThlY2ZmNmNjM2MxNmFmMjczZmMzMjFiNDM3YTM= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:17:54 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NmQxODQxNzc5MjBhZTE1ZTc3MGRmNzQ2MjkxNGVhYTU= 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.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NmQxODQxNzc5MjBhZTE1ZTc3MGRmNzQ2MjkxNGVhYTU= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:04:03 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (NRO Staff) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OWU1ZmNiYzdlODM0NjE1Zjc2YjIxODY4MzRjNDVjODc= Kathryn Jean Lopez <a href="http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MTRmMWIyNjNhN2NjNTMzYmVkNmQ1N2UxYWIwMjVlNGU=">responds</a> to Maureen Dowd’s comment that nuns are second-class citizens in today's episode of Off the Page.</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://tv.nationalreview.com/offthepage/post/?q=NmYzOTNmM2QzNTY4NWU2MWRiMDM4ZTNlNmFkMGZmZDA="><img src="http://www2.nationalreview.com/dest/2009/11/04/c9a19fe1e64fd78732e3191a799f2b3e.jpg" alt="K-Lo goes off the page" width="450" height="254" /></a></p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OWU1ZmNiYzdlODM0NjE1Zjc2YjIxODY4MzRjNDVjODc= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:00:27 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Maggie Gallagher) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MjA0N2MxZTZhZTAzZTg1ZWIzMTE2OGJmMGYwZDIzNmM= Stephen Hayford, a reader and a friend, proposes a new term: "The Dede Effect":</p> <blockquote> <p>FYI, our best bet up here is that SSM may come to a vote Tuesday, but will not pass.<br /><br />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 <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/06/nyregion/06marriage.html?ref=nyregion">here</a>.<br /><br />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.</p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MjA0N2MxZTZhZTAzZTg1ZWIzMTE2OGJmMGYwZDIzNmM= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:32:51 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YmRmOTFlMTQxNmRjM2Q3NWQyYzRjZjNlNGJkYzhlZDI= <span><span style="-small;">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.<br /><br />That's not always an easy solution. But it actually is one that avoids ending a human life. </span></span></p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YmRmOTFlMTQxNmRjM2Q3NWQyYzRjZjNlNGJkYzhlZDI= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:27:06 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (NRO Staff) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NGI2YWJmYjM2MGYyOGZjMTJmNDg1ZGYwOTJiYTgxNzI= <p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; ">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 <em><a href="https://192.168.168.10/owa/redir.aspx?C=e477a599ce4941209b2d437828f0e290&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.sacbee.com%2ftopstories%2fstory%2f2309303.html" target="_blank">Sacramento Bee</a></em>:</span></p> <blockquote> <p>Up to one-fourth of the 110,000 jobs reported as saved by federal stimulus money in <a href="https://192.168.168.10/owa/redir.aspx?C=e477a599ce4941209b2d437828f0e290&URL=http%3a%2f%2ftopics.sacbee.com%2fCalifornia%2f" target="_blank">California</a> probably never were in danger, a Bee review has found. <a href="https://192.168.168.10/owa/redir.aspx?C=e477a599ce4941209b2d437828f0e290&URL=http%3a%2f%2ftopics.sacbee.com%2fCalifornia%2bState%2bUniversity%2f" target="_blank">California State University</a> officials reported late last week that they saved more jobs with stimulus money than the number of jobs saved in <a href="https://192.168.168.10/owa/redir.aspx?C=e477a599ce4941209b2d437828f0e290&URL=http%3a%2f%2ftopics.sacbee.com%2fTexas%2f" target="_blank">Texas</a> - 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 <a href="https://192.168.168.10/owa/redir.aspx?C=e477a599ce4941209b2d437828f0e290&URL=http%3a%2f%2ftopics.sacbee.com%2fCSU%2f" target="_blank">CSU's</a> statewide work force. However, university officials confirmed Thursday that half their workers were not going to be laid off without the stimulus dollars.</p> </blockquote> <p class="x_MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "> And here is the money quote:</span></p> <blockquote> <p>"This is not really a real number of people," <a href="https://192.168.168.10/owa/redir.aspx?C=e477a599ce4941209b2d437828f0e290&URL=http%3a%2f%2ftopics.sacbee.com%2fCSU%2f" target="_blank">CSU</a> spokeswoman <a href="https://192.168.168.10/owa/redir.aspx?C=e477a599ce4941209b2d437828f0e290&URL=http%3a%2f%2ftopics.sacbee.com%2fClara%2bPotes-Fellow%2f" target="_blank">Clara Potes-Fellow</a> said. "It's like a budget number."</p> </blockquote> <p class="bioline"><em>— 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 </em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Epic-Journey-Elections-American-Politics/dp/0742561364">Epic Journey: The 2008 Elections and American Politics</a>.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NGI2YWJmYjM2MGYyOGZjMTJmNDg1ZGYwOTJiYTgxNzI= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:26:12 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (NRO Staff) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NmJlMWJlZTZhNmMzYjI1MGJmZTI0MmFjMDAyNTc2ZDQ= <span style="-small;">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?<br /> <br /> The White House says zero. Their job numbers assume all $200 billion is “new” and supports jobs that would not otherwise exist.<br /> <br /> 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?<br /> <br /> 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.<br /> <br /> 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.<br /> <br /> Thus, it is possible that <em>all</em> $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.<br /> <br /> 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.<br /><br /> </span><span class="bioline"><em>— <a title="blocked::http://www.heritage.org/about/staff/BrianRiedl.cfm" href="https://mail.nationalreview.com/owa/redir.aspx?C=04addd4b1de445d1aa3e0242d96ace1f&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.heritage.org%2fabout%2fstaff%2fBrianRiedl.cfm" target="_blank">Brian Riedl</a> is Grover M. Hermann fellow in Federal Budgetary Affairs at the Heritage Foundation.</em></span><span style="-small;"><br /> </span></p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NmJlMWJlZTZhNmMzYjI1MGJmZTI0MmFjMDAyNTc2ZDQ= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:24:06 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (John Derbyshire) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=N2UxNmNjOTJjMDI3YWVhNzYzZGFhNzg0OTdlYmNlYzU= 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? <a href="http://www.pointoflaw.com/archives/2009/11/after-a-housing.php" target="_blank">Walter Olson spills the beans</a>.</p> <blockquote>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."</blockquote> <p>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 <a href="http://www.johnderbyshire.com/Opinions/USPolitics/civicguilt.html" target="_blank">seven years ago</a> -- but with characters like Ron Sims in charge, this one will really catch fire.</p> <p>If you care about your neighborhood -- or even just your zip code -- get ready to fight for it.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=N2UxNmNjOTJjMDI3YWVhNzYzZGFhNzg0OTdlYmNlYzU= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:18:14 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (John Derbyshire) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MWU2NmM5YjU4ZmEzYWYzN2U2YTlkM2JlNDY3OTljNzc= Sheesh, <a href="http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZWYwNWIyNTgwNjgxMzA0MjFjODAyMTNlM2M0MTk4NTY=" target="_blank">Mark</a>, I was only opening the thing for discussion.</p> <p>And where, exactly, was my failure to apprehend the unempirical nature of the Left? Half Sigma, the blogger I quoted, isn't even <em>on</em> the Left. Among his last 20-odd posts I note:</p> <blockquote><a href="http://www.halfsigma.com/2009/11/the-future-of-gay-marraige.html" target="_blank">Nov. 4</a>:  "The elites who control the Democratic Party strongly support gay marriage even though it’s not uniformly supported among Democratic voters …"</blockquote> <blockquote><a href="http://www.halfsigma.com/2009/11/good-news-for-people-who-hate-liberals-and-democrats.html" target="_blank">Nov. 3</a>:  "Good news for people who hate liberals and Democrats …"</blockquote> <blockquote><a href="http://www.halfsigma.com/2009/11/the-real-reason-why-europe-is-more-liberal.html" target="_blank">Nov. 3</a>:  "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 …"</blockquote> <blockquote><a href="http://www.halfsigma.com/2009/11/whats-going-on-in-ny-23.html" target="_blank">Nov. 2</a>:  "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 …"</blockquote> <blockquote><a href="http://www.halfsigma.com/2009/10/ny-times-loves-the-obamas.html" target="_blank">Oct. 29</a>:  "The <em>NY Times</em> Magazine preview demonstrates that the MSM still loves the Obamas …"</blockquote> <p>Some Leftie. As to your assertion that:</p> <blockquote>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 …</blockquote> <p>It seems to me rather easy to reconcile. A high-abortion-rate community with high rates of single-family households, would presumably have <em>even more</em> such households but for abortion. There's your reconciliation right there. Was it really so hard?</p> <p>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?</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MWU2NmM5YjU4ZmEzYWYzN2U2YTlkM2JlNDY3OTljNzc= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:17:33 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (NRO Staff) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MTQzNGViNzU0ZWIzNjc2ZGE5NWExNzVkYzI3M2I4ZmU= In today's episode of Off the Page, Jay Nordlinger comments on Charles Krauthammer, whom he <a href="http://nrd.nationalreview.com/article/?q=MWJlYTVmZjEyYzAwZjQ5YmNmODEyNDZlZjQ0NTAxZWI=">profiled</a> for the Nov. 23, 2009, issue of <em>National Review</em>.</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://tv.nationalreview.com/offthepage/post/?q=NjA4NGEyZGEyMzI2MTI4N2YwODQyOTdiMGVhZjFlOTY="><img src="http://www2.nationalreview.com/dest/2009/11/04/17cb2a8a2758a316ad1bc02597eb847e.jpg" alt="Jay Nordlinger goes off the page" width="450" height="254" /></a></p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MTQzNGViNzU0ZWIzNjc2ZGE5NWExNzVkYzI3M2I4ZmU= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:00:57 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Mike Potemra) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OTc0Yjg3YTk3ZjJmYjY4ZTVkMzZiM2VmYzk4MDkyNzQ= <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span>Conservative Protestant Christians in the market for a study Bible should consider the new <em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span><a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/redirect/amazon.p?j=%200758617607"><span>Lutheran Study Bible</span></a></span></em> 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 <em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span><a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/redirect/amazon.p?j=1433502410"><span>ESV Study Bible</span></a></span></em> 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.)</span></p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OTc0Yjg3YTk3ZjJmYjY4ZTVkMzZiM2VmYzk4MDkyNzQ= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:48:11 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Veronique de Rugy) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZmUwMWIxMTcyNTAyOTZhZWMzODc2YWE4Yzk1MTJiNjE= On Wednesday, I <a href="http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OGE2Y2YzNjc2ZWY1NDAzZmQ5ZjQ5ODI4ZDc0NmNhN2M=">wrote</a> 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 (<a href="http://economistmom.com/2009/11/wait-a-minute-were-paying-for-health-reform-with-another-amt/">here</a> and <a href="http://taxvox.taxpolicycenter.org/blog/_archives/2009/10/30/4365654.html">here</a> and <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gnysT9_pxMwvpDM2YjJZCyRe4EYQD9BN9O680">here</a>)</p> <p>The <a href="http://taxvox.taxpolicycenter.org/blog/_archives/2009/10/30/4365654.html">Tax Policy Center</a> has some numbers on the inflation creep that will inevitably occur if this tax is adopted:</p> <blockquote> <p>TCP <a href="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/numbers/Content/PDF/T09-0417.pdf">figures</a> 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 <a href="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/numbers/Content/PDF/T09-0421.pdf">figures</a> 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.</p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZmUwMWIxMTcyNTAyOTZhZWMzODc2YWE4Yzk1MTJiNjE= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:11:16 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OWM0ZWQzZmYyOGVmZTBjNWRlMWVmNzVmZjBjNjliZmY= Watch Reagan Library discussions today <a href="http://www.reaganfoundation.org/live.aspx?session_args=1cITd5FIj68KEqKkkaPI8fD6cYACRFLQyLrHwugskvLvrR1XTDJnbdkdNE9Fl9pagX5/rJkV4FWrkmofF9AnflzoqOaHj70V4Si2Q+4ebK7XlzM3kgL6sgCqEDik3oph&p=LWB32109PE&tx=0&h1=0&h2=0&sw=0&lm=programandevents&args_a=cms&args_b=0&argsb=N">here</a>.</p> <p>George Weigel, Peter Robinson, Michael Rubin, Dinesh D'Souza, and more react to President Obama's decision not to go to Berlin <a href="http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YTUwN2I3OWQxNTIwZGE0OGZkZTdiYWFkOGIzY2RiODI=">here</a>.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OWM0ZWQzZmYyOGVmZTBjNWRlMWVmNzVmZjBjNjliZmY= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:08:07 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Veronique de Rugy) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZjUwYjZkZDA2NzNiOTg2N2JiN2M1NDVlZTRhM2MyZTQ= One of the obvious implications is that the stimulus spending is far from <a href="http://www.american.com/archive/2009/october/so-how-is-the-stimulus-working-out/?searchterm=veronique%20de%20rugy">having the impact promised</a> by the administration back in February. It is also a rather burning indictment of  Christina Romer's <a href="http://otrans.3cdn.net/45593e8ecbd339d074_l3m6bt1te.pdf">ability to predict</a> job-creation numbers. Remember that the statement about unemployment reaching 8.8 percent next year without the stimulus?</p> <p>Here is something intriguing: According to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/06/business/economy/06econ.html?_r=1&hpw">this piece</a> in yesterday's <em>New York Times</em>, worker productivity in the U.S. has surged in the third quarter:</p> <blockquote> <p>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.</p> </blockquote> <p>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?</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZjUwYjZkZDA2NzNiOTg2N2JiN2M1NDVlZTRhM2MyZTQ= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:03:02 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Veronique de Rugy) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YzI4OGVlNWNlYWUzMmI3MmNkNTg5YTRiMzE2NTI2YjQ= Here's part of <a href="http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2008/10/obama_recovery_plan.cfm">a speech</a> that Candidate Obama gave in Ohio in October 2008, a few weeks before he was easily elected president of the United States.</p> <blockquote> <p>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.</p> </blockquote> <p class="MsoNormal">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 <em>AND</em> he tips his hat to government programs designed to increase the percentage of people who owned homes.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">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 <a href="http://media.bulletinnews.com/playclip.aspx?clipid=8cc2c729b6bb4cc">$11 billion</a>. And who wants to bet it will be more, not to mention the terrible distortions such a program introduces to the economy?</p> <p class="MsoNormal">This morning, even the <em>Washington Post</em> and the <em>New York Times</em> editorialized against the tax credit.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/05/AR2009110504525.html">Here</a> is the <em>Post</em>:</p> <blockquote> <p class="MsoNormal">The credit is a bad idea. It merely shifts demand from elsewhere in the economy to one sector government has chosen to help -- having been urged to do so by a powerful lobby -- and from the future to the present.</p> </blockquote> <p class="MsoNormal">And <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/06/opinion/06fri2.html?_r=1&ref=opinion">here</a> is the <em>Times</em>:</p> <blockquote> <p class="MsoNormal">Congress threw good money after bad this week when it voted to extend and expand a wasteful home buyer’s tax credit set to expire at the end of the month.</p> </blockquote> <p class="MsoNormal">Note that the <em>New York Times</em> has nothing against the government spending more money than it has already. It just wants the money spent on other bad programs.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YzI4OGVlNWNlYWUzMmI3MmNkNTg5YTRiMzE2NTI2YjQ= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:56:22 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=M2FkNTY4ZWYwYmI4ZWU1MzFmMjUwNzBkYmUyYjQ0ZmY= <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/redirect/amazon.p?j=0762431458">Here.</a></p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=M2FkNTY4ZWYwYmI4ZWU1MzFmMjUwNzBkYmUyYjQ0ZmY= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:45:29 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Victor Davis Hanson) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MGE4YzkyYjUyMmM5NWUyMGQ1ZDJkNzk1YzVkZGMzZTQ= 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."</p> <p>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.</p> <p>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.</p> <p>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."</p> <p>Politically, I think this only reminds one that the Ayers/Pfleger/Wright issues continue to resonate.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MGE4YzkyYjUyMmM5NWUyMGQ1ZDJkNzk1YzVkZGMzZTQ= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:42:02 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Ramesh Ponnuru) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZjFhM2M5MmQzZjdmMjlhOTY4NmM1NTg1NDQ3OTA0NjQ= Maybe instead of trying to restructure failing schools, we should close them. <a href="http://educationnext.org/the-turnaround-fallacy/">Andrew Smarick</a> writes:</p> <blockquote> <p>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.</p> <p>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.</p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZjFhM2M5MmQzZjdmMjlhOTY4NmM1NTg1NDQ3OTA0NjQ= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:26:26 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Ramesh Ponnuru) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MGIzNjcwMTQ3MjU3YmY0NDBlOTgzZDIzYTM2ZWEzNTE= Some friends of mine (and of NR) are behind <a href="http://www.frontgate.com/jump.jsp?itemID=23045&itemType=PRODUCT&iProductID=23045&path=1%2C2%2C556%2C2922">this nifty new product</a>. If you want to set up a Christmas tree with no hassle, check it out; I'm definitely using one.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MGIzNjcwMTQ3MjU3YmY0NDBlOTgzZDIzYTM2ZWEzNTE= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:17:28 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Ramesh Ponnuru) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OGM3NDliZDZmZmJlOTI0ODIwODU0MThjYmQzODZjMWI= <a href="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2009/11/maine_rights_shouldnt_be_subje.html">Jo-Ann Armao</a>, writing about same-sex marriage for the <em>Washington Post</em>, 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.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OGM3NDliZDZmZmJlOTI0ODIwODU0MThjYmQzODZjMWI= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:12:13 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MjNkMWFjZDYwOTEwNWRmZDhmMjgzZTg3MTM0NjI5YjA= <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/doctor/">Bob Costa is reporting on health care from the Hill</a>. Stay tuned to the latest <em>NRO</em> blog over the next 24-36 or more hours. </p> <p>For analysis of what's happening from health-care policy experts, read "<a href="http://healthcare.nationalreview.com/">Critical Condition</a>." New posts from Grace-Marie Turner, James Capretta, Tevi Troy, and more are up this morning. More to come.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MjNkMWFjZDYwOTEwNWRmZDhmMjgzZTg3MTM0NjI5YjA= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:07:51 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Maggie Gallagher) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MjFmMWZjMjBiMjBkYmJhNjAxMTg2MmM2YmFhZWFlMDM= Despair is a spiritual weapon, and it is the gay-marriage movement's single most powerful weapon.</p> <p>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?</p> <p>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.</p> <p>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 -- <em>and </em><em>you could be wrong!</em></p> <p>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."  </p> <p>(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.)</p> <p>Can the powerful gay-marriage movement be stopped? I don't know. I promise you one thing though: I am going to find out.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MjFmMWZjMjBiMjBkYmJhNjAxMTg2MmM2YmFhZWFlMDM= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:03:38 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Rich Lowry) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZGQ2NDgwYzA2N2Q0ZWQyMWE3MTE0ZWVmZWNiMDc4YTI= <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">My take on the election <a href="http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NmIxMzU3MTVlNjg3OWE1NDk3ZDljMDRhMTUwZTE1NGI=">here</a>. Obama's basic problem? He's got a mandate gap.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZGQ2NDgwYzA2N2Q0ZWQyMWE3MTE0ZWVmZWNiMDc4YTI= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:03:31 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NDYyOGY4MTY4ZDE2NzRiM2FkYTQzMmRlNzI3MTI1ZjQ= Northland Family Planning Centers features a chilling <a href="http://www.northlandfamilyplanning.com/nfpc/video-goodwomen.html">video</a> --"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."<br /><br />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.  </p> <p><a href="http://www.care-net.org/">If you are pregnant and scared</a> or <a href="http://abortionchangesyou.com/">have had an abortion</a> and are looking for something other than brainwashing about the goodness of your choice to end a child's life, <a href="http://abortionchangesyou.com/">here</a> and <a href="http://www.care-net.org/">here</a> are a start.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NDYyOGY4MTY4ZDE2NzRiM2FkYTQzMmRlNzI3MTI1ZjQ= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:57:23 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (NRO Staff) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YmUxZjljMzcxZWU1YWY4MmM1YzVjYWUxOWYyYTZmOTM= <span style="-small;">"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.<br /> <br /> 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.)<br /> <br /> "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.<br /> <br /> Indeed. How ironic: Survive Iraq or Afghanistan then get picked off like a game bird in a bland, institutional "Soldier Readiness Center" in Texas.<br /> <br /> 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.<br /> <br /> 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.<br /> <br /> 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. <em>Cole</em> 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.<br /> <br /> 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 <em>Navy Times</em>) 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."<br /> <br /> 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?<br /> <br /> </span><em><span class="bioline">— Stephanie Gutmann is the author of </span></em><span class="bioline"><a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/redirect/amazon.p?j=1893554945">The </a><a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/redirect/amazon.p?j=0684852918">Kinder, Gentler Military:  How Political Correctness Affects Our Ability to Win Wars</a>.</span></p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YmUxZjljMzcxZWU1YWY4MmM1YzVjYWUxOWYyYTZmOTM= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:46:16 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Jonah Goldberg) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZmQ3NDA3YzE0MzRlYTY5YTg3Mzg2OTc3MGI1NTQ2ZDQ= From one of my Wall Street Guys:</p> <blockquote> <p>Jonah,<br />            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.<br /> <br />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. <br /> <br />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:<br /> <br /> “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”.<br /> <br />So far he’s been dead on, but I think it would be better for all of us if he wasn’t.</p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZmQ3NDA3YzE0MzRlYTY5YTg3Mzg2OTc3MGI1NTQ2ZDQ= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:28:04 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Ramesh Ponnuru) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OTdhOGYxMThiNDM1ODUxMjRhYWRmZmU3N2UxNDU1MmU= Yes, it's clear that other Democratic candidates can't replicate Obama's coalition, at least when he's not running; both common sense and the Chambliss run-off told us that a year ago. Yes, it's also clear the war in Iraq, the financial crisis, and Katrina have not discredited all Republicans for all time. But we have <em>not</em> yet ruled out the possibility that Obama will realign American politics and serve as the liberals' anti-Reagan. Reagan's popularity went pretty low in his first term; his party had a disastrous House election in 1982, and a disastrous Senate election in 1986. We now see those elections mostly as blips on a Republican trendline. Conservatives should work to keep Tuesday's elections -- and next year's elections, for that matter -- from being remembered similarly.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OTdhOGYxMThiNDM1ODUxMjRhYWRmZmU3N2UxNDU1MmU= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:26:51 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Andy McCarthy) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=M2ZhYWI4NWQxMGRiMzUxOGI4NmRkMjRkNzUwMjdiMDA= An interesting <a href="http://www.newsmax.com/frank_gaffney/Fort_Hood_Obama/2009/11/06/282652.html">column</a> at Newsmax by our pal Frank Gaffney on the "politician-in-chief."</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=M2ZhYWI4NWQxMGRiMzUxOGI4NmRkMjRkNzUwMjdiMDA= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:25:10 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Jonah Goldberg) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MmFiZTc5YzU2Y2EwZjJhMDA5OWQzMTFmZWZlZGI3NGI= This is really small beer, I know. But I think there's an important point here. The word "reform" has the connotation of improvement, to make progress. This is one of the reasons why it is annoying when the press refers to conservatives and Republicans as "opponents" of health-care reform. It leaves unspoken -- and sometimes spoken -- the bias that the right is simply against making things better. Many liberals simply believe conservatives are the bad guys with evil motives. The way the MSM uses "reform" only fuels that impression (and confirms the sense the MSM agrees with it). It's also untrue, as Ramesh and others have complained many times. The right has a great many health-care reforms in its policy arsenal. The right is not against <em>reform</em>, it is against the Democrats' version of it.</p> <p>So, in a very small way, I think it makes sense to refer to Obamacare as "re-form" as opposed to "reform." This is the most neutral and objective way of describing it while keeping the word in play. The proposal will certainly change the shape of the health-care system, but it is unclear whether it will <em>improve</em> it. Hence the Democrats offer health-care re-form not reform.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MmFiZTc5YzU2Y2EwZjJhMDA5OWQzMTFmZWZlZGI3NGI= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:23:56 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (NRO Staff) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OGFlYjA5NThkNWJiZTQyYjdkOGEyNjE5YjFjYzE1ODQ= <span><span style="-small;">It's been <a href="http://michaelgraham.com/archives/ft-hood-the-view-from-massachusetts/">a strange week in Massachusetts</a>. In the past 48 hours:<br /> <br /> The town of Amherst, Mass., voted overwhelmingly in Town Meeting to invite released Gitmo detainees to live in their community;<br /> <br /> A Muslim school teacher in Sudbury, Mass., was indicted by a grand jury on terror charges, including a plot to shoot up a shopping mall with automatic weapons;<br /> <br /> The University of Massachusetts invited "NYC's Most Prolific Bomber," Raymond Luc Levasseur -- whose United Freedom Front killed a N.J. cop and blew people up in Boston -- to speak on the taxpayer dime.  Only when Governor Patrick was confronted by talk-radio listeners and the <em>Boston Herald</em> did he pull the plug yesterday.<br /> <br /> Now the Ft. Hood attack raises the issue of terrorism and the federal death penalty. A few weeks ago, Rep. Michael Capuano attacked the frontrunner, Attorney General Martha Coakley, over the fact that she once was pro-death-penalty for cop killers.<br /> <br /> For Massachusetts Democrats in a primary, that's apparently a bad thing.<br /> <br /> AG Coakley insisted that she changed her position years ago. She is now just as adamantly opposed to capital punishment as her opponent. As I wrote at the the time, Massachusetts' next U.S. senator will oppose the death penalty for Osama bin Laden.<br /> <br /> But what about Nidal Hasan? If there is a vote to repeal the federal death penalty -- which is hardly a stretch for this Congress -- do Massachusetts independents and moderate Democrats really want a U.S. senator who would vote to keep Hasan alive?<br /> <br /> Republican state senator Scott Brown is the longest of long shots for the U.S. Senate. But he can help the party by pointing out how out of touch the Democratic leadership is with the average voter.</span></span></p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OGFlYjA5NThkNWJiZTQyYjdkOGEyNjE5YjFjYzE1ODQ= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:21:33 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (NRO Staff) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OWE5ODE3MWJmMjBkMmIwNDIzYmExM2ExODcwYjZlZDA= The October jobs report contained much bad news and a few belated treats. Employers shed 190,000 jobs and the adult male and teenage unemployment rates are now at post-Great Depression highs. The unemployment rate jumped sharply, despite more Americans leaving the labor force. Fewer Americans are now participating in the labor market than at any point since 1986. When these Americans try to reenter the job market, the unemployment rate will spike again, and now an 11-percent unemployment rate does not seem very far fetched. Men will likely exceed 11-percent unemployment sometime in the next three months and teenagers will probably hit an unemployment rate of 30-percent plus.    <br /><br />Individual sectors like construction and manufacturing continued to be hit hard. Heavy engineering construction employment is now down 11 percent since the passage of the stimulus bill and is still falling.  Congress never learns simply shoveling money out the door will not create jobs even for shovel-ready projects. <br /><br />There are some glimmers of hope, such as job losses in the previous two months being revised downward. Another is that the temporary-service industry increased employment by 33,700 jobs. A growth in temporary services often portends a growth in the labor market. This sector will be watched closely in the next few months to see if the increase is real or a one month blip.<br /><br />Hours of work and overtime have stabilized or are even increasing. After the massive downsizing last winter, companies have been cutting hours instead of employees.  If that trend has stopped or reversed, then it is another sign that hiring could be on the upswing.<br /><br />While the Obama administration promised that the unemployment rate would fall this quarter due to the stimulus bill, the October report shows that job losses are continuing and the unemployment rate will keep climbing. It also reveals the hollowness of the administration's claim to have saved or created 640,000 jobs. While the stimulus may have directed funding to that many jobs, that money was taken from elsewhere in the economy, and the labor market has weakened considerably since the stimulus became law. Congress and the administration should look to encourage private sector businesses and entrepreneurs to invest and create wealth and jobs instead of trying to centrally plan a recovery from Washington.<br /><br /><em> -- Rea Hederman Jr. is assistant director of the Center for Data Analysis and senior policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation.</em></p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OWE5ODE3MWJmMjBkMmIwNDIzYmExM2ExODcwYjZlZDA= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:04:09 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (NRO Staff) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZjYxMDdlZTIzNWRhZjliZTlkMWQyMTljYmI2MTA0MmU= Now is not a good time to be an American worker, particularly an unemployed one. At 10.2 percent, the unemployment rate is the highest since 1983. Given the economic growth we've had since the summer, it is likely the jobless rate is at or extremely close to peaking. However, concern remains that businesses, fearing how much health-care "reform" could raise insurance costs, may be more reluctant to hire than they normally would be given the improvement in the overall economy. <br /><br />Today's news did have some silver linings. Including the revisions to prior months, net payroll losses were 99,000 in October, many fewer than earlier this year. Meanwhile, temp jobs -- often a leading sign of overall job creation -- increased for the third month in a row. In addition, average hourly earnings increased 0.3 percent in October and are up at a 2.8 percent annual rate in the past three months, a slight acceleration from earlier this year. Productivity growth has been extremely rapid of late, part of the ongoing process of technological change that rivals (and may surpass) the Industrial Revolution. In the short term, this process lets companies raise production even as they continue to cut jobs. Over time, though, higher output with lower labor costs means more profits, which will help stimulate rapid job growth once companies become more confident about the durability of the economic recovery. <br /><br /> <em><span class="bioline">— </span></em><span class="bioline"><a href="http://www.ftportfolios.com/retail/research/economicresearch.aspx"><em>Bob Stein</em></a><em> is senior economist with First Trust Advisers.</em></span></p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZjYxMDdlZTIzNWRhZjliZTlkMWQyMTljYmI2MTA0MmU= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:01:40 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Jonah Goldberg) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NDY4MDAyYTAxMWJkNDBmN2Y3ZDRiZDYxYWM2MmE5Yzc= From a reader:</p> <blockquote> <p>It is worse than you suggest.  What company will hire new employees if they don't know what their contingent liability for health care and carbon will be?  These bills are enormous overhang on the economy that is freezing decisions for hiring and investing in new initiatives.  New jobs are created by small businesses and new businesses--how can anyone develop a budget when they don't know what employment costs will be?  And don't forget that the tax rates will go up in 2011 as the Bush tax cuts expire.  That means new businesses will have to be even more profitable to justify investment in order to earn the same after-tax returns.  <br /><br />This is not complicated.  The current administration is killing the incentives for businesses to form and hire new employees.  Unless those employees are in China.<br /><br />Kindest regards,<br />[Name withheld]<br /><br />PS. I work as an investment analyst and talk to companies every day about these issues.  Please don't use my name; my opinions are my own and not my company's.</p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NDY4MDAyYTAxMWJkNDBmN2Y3ZDRiZDYxYWM2MmE5Yzc= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:53:32 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Jonah Goldberg) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YzRiYWYyYTg2Zjc4MTBlYjE1NDI3OGMxN2YxY2FhMDQ= In response to my <a href="http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZTExN2ZmZjY0ZjBmMmFlMjgyMjkyMzM0NzI0N2IxOGQ=">post</a> on Obama's aloofness, a lot of email like this:</p> <blockquote> <p>Surely you recall the media making hay of Bush reading a<br />book to some group of small children on Sept. 11, chastising<br />him for "going on reading while the US was being attacked"<br />among other things. Wanna bet the same spin is put on<br />Obama's meeting with AmerIndians during an attack on US<br />soldiers?<br /><br />Yeah, me either.</p> </blockquote> <p>And:</p> <blockquote> <p>How about when Bush was informed of the WTC strikes on 9/11, and he finished reading to the children? I believe the left and the media were pretty hard on him for this.</p> </blockquote> <p>I think this is an absolutely fair point about the shabby double standards of the press and left. But I always thought Bush's response was fine. It was also very different than Obama's, at least as I understand it. Obama was briefed on the shooting <em>before</em> he went out. He opted to do the schmoozy stuff. Bush was presented with staggering news and kept his cool. Not that these readers disagree, but this example works in Bush's favor and against Obama. And it makes a lot of Bush's critics look even worse for politicizing that moment on 9/11.</p> <p><strong>Update</strong>: From a reader:</p> <blockquote> <p>I've never understood the 'scandal' of George W. Bush's "My Pet Goat" moment.<br /> <br />He was in a room full of small children.  What was he supposed to do?  Break down sobbing and scream 'we're all going to die'?<br /> <br />He spared the kids unnecessary trauma, and the couple minutes spent finishing the story didn't really count for anything in the long run.  In short, he acted like an ADULT.<br /> <br />Obama's response was bizarre.  He was speaking to a group of adults, many of whom probably already knew about the shooting.  He seems to have no idea what constitutes a 'big' event or a 'presidential' response.  It's like we have a 14 year old running the country, and while Joe Biden is OLD, he's not mature enough to reign Obama in.....<br /> <br />It's going to be a loooooooong couple of years, IMO......</p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YzRiYWYyYTg2Zjc4MTBlYjE1NDI3OGMxN2YxY2FhMDQ= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:50:59 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Rich Lowry) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YTliZjQxZDQ3YWI2NThmYzRjMzBhYWExMjhkNjViMDI= <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">Election night in Virginia showed how badly strained the Clinton coalition is. Read Sean Trende's fantastic analysis <a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/11/06/can_the_clinton_coalition_survive_the_age_of_obama_99046.html">here</a>.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YTliZjQxZDQ3YWI2NThmYzRjMzBhYWExMjhkNjViMDI= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:46:39 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Andy McCarthy) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NTljYmE2OWQzYzAwNmUxYWZhYWRmY2JkNDUzMGRiZTc= If I may, I'm going to push back against one aspect of Victor's characteristically insightful <a href="http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OGRhYzk5ZDk5N2UyMTgyMDBkYWI1MmJlNWI2MTMxZDA=">post</a> because I think it underscores exactly the problem he diagnoses. VDH says, "A saner approach would be to acknowledge that there is a small minority of Muslims who channel generic Islamist fantasies." I would just point out that the belief that the American military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan is cause for violent jihad until Americans are driven out of those Muslim countries is not a generic Islamic fantasy held by a small minority of Muslims.  It is a mainstream Islamic position held by tens of millions of Muslims.  That doesn't mean tens of millions of Muslims will act on it, but many will and millions will cheer on those who do.</p> <p>As I've recounted before, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi -- the spiritual guide of the Muslim Brotherhood -- issued a fatwa in 2004 calling for Muslims to fight the Americans in Iraq. He later expanded on this concept, elaborating that American support personnel (i.e., those who do not do the actual fighting and patrolling but maintain equipment and do other contract work) are legitimate targets every bit as much as American soldiers are. He has also urged Muslim members of the American armed forces to decline assignments that involve fighting against other Muslims. A few months after the 2004 fatwa, Alberto Fernandez, then the State Department’s top spokesman in the region, <a href="http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MWRkNGMzZTdmZjRhMTNiOGMzYjFmM2RkM2E5YTYzMTU="><span style="color: #0000ff;">gushed</span></a> that Qaradawi is an “intelligent and thoughtful voice from the region . . . an important figure that deserves our attention.” Fernandez obviously felt compelled to make this feckless statement because Qaradawi is not a fringe figure -- he is the most influential Sunni cleric in the world (see, e.g., the Danish cartoons controversy he stoked). Indeed, his 2004 fatwa was enthusiastically echoed by the faculty of Islamic jurisprudence at al-Azhar University, the seat of Sunni learning.</p> <p>The depth of the challenge we face is daunting.  Hatred for America and the West is <em>rampant</em> in the Islamic world. We are not merely willfully blind to it. Our government, wittingly or not, is endorsing it, and not just by Obama's apology tours. At his ballyhooed Cairo speech on Islam and the West, the president insisted -- over the objections of the Mubarak government -- on inviting members of the Muslim Brotherhood, whom administration insiders view as Islamists we can work with.  This is the same Muslim Brotherhood whose motto remains "Allah <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;">is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. The Koran is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.” It is the same Muslim Brotherhood that encourages suicide bombings and other terrorizing of Israelis (i.e., "resistance") in the Palestinian territories. It is the same Muslim Brotherhood for which Qaradawi -- who has promised that Islam will "conquer America" -- speaks.  </span></p> <p><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;">Islamism is about a lot more than al Qaeda. </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;">Nidal Malik Hasan committed a mass-murder under the influence of principles held by a disturbingly large percentage of the world's billion-plus Muslims. Rather than condemning those principles as barbaric, it is the policy of our government either (a) to pretend that those principles do not exist, (b) to pretend that they are held only by a teeny-tiny handful of extremists who have "hijacked" Islam, or (c) to encourage the Muslims who hold them by engaging, embracing and legitimizing the leaders who preach them.  Under these circumstances, I think Victor's three-to-six-month timeline is not only sensible; it's the best we can hope for -- and the atrocities are going to get worse.</span></p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NTljYmE2OWQzYzAwNmUxYWZhYWRmY2JkNDUzMGRiZTc= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:45:50 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Jonah Goldberg) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=M2RmODgzMjI0OTNlNGI1ZTBiZTIzZmQ4ODViZjcyZDk= The other day I was on a public radio show (Warren Olney's "To the Point") with David Sirota, a progressive columnist. He was making the case that the only smart thing for Obama to do is to concentrate on "fixing the economy" because economic concerns are what's driving voter discontent. For Sirota, and it seems a lot of other progressives, this means pushing ahead with health-care reform and another stimulus bill.</p> <p>I didn't get a chance to respond to this, but since I keep hearing this argument elsewhere, I'll say it hear: This is bat-guano crazy.</p> <p>As a public-policy matter, health-care reform won't fix the economy. It won't create lots of new jobs or rally the stock market or do anything to get us out of the recession. Even if you buy the arguments from progressives, the pay-offs are long delayed and the costs -- for the treasury and the taxpayer -- are front-loaded. A second (really a third, if you count Bush's) stimulus won't have any more effect than Obama's first one and the additional debt-fueled spending will only further enrage the independents and moderates who fueled GOP victories in Virginia and New Jersey.</p> <p>From what I can tell, most of the people who think Obama has taken his eye off the ball on the economy think his single-minded effort to push through a Democrats'-only, big-government health-care bill <em>is evidence they are right. </em>Doubling that effort won't convince them otherwise.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=M2RmODgzMjI0OTNlNGI1ZTBiZTIzZmQ4ODViZjcyZDk= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:40:33 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Jonah Goldberg) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZTExN2ZmZjY0ZjBmMmFlMjgyMjkyMzM0NzI0N2IxOGQ= Yesterday when the Fort Hood news was breaking, at least a couple of the networks broke to President Obama's remarks at the Tribal Nations Conference, expecting a statement from Obama on the shootings. What they saw for a few long, uncomfortable, minutes was Obama making routine political introductions and pandering to his audience. Here's how <a href="http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/politics/A-Disconnected-President.html">Robert A. George </a>puts it:</p> <blockquote> <p>But instead of a somber chief executive offering reassuring words and expressions of sympathy and compassion, viewers saw a wildly disconnected and, inappropriately light president making introductory remarks. At the event, a Tribal Nations Conference hosted by the Department of Interior's Bureau of Indian affairs, the president thanked various staffers and offered a "shout-out" to "Dr. Joe Medicine Crow -- that Congressional Medal of Honor winner." Three minutes in, the president spoke about the shooting, in measured and appropriate terms. Who is advising him?</p> <p>Anyone at home aware of the major news story of the previous hours had to have been stunned. An incident like this requires a scrapping of the early light banter. The president should apologize for the tone of his remarks, explain what has happened, express sympathy for those slain and appeal for calm and patience until all the facts are in. That's the least that should occur.</p> <p>Indeed, an argument could be made that Obama should have canceled the Indian event, out of respect for people having been murdered at an Army post a few hours before. That would have prevented any sort of jarring emotional switch at the event.</p> <p>Did the president's team not realize what sort of image they were presenting to the country at this moment? The disconnect between what Americans at home knew had been going on -- and the initial words coming out of their president's mouth was jolting, if not disturbing.</p> </blockquote> <p>I don't know. I'm about 3/5ths with Robert on this. I agree it was horribly disconnected from the drama of the moment and Obama didn't help himself. Indeed, this is one of the areas -- emoting and empathy -- where the Obama White House's vaunted communications operation has a real blindspot. Moreover, I think the White House's blind spot reflects Obama's own deficiencies. He really is a bit of a cold fish. His eulogy for Ted Kennedy, for example, showed that he lacks the ability -- so common in politicians -- to fake a certain kind of lachrymose sincerity plausibly. This shortcoming is not necessarily a bad thing in my book, but in Obama's case it can become a liability, particularly in cases like this because it can feed other negative perceptions of the man.</p> <p>Still, this incident seems like just one of the perils of the presidency in the media age. I can't quite recall an example, but I'm sure that president Bush had similar moments when the cameras got to him in politician-mode during a national crisis.</p> <p>Last year, when McCain halted his campaign to deal with the financial crisis, Obama said presidents need to be able to do a lot of things at once. He was right. I can give Obama a pass on this one, but I also think there might be a trend in the making.</p> <p><strong>Update</strong>: <a href="http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YzRiYWYyYTg2Zjc4MTBlYjE1NDI3OGMxN2YxY2FhMDQ=">See above.</a></p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZTExN2ZmZjY0ZjBmMmFlMjgyMjkyMzM0NzI0N2IxOGQ= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:22:04 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (NRO Staff) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YmQ3ODE1ZjE5ODEwYTA3OGQxZTI5ZGQ2YTBiZWQ1MzI= <a href="http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZjYxYWY1ZTI0YzNiY2IzMzhmMDQ5ODU2NDM0YTUwYmY=">Krauthammer today</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>Exactly a year later comes the empirical validation of that skepticism. Virginia — presumed harbinger of the new realignment, having gone Democratic in ’08 for the first time in 44 years — went red again. With a vengeance. Barack Obama had carried it by six points. The Republican gubernatorial candidate won by 17 — a 23-point swing. New Jersey went from plus 15 Democratic in 2008 to minus 4 in 2009. A 19-point swing.<br /><br />What happened? The vaunted Obama realignment vanished. In 2009 in Virginia, the black vote was down by 20 percent, the under-30 vote by 50 percent. And as for independents, the ultimate prize of any realignment, they bolted. In both Virginia and New Jersey they’d gone narrowly for Obama in ’08. This year they went Republican by a staggering 33 points in Virginia and by an equally shocking 30 points in New Jersey.<br /><br />White <a class="iAs" href="http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZjYxYWY1ZTI0YzNiY2IzMzhmMDQ5ODU2NDM0YTUwYmY=" target="_blank">House</a> apologists will say the Virginia Democrat was weak. If the difference between Bob McDonnell and Creigh Deeds was so great, how come when the same two men ran against each other statewide for attorney general four years ago the race was a virtual dead heat? Which made the ’09 McDonnell-Deeds rematch the closest you get in politics to a laboratory experiment for measuring the change in <em>external</em> conditions. Run them against each other again when it’s Obamaism in action and see what happens. What happened was a Republican landslide.<br /><br />The Obama coattails of 2008 are gone. The expansion of the electorate, the excitement of the young, came in uniquely propitious Democratic circumstances and amid unparalleled enthusiasm for electing the first African-American president.<br /><br />November ’08 was one-shot, one-time, never to be replicated. Nor was November ’09 a realignment. It was a return to the norm — and definitive confirmation that 2008 was one of the great flukes in American political history.</p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YmQ3ODE1ZjE5ODEwYTA3OGQxZTI5ZGQ2YTBiZWQ1MzI= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 08:48:14 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (NRO Staff) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OWRiYWE1YTczYTJjZmU5YTlmM2VkYjI0ZDY0OWE3NDc= <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091106/ap_on_re_us/us_fort_hood_shooting">AP</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>FORT HOOD, Texas - Soldiers who witnessed the shooting rampage at Fort Hood that left 13 people dead reported that the gunman shouted "<span id="lw_1257514061_0" class="yshortcuts">Allahu Akbar</span>!" before opening fire, the base commander said Friday.</p> <p>Lt. Gen. Robert Cone said officials had not yet confirmed that the suspected shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, made the comment, which is Arabic for "God is great!" before the rampage Thursday, which left 30 people wounded, including the gunman.</p> <p>An imam from a mosque Hasan regularly attended said Hasan, a lifelong Muslim, was a committed soldier, gave no so sign of extremist beliefs and regularly wore his uniform at prayers.</p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OWRiYWE1YTczYTJjZmU5YTlmM2VkYjI0ZDY0OWE3NDc= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 08:46:50 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (NRO Staff) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZjU0ZjEwYTdkMWRjM2QzOWE4YmFkYzc5NzEwMjQ5ZTg= (Various): U.S. Jobless Rate: 10.2% in October</p> <p><a href="http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf">Report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics</a>.</p> <p><strong></strong></p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZjU0ZjEwYTdkMWRjM2QzOWE4YmFkYzc5NzEwMjQ5ZTg= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 08:36:24 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Victor Davis Hanson) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OGRhYzk5ZDk5N2UyMTgyMDBkYWI1MmJlNWI2MTMxZDA= We know little so far of the terrible carnage at Fort Hood, though the news media have been airing all sorts of explanations and much of their information has already proven erroneous.</p> <p>Yet I think it is fair to say that the Fort Hood mass murder could be seen in two larger contexts:</p> <p>1) a disturbing pattern of attacking American soldiers on bases or offices inside the United States (e.g., the 2005 plot to shoot down military aircraft leaving the National Guard base in Newburgh, N.Y.; the 2007 mass-murder plot at Fort Dix; the shooting at the Little Rock, Ark., recruiting station, etc.), and</p> <p>2) what I once in two<em> NRO</em> essays called al Qaedism, or the spontaneous rage of disaffected Muslims, who connect their own failures in some sense to generic radical Islamist sentiments, and act out that anger by running over the innocent (San Francisco or North Carolina), shooting Jews (the LAX or Seattle attacks), or shooting up malls or sniping. These are of course different from but in addition to the 24 organized plots that have been broken up since 9/11, four of them this year alone.</p> <div>In reaction officials and news people often opt for therapeutic exegeses -- stress, often of the post-traumatic sort, ill-feeling and bias shown Muslims, family problems, or brainwashing by nefarious outside actors -- to explain the cold-blooded nature of the murdering. (I am watching on the news a family member eagerly explain past prejudice shown the killer and, despite his adept handling of firearms to shoot over 40 people, the murderer's being ill-at-ease with firearms.)</div> <p>Far more rarely do they ever suggest that the Islamist notion abroad that America is to blame for mostly self-induced pathologies in the Islamic world mostly goes unquestioned here at home -- and as a result filters down to the lone angry and violent here as the belief that there is some sort of cosmic justification that can amplify their own outrage at a sense of personal failure or setback.</p> <p><em>If</em> it is shown that the present killer openly in the past expressed sympathies for or tolerance of Islamist violence abroad, one would have expected, in the current climate of fear of being seen as illiberal or judgmental, little repercussions or formal preemptory action to preclude the possibility of future violence.</p> <p>In other words, the narrative after 9/11 largely remains that Americans have given in to illegitimate "fear and mistrust" of Muslims in general. A saner approach would be to acknowledge that there is a small minority of Muslims who channel generic Islamist fantasies, so that we can assume that either formal terrorist plots or individual acts of murder will more or less occur here every three to six months.</p> <div>At some point, if both these organized plots (see the most recent in Boston) and isolated acts of lone gunmen and homicidal drivers continue, and if the prevailing theme continues to be fears of American intolerance and unfairness to Muslims after 9/11, I think the public will resent the disconnect between what they are told to think and what they believe, on the basis of some evidence.</div><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OGRhYzk5ZDk5N2UyMTgyMDBkYWI1MmJlNWI2MTMxZDA= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:40:17 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Jonah Goldberg) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YmZhNGU0ODU4YTZmOGM0MDg4YjhlOGY5MzMzOWJlMDM= From my <a href="http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NGQxYTM5ZWU0MmQwNWMyOWYxYThjZjI0MTdkODIxZTA=">column this morning</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>In fact, what is sad is not the spin war. This happens after every election. The partisans and pundits race for the election results like kids charging the disgorged contents of a piñata, claiming convenient facts like candy and shouting, “Mine!” It’s always an unseemly process.<br /><br />No, what’s sad is how far Obama’s defenders have had to move the goalposts just to keep up their morale.<br /><br />They might be right that the elections don’t mean all that much for Obama and the Democrats. I very much doubt it, but even having the argument represents an enormous defeat for self-styled progressives.<br /><br />Almost exactly a year ago, liberals insisted that Obama was going to be FDR 2.0 and that this was the dawn of a new progressive era. Countless magazine articles and newspaper columns were dedicated to the idea we were poised for a “new New Deal.” Filmmaker Spike Lee declared that we will henceforth measure time B.O. (“before Obama”) and A.O. (“after Obama”).<br /><br />Newsweek became so obsessed with Obama as a redeemer-saint-Jedi reincarnation of both FDR and Lincoln — and also the sexiest man alive — it’s a wonder the Secret Service didn’t issue a restraining order.<br /><br />Nearly a year later, Newsweek’s November 2 cover story is a “survival guide” for liberals who seem on the verge of self-immolation given their disappointment with Obama.<br /><br />If Obama is the new FDR, it might be instructive to go back and look at the elections in 1933, one year after Roosevelt was elected.</p> </blockquote> <p>Dr. K covers similar turf <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/05/AR2009110504334.html?hpid=opinionsbox1">this AM</a>.</p> <p><strong>Update</strong>: From my probationary anti-capitalization guy:</p> <blockquote> <p>cruel but a usefully provocative analysis....<br /><br />....in the spirit of constructive critique, i think your essential argument is made stronger by the observation that the more people 'learn' about government-defined<br />health care 'reform' and 'cap™,' the less enthusiastic they appear to be...<br /><br />...this was certainly not true of the wpa and other big ticket FDR initiatives and while medicare absolutely alienated the traditional medical care establishment, the larger<br />public was more warm than wary....<br /><br />....as i've mentioned in earlier emails, it's astonishing how well your 'lf' template serves to offer culturally and historically powerful analytical ammunition vs 'obamaism'...<br /><br />do you occasionally wonder whether president hilary would have sold more or fewer books for you...?<br /><br />:-)</p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YmZhNGU0ODU4YTZmOGM0MDg4YjhlOGY5MzMzOWJlMDM= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:38:00 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZjkxZGFjZWUxMjE2Zjc3OWY0YmFhYjMyNjQyY2UyMTE= <em><a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/2009-11-05-Fort-Hood_N.htm">USA Today</a></em><a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/2009-11-05-Fort-Hood_N.htm"> is reporting</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p class="inside-copy">U.S. Rep. <a title="More news, photos about Michael McCaul" href="http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/Michael+McCaul">Michael McCaul</a>, a Republican from Austin, was briefed by military officials and said Hasan had taken some unusual classes for someone studying about mental health.</p> <p class="inside-copy">"He took a lot of extra classes in weapons training, which seems a little odd for a psychiatrist," McCaul said.</p> <p class="inside-copy">McCaul said Hasan had received poor grades for his work at Walter Reed and was not happy about his situation in Fort Hood, where Hasan apparently felt like "he didn't fit in."</p> <p class="inside-copy">"He's disgruntled because he had a poor performance evaluation, he doesn't believe in the mission, he's looking at getting transferred to Afghanistan or Iraq," McCaul said. "He's not happy about all that."</p> <p class="inside-copy">McCaul added that officials planned to interview Hasan to try to determine for sure that he was not working with foreign agents.</p> <p class="inside-copy">"From an intelligence standpoint, that's key, finding out if he talked to anyone overseas," McCaul said.</p> <p class="inside-copy">Hasan had come to the attention of federal law enforcement officials at least six months ago because of Internet postings that discussed suicide bombings and other threats, according to a federal law enforcement official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case.</p> <p class="inside-copy">The official said investigators were trying to confirm that Hasan was the author of the postings, one of which was a blog that equates suicide bombers with a soldier throwing himself on a grenade to save the lives of his comrades. One of the officials said federal search warrants were being drawn up to authorize seizure of Hasan's computer.</p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZjkxZGFjZWUxMjE2Zjc3OWY0YmFhYjMyNjQyY2UyMTE= Fri, 06 Nov 2009 06:34:47 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (NRO Staff) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OTFjZDJjZmQwYjNiZTc0M2RkNWZiMzI1ZTY2NTQ4OTY= <p class="MsoNormal">Foremost today is to care for the wounded and the families of those who were lost or wounded.<span> </span>Next week, we must continue to care for those in need, while mourning our losses. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">First reports are notoriously wrong.<span> </span>The shooter already has been killed then resurrected by the media.<span> </span>Some media are in a frenzy and so the reports are particularly untrustworthy at this time.<span> </span>Now is not a time to psychoanalyze the attacker by using a media-supplied telescope that already said he was dead, and that there were multiple attackers.<span> </span>Media: <em>STOP</em>, please.<span> </span>There will be time to pursue answers and justice after Christmas.<span> </span>We must remember that family members lost loved ones just before the holidays.<span> </span>Justice and answers will come with time.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Most important is to remember that we have just lost a dozen people.<span> </span>Others are wounded.<span> </span>Children and other family members will need care and thoughtful attention.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OTFjZDJjZmQwYjNiZTc0M2RkNWZiMzI1ZTY2NTQ4OTY= Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:45:12 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NDQ2M2RmMDRjYmQ1MTljOTUyODA1MTI4YWQ2NjNiOWQ= (Press conference)</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NDQ2M2RmMDRjYmQ1MTljOTUyODA1MTI4YWQ2NjNiOWQ= Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:20:42 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (John J. Miller) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MzI4MWY4YTgwZjIzYjA5ODVmMzY0NjgxMjBlMzYxZjE= Mark K. <a href="http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YTM4MGNiNmQwMzUwMDRjZDcxNDVkZDM2YzU5OTcwMGY=">mentioned</a> Kindle earlier, in reference to the publication of my new novel, <a href="http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YzMzYzAyMDZkNThiODNhMDg3NTE1OWVmYWQ0YWNlZmE="><em>The First Assassin</em></a>. My listing on Amazon is only about a day old at this point and I've already received maybe half a dozen inquiries about whether the book will be available for Kindle. Right now, the answer is: I don't know. I'm investigating the possibility. I certainly didn't realize how popular these e-books have become.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MzI4MWY4YTgwZjIzYjA5ODVmMzY0NjgxMjBlMzYxZjE= Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:48:05 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Jonah Goldberg) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YjM5YzViYTAxZWRmMWExNTJlMzk1M2UwMmQ5N2VkMzM= Per Fox and CNN.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YjM5YzViYTAxZWRmMWExNTJlMzk1M2UwMmQ5N2VkMzM= Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:32:41 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Andy McCarthy) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YzBhZTQ3M2FhYjNlN2ZmZDkxYThlMjc0YzJkYjU5Mjk= Fox has interviewed the shooter's cousin, Nader Hasan, who says Nidal Malik Hasan was raised a Muslim -- he is not a convert. I'd also note the anguish and shock in Nader Hasan's voice; his family, the cousin says, is devastated.</p> <p>Fox also reports that the other two men who were detained have been released.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YzBhZTQ3M2FhYjNlN2ZmZDkxYThlMjc0YzJkYjU5Mjk= Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:32:29 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Mike Potemra) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MWU0NzNhNDdhYjcxMzk5YTFiNTliNmMzNDc5MWU5OTU= Mel Gibson is a talented man with serious mental-health problems, which manifest themselves, among other ways, in anti-Semitic tirades. Unfortunately, he has also been keeping company with some people who will do him no spiritual good. Gibson founded a schismatic conservative-Catholic church, at which congregants are apparently unhappy with him because of an extramarital affair that has resulted in the collapse of his marriage. One of the devout believers at this church has helpfully said the following, on a conservative <span><a href="http://www.traditio.com/comment/com0911.htm"><span>website</span></a></span>:<br /><strong></strong></p> <blockquote> <p>None of us at the church think that Mel ever had any interest in marrying his mistress, Oksana Grigorieva, whose illegitimate child was born on October 30, 2009. Legally, Mel and Robyn's “divorce” could have been finalized a month ago, but there has been no news on that front. He has never brought Grigorieva to the church. I don't think many of us in the congregation would stay around if that happened.</p> </blockquote> <p>Heaven forbid that we should go to a church where there are actually sinners -- and even ones who have engaged in something as heinous as . . . <em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sex!</em> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t give up hope, Mel, Oksana, and little Lucia, whom I am delighted to welcome to the human family. It is not the Pharisees who will have the final word, but rather one “whose yoke is easy and burden light.”</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MWU0NzNhNDdhYjcxMzk5YTFiNTliNmMzNDc5MWU5OTU= Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:24:10 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Andy McCarthy) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OTFiMjdiZWQ2ZmEzOGJkZThjMmRhMzI2ZmFhOWNlM2Y= Major Nadal Malik Hasan, a 39-year-old Muslim convert, was born and educated in Virginia. He is a psychiatrist who worked at Walter Reed for six years (and got a poor performance evaluation there). Hasan was transferred to Ft. Hood and worked at the psych ward there. He complained about deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. Fox has interviewed someone who worked with him at Ft. Hood (Terry Lee) who says he was a harsh critic of U.S. foreign policy who said Muslims had a right to stand up and fight against the aggressor in Iraq and Afghanistan -- i.e., us. </p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OTFiMjdiZWQ2ZmEzOGJkZThjMmRhMzI2ZmFhOWNlM2Y= Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:14:07 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Andy McCarthy) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MzBhNDViZTBiOTg1ZTU1ZTE2NzNjODgzNmZhMDY5YWE= AP is <a href="http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/local/update__12_dead_in_2_attacks_at_fort_hood.html">reporting</a>. (Thanks to Diana West.)</p> <p>The press seems to think it's more relevant that he was a "mental-health professional" (unclear whether psychiatrist or psychologist).</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MzBhNDViZTBiOTg1ZTU1ZTE2NzNjODgzNmZhMDY5YWE= Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:39:33 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Mark Steyn) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YWNhMjMxYTJhNTM0ZGQ5YThkMWU5NDc0ZGZiZWIzZWY= Andy, you're right that there's something deeply weird about the media's instinctive avoidance of the M-word or the T-word and the careless abandon with which they speculate about "post-traumatic stress disorder" even as the emerging facts render it absurd (a three-man conspiracy to commit PTSD?).</p> <p>I was talking about this on the air with Hugh Hewitt a few moments ago, and Hugh brought up the "Washington sniper" case from seven years ago. In both that case and at Fort Hood, the media seem over-eager to take refuge in the explanation least discomforting to the usual pieties. One can forgive the press not getting the story right in the first hours, but it will be interesting to see how honestly they cover it as the facts emerge. They never quite did in the Muhammad/Malvo case.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YWNhMjMxYTJhNTM0ZGQ5YThkMWU5NDc0ZGZiZWIzZWY= Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:39:07 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Andy McCarthy) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YzFlNGRkMjA4MDg2MTBhOTFhZjFhMTZmNTI1NzIxMDE= Jonah's right, we don't want to get ahead of the facts. There's the Fort Dix Six precedent, but there's also Oklahoma City, where people guessed reasonably but guessed wrong.</p> <p>Two observations are in order about news coverage, though. First, the question on everyone's mind, the 800-pound gorilla in the middle of the room that we are supposed to ignore or be ostracized from polite society is: Was the gunman (or gunmen) Muslim? Under the circumstances of the war against us by Islamist terrorists, it is bizarre that this perfectly natural question can't be asked.</p> <p>Second, for all the reluctance the press exhibits about asking the "M" question, how easily "post-traumatic stress syndrome" trips off the journalistic tongue. I've heard it again and again in the reporting -- even after it was reported that there were two other people in custody. Now, we don't know at the moment why the other two people are being held: They could be suspects, or they could just be thought potential witnesses who have insight about the shooter. But it's at least possible (if not likely) that they are suspects. When was the last time you heard of a conspiracy to commit post-traumatic stress disorder?</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YzFlNGRkMjA4MDg2MTBhOTFhZjFhMTZmNTI1NzIxMDE= Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:13:52 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Maggie Gallagher) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MzljYTBjZjg1YmQ5NGUwMTU5ZjFiNzJkODMzMDZmZjI= Over at <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1109/29140.html"><em>Politico</em></a>, Matthew Gagnon is saying that blame for the Maine loss lies in Obama and company's failure to get out the vote.</p> <p>There's only one problem with this analysis. Voter turnout was huge: 60 percent, according to the <em><a href="http://www.bangordailynews.com/electionresults.html">Bangor Daily News</a></em>. Also, before the loss, gay-marriage advocates were boasting about their 8,000 volunteers and significant get-out-the-vote apparatus.</p> <p>But heck, why let the facts get in the way of good story line?</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MzljYTBjZjg1YmQ5NGUwMTU5ZjFiNzJkODMzMDZmZjI= Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:48:43 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Jonah Goldberg) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YjdjYjBlN2NiMTYxOWQzODZlODA1ODk3ZjJlNjNlMWQ= There's no reason to get ahead of the story. But CNN is saying the two men in custody are "suspects" and "under arrest." The shooter, Maj. Malik Hasan Nadal, was killed. The two men are also members of the military.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YjdjYjBlN2NiMTYxOWQzODZlODA1ODk3ZjJlNjNlMWQ= Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:42:39 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Andrew Stuttaford) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=N2UxNjUwZDVkZWZiYzMzNDFjMTY4NThlMDc1NGNhNDU= <div><span class="721232121-05112009"><a href="http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZWYwNWIyNTgwNjgxMzA0MjFjODAyMTNlM2M0MTk4NTY=" target="_blank">Mark</a>, the fact that I think that gently declining populations are (at least in principle) a thoroughly welcome phenomenon may make me biased, but it's a shame to see Lord Sacks seemingly falling for the myth peddled by some clerical folk (and those in their camp) that Europe's declining population is something, he appears to imply, unique to that continent.</span></div> <div> </div> <div><span class="721232121-05112009">Here's this week's <em>Economist </em>with a timely reminder of the <a href="http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14743589" target="_blank">facts</a>:</span></div> <blockquote> <div><span style="-small;"><span class="721232121-05112009">In the 1970s only 24 countries had fertility rates of 2.1 or less, all of them rich. Now there are over 70 such countries, and in every continent, including Africa. Between 1950 and 2000 the average fertility rate in developing countries fell by half from six to three—three fewer children in each family in just 50 years. Over the same period, Europe went from the peak of the baby boom to the depth of the baby bust and its fertility also fell by almost half, from 2.65 to 1.42—but that was a decline of only 1.23 children. The fall in developing countries now is closer to what happened in Europe during 19th- and early 20th-century industrialisation. But what took place in Britain over 130 years (1800-1930) took place in South Korea over just 20 (1965-85). <p>Things are moving even faster today. Fertility has dropped further in every South-East Asian country (except the Philippines) than it did in Japan. The rate in Bangladesh fell by half from six to three in only 20 years (1980 to 2000). The same decline took place in Mauritius in just ten (1963-73). Most sensational of all is the story from Iran.</p> </span></span></div> <p>When the clerical regime took over in 1979, the mullahs, apparently believing their flock should go forth and multiply, abolished the country’s family-planning system. Fertility rose, reaching seven in 1984. Yet by the 2006 census the average fertility rate had fallen to a mere 1.9, and just 1.5 in Tehran. From fertility that is almost as high as one can get to below replacement level in 22 years: social change can hardly happen faster.</p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=N2UxNjUwZDVkZWZiYzMzNDFjMTY4NThlMDc1NGNhNDU= Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:21:56 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Veronique de Rugy) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NDE4YzJlNzg3ZTVmYWI0N2MwYmI4NTViNDNjMTJmYjU= Promises, promises. Obviously, it was easy for President Obama to make promises about how we would be able to see how stimulus dollars were spent and how transparent this administration was going to be. Turns out, in practice, the administration and its bureaucrats on the ground in the states are as bad as their predecessors.</p> <p>Here are three stories that add to the pile of evidence about how totally unreliable the job "created or saved" data on <a href="http://www.recovery.gov">Recovery.gov</a> is.</p> <p>First, <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/69254347.html">this article</a> in the <em>Milwaukee Journal Sentinel</em> on overreporting of jobs number in Wisconsin:</p> <blockquote> <p>A stimulus job report that says more than 10,000 jobs were saved or created in Wisconsin is rife with errors, double counting and inflated numbers based more on satisfying federal formulas than creating real jobs, a Journal Sentinel review has found.</p> <p>In one case, five jobs were mistakenly listed as 50 - and then counted twice. In another, pay raises to workers were listed as saving more than 100 jobs. And in another, jobs were listed as saved even though the money had not been received and no work on the project had begun.</p> </blockquote> <p>And this Boston.com <a href="http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2009/11/05/pay_raises_used_to_tally_number_of_jobs_saved_by_stimulus/">story</a> about how much of the stimulus funds are used on pay raises to bureaucrats rather than new jobs, and yet are counted as new jobs:</p> <blockquote> <p style="background: white none repeat scroll 0% 0%;"><span><span lang="EN">A review of the latest stimulus reports - which the White House promised would undergo extensive reviews to ensure accuracy - found that more than two-thirds of 14,506 jobs credited to the recovery act by Head Start programs involved pay increases.</span></span></p> <p style="background: white none repeat scroll 0% 0%;"><span><span lang="EN">Health and Human Services spokesman Luis Rosero defended the practice. “If I give you a raise, it is going to save a portion of your job,’’ he said.</span></span></p> </blockquote> <p style="background: white none repeat scroll 0% 0%;"><span><span lang="EN">Finally, here is the </span></span><em><a title="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/05/us/05stimulus.html?ref=todayspaper" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/05/us/05stimulus.html?ref=todayspaper">New York Times</a></em>, of all places, looking at some of the flaws in reporting on Recovery Act job creation, and notes that "a report on the government's stimulus Web site improbably claims that that single lawn mower sale helped save or create 50 jobs," while at the same time, Chrysler, which "got a $52.9 million stimulus order for new cars for the government," claimed the money "did not save a single job."</p> <p style="background: white none repeat scroll 0% 0%;">The<em> Times</em> says reports released last week "from more than 130,000 recipients of stimulus money in which they claimed to have saved or created more than 640,000 jobs" are in some cases "simply wrong, while others contain apparently subjective estimates."</p> <p style="background: white none repeat scroll 0% 0%;">Basically, the newspaper admits that maybe the administration can't really calculate the number of jobs saved or created with the stimulus money.</p> <p style="background: white none repeat scroll 0% 0%;">Are you <a href="http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/02/no-saving-grace-2/">listening</a>, Paul Krugman?</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NDE4YzJlNzg3ZTVmYWI0N2MwYmI4NTViNDNjMTJmYjU= Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:15:04 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NGJhOTQ3MjdiMGY1OTI1NDVjOTA0ZGE0MzMzNzk1Nzc= <a href="http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MWY5NzMzYTFhODEyOWMyNzVmMTQ3OTAyNjdiMzI0NGU=&w=MQ==">Mike Franc writes</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>If overhauling our health system exudes the odor of bigger, more expensive government, the odds of passage plummet in the face of these growing middle-class concerns. When it comes to their own political survival, politicians possess impeccable radar. Last night’s election returns should set off those radars for dozens of Democrats who represent these overextended and financially insecure suburban families. One can almost hear those backroom conversations. “I still want to see a health-reform bill enacted,” they will assure their leaders on Capitol Hill, “but can’t we at least dial it back a bit?”</p> </blockquote> <blockquote> <p>This will complicate things for Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid. How will they find a politically acceptable mix of new taxes to finance such an ambitious plan? The short answer is that they can’t. Whether they finance their plan with a tax on “Cadillac” health plans, drugs, and wheelchairs or impose massive new taxes on the “rich,” it will hit the family budgets in these middle-class communities. Memo to lawmakers who represent these districts: You will need to identify other ways to pay for the trillions in new health “benefits” you want to bestow on us, or find a more fiscally manageable way to skin the health-care cat.</p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NGJhOTQ3MjdiMGY1OTI1NDVjOTA0ZGE0MzMzNzk1Nzc= Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:32:01 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Kathryn Jean Lopez) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZTdiMWZlMjBjMDJkMWZjZTBiNzY1ZDVlZmUyNTYxOTc= A D.C. reader e-mails: </p> <blockquote> <p>Kathryn (can we still call you K-Lo?), [Yes, of course. Even if no one in the White House does anymore. --K]</p> </blockquote> <blockquote> <p>Spotted a rainbow in the direction of the Capitol (I'm at Connecticut and L) at the precise time of the healthcare rally.  Coincidence?  I think not.</p> <p><img src="http://www2.nationalreview.com/dest/2009/11/05/description1105091614.jpg" alt="" width="467" height="350" /></p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZTdiMWZlMjBjMDJkMWZjZTBiNzY1ZDVlZmUyNTYxOTc= Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:25:50 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Mark Steyn) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZWYwNWIyNTgwNjgxMzA0MjFjODAyMTNlM2M0MTk4NTY= Maggie <a href="http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OTQwZDkzY2YzNzhiZTczYmNlYmNhZjNmYWM3YTViNTc=">writes</a>: "I am always struck by how unempirical the Left is." Very true. And how sad that it should be Derb, of all people, who has to be reminded of this. 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.</p> <p>And, even if that were not the case, abortion as a means of reducing single motherhood would not be pro-family, unless by "pro-family" you mean not only that there would be fewer dysfunctional families but fewer families, period. It would be what one might call the European solution, whose consequences Lord Sacks, Chief Rabbi of the British Commonwealth, noted in his <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/6507782/Europeans-too-selfish-to-have-children-says-Chief-Rabbi.html" target="_blank">speech</a> last night.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZWYwNWIyNTgwNjgxMzA0MjFjODAyMTNlM2M0MTk4NTY= Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:01:35 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Jonah Goldberg) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MGM2N2RkMjk4YzkwNTVkZjBhMTAwOWM5N2VmMzZmNTI= <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33678801/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/">Shootings at Fort Hood. Seven Dead.</a></p> <blockquote> <p>At least seven people are dead and 12 wounded in a shooting at Fort Hood in Texas, the base's public affairs office told NBC News on Thursday.<br /><br />The official would not give his name nor additional details. It was unknown whether victims are soldiers or civilians. One gunman was reportedly in custody and another was on the loose, NBC News said. A third shooter may be involved, according to NBC News affiliate KCEN, which said the person had opened fire on the SWAT team at the base.<br /><br />KCEN reported that a policeman was among those shot.</p> <p>KCEN in Waco reported that the second suspect may be holed up in a building on the post.<br /><br />Greg Schannep, an aide to U.S. Rep. John Carter, told the Austin American-Statesman that he was on the Army post to attend a graduation service. He said that as he neared the entrance of a building where the service was being held, a soldier with blood on his uniform ran past him and said a man was shooting.<br /><br /></p> </blockquote><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MGM2N2RkMjk4YzkwNTVkZjBhMTAwOWM5N2VmMzZmNTI= Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:01:27 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Jonah Goldberg) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MTg4ZTRhOWI1YzA3NDY1YmZjMWI1Njc5ODQ5NmVlOTc= Brother Geraghty <a href="http://campaignspot.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YWRiYjU1ZDg2NjkzMmM0MDBhNmQ5ZGM3ZmI0ZTEyYWY=">notes</a> that George Pataki might be running for the Senate. I'd rather he win than a Democrat -- or at least any Democrat I can imagine New York State producing these days. But that won't stop me from reiterating my view that he's one of the dumbest politicians in America. I refer you (again) to my favorite idiotic quote from the former governor:</p> <p>"It is conceivable," George Pataki, declared in 2000 when he signed a hate-crimes bill into law, "that if this law had been in effect one hundred years ago, the greatest hate crime of all, the Holocaust, could have been avoided."</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MTg4ZTRhOWI1YzA3NDY1YmZjMWI1Njc5ODQ5NmVlOTc= Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:42:36 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (NRO Staff) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZTlmYTc4NGQ4NDhlYTZhYjBjZGE5MDUxMWQ0NjQ5OGE= <p class="MsoNormal"><span>An Italian court recently sentenced 23 CIA employees in absentia for their role in the 2003 Abu Omar rendition.<br /> <br /> We should capture terrorists anywhere, any time, but we should get the job done right and with a minimum of bureaucracy. Real spying is inexpensive and requires few people. The basic act of espionage is a single CIA officer meeting a single source -- a person with access to secrets on terrorists or nuclear proliferators, for example -- in a dingy hotel room in a dysfunctional country.<br /> <br /> Any CIA operation that is revealed to the public, however, shows these telltale signs: The operation looks busy, a lot of people are involved, and large amounts of money are spent. Often you’ll hear the CIA accused of being risk averse. I agree. However, risk aversion is a complex concept. The CIA will sometimes conduct risky operations in order to achieve a more important goal: looking busy. In the Abu Omar operation, 21 Agency employees flew to Italy to abduct a single terrorist suspect -- as an eminent scholar put it, “21 people to get one fat Egyptian!” -- who was already under surveillance by the Italian police. The 21 people stayed in five-star hotels and chatted with headquarters on open-line cell phones, all at great expense and awful tradecraft. The number of people managing the operation from headquarters was enormous. But it was a successful operation in that it spent a lot of money, made a lot of people look active, and suggested the CIA’s willingness to take risk.<br /> <br /> CIA officials are quick to deny that the organization is risk averse by pointing to risky operations that went wrong. This darker, more complex, passive-aggressive aspect of risk aversion seems to say: We can certainly do risky operations, but here’s what happens when you make us get off our couch and do them.<br /> <br /> Take a look at any CIA activity that is revealed in the future and ask yourself: Was this a traditional, inexpensive intelligence operation involving a meeting between a CIA officer and a human source to gather intelligence? Or was this an operation designed to spend a lot of money, to make a lot of people look busy, and to give the appearance that the CIA is willing to take risk?<br /> <br /> Whenever we see CIA employees released from bureaucracy, we see success. The tactical intelligence production within Iraq is excellent; the early Afghan campaign, featuring no offices and a flat chain of command, just a few guys and bags of money, was extraordinary.<br /> <br /> </span><em><span class="bioline">-- “Ishmael Jones” is a former deep-cover officer with the Central Intelligence Agency. He is the author of <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/redirect/amazon.p?j=1594032238"><span style="font-style: normal;">The Human Factor: Inside the CIA’s Dysfunctional Intelligence Culture</span></a>, published last year by Encounter Books.</span></em></p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZTlmYTc4NGQ4NDhlYTZhYjBjZGE5MDUxMWQ0NjQ5OGE= Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:11:43 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Maggie Gallagher) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OTQwZDkzY2YzNzhiZTczYmNlYmNhZjNmYWM3YTViNTc= One of the promises the pro-abortion crowd made in the late '60s and early '70s was that abortion would reduce illegitimacy, would reduce the number of "unwanted" children. Instead, of course, illegitimacy continued to rise dramatically after abortion was legalized. (What collapsed was shotgun weddings, not illegitimacy.)</p> <p>I am always struck by how unempirical the Left is. They are the empowered culture-makers who can repeat certain untruths so intensely and so frequently that even conservatives believe them. (Oh, things like "gay marriage is inevitable, the culture has shifted," for example.) It takes an amazing amount of work and money to break through the blinders cultural liberalism crafts for all our eyes.</p> <p>These are like the people who go around saying, "We have separated sex from reproduction," even as girls keep getting pregnant in massive numbers. </p> <p>When and how does reality get to matter? An interesting sociological problem . . .</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OTQwZDkzY2YzNzhiZTczYmNlYmNhZjNmYWM3YTViNTc= Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:34:41 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Jonah Goldberg) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MzRlYWJhNmU1N2QyOWY2M2U3NjgyYTA5YWFhM2JjOWM= I'm with Andy. I really can't stand the kind of argument Derb reprints below. Most of the time it's offered, it strikes me as borderline bad faith because it simply fails to acknowledge the other side's core principles and assumptions.</p> <p>By the same logic, euthanasia is quite obviously profamily in that it alleviates struggling children and grandchildren from the burden of caring for their aging parents. Infanticide for "special needs" children is also pro-family in the same way.</p> <p>I'm perfectly fine conceding that abortion would help to alleviate some of the problems associated with single motherhood, but I don't see why people so often think this is a blockbuster argument that's going to change peoples' minds.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MzRlYWJhNmU1N2QyOWY2M2U3NjgyYTA5YWFhM2JjOWM= Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:04:50 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Ramesh Ponnuru) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MDliMWMyZGExYzE0YWEwMDRmNmU2ZjAyM2IzYTk4NDg= Democrats want to tell themselves that the really significant election on Tuesday was NY-23, maybe Republicans should refrain from contradicting them.</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MDliMWMyZGExYzE0YWEwMDRmNmU2ZjAyM2IzYTk4NDg= Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:01:04 -0400 webmaster@nationalreview.com (Ramesh Ponnuru) http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=Y2NiZDA5MzQwZjU1MDNlYTIxMmE1M2Y2YzkzYTk2Y2I= <a href="http://blog.american.com/?p=6902">Andrew Biggs</a> pokes several holes in Nicholas Kristof's latest column, which uses America's relatively high infant mortality rates and high life expectancy for 65-year-olds to make the case for government provision of health care. I've explained why the infant-mortality numbers don't prove what liberals think it proves a few times at NR and NRO, and Biggs goes through it too.</p> <p>Biggs kindly forwarded me a graph that shows how life expectancy at age 65 has increased over the years. The introduction of Medicare doesn't seem to have affected the trend. Amy Finkelstein and Robin McKnight have found that (to quote a <a href="http://www.nber.org/digest/apr06/w11609.html">summary</a>) "the introduction of Medicare had no discernible impact on elderly mortality in its first ten years in operation."</p><br /><hr width=100% size=2><br /> http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=Y2NiZDA5MzQwZjU1MDNlYTIxMmE1M2Y2YzkzYTk2Y2I= Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:58:38 -0400