Wednesday, November 18, 2009

That Same Old Carter Feeling Again   [Seth Leibsohn]

When it came to China, President Obama's famous powers of persuasion failed to persuade.

He came bearing a long shopping list, including Chinese support for tougher sanctions on Iran and more flexibility by Beijing on currency exchange rates, but Obama was met with polite, yet stony, silences. . . . Not only is the U.S. president coming away without any definable concessions, but the Chinese appeared to be digging in their heels. . . . Perhaps most disappointing was China's failure to budge in its opposition to tougher sanctions on Iran. With their extensive oil interests influencing their policies toward Tehran, the Chinese are increasingly seen as an obstacle to reining in Iran's nuclear ambitions. . . .

Obama did not meet with Chinese journalists, lawyers, human rights advocates, environmentalists or any ordinary Chinese, and an expected meeting with Hu Shuli, who recently resigned as editor of China's leading business magazine, did not materialize.Obama's limited results in part reflect the profound shift in Sino-U.S. relations and global politics, with China's rapid rise and America's weakened position, especially in the wake of the financial crisis.

11/18 08:58 AMShare

Stimulus Phantom Districts Update   [Jack Fowler]

Watchdog.org’s Bill McMorris reports: "Your Guide to the Stimulus, District by (Phantom) District." Heck, even Rhode Island has three of them.

11/18 08:55 AMShare

Re: Innumerate Al   [Steve Hayward]

John, it's even worse than you think. The prospect for "hot rock" geothermal isn't very good because, in many locations, the drilling activity causes seismic problems. One early pilot geothermal project in Switzerland recently caused an earthquake and had to be shut down. People who worked on this and other projects (a friend of mine was involved in the Switzerland project) are very pessimistic about the whole idea. At best, geothermal will only provide a tiny fraction of our energy needs, at a very high cost. Drilling those deep wells is hugely expensive.

Now the irony here is that enviros, who are raising red flags about the risks of "fracking" (hydraulic fracturing) to extract natural gas from shale and coal beds, haven't uttered a peep about the seismic risk of geothermal drilling. Funny how selective the green risk aversion is. In any other area, Gore would be leading the charge against it. And there's another geothermal test well going in soon in an earthquake zone in northern California. The only way Gore will come out against geothermal is if they accidentally find oil and gas along the way. 

11/18 08:49 AMShare

Putting Taxpayer Dollars to Play   [John Hood]

States are fully as capable as Washington is of squandering taxpayer money on questionable programs without sufficient oversight. Check out what’s going on in Kentucky right now after a local television investigation of the Louisville African American Think Tank — which, as it turns out, isn’t really a nonprofit and doesn’t do much in the way of public programming:

When Rev. Gerome Sutton first proposed a two-day urban health summit in 2007, he asked the state of Kentucky for $135,000. Included in his budget were $4,800 to rent a projector for two days and $15,500 to print 800 brochures. That’s a cost of almost $20 each.

Besides those seemingly inflated costs, there was one other main problem with the proposal. "The tax exempt number had been suspended," said the African American Think Tank's former office manager, who doesn't want to be identified.

She discovered from an angry donor who was denied a tax deduction that the Think Tank had been dissolved by the state in 2005 for failing to file annual reports. But that didn’t stop the Governor’s Office from awarding the Think Tank a $30,000 grant.

It gets worse — or better, if you’re evaluating the case strictly for entertainment value:

The initial funding, a $10,000 check from the state, was cashed at Vermont Liquors. The owner said that the reason was that Sutton hoped to avoid a long wait to get his money. The liquor store owner charges a 2 1/2 check cashing fee, so he pocketed $250 from the state.

Vermont Liquors is where Sutton’s former employee says most of the Think Tank’s financial business is conducted. "If you asked for a bank statement, he couldn’t produce a bank statement, because you know what? There’s not a bank account," she said.

When the summit arrived, only a handful of people attended. Yet Sutton submitted an invoice for the rest of his money, charging the state $12,000 for supposedly feeding a thousand people both breakfast and lunch.

The board of the “think tank” includes several felons. Seems appropriate. There is also a flashy car and a red-nosed clown involved, of course.

For more information on wasteful spending in Kentucky, you can check out the transparency work of the Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions.

11/18 08:46 AMShare

Jewish Conspiracy Watch   [Mark Steyn]

The Prime Minister of Canada was in India the other day and found time to visit the (Jewish) Chabad House targeted by terrorists in last December's attack on Bombay.

Mr Rick Gibbs of Vancouver was prompted to write to the country's national newspaper. Even though Trudeaupian Canada so fetishizes minorities that it is now impossible for a white male anglophone to become Governor-General, Mr. Gibbs evidently felt this Jewish outreach was a minority too far:

Our Prime Minister is in India "to reinvigorate Canada-India relations." He visits the massive country of India for just three days, home to 1.15 billion people, 80+% of whom practise Hinduism (alongside millions of Sikhs, Christians, Muslims and Buddhists) yet he finds time to hob nob with Jewish rabbis on his first day. Then the National Post runs two photos of the first day of the trade mission, and both are of his visit to the Jewish Chabad House.

Remarkable.

As the blogger Scaramouche points out, what's remarkable is that in a murderous assault on Bombay and its most prominent landmarks the Islamic terrorists sought out members of the statistically insignificant Jewish population. As Mr. Gibbs would put it, they "found time to hob nob with Jewish rabbis" — and then killed them. As I wrote here at the time:

Two “inflamed moderates” entered the Chabad House, shouted “Allahu Akbar!,” tortured the Jews and murdered them, including the young Rabbi’s pregnant wife... The sole surviving “militant” revealed that the Jewish center had been targeted a year in advance... In a well-planned attack on iconic Bombay landmarks symbolizing great power and wealth, the “militants” nevertheless found time to divert 20 percent of their manpower to torturing and killing a handful of obscure Jews helping the city’s poor in a nondescript building. If they were just “teenage gunmen” or “militants” in the cause of Kashmir, engaged in a more or less conventional territorial dispute with India, why kill the only rabbi in Bombay? Dennis Prager got to the absurdity of it when he invited his readers to imagine Basque separatists attacking Madrid: “Would the terrorists take time out to murder all those in the Madrid Chabad House? The idea is ludicrous.”

That's why the Canadian Prime Minister visited the Chabad House — because it symbolizes the peculiar obsessions of Islamic terror. What's "remarkable" is that so many nice respectable types in Vancouver and elsewhere appear to share them.

11/18 08:38 AMShare

From a $25 NRO Contributor    [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

NRO begins my day anew with rekindled hope, keeps me sane and focused on all things "right" throughout the day, and eases my mind at night — despite the constant bombardment from the (still) Obama-centric lapdog media. Thank you NRO!

Contribute to NRO here.

11/18 08:30 AMShare

'Embracing With Respect'   [Mark Steyn]

Yale President Richard Levin is not a cheap date but, if you've got Saudi money, he's eminently affordable.

The Islamic enforcers have pretty much bought up everything they need to buy in the Western world by now. And like their other chattels we're getting used to putting on the veil and keeping our mouths shut.

11/18 08:13 AMShare

From a $100 NRO Contributor    [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

Thank you for all your courage and hard work!  And that Mark Steyn of yours is one funny man. . .

Contribute to NRO here.

11/18 08:00 AMShare

From a $25 NRO Contributor    [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

I made it all the way to college before I was presented with the prevailing view of conservatives as knuckle-dragging rustics. NR was the antidote I needed 25 years ago, and it, along with NRO, remains as such today. Thank you for reminding me that even in these times, thoughtful conservatism is alive and well.

Contribute to NRO here.

11/18 07:30 AMShare

From a $100 NRO Contributor    [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

I read NRO every day! You all enable me to stay informed so that I can in turn educate my friends and families on the issues of the day. Not only that, NRO is just plain fun!

Contribute to NRO here.

11/18 07:00 AMShare

Holder Testifying Today   [Andy McCarthy]

He'll be appearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee at 9:30 a.m. C-SPAN3 will cover.

11/18 05:53 AMShare

Gollum as Screwtape   [John J. Miller]

Now this is cool: Andy Serkis (Gollum in The Lord of the Rings films) stars in an audio performance of The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis, produced by Focus on the Family. Judging from the video link, Serkis sure does a good evil-genius howl.

Years ago, John Cleese recorded a very good Screwtape. Also, fans of the Lewis book should check out the stage version by the FPA Theatre Company.

11/18 05:21 AMShare

The Science Is Sizzled   [Mark Steyn]

Derb, Al Gore's being a little more than merely innumerate when he breezily asserts that the temperature of the earth's interior is "several million degrees." His entire, highly lucrative shtick rests on the proposition that a one-degree increase in surface temperature in the course of a century imperils not merely the poor old polar bear, not merely the planet itself, but is "altering the balance of energy between our planet and the rest of the universe." But he's so insouciant about "several million degrees" boiling away a couple of miles under his loafers that he can't even be bothered getting it right to within three figures.

It makes you wonder whether even he believes any of this stuff.

11/18 12:33 AMShare

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Re ‘Who Cares about Cuba?’   [Jay Nordlinger]

I found this a lovely, very American letter — see if you agree: 

Mr. Nordlinger,

 

Just wanted you to know that I care about Cuba . . . I don’t have any particular reason to care, I suppose — I’m as WASP as they come — I just love freedom and hate tyrants.

 Awesome.

11/17 10:43 PMShare

How the Nazis Tried to Steal Christmas   [Jonah Goldberg]

Interesting article, great pictures. Would have been perfect for the LFB (and here are some relevant posts from it.)

11/17 10:14 PMShare

New Koran Translation   [Mike Potemra]

One of my great (but definitely amateur) interests is the field of English Bible translation. Since the days of King James, we English-speakers have been very well served by the efforts of ministers and scholars to render God’s Word in a manner that’s both faithful to the original and understandable to readers; the period since 1950 has been especially fruitful in this regard. In this era of our fateful, global confrontation with radical Islam, it’s important that the Koran, too, be available in contemporary translations that give the reader an accurate picture of what it says — the ugly, hateful material as well as the spiritually uplifting material. On my morning commute today, I was able to read the first 24 pages of Tarif Khalidi’s translation, just out in paperback from Penguin; and, so far, it certainly works better as English than do some other popular translations. From 2:177:

Virtue does not demand of you to turn your faces eastwards or westwards. Virtue rather is:

He who believes in God, the Last Day, the Angels, the Book and the prophets;

Who dispenses money, though dear, to kinsmen, orphans, the needy, the traveller, beggars and for ransom;

Who performs the prayer and pays the alms;

Who fulfil their contracts when they contract;

Who are steadfast in hardship, calamity and danger;

These are the true believers.

These are truly pious.

That’s a pretty good summary of mainstream monotheistic thought and theistic ethics, and, while I myself would have tinkered with it a little more, it certainly reads as very clear contemporary English. Compare some of the wording of the same passage in one of the most popular earlier translations, that of Abdullah Yusuf Ali:

It is not righteousness

That ye turn your faces

Towards East or West;

But it is righteousness –

To believe in Allah . . .

Such are the people

Of truth, the God-fearing.

“It is not righteousness” and “the people of truth” are in that special form of English diction some of us call “Biblish.” A native English speaker today would not typically have phrased those thoughts in that manner; he or she would have said something closer to Khalidi’s rendering.

A couple of paragraphs down, in 2:178 (Khalidi version), there is an admonition highly applicable to our situation of the past decade: “The prospect of retaliation saves lives, O you who are possessed of minds.” Over the eight years that have passed since 9/11, the U.S. has waged vigorous military combat against Islamic extremists; it is surely no coincidence that there has not been another 9/11. Every measure we take — within the limits of divine and human moral law — to strike back at the terrorists gives the terrorists a healthy prospect of retaliation, and thus it does, indeed, save lives. And that’s not all: By weakening the Muslim fanatics motivated by hatred, it strengthens those Muslims who work and pray for a better Islam, an Islam devoted to the ideals of 2:177 that I quoted above.

11/17 07:24 PMShare

Innumerate Al   [John Derbyshire]

Al Gore on Conan O'Brien's show the other day:

Conan:   Now, what about … you talk in the book about geothermal energy …
Al:   Yeah, yeah.
Conan:     and that is, as I understand it, using the heat that's generated from the core of the earth …
Al:   Yeah.
Conan:   … to create energy, and it sounds to me like an evil plan by Lex Luthor to defeat Superman. Can you, can you tell me, is this a viable solution, geothermal energy?
Al:   It definitely is, and it's a relatively new one. People think about geothermal energy — when they think about it at all — in terms of the hot water bubbling up in some places, but two kilometers or so down in most places there are these incredibly hot rocks, 'cause the interior of the earth is extremely hot, several million degrees, and the crust of the earth is hot …

[Me]  The geothermal gradient is usually quoted as 25–50 degrees Celsius per mile of depth in normal terrain (not, e.g., in the crater of Kilauea). Two kilometers down, therefore, (that's a mile and a quarter if you're not as science-y as Al) you'll have an average gain of 30–60 degrees — exploitable for things like home heating, though not hot enough to make a nice pot of tea. The temperature at the earth's core, 4,000 miles down, is usually quoted as 5,000 degrees Celsius, though these guys claim it's much less, while some contrarian geophysicists have posted claims up to 9,000 degrees. The temperature at the surface of the Sun is around 6,000 degrees Celsius, while at the center, where nuclear fusion is going on bigtime, things get up over 10 million degrees.

If the temperature anywhere inside the earth was "several million degrees," we'd be a star.

11/17 07:03 PMShare

From a $100 NRO Contributor   [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

I hope my small contribution helps. I have greatly enjoyed NR and NRO for several years, and look forward to many more!

Contribute to NRO here.

11/17 06:30 PMShare

Save, America   [Andrew Stuttaford]

Leaving aside that whole paradox-of-thrift thing (and that's a big "leaving aside" at the moment), I don't think that there can be much doubt that this is a country that needs to reinvent a savings culture — and fairly quickly. In an entertaining piece over at the Business Insider, John Carney and Joe Wiesenthal list some of the ways that government is discouraging people from doing just that. Some of the items are debatable, but all are worth pondering. That said, I'd add the failure to adjust taxable capital gains for inflation (and — thinking aloud — maybe taxable interest income, too) and, more generally, the need to weight any future tax increases more towards consumption (differential rates for different items could offset at least some of the regressive effect) than income. And could that latter comment imply that the answer lies in some sort of VAT? For all that unlovely tax's undoubted drawbacks, perhaps.

11/17 06:30 PMShare

From a $10 NRO Contributor   [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

I wish I could give more, but my eldest has been out of work since January, and we are pretty much tapped out from helping with expenses. Thank you for all you do — I learn so much from NRO.

May we all Live Long and Prosper!

Contribute to NRO here.

11/17 06:00 PMShare

From a $50 NRO Contributor   [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

Love your magazine and your online articles as well. I am the old lady (88 years!) in the wheelchair that was pushed around by my son on the NR Cruise November 2008. What a wonderful time we had! Thanks for all.

Contribute to NRO here.

11/17 05:30 PMShare

Law & Order Can Get Worse   [Jonah Goldberg]

Some folks may remember that I am a one-time-fan-turned-long-time critic of Law and Order. The show began (20 years ago!) when crime was still a big deal in New York and the ripped-from-the-headlines stories were about real crimes. Some of those crimes even had a gritty anti-P.C. angle to them (Tawana Brawley, Larry Hogue, Bernie Goetz etc). But about ten years ago, the show became increasingly detached from reality. The producers turned to political controversies and made them into stories about murder in which corporations and conservatives are very often the culprits.

I've always thought this was a deeply pernicious thing to do. Whatever your objections to conservatives and corporations, they don't routinely murder people. To suggest that our ideological-yet-democratic disputes are plausibly analogized to stories of wanton homicide is a serious disservice. Indeed, because the show is astoundingly smug in its didacticism, the hypocrisy of it all is galling. The show often preens as if it is lecturing us about political morality even as it slanders American society in the process. I stopped watching years ago. But every now and then I do watch to see if it's still as bad. It usually is. But it sounds like it's getting even worse.

Michael Rulle at Big Hollywood writes:

NBC’s “Law and Order” is in its 20th season. The economy is weak, so they have devolved to converting White House talking points into weekly shows. Last week, “Doped” was a farcical equivalent of “Damien Thorn meets Karen Silkwood.” Pharmaceutical companies and Doctors are worse than drug cartels. The killers in the previous week’s episode on such cartels were more sympathetic than the health professionals.

In the opening scene, a woman with 4 children is driving the wrong way down the West Side Highway (like the Diane Schuler Taconic Parkway horror this summer). Speaking on her cell phone erratically (no “hands free!”), the kids get concerned. She decides it is time to use nasal spray for her allergies, which had been spiked without her knowledge. Flash forward and viewers see two mangled vehicles resulting in seven deaths.

Go to B.H. for the rest, but the upshot is we need health-care reform.

11/17 05:06 PMShare

From a $50 NRO Contributor   [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

Thank you so much for your endeavors in keeping us informed. You are a lighthouse in a murky, foggy sea.

Contribute to NRO here.

11/17 05:00 PMShare

Where's That Inflation?   [Veronique de Rugy]

As you know, from September 2008 to September 2009, the Federal Reserve pumped an unprecedented $2 trillion into the financial system by buying Treasury bonds and assets from banks. According to most mainstream economists, such action should create a general increase in prices. Yet, strangely, according to these same mainstream economists, there are no signs of inflation. In fact, the fear is deflation. How can that be explained?

I have tried to tackle this question in my Reason column this month. My overall conclusion is that economists need a new paradigm to understand inflation today. Think about it this way: In the 1970s, economists couldn't understand what inflation was about and how to get the country out of the vicious spiral of stagflation. That's until Milton Friedman turned the field of monetary theory upside down. Since then, economists agree that inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon.

The same revolution needs to take place today.

Keep reading this post . . .

11/17 04:54 PMShare

Mukasey: Obama Administration's 'soft, cushy euphemisms reflect they're back in a pre-9/11 mentality'   [Andy McCarthy]

The Washington Times reports that Former Attorney General Michael Mukasey elaborated today on his warnings about the dangers of transferring the 9/11 jihadists to New York City for a trial in the civilian justice system.

"It's simply a fact of life that a jihadist, particularly somebody like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, is looking for a big stage," Mukasey said in an interview on the WTimes's "America's Morning News" radio show. "New York City is the biggest stage in the world, and the attempt will be made to make this as big, spectacular and ugly as possible."

He reminded listeners that Zacarias Moussaoui had turned his civilian trial into a circus (Remember this ditty: "America, you lost . . . I won," and "God save Osama bin Laden. You will never get him.")  Joe Weber's report continues:

Mr. Mukasey also supported the criticism that the Obama administration's plan for the trials — as announced Friday by Attorney General Eric Holder — reflects a "pre-9-11" mentality, or worse. He cited Mr. Obama's decision to bring suspected terrorists from the Guantanamo Bay detention center to trial on U.S. soil and his refusal to use the term "war of terror."

 

"Using soft, cushy euphemisms instead reflect they're back in a pre-9-11 mentality," he said. "In some ways it's worse, because at least before [the attacks] we were not aware of what we were facing."

 

Mr. Mukasey also said the mass shooting at the Fort Hood Army base in which 13 people were killed was a terrorist act. Witnesses said suspected shooter Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan yelled "Allahu Akbar" before shooting. "It's impossible to categorize it as any other act," Mr. Mukasey said.

 

He said Maj. Hasan represents the new breed of "leaderless jihadists," encouraged by Osama bin Laden and other terrorist leaders. "This man is a fulfillment of their dreams," he said.

11/17 04:49 PMShare

Obama's Home Teleprompter Malfunctions   [Jonah Goldberg]

Details at the Onion.

(make sure you read the news crawl, too).

11/17 04:47 PMShare

This Will Alarm Sci-Fi Fans   [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

(From a White House e-mail:) "Secretary Sebelius Announces Cristal Thomas as the New HHS Regional Director for Region V"

11/17 04:46 PMShare

From a $100 NRO Contributor   [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

I am especially addicted to The Corner, which I can't help but check regularly throughout the day, and continually during an election cycle.

Keep up the fantastic work.

Contribute to NRO here.

11/17 04:30 PMShare

Re: Prejean   [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

Another e-mail:

I just finished reading the reader response to your Prejean column and I think the commenter is missing the point in comparing Prejean/gay marriage to Joe the Plumber/economy. There is little question that Joe the Plumber is not an economic expert, but the reality is that for many of us gay marriage is not a political issue as much as it is a moral issue that happens to have been politicized. I'm quite sure that Miss Prejean is capable of espousing her own moral point of view, and if the proponents of that side of the discussion choose to use her as a spokeswoman, I see nothing wrong with that. To say that any individual is not an "important voice" on a moral issue is missing the point entirely.

11/17 04:03 PMShare

From a $100 NRO Contributor   [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

I already support NR as a suscriber, but I am donating $100 in hopes that voices like yours will keep Derbyshire's prophesies of impending doom from coming true.

Contribute to NRO here.

11/17 04:00 PMShare

Re ‘The Acornization of America’   [Jay Nordlinger]

VDH wrote about “the strange Obama-administration practice of counting hypothetical jobs saved by more government borrowing rather than focusing on real statistics of real jobs lost,” and the “fantasy congressional districts with fantasy new employment in them.” I could not help thinking of a line from the president’s inaugural address: “We’ll restore science to its rightful place.” Well, maybe, but what in the world is the administration doing with statistics? More generally, has an administration’s practices ever been more out of line with a president’s boasts and promises?

UPDATE: A reader chimes in, “You think those districts don’t exist? They will after the ACORN-ized 2010 Census, and they’ll be gerrymandered for the Democrats, too!”

P.S. Remember when Reagan, saying “gerrymander,” would signal that he knew that Gerry pronounced his name with a hard “G,” though we pronounce “gerrymander” with a soft one? Amazing guy, the Gipper.

11/17 03:47 PMShare

From a $50 NRO Contributor   [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

Every day, first thing, I read The Corner from when I last left off. It is my daily aspirin for the splitting headache caused by toxic exposure to our nation's current political fiasco. Sometimes, I need several aspirin a day.

You make good medicine!

Contribute to NRO here.

11/17 03:30 PMShare

Iran Sentences More Activists to Death   [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran has sentenced five people to death over the unrest that followed the country's disputed June presidential election, state television reported Tuesday.

At least three others caught up in the turmoil have received death sentences previously.

11/17 03:05 PMShare

The Acornization of America   [Victor Davis Hanson]

11/17 02:57 PMShare

Science Wins! Or Does It?   [Iain Murray]

Six months ago, the DHHS felt that mammograms for women in their 40s were very important. Today, not so much . . . Captain Ed has the story over at Hot Air.  Now as it happens, I regard the change in policy something to be pleased about. From all the evidence I've seen, the number of women that get breast cancer without also having other risk factors is extremely small, meaning that in all probability the number of women who get benefits from the (painful) screening alone is outweighed by those who undergo potentially very harmful but unnecessary surgery.

So it is possible that this decision is actually a victory for science over the precautionary principle, with a decision having been based on a proper consideration of the risk trade-offs involved. Even if cost was involved in the decision, as Captain Ed suggests, it's still the right decision.

What's going to be interesting is the reaction from the baptist and bootlegger alliance of feminists and providers of screening services. Last time this was discussed in the early 90s, that alliance forced the Clinton administration to cave and recommend annual mammograms. The administration's reaction to that likely backlash will tell us much about the value the president really places on science.

11/17 02:56 PMShare

'Taint of Corruption'   [Mark Krikorian]

Today's NYT has a story on how the crooked son of Equatorial Guinea's crooked president is able to gain access to his home in Malibu despite the "taint of corruption":

Several times a year, Teodoro Nguema Obiang arrives at the doorstep of the United States from his home in Equatorial Guinea, on his way to his $35 million estate in Malibu, Calif., his fleet of luxury cars, his speedboats and private jet. And he is always let into the country.

The nation’s doors are open to Mr. Obiang, the forest and agriculture minister of Equatorial Guinea and the son of its president, even though federal law enforcement officials believe that “most if not all” of his wealth comes from corruption related to the extensive oil and gas reserves discovered more than a decade and a half ago off the coast of his tiny West African country, according to internal Justice Department and Immigration and Customs Enforcement documents.

And they are open despite a federal law and a presidential proclamation that prohibit corrupt foreign officials and their families from receiving American visas. The measures require only credible evidence of corruption, not a conviction of it.

Keep reading this post . . .

11/17 02:36 PMShare

From a $200 NRO Contributor   [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

That's why I cannot bear to take vacation. I miss the Corner blog too much.

Contribute to NRO here.

11/17 02:30 PMShare

If Your Wife Reads NRO, You're in Good Shape   [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

London Times: "Men married to smart women live longer"

11/17 02:30 PMShare

That Prejean Woman   [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

A reader responds to my Prejean column:

You guys on the right are making the same mistake about Prejean that you did with Joe the Plumber.  Elevating someone who happens to have been involved in a political/cultural moment into a spokesperson for the political/cultural point even though they have no special talents or qualifications for the job.  I am pro-gay marriage, but I had no use for the Perez Hilton question, no problem with her respectfully stated position (even though it differs than mine), and don't think that answer should have had any effect on the outcome of the pageant.  And I have no problem with those involved in the gay marriage debate criticquing what occurred.  But that doesn't make Prejean an important voice on this issue, any more than Joe the Plumber was regarding economic policy.  But the anti gay marriage movement had to cash in on her notoriety by turning her into a celebrity spokesperson for the cause, and now she is exploiting that celebrity to sell a book (I cry for all the good books in the world that will not be read because people waste their time on this one).   All of this dumbs down the discussion of this issue.  She can say whatever she wants, but I think you are foolish to hitch your cause to her wagon.

11/17 02:15 PMShare

Palin Wants a White House Job   [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

Rahm's, she says.

11/17 02:10 PMShare

Is Joe Biden Qualified?   [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

A lot of people don't think so. Karlyn Bowman writes: 

The pollsters are in overdrive measuring Sarah Palin’s popularity. Most of the new polls show that large majorities say she is unqualified to be president. To take just one, 70 percent in the CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll gave that response. That’s what makes another finding in the same poll so interesting. Half say Vice President Joe Biden is qualified to assume the top job, but almost as many, 48 percent, say he’s not.

11/17 02:02 PMShare

Dating Yourself   [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

The National Review Institute catches an outdated China currency claim in an AP report.

11/17 02:01 PMShare

From a $500 NRO Contributor   [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

NR: The REAL heartbeat of America

Contribute to NRO here.

11/17 02:00 PMShare

Politico vs. the Catholic Bishops   [Ramesh Ponnuru]

David Rogers, a reporter for Politico, slams the Catholic bishops repeatedly in this story. He opens: "Thirty-three years ago this fall, a bitter, race-tinged fight over abortion matched Roman Catholic bishops and the House against the nation’s first popularly elected black senator, Republican Ed Brooke of Massachusetts." No, he never comes back to explain what the heck he's talking about. We're just left with the impression that the bishops are hostile to blacks. 

Rogers resumes: "Now, with health care reform on the line, the same male-dominated church hierarchy is dictating to the first woman speaker of the House, Democrat Nancy Pelosi. . ." At this point, I assumed I was reading an op-ed by a pro-choice activist—but the piece certainly isn't labeled as such.

Later we hear that "[t]he political reality is the anti-abortion movement has largely succeeded in Washington by applying Hyde restrictions to what are captive populations reliant on the government."

I'm surprised Rogers didn't use "anti-choice" in his copy, or bring up the clerical sex scandals.

11/17 01:55 PMShare

Oh, Brother   [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

I just heard Sarah Palin referred to as "the Tanya Harding of authors" on MSNBC. But there will be no cutting that line of attack at the knees there. 

11/17 01:49 PMShare

McGurn on KSM   [Ramesh Ponnuru]

He writes that "the perverse message [Holder's] decision will send to terrorists all over this dangerous world is this: If you kill civilians on American soil you will have greater protections than if you attack our military overseas."

11/17 01:42 PMShare

Maggie on Carrie   [Maggie Gallagher]

I have released two statements on Carrie to the press, none of which has received much coverage. I will be filing a column later today.

Statement One, made at the request of Team Carrie on the day of her book release:

When I was 22 years old, Carrie’s age, I had a child out of wedlock.

 

When I rushed to defend Carrie I didn’t know anything at all about her, except she was a 21 year old California beauty queen who answered a question truthfully: "No offense to anybody out there. But that's how I was raised, and that's how I believe that [marriage] should be - between a man and a woman."

 

You shouldn't have to be a perfect person to stand up in public and say, to make a marriage you need a husband and wife. Nobody should be made to feel afraid because they say or believe that.

 

The ongoing campaign of hatred directed at Carrie is inexplicable, and ugly. Leave her alone. Let her be. Stop this madness. Let her be a model, or a write a book, or be on TV, or help the Special Olympics, or teach disabled kids, or anything else she wants to do.

 

If the people going after Carrie want to shame, smear and personally destroy someone who openly says marriage is a man and a woman, I say: pick on someone your own size. How about the President of the United States? He’s the leader of the Free World. He can take it.

 

This is not just about Carrie. Thousands of ordinary decent, honorable, law-abiding Americans have been harassed, intimidated, and threatened because they peacefully participated in the democratic process on behalf of marriage. They don’t have PR teams, or book deals, they are not famous or glamorous. Carrie is standing up for every single one of them in standing tall.

 

I wish Carrie well in whatever she chooses to do moving forward.

Keep reading this post . . .

11/17 01:41 PMShare

I Bet He's No Fan of Term LImits   [Mark Krikorian]

At midnight tonight, God willing, Senator Byrd will become the longest-serving congressman ever. I'd forgotten that he's president pro tempore of the Senate, and thus third in line for the presidency. But considering that he turns 92 on Friday, I wonder: Can the president pro tempore, or the veep or speaker of the House (or secretary of agriculture, if it comes to that) turn down the job if it were to fall to him in the event of a catastrophe? In The Man, James Earl Jones was president pro tempore and only became president because the vice president turned the job down due to illness. The Constitution only spells out how a president can be declared incapacitated by the cabinet; does the law on presidential succession address this?

11/17 01:36 PMShare

Depending on the Kindness of Friends   [Rich Lowry]

I’m one of those guys who would rather wander around in a car lost for 45 minutes if it means I don’t have to stop and ask someone for directions. So it doesn’t come easy to ask for your help, but that’s what I’m here to do.

If you enjoy what you read here, if it inspires, outrages, moves, or informs you — or even if it’s merely one of your routine clicks in the morning — please consider contributing to our fundraising drive.

Believe me, we are as frugal as possible publishing NR and NRO. Just ask our authors, or our editors. None of them are doing this for the money. But to our publisher Jack Fowler’s regret, we do have to pay them something. And servers don’t come for free.

Every time one of these fundraising drives comes around, I recall Bill Buckley’s axiom that National Review exists to make a point, not a profit. Sadly, those words have continued to hold across the decades. Opinion magazines just don’t make money, and we’ve never been owned by a media mogul (or a mogul of any sort for that matter).

We’ve always been an independent conservative voice that depends on the kindness of strangers. Although, that’s not quite right. We really depend on the kindness of friends. From its very beginning, NR forged a community of like-minded people, brought together by a love of liberty and this country. It’s been a joy to watch that community spread to NRO, updated for the digital age.

It’s always been a mutually beneficial relationship. We provide the journalistic sustenance, our friends provide — to the extent they can, and every mite is appreciated — the support we need to survive.

I don’t need to tell you that what we do — defend the principles that make this country unique and great — is more important than ever. Those ideas are under threat as never before. The more embattled they are, the more desperately we will fight for them.

What did Clemenceau say? “I had a wife, she abandoned me; I had children, they turned against me; I had friends, they betrayed me; I have only my claws, and I used them.”

We have literally thrown everything we have at Obamacare, deconstructing it in editorials, dissecting it hour-by-hour on Critical Condition, reporting on its progress (and, on the good days, lack thereof) on Capitol Hill. Again, we’d do this for nothing if we could, because it’s what we believe. But we need your support to keep at it.

So, if you enjoy what you read here, please do what you can to help — if it’s $10 or $1,000. Do it for Steyn, VDH, and Jonah. For Ramesh, Derb, Miller, and Geraghty. For Andy McCarthy and Kathryn Lopez. For the indefatigable Bob Costa. For our Critical Condition guys, James Capretta, Tevi Troy, et al. Do it for Pollowitz and Williamson. Do it for the folks here you usually don’t hear about, but who make NRO possible everyday:Chris McEvoy, Ed Craig, and Russell Jenkins.

Do it because this fight is too important to lose, and we’re not stopping until we win.

11/17 01:35 PMShare

From a $50 NRO Contributor   [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

NRO allows me to read the digital version before my 15-year-old son steals my NRODT.

Contribute to NRO here.

11/17 01:30 PMShare