If you don't like the weather in South Dakota, just wait a bit; it will change. Apparently much the same is true about our President. Originally the President had planned to attend the Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change. Then the Administration said he would not be attending. Then he' [...]
Concentrating on its parts last night, I thought the President's speech was pretty good. I still like a lot of it, but a criticism is surfacing today that is hard to get around. Here is an example from Der Spiegel:
It was the least truthful address that he has [...]
Last night I went shopping for Christmas decorations and politics was the last thing on my mind. That changed at the checkout counter, when a voice behind me boomed out a questioning, "Hello?" It seemed almost indignant, so I spun around to make sure I wasn't blocking or offending the' [...]
It is tempting to rake the President over the coals once again on the duration and many false starts of his decision making process. How many weeks did it take to decide that troop withdrawal would begin in July of 2011 as opposed to June or [...]
Appears to have survived Chávezism, at least temporarily. From the New York Times:
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — Porfirio Lobo, a longtime conservative politician, appeared to have won on Sunday in the Honduran presidential election, which many hoped could help the country emerge from the crisis caused by last summer's coup and [...]
One of the curious things about the healthcare debate in America is how little attention has been paid to healthcare systems in other countries. You might have thought we would be hearing about how public healthcare functions in Canada and Europe. That, after all, is what we will [...]
One hundred and fifty years ago this week, Charles Darwin's magnum opus was published in England. It was certainly one of the most important works of science ever written. If one listed the competition, it would include the seminal works by Copernicus, Newton, and of course [...]
In case you hadn't noticed, the esoteric deliberations of the Anthropogenic Global Warming Orthodoxy were exposed for all the world to see when someone hacked into the computers at the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Center. Now this hacking was an invasion of privacy' [...]
Britain is making quite a fuss over Dr. Brooke Magnanti, who recently revealed herself as the infamous Belle De Jour. Magnanti as Belle ran a blog called “Diary of a London Call-Girl” that gained her a substantial following. It became a best-selling book and later a TV series. The BBC’s Clive James observes in [...]
In a baffling act of candor, retiring NEA General Counsel Bob Chanin explains just what kind of organization the National Education Association is. From an editorial in the Chicago Tribune:
Despite what some among us would like to believe it is not because of our creative ideas. It is not [...]
Democrats and their allies formally moved their healthcare bill to the Senate floor tonight, rebuffing Republicans and ensuring that lawmakers will get a long and acrimonious debate on the overhaul of the healthcare system.
All 58 Democrats and the two independents who usually vote with them backed [...]
The Aberdeen American News ran an interesting “Our Voice” column recently.
Here is an excerpt:
A judge has decided the person who donated $750,000 to an anti-abortion referendum can remain anonymous. The state should continue efforts to bring this name to light and protect the public's right to know.
It is ironic that today’s abortion rights came about [...]
Just some random thoughts about He Who Blessed the Waffle.
President Obama went to China. He said lots of nice things about Chinese Civilization. He spoke to a small group of Chinese students, which event was blacked out on Chinese TV. He got nothing in terms of agreements or cooperation [...]
No. An internet rumor circulating to that effect, and it landed in my email. There is an interesting footnote here, but so far as I can tell there is no evidence at all that Nidal Malik Hasan had any connection to the Obama campaign or to the Administration.
Here is [...]
The scandal behind the Fort Hood shooting keeps getting deeper. It should have been clear to the army that Nidal Malik Hasan was a security risk long before he launched his personal jihad. Christopher Hitchens summarizes some of the details in his characteristically devastating piece at Slate.
On his [...]
Coming hard on the heels of David Brook's column on John Thune is this piece by the Washington Post's Chris Cillizza:
For months -- if not years -- the Republican/conservative smart set has been looking for a fresh face on which to hang their hopes and [...]
I have posted below on the billions that the Democrats are willing to spend to protect lawyers. The Washington Post raises the alarm on something else I have posted about: billions more spent to protect doctor's fees. The WaPo focuses on the right issue, as [...]
The recent sentencing of Former Congressman William Jefferson is notable, not only because it shows the face of government corruption, but also because it illustrates what looks to me like a growing disparity between society's willingness to punish financial offenders and its willingness to punish certain violent offenders. Jefferson [...]
An environmental policy can aim to achieve one or both of two things. One aim is green marketing. It can sell us things that make us feel virtuous and chic. The other is that it can at protecting the environment both for our sake and for the sake of the [...]
Poking fun at Hugo Chavez is like shooting a really fat fish in a pretty small barrel, but, hey, it's Sabado, so why not? Here is what life in Venezuela is like, from Newsweek:
Venezuelans are inured to a certain amount of economic dysfunction. They already suffer some of' [...]
The President is not incapable of making a decision. From USA Today:
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, and four other alleged accomplices will be moved from the military detention center at Guantanamo Bay to New York City so they can [...]
Okay, so this is one of those say it first just in case it happens stories. But it is something for South Dakota to take notice of. From the New York Times:
As you may or may not know, Thune is the junior senator from South Dakota, the man who [...]
NPR reported this evening that the President had narrowed his list of options regarding Afghanistan to a mere handful, all of them involving the insertion of more troops. Finally a decision was forthcoming!
Not so fast. Politico reports this:
POTUS will not accept any of the Afghanistan war options presented [...]
Speaker Pelosi's healthcare bill passed in the House by 220 to 215. If three Congresspersons had switched sides, the bill would have been defeated. That is in a chamber dominated by Democrats. Of course, it may be that Pelosi had more votes than that; it's just that a lot of [...]
November 9, 1989, was the most significant historical moment since the end of the Second World War. Indeed, it is easy to argue that that was the date on which WWII really ended, as the division of Germany and the Soviet occupation of Central Europe meant [...]
White House Communications director Anita Dunn, best known, perhaps, for her joke about admiring Mao Tse Tung, is stepping down. After Glenn Beck aired a video clip of Dunn's joke (perhaps she could have varied her tone a little to tip the audience off that she meant it as [...]
The Fort Hood shooting story had quickly developed into a scandal. From the day of the shooting the U.S. Military and the FBI seemed more concerned with speculative threats to Muslim servicemen and women than they were with preventing terrorist attacks. From the LA Times:
Army Chief of Staff Gen. [...]
Dr. Blanchard observes that healthcare bill that has just passed in the house is "the most radical piece of legislation since the New Deal." That in itself is worth noting, but what makes it even more interesting is the left's reaction to the bill.
One might expect the left [...]
The U.S. House of Representatives today passed the most radical piece of legislation since the New Deal, a piece of legislation opposed by a majority of the American people. That takes guts, and I for one admire the Democrats on that score. How much courage it took is indicated by [...]
This is one of those films about which it is best to know nothing in advance. If complete ignorance is not feasible (one knows after all that one is going to see a movie), it were better not to know that it is both genuinely scary [...]
The outcome of an election is determined by two things: how people vote and which people vote. Most voters are not independent. If they vote, they usually vote for the same party. But there can be wild swings in how much of any demographic shows up at the polls. The [...]
First, dispense with a couple of questions beaten to a pulp by the press over the last twenty four hours.
Were the 09 elections a referendum on President Obama?
No. It is no doubt true that the Democrats would have done better if voter approval of [...]
The only good info I can get on the Maine elections comes from the excellent election page at the New York Times. The Maine state legislature, I gather, legalized same-sex marriage. Opponents got a referendum on this year's ballot: voting "yes" would repeal the law. Voting "no" would sustain [...]
Blanchard's Wise Predictions (and retroactively wise non-prediction)
As expected, yours truly correctly predicted the outcome of tonight's gubernatorial elections. As I said, Robert McDonnell crushed Creigh Deeds in Virginia. In American elections anything over 10 percent is considered a landslide. With 99% counted, McDonnell won [...]
GOP takes New Jersey State House
Fox Just Called It
GOP takes Virginia State House
McDonnell 60/Deeds 40 (81% reporting)
Republicans have also won the other two top posts in Virginia, Lt. Governor and Att. General. Early reports from New Jersey seem to favor Christie.
When John Roberts was confirmed as Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court in 2005, he noted "judges are like umpires. Umpires don't make the rules, they apply them." Most Americans agree, but the liberal majority on Wisconsin's Supreme Court made [...]
New Jersey:
Chris Christie has crept back into the lead, narrowly, in late polls. One expects a lot of independent Daggett's support to break both ways. Some polls suggest that Corzine may get more benefit. However, it is unusual for an incumbent to get more than what his polls show. [...]
My readers might not suspect it, but I am quite fond of a lot aspects of modern liberal culture. I listen to NPR with enthusiasm. My favorite Washington D.C. neighborhood is the Gay enclave around DuPont Circle. I like sushi. I also think that being able to rent a bicycle [...]
Complaints about the "opinion side" of Fox News Channel usually mention Glen Beck and Bill O'Reilly. Beck, of course, is a professional crank. He's good at, and there's obviously a market for it. O'Reilly is in fact pretty reasonable as opinion journalism goes. For all sorts of historical and functional [...]
The liberal Republican candidate Dede Scozzafava dropped out of the race for a New York House seat. She was running third, behind Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman and Democrat Bill Owens. Hoffman is in fact a Republican and this increases the chance that he will hold that seat for the [...]
The following is an expanded version of last year's Halloween movie post. If you are looking for something seasonal to rent or order from Netflicks, I am your man.
The U.S. has five holidays that are really celebrated: Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Easter, and Valentine's Day. Halloween comes second in terms of store [...]
The House healthcare bill, all 1,990 pages of it, has landed in the Republic's lap. I am guessing you could global warming back on track just by burning a few copies of it. Instead, we will burning through a lot more money. Here is one [...]
Friend and frequent interlocutor A.I. and I have been arguing about one particular battle in the White House war on Fox News. I am not sure whether it's worth fighting any more on the subject, but it does speak to the question of Fox's accuracy. I recounted the story [...]
The Pennsylvania Avenue Hamlet will, sooner or later, decide what his Afghanistan strategy is going to be. It seems unlikely that he will pull out altogether, so he is apparently trying to decide when he will decide whether to insert the troops that his handpicked [...]
Two governor's seats will be awarded on Tuesday, in Virginia and New Jersey. An unusual amount of attention is focused on these two races. The reason is that they are the first real test of political climate change. Almost a year ago a lot of [...]
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