Overview for FF Spotlight

The UK Takes a Powder on Palestine

British Foreign Secretary William Hague says that the UK will abstain at the Security Council on the Palestinian Authority's request for recognition as a state. France has previously said the same. The British action won't alter the outcome: the US will veto the measure, quashing it as a …

Written by David Frum on Wednesday November 9, 2011

Wal-Mart Wants to be Your Doctor

Or so NPR reports . The nation's largest retailer is planning to offer medical services ranging from the management of diabetes to HIV infections, NPR and Kaiser Health News have learned. This raises a question I've long wondered about: Why has there never appeared a giant low-cost …

Written by David Frum on Wednesday November 9, 2011

Islamist Violence Harms Muslims the Most

According to Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the reaction to the Paris fire-bombing of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo is another example of how fearful Western society is of offending Islamic extremists. Hirsi Ali is the Somali woman who fled to Europe to escape an arranged marriage with …

Written by Peter Worthington on Wednesday November 9, 2011

A Decision That Will Set Libertarians' Hair on Fire

Judge Silberman has issued another tour de force in the extremely interesting opinions generated by Obamacare. I have noted other opinions on Obamacare’s constitutionality but this one is full of interesting tidbits. The first and most interesting tidbit is who wrote it. The Honorable …

Written by John Vecchione on Tuesday November 8, 2011

How to Manipulate Income Measurements

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Written by Eli Lehrer on Tuesday November 8, 2011

RedState: More News, Fewer Pleasing Lies

Here's something interesting in a blogpost this morning by RedState's Erick Erickson. In the course of a fulmination against Mitt Romney and the conservative elites who are reluctantly making peace with him, Erickson writes: Herman Cain won’t be the nominee because he can’t win women either. …

Written by David Frum on Tuesday November 8, 2011

The Knives Come Out for Cain

Politico has a big headline this morning: "GOP urges Herman Cain to address allegations." But when you ask "who precisely in the GOP is doing this urging?" you get a more modest list: Oran Smith, who heads the Christian conservative Palmetto Family Council in South Carolina, Chuck Hurley, …

Written by David Frum on Tuesday November 8, 2011

Signs of the Times

Bill Kristol had a cryptic editorial in the Weekly Standard this weekend, wistfully remarking that 2012 is not 1980 and that conservatives may have to resign themselves to "a not particularly distinguished four-year governor who’d zigged and zagged back and forth to be acceptable to large parts …

Written by David Frum on Monday November 7, 2011

Texans for Oligarchy

And speaking of oligarchy , Rick Perry in an interview with Univision endorses the idea of granting illegal aliens the right to work in the United States--but not the right to vote. If you were seeking to concentrate wealth and power even more tightly than today, you could not do better …

Written by David Frum on Friday November 4, 2011

Libertarians For Oligarchy?

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Written by David Frum on Friday November 4, 2011

To Govern Better, GOP Should Work From Reality

In my previous blog post , I discussed how many Republican criticisms of the Obama administration's policies are not backed up by data. Republicans don't just have a problem with specific critiques, they also have a view of America that doesn’t match with how the country actually is. Their view …

Written by Noah Kristula-Green on Friday November 4, 2011

Will Britain Pay to Save the Euro?

David Cameron also has a referendum problem. Britain’s current government uneasily combines euro-skeptics and euro-enthusiasts. Two weeks ago, 81 Conservative backbenchers broke with party leaders to vote in favor of a new referendum on Britain’s EU membership. Cameron had promised such a …

Written by Jeff Cimbalo on Thursday November 3, 2011

Cain is Unqualified Even Without a Sex Scandal

Well, I still don’t have a candidate. Herman Cain’s not the guy. His weaknesses now outweigh his advantages. Just as I never disliked Sarah Palin and actually loved it when she was announced as the Vice Presidential pick by John McCain, I have never disliked Herman Cain. But for similar reasons …

Written by John Vecchione on Thursday November 3, 2011

Real Policy isn't Done Through Taxes

David Frum is right to attack the growing Republican orthodoxy that "nothing is wrong with this country that cannot be solved by abolishing the capital gains tax." He should take the argument a little further: a fixation on taxes above everything else--regulatory policy and excellence in …

Written by Eli Lehrer on Wednesday November 2, 2011

Cain's $35k? Sounds Like a Nuisance Suit

About those Herman Cain settlements : I defended these kinds of suits in the 1990s. Keep in mind that discrimination lawsuits are an exception to the usual American rule that each side pays its own legal fees. If an employer loses a discrimination suit, the employer routinely pays the attorney …

Written by John Vecchione on Wednesday November 2, 2011

Which is More Useless? Limbaugh or a Classics Major?

Dear Mr. Rush Limbaugh, I see you have let your own educational insecurities shine through in your latest rant in which you "bravely" attempted to decipher the "sad-sack story" of a Classical Studies scholar. Bravo. If only you had taken a philosophy course about the Sophists, you might have …

Written by Miranda Frum on Wednesday November 2, 2011

The Coming Herman Cain Culture War

It's only a matter of time before the Herman Cain sexual harassment settlement is unsealed. The exact nature of the charges against Cain will be revealed. They will most likely turn out to be very ambiguous: banter, innuendo, etc. At that point, here's what will happen: People on the …

Written by David Frum on Tuesday November 1, 2011

An Idea for Republicans, Ctd

Last Friday I talked about the importance of the poverty problem to a limited-government party in a modern society. It comes down to this: poor people are expensive. The money they don't earn in wages they still cost society in terms of prison cells and emergency room visits. In the 1990s, …

Written by David Frum on Tuesday November 1, 2011

The Nominee Will Be Romney and the GOP Will Like Him

Although I'm hardly optimistic that he'll take the presidency, there's every reason to think that Mitt Romney is going win the Republican nomination and attract the votes of his own party members. Thus, while I would still bet on Obama to win reelection, I disagree with David Frum 's contention …

Written by Eli Lehrer on Tuesday November 1, 2011

`In Time' is a Parable Against Tight Money

I can't recommend the new Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried sci-fi action thriller In Time on the basis of its acting or plot (both are mediocre) but I can recommend the film as a parable about bad monetary policy. Here is the premise of the film: in the future, humans are genetically …

Written by Noah Kristula-Green on Monday October 31, 2011