Entries

What Americans Think About Taxes

From Karlyn Bowman's latest AEI roundup of polling on taxes, in advance of April 15: The pollsters tell us that a very small proportion of us (2-3 percent) say we “love” preparing [our tax returns], while around 30 percent hate doing so. Americans seem resigned to what they pay …

Written by David Frum on Tuesday April 14, 2009

Meghan Mccain's Intolerant Tolerance

Reading Meghan McCain’s latest bit of advice to the GOP, I was reminded of something a Catholic friend once said to me about The Vagina Monologues . It offends me less as a Catholic than as a rational person. Meghan’s recommendation to the GOP to “Go Gay,” …

Written by Henry Clay on Tuesday April 14, 2009

Must We Make It So Easy For Obama?

If I didn't know better, I'd begin to suspect that Glenn Beck was basing his show on daily talking points from Rahm Emanuel. The great scoop-collector Eli Lake reports today in the Washington Times that the Obama administration intends to follow the Clinton administration in focusing its law …

Written by David Frum on Tuesday April 14, 2009

How Courts Took Over The War On Terror

Exclusive excerpts from the afterword to the paperback edition of The Terror Presidency . Conventional wisdom holds that the Bush administration expanded the legal war powers of the presidency in unprecedented ways. In fact, because of the unusual nature of the enemy, changes in the legal …

Written by Jack Goldsmith on Tuesday April 14, 2009

Obama's Fantasy Energy Plan

Energy Secretary Steven Chu published an article in em> Newsweek

Written by Gusher on Monday April 13, 2009

Sorry Kids: No Opportunity For You

The D.C. voucher program is all but dead, according to this Washington Postspan> editorial

Written by Thomas Gibbon on Monday April 13, 2009

Time to Proceed to Phase II

Hostages rescued, now let's blow the pirate palaces to smithereens. Originally posted at STORMBRINGER .

Written by Sean Linnane on Sunday April 12, 2009

Get Me Rewrite

Yesterday's headline: " Standoff with Pirates Shows U.S. Power Has Limits ." Today's headline: "U.S. Military Power Useful After All"

Written by David Frum on Sunday April 12, 2009

"On Good Friday"

One interesting aspect of learning French is the set of faux amis (“false friends”), words that either look like their English equivalents but have sharply different meanings or words for which the direct English translation doesn’t capture the sense of the French. For instance, the verb …

Written by John S. Gardner on Saturday April 11, 2009

Somalia: Our Ask Nicely Policy

The only thing odd about those Somali pirates that plunder the Indian Ocean, Gulf of Aden and Arabian Sea is how come they are still doing it? One would have thought they’d have been exterminated by now. But no, they’re still at it. Not only that, they are alarmingly successful. …

Written by Peter Worthington on Saturday April 11, 2009

Election Purgatory In Ny-20

Get comfortable. The final results of the special congressional race in upstate New York between Jim Tedisco (R) and Scott Murphy (D) aren’t going to be known for several weeks, possibly longer. As the absentee ballots continue to be received, opened, counted, challenged, etc., Leigh …

Written by Tom Qualtere on Friday April 10, 2009

Show Business Potomac Style

As has been widely reported, actor Kal Penn has left Hollywood for the White House. Mr. Penn’s credits include “Harold and Kumar go to White Castle.” The vote blog at the Christian Science Monitor had the best headline for this news: “ Harold and Kumar go to the White …

Written by David Gratzer on Friday April 10, 2009

Obama: Pirates? What Pirates?

Huffington Post /a> has a headline: “Obama on Pirates: Declines to Answer Question.” According to the story, The president was asked about the incident as he met with U.S. homeowners about refinancing mortgages. At the close of a Roosevelt Room event, the president was asked …

Written by John S. Gardner on Thursday April 9, 2009

Health Care: 2009 Is Not 1994

Is 2009 the year of health-care reform? In Monday’s Washington Post , E. J. Dionne declares it “ health care’s year .” Mr. Dionne’s reasoning seems heavy on partisanship – he closes: “ The president has invested too much in health-care reform to …

Written by David Gratzer on Thursday April 9, 2009

Conservatives And The Catholic Voter

Next month President Obama will give the commencement address at the University of Notre Dame . He was no doubt happy to receive the invitation. For political parties with national aspirations, the Catholic vote remains in high demand. In 2000 and 2004 President George Bush courted …

Written by Henry Clay on Wednesday April 8, 2009

That's What I Was Trying To Say!

Left-wing blogger Bob Somerby makes a point about the Rachel Maddow show that I tried to make in an on-air interview last year. In a recent column, Michael Kinsley imagined the possible future of news reporting. “Maybe the newspaper of the future will be more or less like the one of …

Written by David Frum on Wednesday April 8, 2009

Environmentalists For Genetic Engineering?

President Obama's science adviser has told the Associated Press that the climate situation is so dire that the administration will consider geoengineering to arrest and reverse the planet's warming. John Holdren told The Associated Press in his first interview since being confirmed last month …

Written by David Frum on Wednesday April 8, 2009

Our Plan Is To Have No Plan

That seems to be the message of VP Joe Biden's message to Israel on Iran .

Written by David Frum on Wednesday April 8, 2009

A New Talent

... new to me anyway. A friend just introduced me to the YouTube videos of Steven Crowder. ( Here's one for example .) He's funny! I think we'll be hearing more about him soon. We look forward to linking to his vlogs here as they are released on Thursdays.

Written by David Frum on Tuesday April 7, 2009

Four Scary Charts

Here is the Eichengreen / O'Rourke piece rocketing around the blogosphere arguing, "It's a Depression alright."

Written by David Frum on Tuesday April 7, 2009