War on Terror
Somehow the Washington Post, via the mouth of U.S. News and World Report‘s Alex Kingsbury manages to pull pro-lifers and free-marketers under the same umbrella as Islamic radicals as a means of retroactively absolving Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano of the need for embarrassment over her department’s politically motivated report warning of pending right-wing terrorism:…
Pointy-headed intellectual concepts too often become excuses to float above practical reality. Consider: There is a technical term for this phenomenon. The GWOT acted as what, in the language of semiotics, is called a “floating signifier,” able to be attached at will to a wide range of actions and policies. The Bush administration organized the…
This story confounds categorization: Eastern District of Michigan judge Lawrence P. Zatkoff handed down the decision, in a case involving an alleged violation of the constitutional separation of church and state. The issue is whether a government-owned company, AIG, can market sharia-compliant insurance products. (To be sharia-compliant, an investment vehicle must be created and structured…
Whether voiced by Democrats or Republicans (and both have), this sort of talk has got to be getting nauseating for anybody who’s paid even passing attention during the past few decades: Obama administration officials argue that this unpopularity has hindered the United States’ ability to achieve its goals. “Our image in the world, particularly in…
Growing up in the ’80s, with all of the romanticizing of the ’60s that was fashionable, then, I thought it pleasantly discordant to hear George Harrison describe his disappointment in the Beatles’ visit to Haight-Ashbury, where the big scene consisted of “a bunch of spotty teenagers” (or something close thereto). Less pleasant was learning, some…
So reports Newsweek’s Michael Isikoff in a fascinating article posted last Thursday. (H/T Newsbusters.) The decision was announced during an off-the-record meeting that President Obama held last Wednesday with some disgruntled supporters. Administration officials organized the session just a few days [prior], summoning the leaders of groups such as Human Rights Watch, Human Rights First,…
Among the many topics that I regret having had insufficient time in my schedule to address appropriately is torture (and I’m not claiming this post to constitute all that I’d like to say about it). Frankly, I’ve been torn, and I view with suspicion anybody who believes that the debate, as it’s been cast, is…
Tony Blankley makes a chilling observation: News item No. 1 concerns the testimony of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on April 22. She said deteriorating security in nuclear-armed Pakistan “poses a mortal threat to the security and safety of our country and the world.” News item No. 2 is…
Instapundit does us another public service by highlighting this Pajamas TV commentary about Jon Stewart claiming Truman was a war criminal: Jon Stewart, War Criminals & The True Story of the Atomic Bombs. As one of my friends wrote me after listening to it: “We were moved nearly to tears by this. What has happened…
This sort of statement from folks inside the administration certainly will not help the situation in Iraq: “We are not even talking about” changing the withdrawal plan, an administration official told McClatchy Newspapers. “The situation would have to get a lot worse for that to change.” The recent upsurge in violence hasn’t triggered a return…