Conservatives deal with facts and reach conclusions; liberals have conclusions and sell them as facts.
You all remember Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, don’t you? It is a book so good that even high school and college English classes can’t spoil the pleasure of reading it. If you haven’t read it, or no longer remember it despite having read it, let me refresh
Continue readingThe press is full of stories today about Olmert’s deal with Fatah to free hundreds of Palestinians currently in Israeli prisons. During all these maneuverings, no mention is made of the three Israelis held prisoner for over a year — Gilad Shalit, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev. The UN is
Continue readingI don’t need to tell you how about Islamism (that is, extreme Islam aimed at reinstating Sharia law worldwide), nor how dreadful I think it is. I also don’t need to tell you how I admire Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Nor do I need to tell you that many in the
Continue readingI have too much on my plate today and too little time, but I just had to take a few minutes to follow-up on a theme that started with the British Marines and ended, so sadly, at VTech: passivity. Two of the best writers out there have written about the
Continue readingLast week, when I paid my taxes, I had three thoughts jostling for primacy in my brain: 1. I hate funding pork. 2. I’m glad I live in a well-functioning country and my tax dollars help. 3. Even though I’m scrupulous in obeying the law, I hope the IRS doesn’t
Continue readingOne of my clients made a very foolish mistake. I was somewhat upset, although philosophical, because the consequences weren’t as bad as they could have been. I learned yesterday that the opposing party made an even bigger mistake that completed negated what my client had done. In twenty years, it
Continue readingOne doesn’t even have to read the Supreme Court’s partial birth abortion decision to know that it is entirely consistent with the Left’s beloved Roe v. Wade. Contrary to most people’s assumptions about Roe v. Wade, that case does not create an unfettered right to abortion. Instead, it does a
Continue readingJust a quick reminder that today marks the 101st anniversary of the great San Francisco earthquake. Growing up in San Francisco, it infiltrated itself into my consciousness to become a date I never forget.
Continue readingAt the Weekly Standard, Irwin Stelzer explains that, while we don’t know how deleterious global warming might be, we do know already how damaging, for the poor, efforts to stop global warming already are. This is especially true for ethanol, which turns food crops into fuel. Turns out the remedial
Continue readingMost of us envision mass killers as stone cold nut jobs, like Cho Seung Hui, who carried out Monday’s Virginia Tech carnage. By all accounts, he was an angry, lonely person, obsessed with violent death. Small wonder that, given the means and the opportunity, he would act out his vengeful
Continue readingGive Obama twenty years and, with his native intelligence, he may yet prove himself. Right now, though, he’s callow. How callow? Read Richard Baehr’s analysis of Obama’s “official” comments in the wake of the Virginia Tech tragedy to see. I wouldn’t trust as ill-formed as Obama with the job of
Continue readingNews is coming that Cho Seung-Hui, the Virginia Tech killer, had written ISMAIL-AX on his arm, which may have been a reference to the story of Abraham’s son Ishmael who, in Muslim Arab mythology, is believed to be the progenitor of all Arabs. While that may well be true, it
Continue readingLittle Bookworm used to leap out of bed every morning, anxious to go to school and work on whatever project was engaging her attention at the time. After six months in public school, I struggle to wake her up as she pleads “Do I have to go to school today?”
Continue readingRalph Peters has written a great, straightforward analysis about the purpose and costs to society of terrorism. I don’t know that it says anything we don’t already know, but it ties the threads together so beautifully that I think it’s definitely worth reading. Here’s the intro, which I hope will
Continue readingThe deaths at Virginia Tech are a staggering tragedy. Thirty-two people got up and began an ordinary day, only to be cut down with terrible savagery. All of us are shaken. “How did it happen?” “How can something like that happen?” We try desperately to imbue this violence with meaning,
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