May 29, 2017 — Steven Hayward

Green Weenie of the Week: Organic Diets

Featured image One of the great frauds of our time is the promiscuous use of “organic” as another form of virtue-signalling, and also of out-of-control marketing. I doubt there is any serious evidence of health differences between people who eat a diet rich in “organic” produce versus people who consume equal amounts of supposedly “non-organic” produce. Where do people think supposedly “non-organic” carrots come from—a Starfleet replicator? Yes, I get the idea »
May 29, 2017 — Scott Johnson

Analyze this

Featured imageJohn Dickerson conducted an intensely interesting interview with Secretary of Defense James Mattis at West Point this past Saturday for broadcast yesterday (video below). RCP has posted video along with a transcript of the interview here. Secretary Mattis discussed our progress in the war against ISIS. He noted a shift in our tactics that he describes as follows: “We have already shifted from attrition tactics, where we shove them from »
May 28, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff

Washington Post peddles Palestinian propaganda

Featured imageToday, the Washington Post dedicated an entire section of the paper to airing Palestinian grievances and talking points. The section is called “Occupied: Year 50.” One of the stories is about a Palestinian cancer patient whose children can’t get into Israel to visit her. Another shills for a Palestinian real estate developer who is building a planned city on the West Bank but fears the Israel Defense Force will thwart »
May 29, 2017 — Scott Johnson

America’s honor

Featured imageIn observance of Memorial Day 2007 the Wall Street Journal published a brilliant column by Peter Collier to mark the occasion. The column remains timely and is accessible online here. I don’t think we’ll read or hear anything more thoughtful or appropriate to the occasion today. Here it is: Once we knew who and what to honor on Memorial Day: those who had given all their tomorrows, as was said »
May 28, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff

Gregg Allman, RIP

Featured imageGregg Allman died yesterday at the age of 69. I was a big fan of the original Allman Brothers Band. “Whipping Post” isn’t my favorite Allman Brothers song, but I think it best exemplifies Gregg Allman as a blues singer. Below are (1) a studio recording of “Whipping Post” and (2) a performance of it at the Fillmore East in 1970. »
May 28, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff

Jim Bunning, RIP

Featured imageToday’s Washington Post features three obituaries — one for Zbigniew Brzezinski (written by long-time Post foreign policy writer Jim Hoagland), one for Gregg Allman, and one for Jim Bunning. The headline in the paper edition for Brzezinski’s obit reads: “Combative adviser helped shape Carter’s foreign policy.” We’ll leave it there. The paper edition headline for Allman’s obit reads: “Southern rock pioneer led Allman Brothers Band.” Scott is our music expert »
May 28, 2017 — Steven Hayward

This Week in Trump

Featured imageNormally I don’t traffic in the typical media thumb-sucking about what’s immediately ahead for the President, or other unctuous, subjunctive commands about what the President “must do” if he is going to advance. But I make an exception now because I have a sense that Trump might make some big moves this week following on his highly successful and consequential first foreign trip. How do I know it was a »
May 27, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff

Kushner reportedly wanted secret communications channel with Russians

Featured imageThe Trump-related scandal of the day is news that Jared Kushner and Russia’s ambassador to Washington discussed the possibility of setting up a secret and secure communications channel between Trump’s transition team and the Kremlin, using Russian diplomatic facilities. Reportedly, this possibility — proposed by Kushner — was discussed at the very beginning of December 2016. Nothing came of it. There is, of course, nothing unusual about wanting a back »
May 27, 2017 — Steven Hayward

Drones Against The Drones

Featured imageOh happy day! The DC Circuit Court of Appeals recently voided an FAA rule that impinged directly on Power Line’s Air Force—namely, my small drone fleet. The FAA required registration of drones starting several months back. Yet a recent statute governing the FAA, the “FAA Modernization and Reform Act” of 2012, explicitly states that the FAA “may not promulgate any rule or regulation regarding a model aircraft.” But this being »
May 27, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff

When Al Franken body-slammed a demonstrator

Featured imageWhen I wrote about Fightin’ Greg Gianforte’s assault (as it seems to me) on a reporter, I believed that Al Franken had a history of physical aggression against folks who annoyed him. However, the only incident I recalled (and only vaguely) involved a much lower level of violence than Gianforte’s — pushing someone, perhaps someone in conservative media, out of his way in a Capitol corridor. Thus, I passed on »
May 27, 2017 — Scott Johnson

Mugging Mr. Murray

Featured imageAmerican Enterprise Institute fellow Charles Murray must rank among our most prominent living social scientists. At a hearing of the Joint Economic Committee convened by Senator and JEC vice chairman Mike Lee last week, Murray was included on a panel of social scientists testifying on the state of social capital in America — the subject of a new report released by the committee. Testifying along with Murray on the panel »
May 28, 2017 — John Hinderaker

Has Anyone Ever Leaked So Much To So Little Effect?

Featured imageThe number of anonymous leaks that have assailed President Trump since his inauguration is staggering. They have come from the intelligence agencies, the FBI, and all over the executive branch, including the White House. Gateway Pundit enumerates the leaks that liberal media have reported on breathlessly during just the last two and a half weeks: 17 of them, almost exactly one a day. Most have something to do with Russia, »
May 28, 2017 — Scott Johnson

15 years: 15 thoughts

Featured imageIt was fifteen years ago this weekend — fifteen years ago today, I think, but maybe tomorrow — that John Hinderaker went to Blogger and set up Power Line. On Memorial Day that weekend he gave me a call and invited me to contribute. Once one of my daughters helped me get into the publishing platform, we were off and running. Looking back and borrowing from my tenth anniversary reflections, »
May 27, 2017 — John Hinderaker

A Lesson In Economics and Immigration

Featured imageA CBS station in Sacramento headlines: “Trump threats, minimum wage, overtime hitting California farmers hard.” Put this one in the category of “inadvertently revealing.” Faced with an urgent shortage of workers, California farmers are desperate to be heard. “If we can’t change the way we’re doing business, we’re at risk,” said Brad Goehring, a fourth-generation wine grape grower in Lodi. The state has been struggling with this farm labor shortage »
May 27, 2017 — Steven Hayward

Loose Ends (24)

Featured image• Climate change: Is there anything it can’t do? Climate Change Is Making It Harder to Sleep Climate change is coming for you in the night. That’s the conclusion of scientists who study how heat disturbs sleep—and how projected warming is expected to make bad sleep even worse. . . Their new study links that most individual of experiences—falling asleep—with a truly planetary phenomenon—global warming. It joins an expanding body of »
May 27, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff

Trump resisters in robes: the Fourth Circuit’s travel ban decision [UPDATED]

Featured imageMy take on the Fourth Circuit’s decision travel ban decision differs from John’s. He says the decision makes him “sad rather than angry.” It makes me angry and a little sick. You need not have attended law school to analyze this case properly. During his presidential campaign, Trump spoke at times of a travel ban on Muslims. But as president he did not impose one. His temporary travel ban extends »
May 27, 2017 — Steven Hayward

The Week in Pictures: Body Slam Edition

Featured imageSo the Democrats got body slammed in another election this week. It’s to be expected in the Year of the Liberal Freakout. I expect Elizabeth Warren’s foreign policy platform in 2020 will be “Get the United States Out of Montana!” Meanwhile, liberals continue to hunt for the motive for the Manchester terror bombing. It’s almost as if liberals have a motive not to find a motive. What could that be? »