The Cato Institute’s director of foreign policy studies Justin Logan, writing at reason.com, takes apart America in Retreat, the new book from the WSJ’s chief foreign affairs writer Bret Stephens. Logan is an expert on U.S. grand strategy, international relations theory, and American foreign policy. Here’s Justin’s review: The Republican Party’s misfortunes in the 2006 […]
Archives for December 2014
R.I.P. “Mr. Baseball Card” Sy Berger
From the NY Daily News: Sy Berger, the father of the modern baseball card, died Sunday in Rockville Centre. He was 91. In the 1950s, Berger used scissors and cardboard at his kitchen table as he played around with ideas for trading cards until he devised a design for Topps that endured for decades: team […]
Obama/Hillary Fail in Libya
Bloomberg reports on the chaos enveloping Libya after Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton unwisely used American military might to create a power vacuum in the country. Islamic extremists have captured Tripoli and warfare is creating oil field stoppages. Libya’s National Oil Corp. declared force majeure at the ports of Es Sider and Ras Lanuf and will halt […]
Who Is that Masked Man?
“Riding herd on cronyists who give capitalism a bad name by giving or taking special government favors” is what Texas Rep. Jeb Hensarling does best. Mr. Hensarling has spent the last decade trying to stop cronyism in government programs that grease the palms of well-connected business elites. With K Street lobbyists about to put enormous […]
1,600 Pages of Pork Pass 219 to 206
Republican leaders rely on Democrat support to pass a pork larded bill. The Wall Street Journal reports here: The White House dispatched Chief of Staff Denis McDonough to a Thursday evening meeting of congressional Democrats, aiming to shore up support for the bill. Mr. McDonough made a pitch for the longer-term bill, saying Democrats would […]
Records on the Comeback Trail
Vinyl records are making a resurgence. From the Wall Street Journal: Nearly eight million old-fashioned vinyl records have been sold this year, up 49% from the same period last year, industry data show. Younger people, especially indie-rock fans, are buying records in greater numbers, attracted to the perceived superior sound quality of vinyl and the […]
VIDEO: A Change is Gonna Come – Sam Cooke
Lights Out!
How would you like to flick on your wall switch, only to find out you have no juice? The good news? Thanks to Obama’s Clean Power Plan, the nationwide cost for electricity could rise a staggering 12% to 17% over 15 years. The bad news? Thanks to Obama’s Clean Power Plan, you might not be […]
Cyber Attack on America’s Critical Infrastructure?
Michael Rodgers, director of U.S. Cyber Command, says it is only a matter of when we are going to see something dramatic in a cyber attack on the country’s critical infrastructure. One big concern is that most of the pipelines are operated by private companies, which could limit the government’s visibility into their operations. McCreary, […]
R.I.P. Sam Cooke Dec. 11, 1964
It’s been 50 years since the death of Sam Cooke. The Wall Street Journal summarizes his groundbreaking career here. In the late 1950s, Cooke was the first black singer-songwriter to figure out how to parlay male vulnerability into sweet pleas that resonated with integrated teen audiences. Watching his TV appearances on YouTube, it is easy […]
