There as been a lot of virtual ink deployed in commenting on President Obama’s Iraq-War-U.S.-Economy speech.  My unofficial Tomatometer reports that viewers and pundits alike have judged about 43 percent fresh. Eugene Robinson of The Washington Post thought that the President “Brought Gravitas to Speech.” But most of the commentary I saw gave it a [...]

Presidential speeches are tricky things. It is in the nature of things — the nature, that is, of contemporary politics — that they consist largely of more or less empty rhetorical boilerplate punctuated here and there by bursts of forthrightness that, in the usual course of things, have been carefully calibrated by a team of [...]

Don’t worry: I do not propose to give you a complete list. Otherwise we’d be here all day.  But really, if government spending is a problem (and it is), why not shut down some agencies that spend money needlessly? A friend suggested we start with the two National Endowments, the one for the Arts (so-called) [...]

An American friend who lives in London sent me  copy of an email he received about bicycling in the city. The communication was innocuous enough, just an announcement that they had updated their website, along with some information about the upcoming “Mayor of London’s Sky Ride.”  What attracted my friend’s attention, and mine, was the [...]

Elsewhere at Pajamas Media, my friend Ron Radosh has posted a long and thoughtful “Message to Conservatives” on the question “Is Islam Really our Enemy?”
Now, you don’t nail up an open-letter, 39-Articles question like that — savor the force of the  word “really” — unless you intend to pose what Latinists call a “num” [...]

This is delicious:  Supporters of the so-called “Ground Zero mosque” are so desperate that they are calling on the Great Satan himself — that’s President George W. Bush to you and me — to support the project. Yes, that’s right: all those “Bush=Hitler” signs have been temporarily retired as the large left flank of the [...]

Being a cradle Catholic, I have always regarded the enthusiasm of converts with amused suspicion.  Many of them seem to lack the elasticity and good humor ingredient in that most important statement of Genesis: God made the world and saw it was good.
In the last few months, however, I think I have experienced some of [...]

Here, under the rubric “U.S.  Economy,” are some headlines posted on RealClearPolitics this morning.

Jobless Claims Jump to 6-Mo High

Market Signals Fears on Economy

Big Trade Gap Sign of Weak Growth

Analysts Predict Market Malaise

A bit further down the page there is a section headed “President Obama.” Under that rubric we find:

Obama: Worst of Recession is Over

Could Meet [...]

A friend just sent me President Obama’s official statement “on the Occasion of Ramadan.” It’s short on words but long on mischief. It begins with platitudes and proceeds with mendacity.
The platitude:

“Ramadan is a time when Muslims around the world reflect upon the wisdom and guidance that comes with faith, and the responsibility that human beings [...]

Yesterday, a friend called my attention to a review that ran Sunday in the book review of our former paper of record. The review was by one Damon Linker. It concerned two books: a new biography about the writer and editor Norman Podhoretz and a sort of institutional biography of Commentary, the magazine Mr. Podhoretz [...]