A roundup of Encounter authors in print and online media to get you over the hump.

Rescuing the Rust Belt, Real Clear Politics, by Thomas Sowell
“It is fascinating watching politicians say how they are going to rescue the “rust belt” regions where jobs are disappearing and companies are either shutting down or moving elsewhere…”

The Case for Telecom Immunity, National Review Online, by Andrew C. McCarthy
“It’s been nearly three weeks since House Democrats endangered our national security by effectively rescinding the law that permitted the intelligence community to conduct aggressive surveillance outside the United States. That has sensible Democrats increasingly worried…”

William F. Buckley’s Unmaking of a Mayor, City Journal, by Fred Siegel
“William F. Buckley’s 1965 New York mayoral campaign is perhaps best remembered for a memorable quip: asked what he would do if he won, the Conservative Party candidate responded with a bemused smile, “Demand a recount.” Buckley, a man of Tory manners and radical principles, ran as an intellectual provocateur. But his campaign against Democrat Abe Beame and the eventual winner, then-Republican John Lindsay, was far more than an historical footnote…”

Oil, Iraqi Perfid, and $4 Gas? “I Hadn’t Heard That”, Huffington Post, by Raymond Learsy
“From the very outset the administration’s Iraqi oil policies have been a disaster. There are many such as Alan Greenspan who adjure that oil was the reason for the invasion. If that is indeed the case, the priorities it imposed perverted our mission from the very outset, whether it was detailing our troops to protect the oil ministry while Baghdad’s great museums and their irreplaceable archaeological and historical treasures were being looted…”

The War Against the West, The Spectator, by Melanie Phillips
“Last night I attended the annual dinner of the Community Security Trust, the organisation that provides the astounding degree of security now needed to help protect Britain’s tiny Jewish population against attack. Sitting there listening to the appeal for money to finance this organisation, and watching the video of what it does and why it is needed, I was struck afresh by the shocking nature of this situation…”

“In Bruges”, The American Spectator, by James Bowman
“I think it was Quentin Tarantino who first used the word “medieval” — in Pulp Fiction as part of a threat by boss Marsellus (Ving Rhames) to a couple of hapless rednecks that “I’m-a get medieval on your ass” — to mean scary-violent. Up until then, “medieval” in the vernacular, if it meant anything at all, had meant “extremely old-fashioned.”…”