BOOKS Comments turned off

Conservatism’s Unsung Hero By Lee Edwards

Posted By on March 18th, 2022

https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2022/04/04/conservatisms-unsung-hero/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=river&utm_content=top-bar-latest&utm_term=third

Who wrote the Sharon State­ment, the conservative move­­ment’s most enduring state­ment of principle? Who founded the National Journalism Center, which has graduated more than 2,000 aspiring reporters, including such luminaries as Greg Gutfeld, Ann Coulter, John Fund, Timothy Carney, and William McGurn?

Who wrote a revisionist history on Senator Joe McCarthy proving he was wrong about the number of communists in the U.S. government — that he un­der­estimated their number? Who was the chairman of the first Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), which became the movement’s largest public gathering? Who appeared on more campuses starting in the 1950s and into the 2010s than almost any other conservative speaker? Who coined axioms such as “The trouble with con­servatives is that too many of them come to Washington thinking they are going to drain the swamp, only to discover that Washington is a hot tub” and “When ‘our people’ get to the point where they can do us some good, they stop being ‘our people’”?

One person accomplished all this and more — the wise and ever witty M. Stanton Evans, the subject of a marvelous biography by conservative his­torian Steven Hayward. We are often told we “must” read this or that book, but M. Stanton Evans: Conservative Wit, Apostle of Freedom is truly a must-read because it is the story of one of the most consequential but unsung heroes of the conservative movement.

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

Biden’s Low-Energy Policy By Dominic Pino

Posted By on March 18th, 2022

https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2022/04/04/bidens-low-energy-policy/#slide-1

The long-term danger in the president’s antipathy to fossil fuels.

Gas prices are high. Voters are upset. And Republicans want to blame Joe Biden’s energy policy.

It might be smart politics to do so, but it’s not exactly honest. Joe Biden has been in office only a little over a year, and he hasn’t undone decades of American energy progress. Oil production has risen on his watch, and depending on the week, we are still a net exporter of crude oil and other petroleum products.

That doesn’t mean Biden’s energy policy is any good. On the contrary, it should be opposed at every turn because it would make today’s anomalous situation the norm for years to come.

First, let’s dispel some myths about so-called energy independence. After a steady decline in net imports that began around 2006, the U.S. became a net ex­porter of crude oil and other petroleum products for the first time ever the week of November 30, 2018.

The United States has never been a net exporter of crude oil alone, and it has never really been all that close to being one. The week of April 10, 2020, saw U.S. net exports of crude and other petroleum products reach their highest level on record, at over 2 million barrels per day. That week, the U.S. imported over 2 million barrels per day of crude oil on net but exported over 4 million barrels per day of other petroleum products on net.

The reason for that is America’s re­fineries. There are 126 oil refineries in the U.S. and only about 700 in the entire world. Companies from around the globe send their crude oil to American refineries, which counts as crude-oil importation to the U.S. Then the refined products get shipped around the world, which counts as other-petroleum-product exportation.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

D.C. Judge Suggests Yale Students Who Shouted Down Speakers Should Be Barred from Clerkships By Zachary Evans

Posted By on March 18th, 2022

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/d-c-judge-suggests-yale-students-who-shouted-down-speakers-should-be-barred-from-clerkships/

A D.C. appellate judge urged colleagues to consider whether Yale University students who shout down speakers on campus should be be barred from clerkships, in an email to fellow judges published by lawyer David Lat on his Substack.

Judge Laurence Silberman of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals emailed all Article III judges on Thursday, according to Lat, following news that about 100 Yale Law School students protested a panel discussion on civil liberties. The disruption of the panel event, hosted by the Yale Federalist Society, was reported by the Washington Free Beacon.

“The latest events at Yale Law School, in which students attempted to shout down speakers participating in a panel discussion on free speech, prompt me to suggest that students who are identified as those willing to disrupt any such panel discussion should be noted,” Silberman wrote in the email.

“All federal judges—and all federal judges are presumably committed to free speech—should carefully consider whether any student so identified should be disqualified from potential clerkships,” Silberman added.

Several other judges replied to Silberman in an email chain.

“Thank you for your email. I couldn’t agree more,” wrote Judge John Walker of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, according to Slate.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Is Anyone Actually Fooled by Lia Thomas? By Charles C. W. Cooke *****

Posted By on March 18th, 2022

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/is-anyone-actually-fooled-by-lia-thomas/

At Swimming World magazine, John Lohn neatly sums up the farce:

“No, this title-winning effort in the 500-yard freestyle should be met with nothing less than a head shake, an eye roll or a shrug of the shoulders. Why? Because Lia Thomas’ victory is an insult to the biological women who raced against her. Against those who fought for Title IX and equal opportunities for female athletes. Against science, and the unmistakable physiological differences between the male and female sexes.”

From the Times:

ATLANTA — Lia Thomas, the transgender woman whose record-threatening times on the University of Pennsylvania’s swim team made her a star of college athletics and a symbol of the debate over sports and gender identity, won an N.C.A.A. championship in the 500-yard freestyle on Thursday.

Thomas, a fifth-year senior who arrived for the swimming championships in Atlanta as the top seed in the 500 and 200 freestyle races, completed the race in 4 minutes, 33.24 seconds, more than a second ahead of the runner-up.

I would like to know who is fooled by this. My suspicion is that almost nobody is fooled by this, but that almost everybody is scared to admit that in public.

However “Lia Thomas” might self-identify, he has the body of a man. This matters, because he is competing in a women’s sports league, and because there are profound biological differences between men and women in that sport, as in almost every other. The Times reports that Thomas “that left opponents far behind and put some collegiate records under new pressure.” Well, yeah. This is because Thomas is a man, and because Thomas’s “opponents” — two of whom were Olympians — are not.

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

PUTIN’S INVASION SHOWS THAT GREEN ACTIVIST ARE STILL RED ON THE INSIDE

Posted By on March 18th, 2022

https://issuesinsights.com/2022/03/18/putins-invasion-shows-green-activists-still-red-on-the-inside/

The old yet always relevant joke is that environmentalists are like watermelons, green on the outside but red(s) on the inside. If there have ever been any delusions to the contrary, they should have been erased by Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, paid for by energy bought from Russia because eco-radicals have successfully cut fossil fuel production in the West.

Last week, the ​​Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee held a “hearing to examine the use of energy as a tool and a weapon.” In the hands of Russia, the tool has been sharpened, the weapon made more lethal by advanced nations’ increased reliance on that country’s oil and gas due to policy decisions demanded by green zealots.

Maybe there’s an argument to be made that environmental activists and their allies among elected officials (and unelected United Nations officials who wield great power) are merely useful or accidental idiots, their goals coincidentally empowering regimes that are hardly democratically representative of their populations.

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

China Wins a Little, Loses a Lot From Russia’s War on Ukraine Charles Lipson

Posted By on March 18th, 2022

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2022/03/16/china_wins_a_little_loses_a_lot_from_russias_war_on_ukraine_147339.html

The unfolding mayhem unleashed on Ukraine by Vladimir Putin carries one major benefit for China and two much larger losses, plus a boatload of secondary effects. The main benefit is geostrategic: The United States must now keep more scarce military resources in Europe, instead diverting them to the Pacific, as it had been hoping.

That diversion would be costly for any president, but it is particularly costly for a Democrat, whose party habitually scales back military budgets to spend more on social programs. Biden’s budget, submitted before the war in Eastern Europe, certainly did. He proposed a 16% rise in social spending but only a 2% increase for defense, far less than the inflation rate. Those priorities are now imperiled.

Also endangered is any reorientation of America’s defense posture, to focus almost exclusively on China. That focus, shared by Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and now Joe Biden, remains the country’s principal long-term challenge. But Putin’s aggression makes clear that the United States does not have the luxury of focusing on only one hostile (and nuclear-armed) power at a time. Russia’s war on Ukraine significantly raises the threat level in Europe and forces the Pentagon to avoid any drawdown there to fund increases in Asia. That’s true even though many of our NATO partners have finally agreed to spend 2% of their GDP on defense – a long-standing American demand. This renewed concern for Europe’s security is a potential gain for China.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Liz Peek: Manchin Turns Out To Be the Only Adult in the Room

Posted By on March 18th, 2022

https://www.nysun.com/article/manchin-turns-out-to-be-the-only-adult-in-the-room

Markets rose after Jay Powell finally emerged from his politically-induced coma and announced the Federal Reserve would raise interest rates by 25 basis points, with several more hikes to follow. He also told investors he would likely begin shrinking the Fed’s $9 trillion balance sheet as early as May.

Traders, it seems, welcomed certainty over the muddle that has been Fed policy for many months. Yet, most would agree that the central bank is entering a perilous phase; no one can remember a time when the Fed succeeded in pulling off a “soft landing.”

The yield curve is flattening, sentiment souring and forecasts of growth — including from the Fed — heading south. Many expect a recession in 2023. How did we get here? How did inflation deflate a healthy recovery?

President Biden has blamed Covid-induced worker shortages, supply chain issues, greedy companies, and Vladimir Putin for spiraling prices that are eating into Americans’ paychecks and trashing his approval ratings. Voters blame Mr. Biden, and investors point the finger at Chairman Powell.

MEDIA, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The NYT Now Admits the Biden Laptop — Falsely Called “Russian Disinformation” — is Authentic: Glenn Greenwald

Posted By on March 18th, 2022

https://greenwald.substack.com/p/the-nyt-now-admits-the-biden-laptop?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoxNDc5MDI

The media outlets which spread this lie from ex-CIA officials never retracted their pre-election falsehoods, ones used by Big Tech to censor reporting on the front-runner.

One of the most successful disinformation campaigns in modern American electoral history occurred in the weeks prior to the 2020 presidential election. On October 14, 2020 — less than three weeks before Americans were set to vote — the nation’s oldest newspaper, The New York Post, began publishing a series of reports about the business dealings of the Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, in countries in which Biden, as Vice President, wielded considerable influence (including Ukraine and China) and would again if elected president.

The backlash against this reporting was immediate and intense, leading to suppression of the story by U.S. corporate media outlets and censorship of the story by leading Silicon Valley monopolies. The disinformation campaign against this reporting was led by the CIA’s all-but-official spokesperson Natasha Bertrand (then of Politico, now with CNN), whose article on October 19 appeared under this headline: “Hunter Biden story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former intel officials say.”

FOREIGN POLICY, ISRAEL Comments turned off

Making America weak again and endangering Israel Ruthie Blum

Posted By on March 18th, 2022

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-701624

With global efforts underway to penalize Russia for invading Ukraine, it’s uncanny that the only player preventing the US-led P5+1 countries from inking their disastrous nuclear pact with Iran is President Vladimir Putin. 

But even his demand that Tehran be exempt from sanctions on Moscow isn’t enough for Washington to cancel the whole charade in Vienna.

That’s just how desperate the administration of President Joe Biden is to have the revamped version of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) signed, sealed and delivered on a silver platter to the world’s greatest state sponsor of terrorism.

Yes, this is how bent America is on giving the mullahs multi-billions of dollars, while favorably weighing the reversal of former president Donald Trump’s decision to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. 

To justify the insanity, the current administration, like that of former president Barack Obama from which it was cloned, pretends that appeasing the ayatollahs and President Ebrahim (“the butcher”) Raisi will enhance regional stability and security by preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear bombs. In the first place, this is false. 

In the second, it doesn’t take into account the other kinds of weapons in Tehran’s vast arsenal, such as the more than 3,000 ballistic missiles that outgoing US Central Command head Gen. Kenneth McKenzie bemoaned on Tuesday before the Senate Armed Services Committee. Many of these projectiles, according to McKenzie, have the range to reach Israel. 

FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

Russia’s War Reaches into the Middle East Shoshana Bryen

Posted By on March 18th, 2022

https://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/insight/

War cannot happen in a vacuum. The tentacles of the hideous Russian invasion of Ukraine are reaching outward to involve not only the two parties in the conflict, but other countries and other policies.

Let’s start with the revived Iran nuclear deal meetings that have convened in Vienna. The U.S. administration has made no secret of the fact that it covets a deal and has been willing to provide benefits to Iran up front, including waiving sanctions on Iran’s “civilian” nuclear program. But Russia has been a major player in the negotiations; until now, Washington and Moscow had been coordinating their positions. As a historical competitor of Iran’s, Russia was not particularly interested in having Tehran produce nuclear weapons, so it was willing to push for certain U.S. points.