Behind Blue Lines

The Collective Suicide That is France

Crocker — Tue, 08 May 2012 12:32:39 +0000

Well, the French have drunk the Kool-Aide. They elected a hard-left, no-holds-barred Socialist who’s planned a war on the “rich”, an assault on financial markets in Paris and London and surrender of French sovereignty to the Eurocrats in Brussels. As Nick Woods writes in the Daily Mail, it “can only end in tears”: In Paris, [...] Related posts:

TOTUS Commits Suicide

Does Barack Obama Really Know America? Part II

Crocker — Tue, 08 May 2012 10:50:07 +0000

Many of us have wondered aloud whether Barack Obama really “gets” America. Whether he is comfortable within a shared American experience and character. I’ve written about this before (“Does Barack Obama Really Know America?”). And now Byron York observes the same, excerpting from David Maraness’ new book about the young Obama. According to Maraness, Obama [...] No related posts.

Debate Night: Newt Gingrich and Herman Cain

admin — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 18:02:34 +0000

I think Gingrich and Cain performed a public service by breaking free of the pack and engaging in a real, extended, substantive public debate on key economic and entitlement issues. I hesitate to declare a winner because each brings unique strengths and experience to the discussion. Whether you agree or disagree, this is the sort [...] Related posts:

The Economic Crisis Was Designed in Washington, Not New York

Crocker — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 18:49:10 +0000

Cato’s Tom Palmer has the correct take on the Occupy Wall Streeters’ grievances. What caused the crisis, the indebtedness, the unemployment, the stagnation? The culprits are state agencies and enterprises, including our Federal Reserve (our government’s bank), Federal Housing Administration (FHA), Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae), and Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac), [...] Related posts:

Roosevelt, Obama and the Economy: Equally Inept

Crocker — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 21:38:18 +0000

When it comes to demagoguery and economic incompetence, Franklin Roosevelt and Barack Obama are in a dead heat. Over the past several years we’ve been treated to the spectacle of government waste on a scale never before seen in human history. TARP and the various stimulus programs have put us trillions further into debt. At [...] Related posts:

Goolsbee: “Cash for Clunkers” a Mistake

Crocker — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 19:40:16 +0000

Austan Goolsbee is one of the president’s former economic advisers (count ‘em as they stream to the exits). Recently, he made an entirely predictable confession of sorts that both the “cash for clunkers” and home-buyer tax credit programs were a mistake. Do tell. I expressed my disgust for the “clunker” program more than two years [...] Related posts:

Are You Smarter Than “Occupy Wall Street”? Most Certainly.

Crocker — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 13:33:36 +0000

It’s clear that the media, sundry politicians and other savants are trying to transform the idiots of Occupy Wall Street in the new oracles of culture, politics, economics and whatever other matters are close at hand. We suspected that the occupiers weren’t too bright or well-informed – or both – and now we’re sure. That [...] Related posts:

Paul Krugman and Occupy Wall Street: Like Peas and Carrots

No Software Patch for Original Sin

Crocker — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 16:58:02 +0000

So says Walter Russell Mead in his latest essay, Virtual War, in which he describes both the blessings and dangers of a virtual world. His main point – that new technologies tend to undermine the systems that preceded them and the nations that built upon them – is well taken, if a bit overdrawn. While [...] Related posts:

Will the Feds Control Software Design?

“Spengler” on the Scandal of the Secular Mind

Crocker — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 13:07:33 +0000

“Spengler” in this case is the renowned David Goldman, until recently senior editor of First Things. His columns in the Asia Times became a must-read for people interested in historical trends informed by conservative religious belief and demographic and cultural trends. I saluted him when he “came out” in April 2009. His latest essay comments [...] Related posts:

The Bells of Durham Cathedral

Crocker — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 00:43:36 +0000

As a grad student years ago at Durham, I never grew tired of the cathedral bells. The ringers would practice on Thursday evening and run their regular routine on Sunday afternoon. I lived just across the street from the cathedral at St. John’s College, so we got the full blast. For me, it was a [...] Related posts:

U.S. Government to Men: No Prostate Screening for You

Crocker — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 23:14:15 +0000

As reported in the NY Times, a key government panel has ruled that routine P.S.A. (prostate-specific antigen) screening tests for most men is unnecessary. Apparently, this finding is backed by some careful clinical trials but as Glenn Reynolds observes, in the age of ObamaCare, there’s always the suspicion that our health is a matter of [...] Related posts:

Paul Krugman and Occupy Wall Street: Like Peas and Carrots

Crocker — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 14:01:44 +0000

It’s pretty clear that the “Occupy Wall Street” crowd is young, sparse and clueless. For a first-person account on the ground, see Katherine Ernst’s must-read piece in City Journal. The same goes for their co-religionists around the country. But speaking of clueless: how about Paul Krugman? The former Enron adviser continues his winning streak by [...] Related posts:

The F-35B Lightning II: Vertical Landing at Sea

Crocker — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 19:53:35 +0000

The newest generation of U.S. strike fighter is the Lockheed-Martin F-35 Lightning II. It’s called the “Joint Strike Fighter” because it’s being produced as a cross-service, cross-platform aircraft equally at home at sea or on land. It’s the universal replacement for current Navy and Air Force fighters and should eventually be massed produced for both [...] Related posts:

Smoot-Hawley-Schumer: The Chinese Currency Bill

Crocker — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 18:20:42 +0000

At a time when President Obama has finally decided to move forward free-trade agreements with Colombia, South Korea and Panama, the Senate has passed Chuck Schumer’s “Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Reform Act of 2011″, which would impose stiff tariffs on goods imported from countries that hold their currencies at artificially low levels. While the bill [...] Related posts:

Attacking the “Wealthy”: An Old Political Play

Crocker — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 17:08:52 +0000

The President’s class-warfare rhetoric is getting old. In fact, it was never new and fresh. It’s the sort of demagogic play used by politicians from the Emperor Diocletian to the present. When times get tough and revenue runs short, create a villain. Let’s look at old Diocletian, Roman emperor from 284-305 AD. During the mid-third [...] Related posts:

Ford’s “Bailout” Commercial: Did the White House Really Object?

Crocker — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 13:38:27 +0000

A few weeks back, Ford released another of its “press conference” commercials, which are supposedly unscripted and in which a Ford owner explains his or her satisfaction with the Ford product they’ve purchased. This particular ad took a somewhat different tack: the owner said that he bought his vehicle in part because Ford hadn’t accepted [...] Related posts:

Britain: Lancashire Police Ban Bible in Christian Cafe

Crocker — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 13:22:45 +0000

Welcome to life in today’s Britain. I am qualified as a British solicitor and I worked with the Alliance Defense Fund and Christian Concern (UK) as an adjunct to my regular business practice, so I have reason to follow appalling stories like these. The problem stems from Britain’s adoption of a Human Rights Act in [...] Related posts:

EPA to Congress: We Want to Hire 230,000 More Employees

Crocker — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 00:18:00 +0000

Why you may ask? Well, remember the greenhouse gas regulations the EPA enacted all by its lonesome in defiance of Congress? Well, now my favorite bureaucracy has the cheek to label it’s own regulations “absurd” in application and is requesting permission to hire the new employees at a cost of $21 billion. From the Daily [...] Related posts:

Egyptian Islamists: Persecuting the Copts

Crocker — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 21:31:06 +0000

In the theology of Islamic triumphalism, all land in the Middle East and North Africa is “Muslim Land” even though the indigenous Christian and Jewish populations were exterminated or terribly persecuted to realize the fantasy. One such Christian group that has successfully resisted religious cleansing are the Copts of Egypt. The Coptic church is very [...] Related posts:

Video: Seattle to Maine in Five Minutes

Crocker — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 16:42:48 +0000

Here’s a nice video: this gent moved from Seattle to Maine and drove across country on I-90 nearly the whole way. He scripted his Droid X to take a photo every 90 seconds or approximately every couple of miles (60 MPH being a mile a minute). Here’s the remarkable result. Related posts: The Naked Airline [...] Related posts: