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Palin Delivers Sparkle, Warmth Tony BlankleyWednesday, February 10, 2010"No new ideas." That was the most prominent of the criticisms of Sarah Palin's speech at MSNBC's too-cool-for-school "Morning Joe" on Monday. The more general critique of former Gov. Palin's future was that while she certainly had star power, she could never speak to more than a fraction of even Republicans. The proof of the latter point was made with the evidence that many important Washington Republicans could never support her for more than cheerleader to her marginal people. They also pointed out that she had kept out of races in Massachusetts...

The tea-party movement has no leader. But it does have a face: William Temple of Brunswick, Ga. For months, the amiable middle-aged activist has been criss-crossing America, appearing at tea-party events dressed in his trademark three-cornered hat and Revolutionary garb. When journalists interview him (which is often—his outfit draws them in like a magnet), he presents himself as a human bridge between the founders' era and our own. "We fought the British over a 3 percent tea tax. We might as well bring the British back," he told NPR during a recent protest outside the Capitol. It's a charming act,...

Rick Synder: Is He MI's Revenge Of The Nerds?

Mixed up with the question of fairness to individuals and groups has been the explosive question of whether individuals and groups have the innate ability to perform at the same levels, if they are all treated alike or even given the same objective opportunities. Intellectuals have swung from one side of this question at the beginning of the 20th century to the opposite side at the end. Both those who said that achievement differences among races and classes were due to genes, in the early years of the 20th century, and those who said that these differences were due to...

It is time to take stock: What has the intelligent design movement achieved? As science, nothing. The goal of science is to increase our understanding of the natural world, and there is not a single phenomenon that we understand better today or are likely to understand better in the future through the efforts of ID theorists. If we are to look for ID achievements, then, it must be in the realm of natural theology. And there, I think, the movement must be judged not only a failure, but a debacle. Very few religious skeptics have been made more open to...

Most of us want to be fair, in the sense of treating everyone equally. We want laws to be applied the same to everyone. We want educational, economic or other criteria for rewards to be the same as well. But this concept of fairness is not only different from prevailing ideas of fairness among many of the intelligentsia, it contradicts their idea of fairness. People like philosopher John Rawls call treating everyone alike merely "formal" fairness. Professor Rawls advocated "a conception of justice that nullifies the accidents of natural endowment and the contingencies of social circumstances." He called for a...

A recent flap in a Berkeley high school reveals what a farce "fairness" can be. Because this is ultra-liberal Berkeley, perhaps we should not be surprised that a proposal has been made to eliminate four jobs as science teachers and use the money saved for programs to help low achievers. In Berkeley, as in many other communities across the country, black and Latino students are not performing as well as Asian and white students. In fact, the racial gap in academic achievement at Berkeley High School is the highest in California— no doubt a special source of embarrassment in politically...

The latest issue of People magazine features a cover story about the famously large Duggar Family along with a chilling question: “How Many Kids Are Too Many?� The moment I heard that Josie, the Duggars’ 19th child, was born prematurely, weighing only 1 lb. 6 oz., I knew the stars of the TLC reality series 19 Kids and Counting would face some harsh criticism for continuing to have children despite the risks. But really? This couple was facing some pretty tough criticism already. Every time the Duggars announce a new pregnancy or welcome a new baby, the comments sections...

Israel's Sephardi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar (r) attends a news conference with Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger at the Ciampino airport, south of Rome, Sept. 15, 2005, after a private meeting with Pope Benedict in his summer residence of Castel Gandolfo. The rabbis urged Pope Benedict to forcefully deplore the destruction of synagogues in Gaza by Palestinians after the Israeli withdrawal. JERUSALEM — A subject ordinarily not on the top of Israel’s national agenda has become a hot topic in recent weeks, following media reports that the country’s two chief rabbis sent a letter to all state-funded rabbis urging them...

The nomination of Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board was just defeated on a cloture vote 52-33. Sen. Ben Nelson (D., Neb.), Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D., Ark.), and Sen. Scott Brown (R., Mass.) all voted against cloture.

John H. McWhorterToward a Usable Black History It will help black Americans to recall that they have a history that transcends victimization and exclusion. Summer 2001 You brought me here in CHAINS! You brought me here in CHAINS!" James Baldwin exclaimed to a white interviewer in the late 1960s, summing up the sense of our history that most blacks have. Yes, we pay lip service to our having "survived" in this country, but the image most resonant to us is being brought here packed in ships, treated like animals for 250 years, and pushed to the margins of society...

The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), a division of the National Institutes of Health, is giving Dr. Lynn Fiellin, an assistant professor at the Yale School of Medicine, $3.9 million over five years to develop a video game to teach “sex, drug and alcohol negotiation and refusal skills" to children 9-14 years of age. The game will feature “virtual characters or avatars” that are guided by the children playing the game to make decisions about whether to engage in behaviors that put them at risk of being infected with HIV. The game’s effectiveness...

Sen. John McCain's daughter Meghan McCain, who has crafted an image for herself as a voice for young Republicans, took on Sarah Palin and the Tea Party movement on ABC's "The View" on Monday. --snip-- McCain also took a shot at the Tea Party convention, where Palin was the keynote speaker last weekend. The convention also featured former Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.), who said in his speech, "People who could not spell the word vote or say it in English put a committed socialist ideologue in the White House -- name is Barack Hussein Obama." Tancredo added, "Thank God John...

Author Kurt Andersen came out swinging this week in New York Magazine against democracy in action! He hates the Tea Party Movement in particular. Andersen, a novelist who at one time was New York Magazine’s chief editor, prefers when “a calm club of like-minded wise men (and women) in Washington” is calling the shots, not the people. Andersen agrees with Elitist-in-Chief President Barack Obama who believes the opponents of his far-left policies should just sit down and shut up. Andersen liked the good old days when: the elite media really did control the national political discourse…Until fifteen years ago, presidents...

The gift given by the wise men to the baby Jesus probably came across the deserts from Oman. The BBC's Jeremy Howells visits the country to ask whether a commodity that was once worth its weight in gold could be reborn as a treatment for cancer.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and the European Union said on Monday they feared the Iranian government may crack down on opponents during this week's anniversary of Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution. Washington and the EU issued a rare joint statement on Iran, warning the country's leaders to live up to their international human rights obligations. "We are particularly concerned by the potential for further violence and repression during the coming days, especially around the anniversary of the Islamic Republic's founding on 11 February," they said. The Iranian opposition is expected to revive anti-government protests around the anniversary, raising the...

If one had to read one columnist to appreciate the state of contemporary left-wing commentary, my nomination would be Frank Rich of the Sunday New York Times. No well-known leftist columnist better exemplifies the worst aspects of today's left. Virtually every piece is filled with anger, filled with ad hominem responses to arguments, filled with insults of opponents and at the same time devoid of intellectual arguments. A Frank Rich column is essentially a weekly tantrum meant to make his readers nod in agreement and reinforce their contempt for those who differ with them. I offer this past Sunday's column...

Loud laughter followed Palin’s references to “lame-stream media” and jeers accompanied every reference to global warming. Enthusiastic boos followed a reference to Nancy Pelosi. She endeared herself to the logging conference crowd by holding her hand up to show what was written on the palm of her hand: “Loggers rock!” - an apparent dig at “lame-stream media” who recently ridiculed her for writing memory prompts on her hand. And toward the end of her talk she complimented logging industry folks when she referred to an administration that talks about green jobs. “You guys were doing green jobs before green jobs...

If there is ever a contest to pick which word has done the most damage to people's thinking, and to actions to carry out that thinking, my nomination would be the word "fair." It is a word thrown around by far more people than have ever bothered to even try to define it. This mushy vagueness may be a big handicap in logic but it is a big advantage in politics. All sorts of people, with very different notions about what is or is not fair, can be mobilized behind this nice-sounding word, in utter disregard of the fact that...

Some are comedy gold. I am making my children watch each one, they are burned etched into my brain ForEVAH. Blindly following causes hippies/obamanauts (NSFW or kids) http://www.southparkstudios.com/guide/902/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lexREXXhE1I SAFE really Environmental Police http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wq58zS4_jvM&feature=player_embedded Liberals generally http://snltranscripts.jt.org/88/88d.phtml NO VIDEO Inevitable consequence of socialism Harvest of sorrows & Revolutionary Holocaust Live free or Die by Glenn Beck http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0e_OFwtJMRY Personally Thief in the Night http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Thief_in_the_Night_%28film%29 Most all Ronald Reagan speeches Did I leave anything out?

February 8, 2010 Obama & Dems steal our money, wreck economy, demand we pay for it By Sher Zieve The Apex of Chutzpa has now been reached by Obama and his Marxist minions. Since they gained control of both houses of Congress in 2006, Democrat leaders have been on a hell-bent mission (both literally and figuratively) to plunder the wealth of the USA and suppress its people. And now, they want to raise taxes on all of us to pay for their theft and further place We-the-People into the bottomless pit of these leftists' making! They have stolen from us,...

Eugene, Ore., Feb 7, 2010 / 07:42 pm (CNA).- Religious freedom advocates have asked the Oregon legislature for an immediate repeal of a decades-old law that bars Oregon teachers from wearing religious dress in public schools. The law, originally an anti-Catholic measure, was implemented with the support of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s.Current Oregon law bars religious Jews from wearing yarmulkes, religious Sikhs from wearing turbans, and religious Muslim women from wearing a headscarf. According to the Oregonian, the law was designed to prevent priests and nuns from wearing their clerics and habits in the classroom. It was...

St. Louis University, a Catholic institution, continues on a path designed to made it a laughingstock in the annals of academic freedom, maintaining its ban on yours truly while proclaiming its commitment to intellectual diversity and… academic freedom. From Inside Higher Ed: David Horowitz can’t seem to get into Saint Louis University no matter how hard he tries. Six months ago, the university blocked a student organization from bringing Horowitz to the university for one of his talks about “Islamo-fascism.” Horowitz is a conservative critic of higher education as well as a wide range of other sectors of society. The...

Two parts predictable, one part probable: Newsweek’s Daniel Stone takes a look at Sarah Palin’s Tea Party Nation convention speech and determines her unable to win a national election. Shock! However, aside from his own unambiguous sentiment and Newsweek’s penchant for Palin mockery, is he necessarily wrong? The basis of her speech, as she put it, was simple: rein in government spending, be more firm on national security, and keep the government out of businesses and people’s lives. And not one person in the room didn’t think she was dead right. I doubt no one at the Tea Party convention...

...In essence, what we need to be doing, culturally, as a nation, is to encourage the assimilation of all of our population to the American norm that made America the greatest nation on earth. Industry, self-reliance, respect for private property, respect for the rule of law, the importance of the traditional family unit, and a respectable moral system are the necessary props that help to maintain the type of capitalistic, individualistic, and prosperous society such as we once were. This is a touchy subject for many, due to the hyper-polarization about race and ethnicity that has been caused by the...

The tortures included laying a man naked on a freezing cement floor, forcing his legs apart, and then an interrogator stepping on his testicles, applying increasing pressure until the confession surfaced. Imagine the consequences of no surfacing confession. Indeed, many people refused to confess to a crime they did not commit. Daughters and sons were raped in front of their fathers and mothers — for the sake of extracting “confessions.” These are just some of the delicacies that the Stalinist machinery inflicted on its citizenry in the hope of bringing socialism into earthly incarnation. Alexander Solzhenitsyn has shared much of...

Sarah Palin took the development of her own political brand to the next level with a speech to the first national gathering of Tea Party conservatives in Nashville in which she poured scorn on the first year of the Obama administration and set herself up as an alternative politician in the mould of Ronald Reagan. In a 40-minute speech to an audience of about 1,000 drawn from across America, Palin dispelled criticism about the $115,000 she was reported to have been paid amid accusations that she was riding on the back of the populist movement. She won a succession of...

Sarah Palin and the Tea Party movement “both have far less support in the country at large than a gullible Old Media seems to understand or suggest,” Time magazine senior political analyst Mark Halperin asserted on “The Page” while colleague Joe Klein, on Time’s “Swampland” blog, showed fear of the supposedly impotent coalition as he denigrated her Saturday night convention speech as “anti-intellectual drivel,” scolding as “anti-American” those dumb enough to like her: Those who celebrate Sarah Palin's lack of knowledge as a form of “authenticity” superior to Barack Obama's gloriously American mongrel ethnicity and self-made intellectuality are representatives of...

While speaking at the National Tea Party Convention Andrew Breitbart told the media, “It’s not your business model that sucks, it’s you that sucks.” This is classic Breitbart and he knocks it right out of the park. Watch the video:

Glenn Reynolds, of InstaPundit.com, interviews Andrew Breitbart at the Tea Party Convention in Nashville. Andrew talks Tea Parties, grassroot movements, and fighting back. Video Part 1: Video Part 2:

Last week, noted feminist Keith Olbermann implied that the women of Fox News are only hired because they’re attractive. In response, The Daily Caller’s Jim Treacher posted a photo gallery of women who work for MSNBC. When he got to Rachel Maddow, Treacher wrote, “Whoops, how did that one get in there? Sorry, man. I mean dude. I mean Rachel! Sorry, Rachel.” Similar jokes have appeared in a column by Treacher’s colleague Matt Labash, prompting a writer at Jezebel to lecture “Tucker Carlson’s minions” that they must never, ever suggest that a woman looks masculine in appearance. Making fun of...

Not really, but Keith Olbermann’s latest conspiracy theory rivals having Republicans under his bed. During last night’s Countdown, MSNBC host Keith Olbermann attacked those “crazy” conservatives for what he perceives as a right-wing conspiracy to convince Americans his show’s ratings are plummeting and his popularity is fading. Of course, the origin of his latest fanaticsm is none other than the uber-liberal L.A. Times. This particular piece appears to have Olbermann bent out of shape: Where they are, as Jeff Bercovici points out over at Daily Finance, is way behind the big boys over at Fox News, Bill O’Reilly and gang....

Miami, FL (LifeNews.com) -- When tens of millions of people around the world tune in for the Super Bowl tomorrow, they will finally get a chance to see the commercial celebrating the life of Tim Tebow. But viewers may not know Clyce Christensen, the assistant head coach of the Indianapolis Colts, has his own potential abortion story that changed his life.Christensen's mother was an unwed teenager who gave birth to him when she was 15 -- an age where many teens have an abortion because their pregnancy is frequently a result of sexual assault."I also can't help but look back...

If a state amendment recognizing the personhood of the unborn child came before the U.S. Supreme Court today, it wouldn’t have a snowball’s chance of being constitutionally approved by this court. Yet this is the legal theory touted by the personhood movement that is sweeping certain parts of the pro-life movements. It is the silver bullet theory for killing Roe v. Wade.Here is the amendment as it is now being promoted in California: The term “person� applies to all living human organisms from the beginning of their biological development, regardless of the means by which they were procreated, method of...

No president of the 20th century had a more positive and enduring influence than Ronald Reagan, who was born 99 years ago today. Other presidents, from Wilson to FDR, exceeded Reagan in their impact, but much of it was negative. Sure, they won wars, but they almost destroyed the American economy as well. Reagan, by contrast, won the Cold War and also revived the American economy from decades of abuse. He was successful both at home and abroad. Since President Reagan left the White House in 1989, the U. S. has stumbled, so it is wise to ponder why Reagan...

If the gun laws here in Massachusetts are not confusing enough, just try and follow the court rulings. Most recently a case has come out of a local federal court that has gun owners confused and angry. This most recent case is Schubert v. City of Springfield (United States District Court Civil No. 07-30033). In this case Mr. Schubert was crossing a street during mid-day and was held at gun point by a police officer. The officer had claimed that he had seen a handgun under Mr. Schubert’s jacket. In legal terms the officer claimed to be conducting what is...

Miami, FL (LifeNews.com) -- If you think you have read all there is on the Focus on the Family commercial featuring Tim Tebow and his mother's decision not to have an abortion -- wait, there's more. Officials at the pro-life group announced today that they are unveiling a second ad that will air before the Super Bowl begins.The second commercial plans to go further than the first and will reveal more details about Pam Tebow's decision not to have an abortion than CBS would allow in the first ad already planned for during the Super Bowl.This Super Bowl surprise has...

Happy Birthday to the Gipper! Number 40 Born Feb. 6, 1911 in Tampico, Ill. A movie star in politics? NOT a legend in his own time MAN WE MISS HIM. Happy birthday to our man Ronald Reagan. WHITE HOUSE PAGE Presidential Library Google Images

President Obama has gone out of his way to “diversify” the federal bench with his spate of nominations of various minorities chief of which was his successful seating of the “wise Latina,’ Sonia Sotomayor, on the Supreme Court. Obama’s nominees* for 10 district court openings include four African-Americans, three Asian-Americans, one Latino and four women. One of those nominees, San Francisco U.S. Magistrate Judge Edward Chen, received a favorable vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee in Washington today. So what sort of judge is Edward Chen? Well, for one, the left-wing American Bar Association rated Chen a “well qualified” nominee...

Make sure to read Reihan’s excellent post on the misunderstanding of Rep. Paul Ryan’s roadmap. While the plan has critics on the right and left, it also appears to be unloved, at least publicly, by the House GOP leadership: “Paul Ryan, who’s the ranking member on our budget committee, has done an awful lot of work in putting together his roadmap,” Boehner said. “But it’s his. And I know the Democrats are trying to say that it’s the Republican leadership. But they know that's not the case.” Understandably, Boehner is worried about Ryan’s roadmap being portrayed by Democrats as “the...

An excellent, informative and easy to understand primer on the spectrum of government. You will want to share this with your Democrat friends and family and other politically uninformed people you may be aquainted with. Homeschoolers and parents of kids attending public indoctrination centers will want to have their kids watch this, too: http://www.wimp.com/thegovernment/

It’s Oscar time. Unfortunately — or perhaps fortunately — I haven’t seen anywhere near all of the contenders. For that reason alone, I can’t write an Oscar column. Then throw in the fact that I think the Oscars are one of the most overhyped events in American life. They’re almost as bad as the Grammys were when they were still around. Wait, they still have those? Really? OK, well, the Oscars are still overrated. But I do love movies, and I’m fascinated by what they say about American life. Of course, movies don’t always reflect or articulate what moviegoers are...

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER FEBRUARY 5, 2010 The Great Peasant Revolt of 2010 The president’s supercilious modesty is getting him into trouble. ‘I am not an ideologue,” protested President Obama at a gathering with Republican House members last week. Perhaps, but he does have a tenacious commitment to a set of political convictions. Compare his 2010 State of the Union with his first address to Congress a year earlier. The consistency is remarkable. In 2009, after passing a $787 billion (now $862 billion) stimulus package, the largest spending bill in galactic history, he unveiled a manifesto for fundamentally restructuring the commanding heights...

Sarah Palin's campaign against the derogatory usage of the word "retard" collided with her campaign to maintain her popularity with conservatives today, with confusing results. A Palin spokeswoman seemed to back away from earlier criticism of conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh. Yesterday, when asked for comment on Limbaugh's use of the "r" word in a recent broadcast, Palin spokeswoman told Greg Sargent of the Washington Post, "Governor Palin believes crude and demeaning name-calling at the expense of others is disrespectful." Today, Stapleton claims the statement was meant generally and she was not specifically referring to Limbaugh. Still, she declined to...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - A stung U.S. Sen. Scott Brown lashed out at U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy today for insulting his landmark win by calling his candidacy “a joke.” Brown said Kennedy’s remarks are “mean spirited,” especially coming on the day he was celebrating being sworn into office. “I was elected and the votes are certified and I’m here to do my job. It’s unfortunate that he would use mean-spirited comments like that at a time when we’re just trying to solve the problems of the Commonwealth,” Brown said today on his first full day on the job.

WASHINGTON – Today, President Barack Obama announced his intent to appoint the following individuals to the Council of Governors. The Council, created January 11 of this year by Executive Order, will work closely with the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and other defense and national security advisors to exchange views, information and advice on matters of mutual interest pertaining to the National Guard, homeland defense, synchronization and integration of State and Federal military activities in the United States, and civil support activities. * Governor James H. Douglas, Co-Chair, Council of Governors * Governor Chris Gregoire, Co-Chair, Council...

You walk into a bar and see the same drunk who’s there every night lying on the floor in a pool of his reeking fluids. He raises his head and looks around at the room in general—the folks having a few beers, wines, or just Diet Pepsis, as well as the other drunks. With what little coherence he still can muster, he declares: “People drink too much. We gotta get this under control.” Then, in fits and starts, he utters something like the following: “Yesterday I downed a whole quart of whiskey and a six-pack of brews. Today I was...

PRINCETON, NJ -- More than one-third of Americans (36%) have a positive image of "socialism," while 58% have a negative image. Views differ by party and ideology, with a majority of Democrats and liberals saying they have a positive view of socialism, compared to a minority of Republicans and conservatives.

February 4, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Striking back at the pro-life Tim Tebow Super Bowl ad, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America has issued its own abortion-themed football video, claiming that the true lesson of Tebow's story is that society should "respect and trust women" to make the decision to abort their child.  The Washington Post also added to the football-themed abortion debate this week, re-publishing a 1989 video of NFL players who condemned the destruction of unborn life for an American Life League video.The Tebow spot, entitled “Celebrate family, celebrate life," is sponsored by Focus on the Family.  Although details...

E.J. Dionne offers the following in his latest column: "For Republicans, American power is rooted largely in military might and showing a tough and resolute face to the world. They would rely on tax cuts as the one and only spur to economic growth." Obama, Biden and the Democrats, on the other hand, believe that American power depends ultimately on the American economy, and that government has an essential role to play in fostering the next generation of growth. Do you know any Republicans who believe that American power is rooted largely in military might and showing a tough and...