http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/steyn/ en-us Mon, 28 Dec 2009 16:00:25 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2416296/posts AND NOW . . . amidst billowing clouds of fragrant, aromatic first- and second-hand premium cigar smoke. . . it is time for . . . that harmless, lovable little fuzz ball, the highly-trained broadcast specialist, having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have, from behind the golden EIB microphone, firmly ensconced in the prestigious Attila-the-Hun chair at the Limbaugh Institute of Advanced Conservative Studies, serving humanity simply by showing up, and he’s not retiring until every American agrees with him, do NOT doubt him, with shrieks of joy at the mere mention of his name... The EIB Network http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2416296/posts#comment Mon, 28 Dec 2009 16:00:25 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2415798/posts Laps in Security Mark Steyn December 26, 2009 Well, the authorities have reacted to the Pantybomber in the usual way: Passengers getting off both U.S. domestic flights and those arriving from overseas reported being told that they couldn’t get out of their seat for the last hour of their flight. Air Canada also said that during the last hour passengers won’t be allowed access to carry-on baggage or to have any items on their laps.That's great news, isn't it?This was a failed terror plot. But with failures like this who needs victories? If that Air Canada rule becomes generally applicable,... The Corner at National Review http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2415798/posts#comment Sun, 27 Dec 2009 17:47:49 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2415629/posts Mark Steyn, who frequently serves as a fill-in for Rush Limbaugh and recently has been filling-in for Sean Hannity on his television program, is a genuine treasure.  He manages to combine a riotous sense of humor with conservative wisdom and his own je ne sais quoi.Today, on Rush Limbaugh’s radio program, Steyn told a story about a funeral he recently attended in Europe at a church that had been built in the 11th century.His party was in the vehicle immediately behind the hearse, so he couldn’t help but see a cart that looked to him like a shopping cart being... Start Thinking Right http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2415629/posts#comment Sun, 27 Dec 2009 05:51:24 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2415372/posts Last week, during a bit of banter on Fox News, my colleague Jonah Goldberg reminded me of something I’d all but forgotten. Last September, during his address to Congress on health care, Barack Obama declared: “I am not the first President to take up this cause, but I am determined to be the last.” Dream on. The monstrous mountain of toxic pustules sprouting from greasy boils metastasizing from malign carbuncles that passed the Senate on Christmas Eve is not the last word in “health” “care,” but the first. It ensures that this is all we’ll be talking about, now and... National Review http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2415372/posts#comment Sat, 26 Dec 2009 17:54:33 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2412029/posts The best summation of the UN climate circus in Denmark comes from Andrew Bolt of Australia's Herald Sun: "Nothing is real in Copenhagen – not the temperature record, not the predictions, not the agenda, not the 'solution'." Just so. Reuters, for example, carried a moving account of the speech by Ian Fry, lead negotiator for Tuvalu, the beleaguered Pacific island nation soon to be under water because of a planet-devastating combination of your SUV and unsustainable bovine flatulence from Vermont farms. Orange County Register http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2412029/posts#comment Mon, 21 Dec 2009 04:29:56 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2411489/posts Kathryn, re your Facebook friend who asks, "Can we officially retire the phrases 'blue dog' democrats and 'pro life' democrats? Because there is no such thing:" As I wrote back in the summer, "Put not your trust in Blue Dog Democrats." It was folly to bet the Republic on the likes of Ben Nelson and Blanche Lincoln and other "moderates" who are, by definition, trimmers and accommodationists. NRO http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2411489/posts#comment Sun, 20 Dec 2009 03:24:55 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2410251/posts Hans Christian Andersen would surely have been inspired by the ‘science’ of Copenhagen For a small country, Denmark sure attracts a lot of attention. A Chicago Muslim, David Headley, was recently arrested at O’Hare International Airport en route to Copenhagen to kill the commissioning editor and artists of the Danish Muhammad cartoons. Alas, a far bigger group flying in to Copenhagen for a massive suicide bombing were permitted to board their flights: these were the jet-setting bigwigs of the climate-change circuit en route to Denmark to blow up the global economy and individual liberty in order to get back to... Steyn Online http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2410251/posts#comment Fri, 18 Dec 2009 10:20:30 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2407814/posts Paul Comrie-Thomson: Now to our first guest, conservative commentator Mark Steyn. In a wide-ranging interview he discusses free speech, carbon trading, healthcare reform in the US, Afghanistan and President Obama. Michael spoke to him late last week. Michael Duffy: Mark Steyn, welcome back to the program, and happy Christmas. Mark Steyn: Happy Christmas to you too, Michael. Michael Duffy: We haven't talked for about a year so there's a bit to catch up on. Barack Obama, Nobel laureate. If you had to give a report card on his presidency so far, what are some of the things you'd like to... Steyn Online http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2407814/posts#comment Tue, 15 Dec 2009 12:41:00 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2406544/posts It wasn’t so long ago that Barack Obama’s speeches were being hailed as “extraordinary” “rhetorical magic” (Joe Klein in Time) that should be “required reading in classrooms” (Bob Herbert in the New York Times). Pity the poor grade-schoolers who have to be on the bus at 5 a.m. for a daylong slog through the 4,000-word sludge of the president’s Nobel thank you. Rich Lowry, my boss at National Review, writes that Obama has become a “crashingly banal” bore. The good news is that he “is not nearly as dull as, say, Herman van Rompuy.” National Review http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2406544/posts#comment Sun, 13 Dec 2009 13:54:57 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2405528/posts The other day, George Jonas passed on to his readers a characteristically shrewd observation gleaned from the late poet George Faludy: “No one likes to think of himself as a coward,” wrote Jonas. “People prefer to think they end up yielding to what the terrorists demand, not because itÂ’s safer or more convenient, but because itÂ’s the right thing . . . Successful terrorism persuades the terrorized that if they do terrorÂ’s bidding, itÂ’s not because theyÂ’re terrified but because theyÂ’re socially concerned.” This is true. Resisting terror is exhausting. ItÂ’s easier to appease it, but, for the sake of your self-esteem, you have... Macleans http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2405528/posts#comment Fri, 11 Dec 2009 17:43:13 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2401840/posts December 05, 2009, 7:00 a.m. The Unrealistic RealistLeader of the free world? Not ObamaÂ’s bag. By Mark Steyn If you happen to live in Kabul or Jalalabad, Ghurian or Kandahar, then a U.S. presidential speech about Afghanistan is, indeed, about Afghanistan. If you live anywhere else on the planet, a U.S. presidential speech about Afghanistan is really about America — about American will, American purpose, American energy. How quickly the bright new dawn fades to the gray morning after. In Europe, the long awaited unveiling of this most thoughtful of presidents’ deliberations got mixed reviews — some bad, some... National Review Online http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2401840/posts#comment Mon, 7 Dec 2009 04:28:53 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2401765/posts Is That An Ice Core In Your Pocket? ...or are you just displeased to see me? I'm beginning to feel sorry for Andrew "Andy" Revkin, Senior Climate Alarmist at The New York Times. He does not emerge well from his chummy e-mails with the Settled Science enforcers ("You took the words right out of my mouth"), and evidently he resents the notion that he was merely a willing dupe: NRO http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2401765/posts#comment Mon, 7 Dec 2009 01:29:45 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2400009/posts These leaked documents reveal the greatest scientific scandal of our times—and a tragedy. “The gravest challenge that we face is climate change . . . Every one of our compatriots must feel concerned”—Nicolas Sarkozy, president of the French Republic; “The climate crisis threatens our very survival”—Herman Van Rompuy, “president” of “Europe”; “We cannot compromise with the catastrophe of unchecked climate change”—Gordon Brown, prime minister of the United Kingdom; “Generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children . . . this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal”—Barack Obama, president of the... Steyn Online http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2400009/posts#comment Fri, 4 Dec 2009 08:52:39 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2397010/posts The most obvious thing that strikes anyone wading through the CRU documents is how easy it was for a small number of "experts" to propel their data-raped conclusions first into a "peer-reviewed" "consensus" and then up through western governments into the international fait accomplis of Kyoto, the IPCC and now Copenhagen. I initially assumed stuff like this was just a bit of naked obstructionism toward a few troublemakers: I find it hard to believe that the British Antarctic Survey would permit the deletion of relevant files for two recent publications or that there aren't any backups for the deleted data... National Review Online http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2397010/posts#comment Mon, 30 Nov 2009 18:30:23 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2396489/posts Michael Gerson has lousy timing. In The Washington Post, in one of those now familiar elegies for old media, he writes: And the whole system is based on a kind of intellectual theft. Internet aggregators (who link to news they don't produce) and bloggers would have little to collect or comment upon without the costly enterprise of newsgathering and investigative reporting. The old-media dinosaurs remain the basis for the entire media food chain. That's laughably untrue in the Warmergate story. If you rely on the lavishly remunerated "climate correspondents" of the big newspapers and networks, you'll know nothing about the... The National Review http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2396489/posts#comment Sun, 29 Nov 2009 22:15:34 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2396429/posts My favorite moment in the Climategate/Climaquiddick scandal currently roiling the “climate change” racket was Stuart Varney’s interview on Fox News with the actor Ed Begley Jr. — star of the 1980s medical drama St. Elsewhere but latterly better known, as is the fashion with members of the thespian community, as an “activist.” He’s currently in a competition with Bill Nye (“the Science Guy”) to see who can have the lowest “carbon footprint.” Pistols at dawn would seem the quickest way of resolving that one, but presumably you couldn’t get a reality series out of it. Anyway, Ed was relaxed about... NRO http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2396429/posts#comment Sun, 29 Nov 2009 19:59:45 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2395906/posts My favorite moment in the Climategate/Climaquiddick scandal currently roiling the "climate change" racket was Stuart Varney's interview on Fox News with the actor Ed Begley Jr., star of the 1980s medical drama "St Elsewhere" but latterly better known, as is the fashion with members of the thespian community, as an "activist." He's currently in a competition with Bill Nye ("the Science Guy") to see who can have the lowest "carbon footprint." Pistols at dawn would seem the quickest way of resolving that one, but presumably you couldn't get a reality series out of it. Anyway, Ed was relaxed about the... Orange County Register http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2395906/posts#comment Sat, 28 Nov 2009 17:54:15 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2395381/posts Ever since this magazine attracted the attention of Canada’s “human rights” regime, defenders of the system have clung to a familiar argument. In a letter to Maclean’s, Jennifer Lynch, Q.C., Canada’s chief censor, put it this way: “Steyn would have us believe that words, however hateful, should be given free rein. History has shown us that hateful words sometimes lead to hurtful actions that undermine freedom and have led to unspeakable crimes. That is why Canada and most other democracies have enacted legislation to place reasonable limits on the expression of hatred.” “Hateful words” can lead to “unspeakable crimes.” The... Steyn Online http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2395381/posts#comment Fri, 27 Nov 2009 15:25:41 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2395667/posts My favorite moment in the Climategate/Climaquiddick scandal currently roiling the "climate change" racket was Stuart Varney's interview on Fox News with the actor Ed Begley Jr, star of the 1980s medical drama "St Elsewhere" but latterly better known, as is the fashion with members of the thespian community, as an "activist". He's currently in a competition with Bill Nye ("the Science Guy") to see who can have the lowest "carbon footprint". Pistols at dawn would seem the quickest way of resolving that one, but presumably you couldn't get a reality series out of it. Anyway, Ed was relaxed about the... Dakota Beacon http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2395667/posts#comment Sat, 28 Nov 2009 01:43:49 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2395244/posts The CRU scandal has already ensnared Britain's leading climate "scientist" Phil Jones (whom one principled leftie says has only "a few days left in which to make an honourable exit") and his American counterpart Michael Mann (as in "Mann-made global warming"). Given that these two men and their respective institutions are the leading warm-mongers on the planet, and the guys who dominate the IPCC, Copenhagen et al, it would be most unlikely if the widespread data-raping were confined only to the United Kingdom and the United States. Here's an interesting snippet from my colleagues at Investigate magazine in New Zealand... NRO http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2395244/posts#comment Fri, 27 Nov 2009 05:23:38 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2394890/posts Seasons of Steyn Thursday, 26 November 2009 A lot has changed since I wrote these words, but I'll stand by them. Enjoy the turkey, and count your blessings: Speaking as a misfit unassimilated foreigner, I think of Thanksgiving as the most American of holidays. Christmas is celebrated elsewhere, even if there are significant local variations: in continental Europe, naughty children get left rods to be flayed with and lumps of coal; in Britain, Christmas lasts from December 22nd to mid-January and celebrates the ancient cultural traditions of massive alcohol intake and watching the telly till you pass out in a... Steyn Online http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2394890/posts#comment Thu, 26 Nov 2009 14:07:44 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2391678/posts Folks, this is cool. Mark Stein, singer/keyboardist for 60s supergroup "Vanilla Fudge" has a song that isn't all that flattering to the Messiah. Check it out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5LLKs7oW_Q youtube http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2391678/posts#comment Sat, 21 Nov 2009 22:07:10 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2391336/posts My radio pal Hugh Hewitt said to me on the air the other day that Barack Obama "doesn't know how to be president." It was a low but effective crack, and I didn't pay it much heed. But, after musing on it over the past week or so, it seems to me frighteningly literally true. I don't just mean social lapses like his latest cringe-making bow, this time to Their Imperial Majesties The Emperor and Empress of Japan – though that in itself is deeply weird: After the world superbower's previous nose-to-toe prostration before the Saudi king, one assumed there'd... Orange Country Register http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2391336/posts#comment Sat, 21 Nov 2009 06:41:33 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2391205/posts My radio pal Hugh Hewitt said to me on the air the other day that Barack Obama "doesn't know how to be president." It was a low but effective crack, and I didn't pay it much heed. But, after musing on it over the last week or so, it seems to me frighteningly literally true. I don't just mean social lapses like his latest cringe-making bow, this time to Their Imperial Majesties The Emperor and Empress of Japan — though that in itself is deeply weird: After the world superbower's previous nose-to-toe prostration before the Saudi King, one assumed there'd... Investors.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2391205/posts#comment Sat, 21 Nov 2009 01:38:33 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2390478/posts Mark Steyn: Did David Frum really say this about Sarah Palin? Apparently so, and on PBS: This is a woman who has got into a position of leadership by sending very powerful sexual signals. And we see that in the way that men like her much more than women do. With this line of attack, David seems to be channeling his inner Andrew Sullivan. (By the way, when I saw her campaign in N.H., I was surrounded by moms with strollers.) NRO - The Corner http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2390478/posts#comment Fri, 20 Nov 2009 04:01:01 GMT