Cool Commentary

Just some links to worthwhile reading.

In yesterday's edition of the WSJ, Fouad Ajami writes about the failure of President Obama's guilt tripping attempts to sway Arab and Muslim attitudes about America.

In the Palestinian territories, 15% have a favorable view of the U.S. while 82% have an unfavorable view. The Obama speech in Ankara didn't seem to help in Turkey, where the favorables are 14% and those unreconciled, 69%. In Egypt, a country that's reaped nearly 40 years of American aid, things stayed roughly the same: 27% have a favorable view of the U.S. while 70% do not. In Pakistan, a place of great consequence for American power, our standing has deteriorated: The unfavorables rose from 63% in 2008 to 68% this year.
Mr. Obama's election has not drained the swamps of anti-Americanism. That anti-Americanism is endemic to this region, an alibi and a scapegoat for nations, and their rulers, unwilling to break out of the grip of political autocracy and economic failure. It predated the presidency of George W. Bush and rages on during the Obama presidency.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052748703499404574558300500152682.html#mod=todays_us_opinion

In today's edition, MIT meteorology professor Dr. Richard Lindzen, (featured in the BBC production, "The Great Global Warming Swindle"), gives a concise overview of the flaws in the current "consensus" thinking about "climate change". Of all the erroneous claims made by GW advocates, Lindzen cites exaggerated consequences as the most egregious.

What does all this have to do with climate catastrophe? The answer brings us to a scandal that is, in my opinion, considerably greater than that implied in the hacked emails from the Climate Research Unit (though perhaps not as bad as their destruction of raw data): namely the suggestion that the very existence of warming or of the greenhouse effect is tantamount to catastrophe. This is the grossest of "bait and switch" scams. It is only such a scam that lends importance to the machinations in the emails designed to nudge temperatures a few tenths of a degree.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052748703939404574567423917025400.html#mod=todays_us_opinion

The current edition of National Review contains several notable items.

Mark Steyn takes his "Demographic Deathwatch" to Vermont of all places, where liberal taxation and regulation policies are killing the state.

http://nrd.nationalreview.com/article/?q=OTk4ZmMwYjcxYTczYWRjMmY2NzU0ZGY5MzlmYzFkMmY=

Rob Long has an exclusive excerpt from Larry King's November, 2010 interview with Khalid Sheik Mohammed. KSM was giving the interview as part of his book tour after his trial was dismissed by a technicality.

http://nrd.nationalreview.com/article/?q=YTBiNTFlNTgxNWEyYjM2YTBjNGQwNGNmYjA3MDIyOGE=

Stephen Spruiell examines the failure of the "stimulus" package to stimulate the economy and explains why all similar Keynesian projects are doomed to failure.

http://nrd.nationalreview.com/article/?q=ZjBiNjk5ZGI5NzEwMDQ5NTc4MzdhYTY0ODU2Y2VmNDA=

In a separate segment Jonah Goldberg points out some of the laughable inventions (to be kind about it) that the Obama administration is using to market the bill's "success".

"Saved or created” is itself the greatest weaselly locution yet coined in the 21st century. Just for the record, I save or create 500 push-ups every morning.
According to Recovery.gov, Arizona’s 86th congressional district received $34 million to help the Navajo people. Trouble is, Arizona has only eight districts. In fact, Watchdog.org claims that the White House has given $6.4 billion to 440 nonexistent districts. That’s five more fake districts than there are real ones.
...There’s so much deceit, incompetence, arrogance, and outright fantasy at work, it’s like listening to a high-school kid explain how he maxed out a for-emergencies-only credit card buying a prom dress for his fictional super-hot girlfriend in Canada, even though she won’t be able to make it to the party after all.

An NR symposium looks at the subversion of liberalism by today's liberals and how conservatives can save classical liberalism.

http://nrd.nationalreview.com/article/?q=MjVjMzY4N2Y1MjI1ZjUwMGIxZjkxZDIwYjVkZTMyOGM=

A couple of incisive articles on the Ft. Hood massacre, its relationship to radical Islam and our reluctance to recognize the problem.

Theodore Dalrymple
http://nrd.nationalreview.com/article/?q=NDY0OGFhMjlkNDVkNWFlODhhYTEzNzhhOGVkMDhkZDM=

Alex Alexiev
http://nrd.nationalreview.com/article/?q=MzZlZDJhMzIyNzQ3YmVjM2U0YjMzODU5YjY3NDkxOTY=

And finally there's this from the Hot Air web site. A contributor, Doctor Zero, has posted a sharply worded rebuke to all those who have fallen for the "global warming" scam - anti-capitalist progressives, politicians, corporate collaborators, and especially the media. A couple of samples follow, but there's much more to this well written piece, properly titled, "The Crime Of The Century".

It’s easiest to con someone when they want to be fooled. Global warming is like pornography for Big Government addicts. It provides the rationale for sweeping new powers. It can be used as a moral club to beat class enemies. It creates a climate of perpetual emergency that allows endless taxation and erosion of liberty. There is great power to be gained by those who act as the harbingers of a disaster that is always too far away for hard-nosed analysis, but too close for careful deliberation.

If describing the acolytes and hucksters of global warming as “criminals” seems harsh, ask yourself how this situation would be treated if the miscreants had been operating within the private sector. Imagine a group of corporations conspiring to create an imaginary crisis, using junk science and false advertising, with their original raw data safely shredded. Imagine these greedy capitalists selling fantastically expensive “solutions” to the problem they manufactured, and demanding control over scores of other industries in the bargain. Picture an advertising campaign reaching into movies, books, music, and “news” programs. Imagine corporate representatives invading schools to indoctrinate children from an early age, and absolutely saturating children’s literature and television with slogans and carefully constructed horror stories about how the world will suffer, if their parents don’t play ball and start forking over money and liberties to the conglomerate.

http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2009/11/30/the-crime-of-the-century/