‘You know where he stands’

Dave Weigel interviewed a Republican activist from Virginia at the RNC meeting: According to Chase, what the Republicans needed was more clarity, more conservatism, and more exposing of how the Democrats wanted to run people’s lives — how they wanted to decide which baby birds got the worms. “I supported Mitt Romney, because John McCain […]

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Steele and the Dreaded M-Word

My latest at Pajamas Media: You knew the contest to become chairman of the Republican National Committee was getting ugly when they started throwing around nasty slurs like “moderate.” Michael Steele got tagged with the dreaded M-word as part of a vicious guilt-by-association smear. He sustained more damage from his acquaintance with RINOs like Christie […]

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TEEN! SEX! SCANDAL!

“Nothing catches an editor’s eye like a good rape.” — Hunter S. Thompson Remember that New York Times piece last week about how “experts” said the rise in teen pregnancy didn’t really represent any increase in teen promiscuity? Now, a noted authority on the subject is raising doubts: Well, that settles it, eh? Despite the […]

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‘Obama Derangement Syndrome’?

Last week, my roundup of reaction to Obama’s inauguration speech prompted one commenter to accuse me of coming down with “Obama Derangement Syndrome,” to which I replied sarcastically. Now, over at Pajamas Media, I’ve written a whole article about ODS: Where are the right-wingers mounting anything remotely like the mass demonstrations organized by International ANSWER? […]

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The Gonzo of Coulter

From my latest essay at Splice Today: Given the Newtonian opposition of their political loyalties, and their vastly different literary ouevres, the fans of Hunter S. Thompson and the fans of Ann Coulter are very near to being mutually exclusive sets. A Venn diagram would show an almost infinitesimal overlap between Set A (those who […]

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‘I like those earrings, Claire’

Reviving an old crush of mine, here’s the news that Molly Ringwald is pregnant with twins: It will be the second daughter and first son for Ringwald, 40, and husband Panio Gianopoulos, 33. They have a 5-year-old daughter Mathilda Ereni. The babies are due in August. Secret Life‘s second season airs on Monday nights on […]

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Obamanomics: Unicorns, rainbows and wasteful neo-Keynesian nonsense

But mostly wasteful neo-Kenynesian nonsense! While Obama and his lapdogs promote their “stimulus” plan in terms of “needed investment in our nation’s infrastructure,” in fact only 3% goes to roads and bridges: The recent proposal distributed by congressional Democrats will provide only an additional $15 billion in 2009 and 2010 for road construction and repair. […]

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Sex and science

My latest column at Taki’s Magazine: It was one of those headlines that automatically gets a Drudge link: “Wealthy men give women more orgasms,” the Times of London declared Sunday. Before we launch our “Win a Dream Date With Taki” promotion, however, let’s pause to ponder the gap between what the headline said and what […]

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$3.7 million virgin UPDATE

When last we heard from Natalie Dylan, she was auctioning her virginity online and bidding had reached $3.7 milion. Now, it appears, Xtreme Radio hosts Kevin McCullough and Stephen Baldwin may have convinced her to keep it: Last night, quite late in the evening, and on the show, the girl who has pledged to sell […]

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Inaugural memories

From my latest American Spectator column: Eight years ago today, I took my daughter Kennedy to see President Bush’s inauguration. The weather was miserable, a cold drizzle of sleet and rain falling for most of the day, but that was of little concern to a dad taking his 11-year-old to watch a moment of history. […]

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Ceasefire in Gaza

Israel runs out of fish in the barrel: Israel called off its three-week offensive in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, saying Hamas was “badly beaten,” but the Islamist group vowed to fight on in a war that has killed 1,200 Palestinians in the coastal enclave. Within minutes of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announcing that a […]

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From the anthropology desk

One thing you can count on in American journalism: No matter how tight their budgets, no matter how many staff layoffs may come, editors will always find money to send a feature writer out into the sticks to write — in the manner of National Geographic reporting on a neolithic Borneo rain forest tribe — […]

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Ann Coulter’s favorite McCain

Finally, it arrived: Guilty: Liberal ‘Victims’ and Their Assault on America by Ann Coulter, which I had been told referenced moi. But I’m not in the index, and there’s no report of that night we hung out at Shelly’s Backroom Tavern. Hmmmm . . . So I start skimming the endnotes, beginning at the back […]

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Virginity’s value?

As outrageous as her actions may be — even if it’s all a hoax — the Internet virgin has at least proven something: Laura Gallier, who runs a Texas-based abstinence education program, was dumbfounded by the news that bidding in the online auction of a California woman’s virginity had reached $3.7 million. “When I communicate […]

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‘That’s your act’

(Video via Hot Air.) Barbara Walters introduces Ann Coulter by saying that her new book, Guilty: Liberal ‘Victims’ and Their Assault on America, is “deliberately provocative because, after all, that sells books.” Which might have been said about, inter alia, Bill Buckley’s God and Man at Yale. Whoopi Goldberg — whose show-biz career has been […]

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Prince Harry the Hater?

So they would have us believe: Taking the prize in the indignation derby was British Muslim activist Mohammed Shafiq of the Ramadhan Foundation. “I am deeply shocked and saddened at Prince Harry’s racism which upsets and offends many British Asians,” Shafiq said in a statement. “The use of this sort of racism has no justification […]

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Buy ‘Guilty’ TODAY!

A friend informs me that today (Saturday) is the last day of the week in determining bestsellers, so if you want to make sure that Ann Coulter’s Guilty: Liberal ‘Victims’ and Their Assault on America debuts on the charts at No. 1, buy it today. (Cross-posted at The Other McCain.)

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Smoothville Express

When Bill Richardson pulled out, MK Ham quipped, “The Obama transition train just keeps on chugging down the tracks to Smoothville, huh?” And the Smoothville Express just keeps on a-chugging: Eric H. Holder Jr. is facing increasing resistance to his bid to become the next attorney general, emerging from President-elect Barack Obama’s Cabinet nominees as […]

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Still waiting on ‘Guilty’

Somebody at Ann Coulter’s publicist told me that I’m actually referenced in her new book, Guilty, and they’re supposed to be sending me a copy. In the meantime, Lisa De Pasquale has a review at Human Events: In the chapter, “Victim of a Crime? Thank a Single Mother,” Coulter writes, “The most worshipped figure in […]

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Democrats agree to seat Burris?

A Democratic Party crisis averted? Roland Burris, the man appointed to Barack Obama’s Senate seat by embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, will be allowed to take the seat, according to the Associated Press. Spokespersons for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin are denying the report. Burris showed up in Washington for […]

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Breitbart’s Big Hollywood debuts

The site went live this morning and there’s nothing (yet) that knocks me out, but it’s a work-in-progress. I interviewed Andrew Breitbart last month: The content of “Big Hollywood” will be a “constant evolution,” Breitbart says. He recalls that the Huffington Post was originally conceived as a group blog for Arianna’s celebrity friends, but has […]

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Sonny Corleone in Gaza

From my latest column at Pajamas Media: By going into Gaza in Sonny Corleone fashion, Israel aims to ensure that the Hamas attacks — as cowardly as Carlo’s battering of Sonny’s sister Connie — are permanently ended. Of course, Hamas being Hamas, they will never stop trying to kill Jews. Fans of The Godfather will […]

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Well, that explains everything

After several months of trying to figure out what Conor Friedersdorf’s problem was, now I see: I graduated from college in 2002, when newspapers really were skeptical of blogs. By 2004, I was being paid by a Media News Group paper to blog full time. In 2006, I attended a top flight journalism school where […]

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Greenwald vs. Goldfarb

Glenn Greenwald today accuses Michael Goldfarb of bloodthirstiness in the death of Nizar Ghayan (or Nizar Rayan, as some have it). Goldfarb’s offending post was not a mindless advocacy of violence, but rather a reflection on the fundamental difficulty of fighting a fanatical enemy: The fight against Islamic radicals always seems to come around to […]

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Fighting over the spoils

This morning I said I’d defer all future Blago blogging to Marathon Pundit, but the revelation of Harry Reid’s involvement in the Illinois Senate Auction (what else would you call it?) is too rich to ignore. I especially appreciate liberal blogger Chris Bowers’ take: [U]sing “electability” as the rationale, Reid did advocate on behalf of […]

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Ahmadinejad’s oil crisis

The collapse of oil prices has created trouble for Iran’s petroleum-dependent economy: Iran’s president presented parliament with a sweeping economic package Tuesday that calls for scrapping costly state subsidies for fuel, water and electricity and raising taxes to make up for the steep slide in world oil prices. The move is a risky one for […]

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Gaza should thank Israel

They’ve been spared a menace: A boat carrying international peace activists, including former Georgia congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, and medical supplies to the embattled Gaza Strip sailed back into a Lebanese port on Tuesday after being turned back and damaged by the Israeli navy, organizers of the trip said. Air strikes are nothing compared to the […]

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The problem with crystal balls

If we pause for a minute to think about what we expected a year ago, we realize that we don’t have the ability to predict the future, a point I make in my latest column for Pajamas Media: In light of how things turned out, it is an amusing irony that in late 2007 it […]

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Disorienting news

I went to a holiday party Saturday night — actually sat in with the band for two numbers — and you’ll forgive me for being a bit discombobulated today. I freaked out when I saw this headline at Hot Air: Iran hangs ten on Christmas Eve The phrase “hangs ten” struck my cerebral cortex at […]

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