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The good and the bad...

web posted September 26, 2005

"If he is confirmed, we think there is a chance Mr. Roberts could be a superb chief justice. But it is a risk. We might be reluctant to roll the dice even for a nomination for associate justice, but for a nomination for a chief justice--particularly one who could serve 30 or more years--the stakes are simply too high. Senators should vote against Mr. Roberts not because they know he does not have the qualities to be an excellent chief justice, but because he has not met the very heavy burden of proving that he does." -- The New York Times

"[T]he role of the judge is limited; the judge is to decide the cases before them; they're not to legislate; they're not to execute the laws... Judges don't have a license to go out and decide, 'I think this is an injustice and so I'm going to do something to fix it.' That type of judicial role, I think, is inconsistent with the role the Framers intended." -- Chief Justice nominee John Roberts

"Regardless of the outcome of John Roberts' confirmation hearings, it is plain that liberal Democrats have succeeded in making the entire process a grotesque caricature of what the Founders originally intended." -- Christopher Adamo

"As we hear calls for a 'compassionate' response to the victims of this [hurricane] tragedy, it is important to remember that you can't be compassionate with other people's money. This difference is as simple as the difference between my reaching into my pocket for money to help someone in need and my reaching into your pocket for the same purpose. The former is charity--the latter is not." -- Michael Tanner

"Government has a tendency to treat splinters with tourniquets when a simple band-aid would do. One dishonorable ne'er-do-well in an industry of thousands can prompt congressional hearings, expensive investigations and an entire library full of new regulations. But sometimes it's not that complicated. Sometimes the remedy is as simple as removing the sliver, treating it with a dab of alcohol and moving on." -- Jason Wright

"If Americans loved judicial activism, liberals wouldn't be lying about what it is. Judicial activism means making up constitutional rights in order to strike down laws the justices don't like based on their personal preferences. It's not judicial activism to strike down laws because they violate the Constitution." -- Ann Coulter

"[L]iberalism is not really a political philosophy. Instead, it is a state of arrested emotional development. It is a way of thinking, which leads to no place in the real world. It is a place existing only in the imagination." -- Mike Adams

"I am absolutely convinced that the North Koreans are absolutely sincere. There's really no reason for them to cheat or do anything to violate this very forward agreement... I saw a lot of people over there. They were thin, and they were riding bicycles instead of driving in cars. But I didn't see any brutality in the capitol, or out in the DMZ." -- Ted Turner, who apparently thinks that starving peasants would have been part of the "tour" in North Korea

"Expecting Republicans to curb spending when they're in power makes about as much sense as standing between Sen. Joe Biden and a live mike." -- Debra Saunders

"[Cindy] Sheehan, originally a sympathetic figure, is now merely a pathetic one, and we're inclined to ignore her totally, except that we keep remembering all those Angry Left types who, a few short weeks ago, were declaring that she had 'absolute moral authority' and was going to transform American politics. If thinking about that doesn't give you a good, deep, soul-cleansing laugh, nothing will." -- James Taranto

"Like so many other things in Washington, the word 'hearing' in the U.S. Senate has absolutely nothing to do with the act of listening. It has everything to do with talking." -- Rich Galen

"[John Roberts is] a man long accustomed to answering really hard questions from extremely smart people, suddenly faced with the almost-harder task of answering obvious questions from less-smart people. He finds himself standing in a batting cage with the pitching machine set way too slow." -- Dahlia Lithwick

"The Pledge of Allegiance was outlawed Wednesday over a misinterpretation of the separation of church and state. What the Founders meant by banning a national church was to allow each state to establish its very own religion. Under the original plan, Californians today would be swearing in court to tell the truth so help me Self." -- Argus Hamilton

"Welcome to our 3000th show tonight. We did our first show in May of 1992; a man named George Bush was president, his approval rating was only 39 percent, and someone named Clinton wanted to replace him in the White House. So nothing has changed really." -- Jay Leno

web posted September 19, 2005

"We must use a judicial, rather than a political, standard to evaluate Judge Roberts' fitness for the Supreme Court. That standard must be based on the fundamental principle that judges interpret and apply but do not make law." -- Senator Orrin Hatch

"A republican form of government presupposes self-government--the capacity of citizens to govern themselves according to reason--and does not, if it intends to survive, champion them as 'victims' when they don't." -- George Neumayr

"Ours is a federal system. The President is sworn to uphold and support the Constitution. He is not a dictator. And not to be blamed for failing to act like one. The problem was not the Constitution or the President, but Louisiana's officials." -- Michael Gaynor

"The worst thing the federal government could do is to increase the size, reach and cost of government. If government failed in its response to the hurricane, the answer is not more inefficient government." -- Cal Thomas

"No fall of a sparrow on this planet is not attributed to sin and human perfidy. The three current favorites are: (1) global warming, (2) the war in Iraq and (3) tax cuts. Katrina hits and the unholy trinity is immediately invoked to damn sinner-in-chief George W. Bush." -- Charles Krauthammer

"What we are witnessing is a well-honed black political public-relations operation geared to obfuscation, stoking hatred and fear, and nurturing helplessness and dependence among black citizens. Such efforts keep black politicians powerful, diversity businesses prosperous and blacks poor." -- Star Parker

"[A]rtificial [gas] price caps will work no better now than they did in the 1970s. They won't get petroleum refined faster. They won't reduce motorists' demand for gasoline. All they will create is shortages--the one thing price controls always bring in their wake." -- Jeff Jacoby

"Let's be clear about one thing: Hollywood people are glamorous, but that's about it. They are ill informed about jihad. They are ill informed about Islam. They are ill informed about Israel, the [Palestinian Authority], Iraq, Afghanistan. They are ill informed about U.S. history, the Constitution, etc. The truth is, the movie people I've met are ignorant about most everything--save the weekend grosses of the top ten films." -- Emmy-Award winning screenwriter Robert Avrech

"I doubt that Bush's Latino supporters voted for him in the expectation that he'd be a racial/ethnic bean counter. Even a refried-bean counter. I'm sure that violates some campus speech code somewhere. Good thing I'm not on one." -- Jay Nordlinger

"[Nancy] Pelosi ripped the White House over its hurricane response. She said she wants to work with the President. Of course she does--the same way a six-year-old boy with a magnifying glass wants to work with ants." -- Argus Hamilton

"[President] Bush is apparently no longer the citizen-president of a functioning republic, but a 21st Century King Canute expected to go sit by the shore and repel the waters as they attempt to make landfall. Instead, he and Cheney hatched up the whole hurricane thing in the Halliburton research labs to distract attention from their right-wing Supreme Court nominee." -- Mark Steyn

"God has made us free men, sovereigns of our own affairs, and sole experts on minding our own business. We are endowed with an individual capacity to improve our understanding, better our circumstances, and laugh at Howard Dean." -- P. J. O'Rourke

"In an interview on Iraqi television, the new Iraqi president says that Saddam Hussein has confessed to ordering the deaths of thousands. A confession! Or, as California juries call it, reasonable doubt. " -- Jay Leno

"I have no platform. Judges are not politicians who can promise to do certain things in exchange for votes. Judges are like umpires. They don't make rules, they apply them... The primary check on the courts has always been judicial self-restraint." -- Judge John Roberts before the Senate Judiciary Committee

"Much of the Constitution is remarkably simple and straightforward--certainly as compared to the convoluted reasoning of judges and law professors discussing what is called 'Constitutional law,' much of which has no basis in that document... The real question [for judicial nominees] is whether that nominee will follow the law or succumb to the lure of 'a living constitution,' 'evolving standards' and other lofty words meaning judicial power to reshape the law to suit their own personal preferences." -- Thomas Sowell

"Liberals can't win on abortion, gay marriage and bans on the Pledge of Allegiance by allowing Americans to vote. That's why they need the courts to keep inventing rights to abortion, gay marriage and bans on the Pledge of Allegiance. Normal liberals know that, which is why they duck honest argument. But the crazy liberals don't. That's why Bush needs to concentrate on luring them out of their cages. It takes so little to provoke them! Just let us know before Bush nominates Janice Rogers Brown to the Supreme Court so we can arrange for live TV coverage of George Soros's head exploding, OK?" -- Ann Coulter

web posted September 12, 2005

"[William H.] Rehnquist was a great scholar and intellect, an outstanding public servant, a devoted family man and a loyal friend to those fortunate enough to know him well. Rehnquist's impact on American life and law has been profound, and it will continue for generations." -- Edwin Meese III and Todd Gaziano

"This is what we do best, as Americans. We see a need and we do something about it. Decade after decade after decade, anywhere on the planet." -- Rich Galen

"As for the tragic piggism that is taking place on the streets of New Orleans, it is not unbelievable but it is unforgivable, and I hope the looters are shot." -- Peggy Noonan

"Those who called early on for shooting looters on sight should have been listened to -- not because property is more valuable than human life, but because when property isn't safe from marauders, human life isn't, either." -- Jeff Jacoby

"The physical devastation caused by hurricane Katrina has painfully revealed the moral devastation of our times." -- Thomas Sowell

"It is only a matter of hours now that, after any catastrophe anywhere in the world -- a tsunami, a hurricane, a terrorist bombing on the London tube -- Bush haters find ways to blame President Bush. Hurricane Katrina? Bush haters have pointed their fingers at global warming, the war on terror, the Bush tax cuts, the national dependence on oil -- and in every category, Bush is the root of the evil. Forget nature. George W. Bush is more powerful." -- Debra Saunders

"No tragedy is so horrific, no calamity so sad, that somebody can't reduce it to politics. Hurricane Katrina was a tragedy for most of us, but a gift of the gods to the kingdom of the left, where everyone gets up every morning eager to count the ways to despise George W. Bush." -- Wesley Pruden

"In the nearly 2-1/2 years of the [Iraq] war, the average death toll for U.S. troops has been 2.1 per day. If that pace continues, the U.S. death toll would reach 2,000 in late October. U.S. military deaths still remain far below the total and rate of the Vietnam War, in which 58,000 U.S. troops died." -- Reuters

"Also if this pace continues, the Iraq death toll will top Vietnam's in just 73 years." -- James Taranto

"The New Yorker's Malcolm Gladwell explains how good teeth go bad: 'People without health insurance have bad teeth because, if you're paying for everything out of your own pocket, going to the dentist for a checkup seems like a luxury.' The British, of course, have socialized medicine, which we guess explains why they have such great teeth." -- James Taranto

"Economists have been assuring news reporters that the devastation from Hurricane Katrina may help stimulate the economy through jobs and spending due to reconstruction... If the massive and multi-billion dollar clean-up is to be celebrated as a jobs program, then rather than use plows and tractors to clear away the mud and debris, perhaps [FEMA] should pass out shovels, or better yet, spoons to increase employment." -- Stephen Moore

"Is there any problem in the world that is not Mr. Bush's fault, or have we reverted to a belief in a sort of witchcraft where we credit a mortal man with the ability to create terrifying storms and every other kind of ill wind?" -- Ben Stein

"The White House ordered active duty U.S. troops from Fort Bragg to New Orleans to help restore law and order. The troops feel right at home. Baghdad is a sister city of New Orleans except that its nickname is the Big Uzi." -- Argus Hamilton

"No tragedy is so horrific, no calamity so sad, that somebody can't reduce it to politics. Hurricane Katrina was a tragedy for most of us, but a gift of the gods to the kingdom of the left, where everyone gets up every morning eager to count the ways to despise George W. Bush." -- Wesley Pruden

"Back in the real world, America's enemies will draw many useful lessons from the events of this last week. Will America?" -- Mark Steyn

web posted September 5, 2005

"Restoring the American Republic needs to be a central part of the next conservatism." -- Paul M. Weyrich

"Much of today's security measures are little more than a panicked response to terrorism and not likely to ever go away because Americans are coming to accept it as normal." -- Walter Williams

"Bean-counting government bureaucrats are free to take race, ethnicity and gender into account when doling out public funds to non-white-male contractors. But God help law enforcement officers, air marshals and border agents who try to use those same factors to combat terrorism and protect American lives." -- Michelle Malkin

"All those who support the American war in Iraq should make a deal with anyone opposed to the war. Offer to answer any 20 questions the opponents wish to ask if they will answer just one: Do you believe we are fighting evil people in Iraq?" -- Dennis Prager

"The U.S. intelligence community is palsied by lawyers. When we were going to capture Osama bin Laden, for example, the lawyers were more concerned with bin Laden's safety and his comfort than they were with the officers charged with capturing him. We had to build an ergonomically designed chair to put him in, special comfort in terms of how he was shackled into the chair. They even worried about what kind of tape to gag him with so it wouldn't irritate his beard. The lawyers are the bane of the intelligence community." -- Michael Scheuer, a former terrorism analyst for the CIA

"Once the justices depart, as most of them have, from the original understanding of the principles of the Constitution, they lack any guidance other than their own attempts at moral philosophy, a task for which they have not even minimal skills. Yet when it rules in the name of the Constitution, whether it rules truly or not, the Court is the most powerful branch of government in domestic policy. The combination of absolute power, disdain for the historic Constitution, and philosophical incompetence is lethal." -- Robert Bork

"I'm really pleased and excited to be going back to America to campaign against this illegal war and occupation. And to have Jane Fonda join me is fantastic. I'll be able to get that autograph at last." -- George Galloway, now expelled from the British Labor Party, on joining Jane Fonda's anti-war tour in September

"The New York Times brings us this hilarious item about Jonathan Klein, president of CNN's domestic operations: 'Mr. Klein said CNN is looking at the long term and trying to set itself apart as a news organization that wants to reach the serious news viewer, one who watches less TV news over all, and is younger than the steady audience for more tabloid news fare.' 'CNN: The network serious viewers don't watch when they're not watching TV'." -- James Taranto

"I'm not sure what the gay scene's like in Fallujah, but no doubt the Shia were railroading through [Iraqi] constitutional prohibitions on same-sex partner benefits for gay imams, too." -- Mark Steyn

"It's what the Zogby folks call 'The Starbucks Divide.' As it goes, the folks who drink Starbucks' coffee differ mightily from those who drink Dunkin' Donuts'. Starbucks' drinkers are primarily under 50. Liberals and progressives--shocking I know--are twice as likely to drink Starbucks. The divide breaks down along gender lines, too. While men prefer Dunkin' Donuts over Starbucks (36% to 28%), women prefer Starbucks by a much wider margin (40% to 24%). 'Men,' for purposes of this poll, refers to fellows who still know how to change the sparkplug in their lawnmowers and would sooner be chained to the soap aisle in Bed, Bath and Beyond than be forced to utter bastardized Starbucks Latin when ordering a lousy cup of coffee." -- Tom Purcell

"People for the American Way said they will oppose Supreme Court nominee John Roberts. They said he tried to narrow civil rights and women's rights and environmental rights. These rights can be found in the U.S. Constitution only if Ouija is in the mood to talk." -- Argus Hamilton

"If somebody tried to build New Orleans from scratch today, he might be jailed as a wetlands molester, but he wouldn't be denied subsidized federal flood insurance. In rebuilding, it would be nice if federal subsidies at least weren't made available for rebuilding in areas below sea level. New Orleans could then go back to being the 'Crescent City,' as it was known before its central marshlands were drained to allow hotels and high-rises at elevations five or ten feet lower than the river and bay (called a 'lake') just a few hundred yards away." -- Holman W. Jenkins Jr.

"Back in the 1970s, the hysteria was about global cooling and the prospect of a new ice age. A National Academy of Sciences report back then led Science magazine to conclude in its March 1, 1975, issue that a long 'ice age is a real possibility.'According to the April 28, 1975, issue of Newsweek, 'the earth's climate seems to be cooling down.' A note of urgency was part of the global cooling hysteria then as much as it is part of today's global warming hysteria. According to the February, 1973, issue of Science Digest, 'Once the freeze starts, it will be too late'." -- Thomas Sowell

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