Monthly Archives: June, 2010

The Financial Times has a review of a book about the oil industry by John Hofmeister, the former president of Royal Dutch Shell’s US business (Why we Hate the Oil Industry). Hofmeister argues that the oil industry has failed to convince consumers that economic growth and prosperity depends on the continued use of all fuels, [...]

The resignation of General Stanley McChrystal could bring significant benefits because it forces the American people to think about a war that had been purposefully pushed to the back burner by the Obama administration and the compliant mainstream media. Frank Rich, who represents the views of the anti-war left, writes in the New York Times [...]

David Brooks writes in the New York Times that Stanley McChrystal is a victim of the tendency for people in government to be chronic complainers (The Culture of Exposure). McChrystal was excellent in his job but Barack Obama was forced to let him go because the Rolling Stone reporter “essentially took run-of-the-mill complaining and turned [...]

The Rolling Stone reporter (Michael Hastings) who did the interview (The Runaway General) said General Stanley McChrystal and his aides were motivated by frustration. The question is whether it was undisciplined or purposeful frustration. Odds are the outbursts were for effect. McChrystal and his aides wanted to stimulate a re-think of the Afghan adventure because [...]

David Brooks writes in the New York Times that even though Mephistopheles seems to have granted Democrats all they might have wished for (Faustus Makes a Deal) the left in America is not happy. Banks have been discredited by the financial crisis and the Gulf spill is doing the same for the oil industry. These [...]

Ross Douthat writes in the New York Times that liberals are in a panic about Barack Obama because of two vices and one fear (The Agony of the Liberals).
The fear is liberalism is running out of time, and the hoped-for progressive era may never happen. The first vice is the worship of presidential power and [...]

The New York Times has a lengthy article about what might have gone wrong in the Gulf (Failure of Rig’s Last Line of Defense Tied to Myriad Factors). The problem appears to be that a scissors-like device, called the blind shear ram, failed to cut through the pipe to prevent the oil and gas from [...]

The Federal Communication Commission is supposedly going to vote next week on the “net neutrality doctrine.” The federal government is searching for ways to regulate the Internet. What this means is that whenever I write something the reader will be encouraged or required to read an opposing view. It might require pop-ups or links to [...]

Edward Luce writes in the Financial Times (Obama’s Shift From Big Hope to Geek Earns Left’s Disdain) that the left is angry at Barack Obama because he has not taken full advantage of the Gulf oil spill to emphasize the evils of capitalism. As Gail Collins noted the other day, the BP disaster was a [...]

Thomas Friedman writes in the New York Times that he has a friend who tells him that we, the people, are to blame (This Time is Different). BP’s Tony Hayward will be glad to hear that because after the grilling he was forced to endure today he might think he is the guilty one. But [...]