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Bench Memos - National Review Online

Covering The Supreme Court -- from National Review Online

Post Frequency: 91/day

Last Entry: April 01, 2011 at 05:00:54

?That Lieberman Tendency?

Posted on January 20, 2011
The Connecticut senator preserved the line of Democratic national-security hawks. Sen. Joe Lieberman (D., Conn.) announces his retirement to cheers from the Left. 'It's the end of a nightmare,' Ralph Nader tells the Hartford Courant...

No Surrender on Debt Ceiling

Posted on January 19, 2011
If you want leverage, do not begin by giving in. As Congress prepares for a vital debate over debt, deficits, and government spending, there is reason to be concerned that the GOP is engaging in a bit of unilateral disarmament...

China Inflation

Posted on January 19, 2011
According to the Pew Research Center, close to a majority of all Americans believe China is now the leading global economic power. Such estimations are obviously inflated, and they are helping build support for foolish populist measures aimed at Beijing's currency and trade practices...

Wrong on Rauf

Posted on January 19, 2011
Sarah Palin did not libel the Ground Zero imam. Imam Feisal Rauf, the cleric behind the provocative Ground Zero Mosque (GZM) project, as one critic put it, 'is no moderate. He presents himself as a peacemaking Islamic Gandhi, but he is in fact an apologist for the terrorist outfit Hamas, which he refuses even to identify as a terrorist organization...

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Shrink-Think after Tucson

Posted on January 19, 2011
The modern mental-health disciplines have done much good. But they have forgotten much of what used to keep the psychic peace. In the aftermath of Tucson, many have pointed to the need for more state intervention in the treatment of those suffering from grave mental illness...

The Hate Speech Inquisition

Posted on January 19, 2011
They are real, and they do want to restrain speech. There isn't a shred of evidence that deranged Tucson-massacre suspect Jared Loughner ever listened to talk radio or cared about illegal immigration...

America?s China Syndrome

Posted on January 19, 2011
China?s economic rise does not entail America?s geopolitical decline. Chinese President Hu Jintao's state visit this week has rekindled the familiar debate over American 'decline.' Our sole-superpower moment is over, we're told, and the 21st century will prove so much tougher than the 20th...

Tunisia?s Uncertain Impact

Posted on January 19, 2011
Watching the coup d?�tat with fear and hope The sudden and yet-unexplained exit of Tunisia's strongman, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, 74, after 23 years in power has potential implications for the Middle East and for Muslims worldwide...

Printing the Party Line

Posted on January 19, 2011
?News? stories are often government advertisements. We all know not to take politicians' rhetoric at face value. But not enough of us have yet learned not to take media rhetoric at face value, even when it appears in what looks like a 'news' story, but is actually a disguised editorial on the front page...

Socialism Is Back

Posted on January 19, 2011
From the January 24, 2010, issue of NR ‘Socialism' is a word that has vexed thoughtful conservatives since 2008, along with the related terms 'Marxist,' 'radical,' and the whole nomenclature of leftish extremism...

?Out by the Roots?

Posted on January 19, 2011
Rep. Michele Bachmann and friends hope to pluck out the ?crown jewel of socialism.? With winter winds rustling her hair, Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota rallied in front of the Capitol on Tuesday, flanked by House conservatives...

Obamacare Fights Back

Posted on January 19, 2011
A preview of Democrats? defense of the health-care law Democrats were quick to dismiss as 'symbolic' or 'a waste of time' the House Republican effort to repeal Obamacare, but they are sparing no effort to defend the law...

The Battle Rejoined

Posted on January 19, 2011
The House of Representatives voted to repeal Obamacare today by a vote of 245 to 189. That's a most fitting way for the 112th Congress to begin. The new Republican majority was propelled into office in large part because of the party's steadfast opposition to the new health-care law...

Hu Jintao Is Coming to Town

Posted on January 18, 2011
Obama has tried to make China a responsible nation by treating it like one. It hasn?t worked. Zbigniew Brzezinski has high hopes for President Hu Jintao's state visit to Washington this week. Writing in the New York Times -- often a showcase for hyperbole -- President Carter's national-security adviser terms the January 19 summit 'the most important top-level United States–Chinese encounter since Deng Xiaoping's historic trip more than 30 years ago...

Mutinies to Come?

Posted on January 18, 2011
Adapted from the December 31, 2010, issue of NR. The GOP Senate victories of 2010 have made Republicans hungry for additional gains. On paper, they enjoy a big advantage in 2012, because only ten of their seats are up for election, compared with 23 seats of senators who caucus with the Democrats...

Postscript on New START

Posted on January 18, 2011
The Senate was misinformed about the nuclear treaty. In December of 2010, the Senate offered its advice and consent for the New START treaty. The debate over New START had been contentious, and the treaty finally passed the Senate with more votes against it than any other nuclear treaty the Senate has approved...

The Quiet Contender

Posted on January 18, 2011
Tim Pawlenty isn?t in the spotlight, yet. But he could charm voters in 2012. As others kept their distance, Tim Pawlenty took a knee. It was late, and most undergraduates had long since left the auditorium at George Washington University, but a lone young man in a wheelchair remained...

A period of madness, &c.

Posted on January 18, 2011
Friends, I had a column last week on Miami -- specifically, on a Cuban-American democracy event held there. I said I would later scribble some 'lighter' notes on Miami, and I will. To look at last week's column, go here. Before getting to Miami -- returning to Miami, so to speak -- I thought I'd make a couple of further points about the Tucson shooting and its aftermath...

China Without Illusions

Posted on January 18, 2011
Thankfully, the Obama administration is moving toward realism. Judging by the past three decades, there's no worse fate than getting touted as the next global superpower. The Japan of the 1980s did not end up owning the United States; it wallows in a never-ending 'lost decade...

The Tiger Mother and Us

Posted on January 18, 2011
Amy Chua?s new book has some Americans outraged -- and others envious. Amy Chua may or may not be a superior mother, but she is a superb marketer -- and I say that with admiration. Who among the literate has not heard of her defiant declaration of independence from the American style of cosseted childrearing -- The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother? My 17-year-old son demanded to know whether I had seen the Wall Street Journal excerpt -- 'Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior...

Budget Crisis Rhetoric

Posted on January 18, 2011
Bankruptcy reveals what bailouts conceal. Government-budget crises can be painful, but the political rhetoric accompanying these crises can also be fascinating and revealing. Perhaps the most famous American budget crisis was New York City's during the 1970s...

Ambush Alley Still Exists

Posted on January 18, 2011
A country still at war In the final summer of my second term, I had the opportunity to take one last trip to Iraq and Afghanistan. I jumped at the chance. The temperature peaked at about 120 degrees when our C-130 landed in Baghdad...

A Message to China

Posted on January 18, 2011
Our budgetary responses to Chinese naval aggression will send a signal that no state visit can. This week's state visit of Chinese president Hu Jintao to Washington comes on the heels of a series of recent Chinese actions that should concern all Americans...

How to Combat an Arrogant China?

Posted on January 18, 2011
Maximize economic growth at home. Is there a new Cold War developing between China and the United States? That's a question hovering over President Hu Jintao and his entourage as they come to Washington to discuss military, trade, and financial flash points with the Obama administration...

Another Texan Running for President?

Posted on January 17, 2011
Rick Perry as a GOP dark horse Texas governor Rick Perry's high-profile battle with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) couldn't have come at a better time. The fight may not be over in time for the 2012 presidential elections, and he very well may lose, but no matter what happens, he can count it as a political victory...

The ?Military-Industrial Complex? at 50

Posted on January 17, 2011
Isolationists like Ike, for all the wrong reasons. Fifty years ago today, Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower gave his farewell address to the nation. With the exception of George Washington's speech, most presidential farewell addresses have been unmemorable affairs...

The OIC?s Double Standard

Posted on January 17, 2011
The West must confront the Organization of the Islamic Conference about its failure to protect Christians and moderate Muslims. Pope Benedict XVI's call last week for increased protection of Christians targeted by sectarian violence in the Middle East and elsewhere was met with a furious response by the Egyptian government, which complained that the pope's comments constituted 'unacceptable interference' in Egyptian affairs...

A Roadmap Not Taken?

Posted on January 17, 2011
Republican freshmen hesitate to embrace Paul Ryan?s budget plan. Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the GOP's high priest of pecuniary politics, has ascended to the chairmanship of the House Budget Committee...

Obamacare Under Attack

Posted on January 17, 2011
Is it time to eliminate government health insurance? Despite President Obama's recent declaration that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act -- Obamacare -- will be 'a lasting legacy that I am extraordinarily proud of,' the legislation remains under vigorous attack...

After the Horror, Inspiration

Posted on January 17, 2011
Giffords?s survival and recovery give us reason to hope. In his superb speech in Tucson, Ariz., Wednesday evening, Pres. Barack Obama did great service to the nation. He put to rest the libel that political incivility is responsible for the Tucson shootings...

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