Because it’s Halloween, we have a special edition of Between the Covers: a podcast with Brian Ruckley , author of The Edinburgh Dead . We discuss why The Edinburgh Dead is an appropriate novel for Halloween, the legacy of the Burke and Hare murders, and why 19th-century Edinburgh is a great setting for a tale that mixes science and the supernatural. Last year’s Halloween podcast was with Mary Downing Hahn , who writes ghost stories for kids. Before that, it was Otto Penzler on vampires and Joseph Pearce on Frankenstein.
Says he was accused, but falsely so; claims turned out to be “totally baseless.” Says he doesn’t know about a settlement, but seems to allow the Restaurant Association might have settled (without his knowledge? apparently that’s what he’s saying). Here’s…
In Impromptus today , I touch on an untouchable subject: abortion. Two abortion-clinic workers in Philadelphia have pleaded guilty to murder. Why? Well, because they did the job after the babies happened to slip out of the womb. That’s a very fine line, don’t you think? Too fine for moral reasoning. While discussing this subject — and not politely — I quote Wesley Clark, who, when running for the Democratic presidential nomination, said, “Life begins with the mother’s decision.” There’s a towering moral thinker for you — and a very
Jon Corzine is having a rough couple years. MF Global Holdings Ltd., the brokerage firm run by the former New Jersey Governor, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, multiple news outlets have reported . Corzine, who was defeated for reelection in 2009, has helmed the brokerage firm since March of 2010. MF was badly damaged by risky bets it made on European sovereign debt. Though reports on Sunday suggested that MF Global was to sell assets to Interactive Brokers Group, talks reportedly collapsed on Monday. Estimates suggest that the firm’s $41 billion bankruptcy filing is the eighth largest in U.S. history, behind Conseco in 2002 and ahead of Chrysler in 2009.
Last week Gaia worshipers rejoiced when a report was released that seemed to confirm that everything they had been saying including the famed “hockey stick” graph was right. Turns out there was some premature celebrating going on. Professor Richard Muller,…
* Uh-oh. There are apparently sexual-harassment claims against Herman Cain from back when he worked for the National Restaurant Association. It’s not like he went to a crazed racist preacher for twenty years or hung out with domestic terrorists, but it’s not good. This certainly helps Romney, who has never done anything more than make a couple of harmless passes at fellow mannequins. Still, you have to wonder if this is just the left’s playbook after Clarence Thomas. If you’re dealing with a prominent black conservative, go for charges of sexual harassment. The left really aren’t very creative with these sorts of things. It’s charge racism against everybody, and I guess this could be the back up plan. * Snowstorms are starting to hit …
Washington, D.C. — As allegations of sexual harassment hang over Herman Cain, his top strategist tells National Review Online that the campaign will address the story, which broke on Politico on Sunday night, with “frank” answers and media interviews. “The strategy is to be transparent and honest,” Block said as he smoked a cigarette on 17th Street in downtown Washington, minutes after privately discussing the issue with Cain. ”There was nothing to it, anonymous sources,” Block told me, commenting on the Politico report . “Mr. Cain never sexually harassed anybody, period, end of story.” Keep reading this post . . .
In a poll released today, Herman Cain is polling one percentage point ahead of Rick Perry among Texas Republican voters, 27 percent to 26 percent. The poll, which was conducted by the University of Texas and the Texas Tribune , shows Cain and Perry far ahead of the rest of the pack. Ron Paul has 12 percent support, Mitt Romney 9 percent support, and Newt Gingrich is at 8 percent. Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum, Gary Johnson and Jon Huntsman are at 2 percent or less. Keep reading this post . . .
UNESCO, true to form, has voted today to admit the Palestinian Authority as a member. So ineffective was Obama administration diplomacy that France voted in favor of Palestinian membership, and Britain and Japan abstained. U.S. statutes, dating from 1990, now require a full cutoff of U.S. funding, which Congress should insist occur immediately. Should the administration seek changes in the applicable statutory provisions that would eliminate or weaken the funding cutoff, Congress should reject them. UNESCO has made its decision: It prefers Palestinian membership to
The Obama administration firmly believes that one of the contributors to our national debt and budget deficits is the fact that the wealthy give to charity. His jobs bill makes this clear by proposing a cap on the deduction high income earners (the one’s most likely to take advantage of the deduction as well as provide the largest contributions) can claim when engaging in philanthropy. Currently, anyone earning over $250k per year is able to deduct up to 35 cents for every $1 they contribute…
As if there weren’t enough problems for Herman Cain today, there’s a pretty damning report out of Wisconsin that suggests — actually, it comes very close to establishing — that a not-for-profit run by Cain campaign manager Mark Block was paying for Cain’s campaign expenses earlier this year after Cain had already set up his official presidential campaign committee, which would be a violation of all kinds of election and campaign finance laws.
Download audio here Download Podcast | iTunes | Podcast Feed On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets , Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Francis Cianfrocca to discuss the fallout from last week’s Eurozone deal, the impact of the debt crisis on Social Security and the weekend’s winter storm in the Northeast. We’re brought to you as always by BigGovernment and Stephen Clouse and Associates . If you’d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We hope you enjoy the show. Related Links: The Merkel-Sarkozy Bailout …
Back when I was a lawyer I handled several sexual harassment suits. None of mine settled for less than the high end of six figures. Reading about these two complaints, my gut reaction to them is that settling for five figures, which could be as little as $10,000.00 and as high as $99,999, was “go away” money. If the Chief Executive Officer of the National Restaurant Association, at the time one of the top 25 trade associations in Washington, D.C., were sexually harassing someone, that someone could get a lot of money. It just strikes me that a settlement for less than six figures is money paid to deal with the nuisances of an employee fired or otherwise let go who decided to raise the specter of harassment to get more …
A pparently income inequality is the new cult of the left. It makes the same sort of erroneous assumptions as does global warming. A) that there’s a perfect temperature for the earth and B) man is screwing it up. Income inequality makes two such assumptions: A) economics is a zero sum game so when the rich get more the poor get less, B) income classes are static. Finally, in the case of both, the solution is government intervention. In the case of global warming the solution is to tax us back into the stone age to prevent the production of CO2 and maintain whatever temperature target they’re gunning for. In the case of income inequality, the solution is government…
When you’ve been on the edge of having a convulsion for months, you could be excused for clutching at anything to convince yourself at least temporarily that you’ve turned the corner. Today, this is looking like a fair characterization of last week’s big relief rally at the euro “rescue” plan that was “agreed” in Brussels. Markets are trading significantly lower this morning, and much is being made of something that I mentioned briefly on Coffee and Markets the other day: right after the accord, Italy’s government went into the bond market to sell an issue of three-year notes, and had to pay 4.93%, well above what they had paid for the same maturity just a few weeks ago. The dogs aren’t eating the dog food. It seems clear that we’ve averted a serious financial…
Herman Cain and AEI are keeping this morning’s appearance strictly on the topic he was scheduled to address: tax policy. “I will take all of the arrows later,” Cain said , apparently referring to another appearance later today, at the National Press Club.
(Leo Katz, guest-blogging) A lawyer tells a client who is on the verge of declaring bankruptcy, to move to a state with generous exemptions: to convert most of his remaining assets into a house (exempt), designated pensions (exempt as well) and similar special assets, which the law deems to be the equivalent of the shirt on your back, which no creditor is entitled to take away from you. In this way, the debtor gets to keep most of what he owns and to thumb his nose at his creditors. Another lawyer tells his client who is a visiting the US on a tourist visa but would very much like to make his home here, that he should try to qualify for political asylum. “But I’m not being persecuted back home,” the…
Let's GO!: PS: I think you guys need to change the tagline under the site banner…. It’s Mitt, folks. Like him or hate him- he’s all...
Let's GO!: To tha MOON! To the MOON!!!!! Give Moon-men the vote!! Martians next… You have to be joking though. There is now way to spin this- outside...
Winghunter: Who were the votes for is what we need to know.
parc rosewood: Very great post. I simply stumbled upon your blog and wished to mention that I’ve truly enjoyed surfing around your weblog posts. In any...
Winghunter: Like Scott Brown, O’Donnell wasn’t vetted. Both are a continuing humiliation.
Jessica Roark: Major thanks for the article.Thanks Again. Much obliged.
Winghunter: Gingrich explains charge in detail http://bit.ly/xa4jXe Rudolph’s opinion on anything is worthless. Don’t take my word for it, check...
Reaganite Republican: Huge Bolton fan on defense, but man did he get this one wrong- bad timing to say the least Mitt’s in decline, as Newt’s...
libtard: No, Santorum is still quite hard when he talks about gays.
Winghunter: This is comparing apples to oranges! Willard’s investing funds came from people who wanted to take a calculated risk for profits whereas...
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