Copyright 2012 The New York Sun Tue, 22 May 2012 07:37:31 -0400 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Editorials :: Stories from The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/editorials admin@nysun.net (Seth Lipsky) webmaster@nysun.com en-us Editorial of The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/editorials/the-church-goes-to-court/87830/ Mon, 21 May 2012 23:46:25 EST Congratulations are in order for the Catholic Church, whose archdioceses in America went to federal court today to challenge the Obama administration on the contraception mandates. Something like a dozen federal lawsuits were filed against the administration by something on the order of 43 plaintiffs, including the Archdiocese of New York, among others, and the crown jewel in Catholic education in America, Notre Dame.* It seems the liberal institutions within the Catholic world have come... Editorial of The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/editorials/abdelbaset-al-megrahi-in-hell/87828/ Mon, 21 May 2012 07:42:18 EST As Abdelbaset al-Megrahi is being rowed across the River Styx, let us reflect on the scandal of his final years. It will always be a mark on the administration of President Obama that the Libyan died a free man. He had been convicted in the downing of Pam American World Airways flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. He was jailed but briefly. Once a Scottish judge gave him his freedom, there was chance aplenty to act. But the American government failed to lift so much as a finger. It may — or may... Editorial of The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/editorials/as-centennary-of-federal-reserve-approaches/87827/ Sun, 20 May 2012 21:39:17 EST A crescendo is going to start building soon in respect of the centenary of the Federal Reserve. The central bank was created by a law passed just before Christmas of 1913. The official anniversary festivities, if that is the word, will climax in 2014, a century after the nation’s central bank began its operations. Let us get the ball rolling by recalling the warnings of the critics of the Fed and the language in which its proponents defended the new institution. The sturm and drang centered... Editorial of The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/editorials/bring-us-wilson/87826/ Fri, 18 May 2012 17:36:03 EST Heather Wilson, the five-term veteran of Congress who is seeking the Republican nomination for United States Senate from New Mexico, was last night in New York, where, at a reception in Manhattan, she was endorsed by Governor Christie. She spoke of her astonishing life, starting with her grandparents’ arrival at America. Her grandfather flew for the RAF in World War I, and her father in the Air Force here. The congresswoman herself grew up in a small town in New Hampshire and won an appointment... Editorial of The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/editorials/scoop-jackson-call-your-office/87823/ Thu, 17 May 2012 12:53:27 EST Let us just say at the outset that we neither have nor desire any truck the idea of giving up American citizenship. Those who do it are making a choice that we can’t ever imagine making ourselves, even for the amount of money — $67 million — that Eduardo Saverin is reportedly in line to save by abandoning his American citizenship and moving to Singapore in advance of the payout from Facebook’s public offering. Mr. Saverin himself is being quoted in the papers as denying he had tax motives for... Editorial of The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/editorials/bloomberg-vs-the-rabbis/87820/ Mon, 14 May 2012 09:44:31 EST The latest engagement in the campaign of the secular state to undercut religious authorities and drive back their sphere of influence has erupted in New York over how to handle child molestation cases that occur in the city’s Orthodox Jewish communities. Mayor Bloomberg has just joined a chorus of Democratic politicians asserting that persons who suspect misbehavior should go straight to the police rather than their rabbis. The mayor, according to the New York Times, wants “any abuse... Editorial of The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/editorials/doctoring-the-jerusalem-documents/87819/ Sun, 13 May 2012 06:09:35 EST One of the most memorable moments in our newspaper career was some years ago when we asked our lawyer at the time whether we could destroy a piece of evidence. Actually, it was a photocopy of the evidence. We weren’t asking whether we could destroy the original piece of evidence, only an extra Xerox that was lying around. What a volcanic warning against doing so this ignited in our libel lawyer, the normally mild-mannered Nicole Seligman Esq. Let us just say, we’ll never ask whether we can toss... Editorial of The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/editorials/what-would-washington-do/87817/ Thu, 10 May 2012 14:47:46 EST It turns out that President Obama’s endorsement of same gender marriage coincided with news that President Washington’s letter to the Jews is finally going to go on public display, and it is a fortunate coincidence. The exhibition of Washington’s letter, which will begin in June at the National Museum of Jewish History, was won by hard journalistic work of the Forward newspaper over the past year, and it will be an important moment. The letter, written to the Jews of Rhode Island, is the one in... Editorial of The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/editorials/americas-loss/87814/ Mon, 7 May 2012 10:47:50 EST The release of Conrad Black from prison and his return to his home at Canada is wonderful news, long awaited by his wide and diverse circle of friends. The one-time press baron, who had been a founding director of The New York Sun, was released Friday from a federal prison at Miami and whisked to a waiting jet. He had completed his full sentence, but because he is a felon in the eyes of American law and a non-citizen, he wasn’t permitted to stay here. So upon his release from prison, he was... Editorial of The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/editorials/hat-tip-for-hollande/87812/ Sun, 6 May 2012 19:54:37 EST To mark the election of Francois Hollande as the second socialist president of France, we went to our closet and retrieved the Motsch Fils. It’s the finest hat we’ve ever owned, a supple brown fedora that is “garanti pur castor,” which is French palaver for guaranteed pure beaver. It is in the nature of beaver that it is so durable that, well, we’re still using the hat more than 25 years after we purchased it. The reason we retrieved it from the Sun’s hat rack today is that we could never have... Editorial of The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/editorials/the-munger-games/87811/ Sun, 6 May 2012 17:28:35 EST One would think that a man as wealthy, as smart, and as old as Charles Munger would have known better than to suggest that people who buy gold are uncivilized. “Gold is a great thing to sew into your garments if you’re a Jewish family in Vienna in 1939,” Mr. Munger told Rebecca Quick of CNBC, “but I think civilized people don’t buy gold, they invest in productive businesses.” The fact is that people who bought gold a decade ago were far better positioned than those who put their money in Mr... Editorial of The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/editorials/ron-pauls-clash-with-paul-krugman-displays-power/87810/ Wed, 2 May 2012 14:45:16 EST Congressman Ron Paul, in a rare head-to-head broadcast confrontation, went up against the Nobel laureate in economics Paul Krugman in an open debate over monetary policy. It was broadcast on the Bloomberg Television, moderated by Trish Regan. Not to put too fine a point on it, Ron Paul won the exchange, so much so that the cameras and moderators just drifted away from Mr. Krugman without so much as a fare-thee-well and left the field to the hero of the campaign for honest money. The episode led... Editorial of The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/editorials/murdoch-unfit/87807/ Tue, 1 May 2012 17:25:29 EST The more we read of the contretemps over the behavior of the Murdoch newspapers in London, the more it looks to us like the real scandal is the behavior of the British government. Feature the finding of the parliamentary panel that has just declared — as the New York Times headline phrased — “Murdoch Unfit To Lead Media Empire.” Can The New York Sun be the only voice that finds it outrageous that some panel of parliamentarian pecksniffs is ruling on who is and isn’t fit to own a newspaper? The... Editorial of The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/editorials/krugmans-amazement/87806/ Sun, 29 Apr 2012 15:37:35 EST Professor Paul Krugman, speaking on ABC’s “This Week With George Stephanopoulos,” makes his case for risking inflation to defeat 9% unemployment. “You should be willing,” he said, “to take some risks. Compare. You know, people talk, what if we had 4% inflation? We had 4% inflation during Reagan’s second term. I don’t remember that as a time of great dislocation. It was actually a time when a lot of people were feeling good about the economic progress. It’s an amazing thing.” An amazing thing... Editorial of The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/editorials/sibelius-constitution/87805/ Sat, 28 Apr 2012 22:02:12 EST What a remarkable glimpse of the gulf between the administration and Congress over religious freedom is flashing around the internet. It is a Youtube video of the secretary of health and human services, Kathleen Sebelius, at a hearing of the House Education and Workforce Committee hearing. She is being grilled by a Republican congressman of South Carolina, Trey Gowdy. He asks her about a statement she has made about seeking a balance between believer’s rights and the contraception mandate. What... Editorial of The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/editorials/intricate-and-delicate-questions/87802/ Tue, 24 Apr 2012 22:10:07 EST When the Supreme Court sits tomorrow to sort out Arizona’s immigration law the word to listen for is “uniform.” No doubt there will be talk, too, about the part of the Constitution known as the supremacy clause, which establishes the Constitution and the laws and treaties made under it as the “supreme law of the land” and requires that “the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the constitution or laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding.” But the part of the... Editorial of The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/editorials/one-of-the-most-amazing-things/87801/ Sun, 22 Apr 2012 23:08:57 EST A year into Chairman Bernanke’s campaign to make the Federal Reserve more transparent it turns out the confusion is greater than ever. This is according to no less a Bernankean institution than the New York Times. It reports in that the bearded banker-in-chief has “tried to speak more clearly and more frequently than his predecessors.” It notes he has “lectured” college pupils, “met with members of the military,” and “held quarterly news conferences.” But as he gets ready for his fifth press... Editorial of The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/editorials/sarkozys-second-chance/87800/ Sun, 22 Apr 2012 21:38:16 EST “Sarkozy Loses” is the headline up on the Drudge Report over a dispatch of France24 with the early results of the first round of voting in the presidential election. It shows the socialist, Francois Holland, at around 29% and President Sarkozy at around 27%, which means the two of them will go into a runoff in which Jean-Marie Le Pen’s daughter, Marine, will play an outsized role. She was the big winner in the first round in the sense that her showing, at 18.5%, not only in third place but... Editorial of The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/editorials/waiting-for-france/87799/ Sat, 21 Apr 2012 21:29:09 EST Final polls on the eve of the presidential election at France showed Francois Hollande edging past the more conservative incumbent, Nicolas Sarkozy, in the first round of the vote. M. Hollande was pegged at 29% and M. Sarkozy at 26%, followed by the charismatic neo-communist Jean-Luc Melanchon and Jean-Marie Le Pen’s daughter, Martine, who each are at approximately 15%, with Francois Bayrou, the Pillsbury dough-boy of French politics, at 13%, with other far left candidates bringing up the rear... Editorial of The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/editorials/ending-dont-ask-dont-tell-at-the-fed/87798/ Sat, 21 Apr 2012 09:28:05 EST The big message from the meeting Friday of the Shadow Open Market Committee is that Congress is wising up to the Federal Reserve. This is implicit in the legislation that was the centerpiece of discussion at the meeting of Fed watchers. The measure, the Sound Dollar Act, was introduced in March by a Republican congressman from Texas, Kevin Brady, and a companion bill in the Senate was introduced by one of the leading advocates for honest money, Senator Lee of Utah. The measure would bring to an... Editorial of The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/editorials/checking-out-sarah-palin/87795/ Fri, 20 Apr 2012 17:08:20 EST To those of our readers who want to know why we keep writing about Governor Palin, check this out. It turns out that one of the Secret Service Agents cashiered for consorting with a prostitute at Colombia was once on Mrs. Palin’s security detail. And he posted on his Facebook page a picture of himself standing behind the Alaskan governor. “I was really checking her out, if you know what I mean,” the Washington Post quoted the ex-agent, David Randall Chaney, 48, as having written on Facebook... Editorial of The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/editorials/ron-pauls-jerusalem/87792/ Mon, 16 Apr 2012 14:24:24 EST The latest tumult in respect of Congressman Ron Paul concerns the news of his views on recognizing Jerusalem. It turns out that the congressman is all for America recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish state. The Web site Business Insider uses the word “surprising” to describe Dr. Paul’s position, which was voiced for the first time last week at a parley the Republican hopeful had with evangelical Christian leaders. The surprise is no doubt owing to all the suggestions in the press... Editorial of The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/editorials/zimmermans-bill-of-rights/87790/ Mon, 16 Apr 2012 09:07:03 EST No sooner did the special prosecutor at Florida file her charges accusing George Zimmerman of murdering Trayvon Martin than the controversy erupted over whether the bringing of charges is the result of a rush to judgment. Some will say that the idea of a rush to judgment is ridiculous. It was weeks after the killing before the charges were finally laid, and then only after a national outcry that went all the way to the White House. But the concerns rocketing around the internet are not only... Editorial of The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/editorials/santorums-gift/87786/ Wed, 11 Apr 2012 06:58:28 EST Senator Santorum’s decision to bow out of the Republican primary campaign is a disappointing moment in a quest that we’d have preferred to see taken all the way to the convention. But the New York Times is reporting this morning that “his strong performance in a brutal nominating contest established him as a force that the party will probably have to reckon with this presidential election year and beyond.” We agree with that assessment, save for the adverb “probably.” Mr. Santorum’s great... Editorial of The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/editorials/obamas-court-packing-plan/87780/ Sun, 8 Apr 2012 15:34:58 EST The prospect that President Obama is going to make his campaign not only against Governor Romney but against the Supreme Court of the United States is starting to become apparent. Daniel Henninger marked the point in his column last week, and the Associated Press came in on the story the next day with a dispatch disclosing that the president “is laying groundwork to make the majority-conservative Supreme Court a campaign issue.” The AP noted that Mr. Obama “wasn’t completely accurate” (to put... Editorial of The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/editorials/the-romney-netanyahu-friendship/87779/ Sun, 8 Apr 2012 11:15:36 EST One of the things to think about in respect the current political campaign is the impact that would be felt were the president of America and the prime minister of Israel on the same page. We were put in mind of this by Michael Barbaro’s illuminating dispatch in today’s New York Times, describing the friendship that sprang up in the late 1970s between Benjamin Netanyahu and Mitt Romney. At the time the future prime minister of Israel and the future front runner for the Republican nomination for... Editorial of The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/editorials/ron-pauls-man-at-the-fed/87773/ Tue, 3 Apr 2012 10:33:39 EST The man Congressman Ron Paul would install as chairman of the Federal Reserve was, in a little noticed but remarkable moment, invited the other day to address the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. It seems the bank wants to hear from its distinguished critics. It picked, in Mr. Grant, not only the man that Dr. Paul wants to run the Fed but the man that Newt Gingrich wants to see installed, with Lewis Lehrman, as one of the chairmen of a reconstituted United States Gold Commission. We weren’t... Editorial of The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/editorials/ex-parte-obama/87772/ Mon, 2 Apr 2012 21:09:40 EST It’s been a long time since we’ve heard a presidential demarche as outrageous as President Obama’s warning to the Supreme Court not to overturn Obamacare. The president made the remarks at a press conference with the leaders of Mexico and Canada. It was an attack on the court’s standing and even its integrity in a backhanded way that is typically Obamanian. For starters the president expressed confidence that the Court would “not take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of... Editorial of The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/editorials/justice-schumers-dirk/87771/ Mon, 2 Apr 2012 15:51:48 EST Senator Schumer, questioned Sunday by Savannah Guthrie on Meet the Press, offered an illuminating disquisition on the Obamacare lawsuit now being decided by the Supreme Court. He’s convinced that, despite the hostile questioning of the government’s lawyer, the Nine are going to rule that Obamacare is constitutional. We don’t know what the Nine are going to do. The senator didn’t use his trademark phrase by suggesting that a “dagger” is going to be put through the heart of the Constitution. He... Editorial of The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/editorials/the-education-of-peter-beinart/87770/ Sun, 1 Apr 2012 16:54:21 EST The Wall Street Journal is out with an op-ed piece by the left wing critic of the American Jewish leadership, Peter Beinart, endorsing the idea of school vouchers here at America. It is drawn from Mr. Beinart’s new book on what he perceives to be a crisis in Zionism. The tome has been denounced in one publication after another, for, among other errors of judgment, calling for an economic boycott of settlers in Judea and Samaria. In the Journal Mr. Beinart is making the neo-conservative case for... Editorial of The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/editorials/bernanke-gas/87763/ Wed, 28 Mar 2012 06:00:45 EST DIANE SAWYER: Gas prices? CHAIRMAN BERNANKE: Well, gas prices are — are a major problem. They’re obviously — a hardship for lots of people. It must be awfully frustrating to get a small raise at work and then have it all eaten by a higher cost of commuting. From the economy's point of view they're — a moderate risk — they'll — Ms. SAWYER: Moderate? Mr. BERNANKE: Moderate, I would say. Ms. SAWYER: But threatening the recovery? Mr. BERNANKE: At this point — at this point I would say it's still... Editorial of The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/editorials/obamacare-and-korematsu/87764/ Wed, 28 Mar 2012 09:07:26 EST After the justices of the high court administered what the Wall Street Journal, in a marvelous editorial this morning, is calling a “constitutional awakening,” at least some legal experts will be watching for one of the most explosive names in constitutional law — Korematsu. That is the case in which the Supreme Court allowed Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s administration to force Japanese Americans into detention centers on the Coast. It did so without any allegation that the internees had done... Editorial of The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/editorials/jerusalem-in-court/87761/ Mon, 26 Mar 2012 21:49:56 EST The Supreme Court certainly made short work of Secretary of State Clinton’s claim that the courts and the Congress have no business meddling in how she refers to Jerusalem in passports issued to Americans born in the capital of Israel. The State Department has been refusing to enforce a law, passed in 2002 by an overwhelming vote in the Congress, giving all Americans born in Jerusalem the right to have their birthplace listed on official documents as “Israel.” The department was challenged by... Editorial of The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/editorials/bracing-for-the-court/87759/ Sat, 24 Mar 2012 11:07:52 EST One of the things to think about in respect of the Obamacare case coming up this week for a hearing at the Supreme Court is what might happen if the court invalidates the law. The measure is, after all, one of the centerpieces — even the centerpiece — of President Obama’s administration, which was swept into power in a landslide. It barely made it through the Congress, but it made it. And we are faced with at least the possibility that it will be cut down in a fell swoop. This is a moment to... Editorial of The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/editorials/bernanke-101/87752/ Wed, 21 Mar 2012 05:36:31 EST Chairman Bernanke’s decision to use the first of his four lectures at George Washington University to attack the gold standard certainly puts the hay down where us mules can get to it. “Ben Bernanke’s first lesson on economics: Forget about the gold standard,” is how Politico led its story. The Fed chairman used a series of slides to guide his remarks to a bright looking group of students. The “strength of a gold standard is its greatest weakness too,” one slide said. “Because the money supply... Editorial of The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/editorials/the-fbi-could-compete/87753/ Wed, 21 Mar 2012 08:09:15 EST Just what is the beef that the Associated Press has with the New York Police Department? With the latest dispatch its series, it starts to look like the complaint has less to do with the NYPD encroaching on the rights of Muslims than with New York’s Finest encroaching on the turf of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. This is a feud that is as old as J. Edgar Hoover, and if past is prologue, it will be with us as long as there is a New York City. The FBI doesn’t like to be scooped by home-town... Editorial of The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/editorials/beyond-toulouse/87747/ Mon, 19 Mar 2012 15:37:25 EST The slayings at a Jewish school at Toulouse are a moment not only of horror for France and the world but also of truth. They will remind that before the government of the Fifth Republic has any standing to lecture the government in Jerusalem on how to protect Jews in the land of Israel, it will have to show that it can protect the Jews of France. The killings in the southern French city are being attributed by police to a gunman who shot to death a 30-year-old Hebrew teacher and his two... Editorial of The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/editorials/demjanjuk-in-hell/87746/ Sat, 17 Mar 2012 14:47:45 EST The death of John Demjanjuk is no doubt going to be greeted by yet a new round of World War II revisionist weeping. The 91-year-old retired auto-worker from Cleveland departed for Hell from a nursing home at Bavaria, whence he was appealing his sentence, by a free German court, of five years of prison after having been convicted of what the Associated Press characterized as 28,060 counts of accessory to murder. For years he has been defended by Patrick Buchanan and others who contend that his... Editorial of The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/editorials/obama-in-your-tank/87740/ Mon, 12 Mar 2012 19:40:32 EST “Obama Defends Energy Policies” is the headline over a Reuters dispatch in respect of gasoline prices. It reports on the president’s launch of what the British wire service characterizes as “the most comprehensive defense to date of his energy policies.” It says the president is “pushing back against election-year attacks from Republicans” who say his energy policies “are to blame for high gas prices that are eroding his popularity with voters.” The problem with all this is that it’s not the... Editorial of The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/editorials/sarah-palins-game/87737/ Sat, 10 Mar 2012 16:23:14 EST As the Republican presidential contenders try to ignite some fire on the hustings, all eyes are going to be on the candidate who’s not running, Governor Palin. This is because HBO will broadcast this evening its new movie, “Game Change,” about how the leader of Alasaka burst onto the national scene in Senator McCain’s campaign for the president and changed not only his game but the politics of her time. The movie has a scene in which this is suddenly recognized by Senator McCain’s aide, when... Editorial of The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/editorials/a-green-light-for-israel/87731/ Tue, 6 Mar 2012 10:10:34 EST Prime Minister Netanyahu’s summit meeting with President Obama turned out to have quite a satisfactory outcome, as far as we’re concerned, in that, at least from what one can deduce from the public record, Israel has gained a green light to do what it wants in respect of Iran. It is true Mr. Obama offered cautionary words about loose talk of war and expressed his preference for a diplomatic solution. But in his interview with Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic, the president made a point of... Editorial of The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/editorials/an-ovation-for-the-nypd/87729/ Sun, 4 Mar 2012 22:30:15 EST What a contrast. While the editors of the New York Times were setting in type their editorial attacking the New York Police Department for spying on Muslims, Commissioner Kelly was getting a standing ovation from the alumni of Fordham University Law School. The Times editorial — called “Surveillance, Security and Civil Liberties” — bought into the campaign that has been levied against the NYPD by the Associated Press, which, the Times asserted, “has exposed constitutionally suspect surveillance... Editorial of The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/editorials/james-q-wilson/87727/ Sat, 3 Mar 2012 07:33:10 EST For those of us who are invested in the redemption of New York City, it is hard to think of a more consequential figure than James Q. Wilson, and his death this week is a moment to reflect on that remarkable fact. He was, after all, neither an elected official, nor even a New Yorker, nor an appointed aide to a mayor or governor nor a police commissioner nor a financier. He was, instead, a scholar of political science, and the enormous impact he had on New York — and the rest of America — came... Editorial of The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/editorials/wheres-obama/87724/ Wed, 29 Feb 2012 15:17:56 EST The Associated Press has always had a place in the heart of The New York Sun, in whose newsroom the wire was founded in 1845. The publisher of the Sun at the time, Moses Yale Beach, was the AP’s prime organizer. The cooperative wire wasn’t his only invention; Beach secretly built the first subway in New York. Moved by pneumatic power, it traveled a block. For all our affection, though, it’s hard to imagine the visionary editor, a booster and defender of New York, countenancing two centuries... Editorial of The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/editorials/ray-kelly-and-nathan-hale/87716/ Wed, 22 Feb 2012 05:38:29 EST Our favorite story about Yale concerns the statue of Nathan Hale. He was the young Yale graduate who, in 1776, went to the gallows for spying against the British and declared that he regretted he had but one life to give for his country. The statue of him in bronze* stands in the Old Campus, alongside Connecticut Hall. The story we like — it could well be apocryphal — goes that the Central Intelligence Agency sought to borrow the statue of America’s first spy so it could make a copy. Yale... Editorial of The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/editorials/sarah-palin-for-the-world-bank/87713/ Sat, 18 Feb 2012 07:05:43 EST In respect of the candidacy of Hillary Clinton to be president of the World Bank, let us just say that it’s a terrible idea. This is not a quarrel with Mrs. Clinton per se; had we been endorsing in the Democratic primary for president in 2008, we’d have put in a word for her, even if by our lights Barack Obama has a more presidential personality. It happens, though, that we’ve followed the World Bank for decades, and the key feature of the whole World Bank system is the conditionality it... Editorial of The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/editorials/anthony-shadid/87711/ Fri, 17 Feb 2012 08:42:33 EST The death of Anthony Shadid, while on assignment for the New York Times at Syria, is a reminder that, for all the talk of the end of newspapers and the rise of the World Wide Web, classical foreign corresponding is still at a premium. We weren’t lucky enough to know Shadid personally, and we may not have agreed with him politically. But like millions of others, we made a point of reading his dispatches from Iraq and Libya and other battles in the Middle East theater for their news, insights... Editorial of The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/editorials/the-smell-of-sulfur/87709/ Thu, 16 Feb 2012 10:30:39 EST It’s hard to imagine how the apologists for Hugo Chavez of Venezuela are going to manage to put the gloss on the attacks being made by his regime on the new figure emerging in the opposition, Henrique Capriles Radonski. Mr. Capriles is a Catholic whose maternal grandparents were Jews from Poland. He is emerging as a challenger to succeed the cancer-ridden president. But now Mr. Capriles, governor of the state of Miranda, is being made the target of the kind of crude anti-Semitism that one... Editorial of The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/editorials/the-plunge-in-gasoline/87707/ Tue, 14 Feb 2012 20:42:19 EST “Gas Price Up 83% During Obama” is the headline up on the Drudge Report this afternoon. It links to a CNS dispatch on the fact that President Obama is citing the soaring price of gasoline as one of the reasons he wants a cut in the payroll tax. We remarked on this point a year ago, when Mr. Obama, in his weekly radio address, declared that there was “no silver bullet” to deal with rising gasoline prices. We noted the irony that the president should choose such words, because if one priced... Editorial of The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/editorials/the-real-contraception-question/87702/ Sat, 11 Feb 2012 21:53:50 EST The best piece we’ve read in respect of the showdown over the Obama administration’s contraception mandate is in the latest number of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer. The sage who puts it out, James Grant, might catapult into his corn flakes upon reading that sentence. For ostensibly, his article has nothing to do with the Obamacare mandates that are creating such a collision with the Catholic church and leading figures in the Protestant and Jewish communities. The words “contraception” and...