Books to Read in 2017

Here Are 21 Books You Should Read in 2017, edited by Daniel Davis, Daily Signal, December 29, 2017. "“Why Knowledge Matters: Rescuing Our Children From Failed Educational Theories” by E.D. Hirsch Jr."

The Obama Administration's Curious Record on Firearms

What’s The Obama Administration Up To On Firearms?, Forbes, December 28, 2016, "The Obama Administration’s record on firearms is curiously mixed. On the one hand, the President deserves an award – which he is unlikely to receive or want – as America’s greatest gun salesman. All of his musings about gun control have gone hand in hand with boom times for the firearms industry."

A Very Charitable Post About President Obama

President Obama’s Many Missed Opportunities, Newsday, December 27, 2016, "Everyone makes mistakes, and the Obama administration has made its fair share. But harping on mistakes is easy. The tragedy of most presidential administrations rests not in the errors they make, but in the opportunities they miss — and in the belief that no one else can seize them."

My Annual Land Mines Rebuttal

No, Land Mine Casualties Aren’t Increasing. Wars Are, Forbes, December 13, 2016, "Every year, the International Coalition to Ban Landmines (ICBL) publishes its Landmine Monitor. And every year, journalists run their press release as a story without, apparently, bothering to read the report. This year, no surprises, it’s the turn of The New York Times, which in late November reported that “Land Mine Casualties Jump 75% as Funding for Their Removal Declines.”"

Return the ATT to Sender

The Obama Administration Just Sent the Arms Trade Treaty to the Senate. Here’s Why It Doesn’t Matter, Daily Signal, December 12, 2016, "Last week, the Obama administration took a step that conservatives have been anticipating for three years: it transmitted the Arms Trade Treaty to the Senate for ratification. This move doesn’t matter."

Interpol and the Authoritarians

Way To Go, Interpol, Newsday, December 4, 2106, "At its latest meeting, the General Assembly voted four new members to the executive committee. That’s where the trouble starts. The new president of the committee is Meng Hongwei, the vice minister of public security in China. In other words, he’s in charge of enforcing the world’s biggest police state, a police state with a history of abusing Interpol for its own purposes."

Interpol, the Palestinians, and Standards for Membership

Will Interpol Be Able to Create Fair Standards for Membership?, Forbes, November 30, 2016, "Contrary to media reports, a Palestinian effort to win admission to Interpol has not been rejected. As I noted in my previous post, it has been postponed, pending a report on membership criteria to be conducted by Hans Corell, former Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and Legal Counsel of the United Nations."

Interpol, the Palestinians, and the Chinese

Interpol Did Not Reject the Palestinian Authority’s Bid for Membership, Forbes, November 30, 2016, "It’s been widely reported that Interpol rejected a Palestinian bid for membership at the latest meeting of its General Assembly, which concluded in Bali on November 10. This is, at best, only a half truth."

Free Trade in People

, Newsday, November 19, 2016, "Around the world, globalization is supposedly under attack. From Brexit in Britain, to Donald Trump in the United States, we’re told we’re facing a rebellion against it. Yes, it’s a rebellion. But what’s driving it isn’t free trade in goods. It’s free trade in people."

Oops, They Did It Again

This Would Be A Serious Mistake for Interpol, Newsday. November 6, 2016, "Just because the United States is in the final days of its election campaign doesn’t mean nothing important is happening anywhere else. Next week, the General Assembly of Interpol, the worldwide federation of law enforcement agencies, will meet in Bali, Indonesia. The General Assembly is Interpol’s governing authority, and it decides who joins Interpol. Both Taiwan and the Palestinian Authority are seeking admission. It’s time Interpol welcomes Taiwan — but letting the Palestinians in would be a serious mistake."

Remember Winston Churchill

Churchill Comes to Washington, Weekly Standard, November 6, 2016, "Monuments to Winston Churchill abound in the United Kingdom. You can remember the greatest man of the 20th century at his birthplace, Blenheim Palace, or by his grave nearby at Bladon. Then there are the Cabinet War Rooms in London, his country house, Chartwell, and, of course, the magnificent Churchill Archives Centre in Churchill College at Cambridge University. As the simple memorial in Westminster Abbey—next to the statue of Churchill in Parliament Square—puts it, there is no shortage of occasions to "remember Winston Churchill" in Britain."

Why Remain Has Learned Nothing

Assessing Why Remain Lost The Brexit Vote, Forbes, October 30, 2016, "Daniel Korski, deputy director of former British Minister David Cameron’s policy unit, has published a fascinating and intelligent, if inevitably partial and partisan, assessment of why Remain lost the Brexit referendum last June. Journalism of this quality is the first draft of history. It shouldn’t be the last."

The NHS: Not Great for Health

Britain’s National Health Service Isn’t A World Beater, Forbes, October 30, 2016, "Last week, UK2020, a think tank founded by Conservative MP Owen Paterson, published a major study of “The UK Health System – An International Comparison of Health Outcomes,” by Dr. Kristian Niemietz of the Institute of Economic Affairs. It provides extensive and sober evidence for the contention that, regardless of what Britons (and others) think of it, the National Health Service (NHS) is not particularly good at reducing preventable deaths . Dr. Niemietz finds that over 46,000 people die annually in Britain who would have been kept alive if they had been treated by the best health system in the world. Even if they had been treated by the 12th best system in the world, 17,000 more people a year would live. The study quotes the Guardian’s assessment that “the only serious black mark against the NHS was its poor record on keeping people alive.” Quite."

On The Need To Control Territory

"ISIS' True Weakness," Newsday, October 21, 2016, "The start of an Iraqi and Kurdish offensive to liberate Mosul is a milestone in the defeat the so-called Islamic State. But winning the fight will be hard, and winning the peace far harder. Brutal though ISIS undoubtedly is, Mosul’s residents understandably don’t trust their would-be liberators."

Foreign Policy In The Age of Multiculturalism

"This Is No Way to Run Foreign Policy," Newsday, October 11, 2016, "Last week, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs released its annual survey of American public opinion and foreign policy, titled “America in the Age of Uncertainty.” Predictably, the council focused its polling on the issues that appear to be shaping the 2016 presidential campaign. But its most revealing findings run deeper."

Cheerful Conservatives in Birmingham

"The Conservatives Are Actually Happy in the United Kingdom," Weekly Standard, October 6, 2016, " in London by train from Gatwick Airport, you pass Battersea Power Station on your right. Derelict for more than 30 years, it is an iconic, vast, roofless, brick structure, with tall white smokestack towers. In the years since it last produced a watt of power, it has hosted raves, Dr. Who episodes, and James Bond movies. What it has not done is anything of enduring use. But this time, as I trundled past, there were modular apartments going up around the power station, and cranes working on the inside. The next day, the reason for the activity was announced: The power station, renovated and reconstructed at no small expense, is to be Apple's new U.K. headquarters, and a new center of retail and life besides. We were told that, after Brexit, no one would want to invest in Britain. Evidently someone forgot to tell Apple."

Tilting At Windmills

"Brexit Was A Reality Check Which Tories Must Now Implement," Yorkshire Post, October 1, 2016, "Three of Britain’s political parties have more or less given up on politics as we understand the term. They are crusaders who would rather tilt at windmills than enter the field of combat. They prefer to lose in purity than to compromise and win."

Proof of Churchill's Contention That No One Learns From History

"Britain’s Report on the Libya Fiasco," Forbes, October 1, 2016, "Almost unnoticed in the United States – and neglected even in Britain – the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee has produced a superb report on Britain’s role in the disastrous NATO intervention in Libya in 2011. It makes for depressing, if valuable, reading."

On UK Defenses, Go See My 2008 Paper

"Are Britain’s Defenses As Weak As They Say?,” Forbes, September 30, 2016, "Last week, the Financial Times published a stinging summary of the state of Britain’s defenses, based on a 10-page memo written last spring by General Sir Richard Barrons. Formerly the head of the UK’s Joint Forces Command, Sir Richard reported that the “[c]apability that is foundational to all major armed forces has been withered by design.”"

A Doozy of a Whopper

"Brexit Is A Backlash About Democracy," Yorkshire Post, September 27, 2016, "IF there’s one thing people like to do, it’s tell stories. We all need to make sense of this busy world, and we do that by making events fit into a neat narrative. But the story Americans are hearing about Brexit is, as we’d say, a doozy."

What Do We Want? Brexit. When Do We Want It? Now.

"The U.S. Would Like to See A Rapid and Clean Brexit, But the U.K. Shouldn’t Be Rushed Into Hasty Negotiations," BrexitCentral, September 26, 2016, "On process, and indeed overall, the central US interest is that Brexit should be completed as rapidly and cleanly as is reasonably possible."

All We Have to Fear

"Fear Isn’t All We Have to Fear," Newsday, September 24, 2016, "After last weekend’s Islamist-inspired terror attacks in New York City, New Jersey, and Minnesota, President Barack Obama declared: “As Americans, we will not give into fear." That statement places him in one wing of the liberal tradition. Unfortunately, he doesn’t share all of the tradition."

The Drifting U.S. Policy Toward Europe

"America’s Outdated Europe Policy: In 2017, the Next President Must Adapt to New Reality," The Conservative, a publication of the Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe, volume 1, issue 1, September 16, 2016, "Since the end of World War II, U.S. policy toward Europe has drifted, without deliberate thought, far from its initial premises—while Europe itself has changed beyond recognition. It is time that the U.S. recognized this fact. The incoming President should direct the National Security Council (NSC) to oversee a comprehensive study of U.S. policy toward Europe, a study to be based on the enduring American interests in Europe, the lessons of the post-1945 era, and on the new facts of Europe that have emerged since 1989."

The U.S. Interest in Brexit is For It to Happen Quickly

"U.S. Interests in the United Kingdom and Europe After Brexit," Heritage Foundation Commentary, September 14, 2016, "The Committee should emphasize that the fundamental interest of the U.S. is for the U.K.’s departure to happen as quickly and cleanly as possible. After the U.K. exits, it will regain the freedom to negotiate its own trade agreements, and the U.S. should then move rapidly to formally conclude a free trade agreement with it."

A Tax on Teaching

"When Joining A Union Is Not The Answer," Newsday, September 10, 2016, "Late last month, the National Labor Relations Board voted to allow graduate students with teaching or research jobs to unionize. If you believe that professors today focus too much on research and not enough on teaching, this decision was another step in the wrong direction."