David Frum's Blog, page 114

The Fracking Truth

The natural gas industry is fighting back against Matt Damon's anti-fracking movie, "Promised Land."

The Failure of Progressive Educational Methods

In the current issue of the UK magazine Standpoint, secondary-school history teacher Matthew Hunter amusingly describes how progressive educational methods have failed students:

What's Boehner's Plan, Ctd?

Jonathan Chait thinks Speaker Boehner is bluffing on allowing the sequestration to take place.

No, the GOP Doesn't Face Extinction

Political science professor Lane Crothers, who blogs as the very popular "Politicalprof" on Tumblr,explains why the GOP will probably be with us for the forseeable future!

Israel Building a Syrian Border Fence

Israel will upgrade its border protections on the Syrian frontier. Is this move intended to defend against terrorism - or to protect against refugee flows?

The Right-Wing Money Model

Lefty (NB: I use the description as a term of endearment) writers such as Salon's Alex Pareene seem to have taken a grudging liking toDick Armey after his FreedomWorks fallout. Armey, now reduced to a pauper's lifestyle after leaving the movement conservatism stalwart, has taken to speaking out against groups and individuals who seek to profit from their political activities.

Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian

In the Beirut Daily Star, Alex Joffe argues an intriguing thesis: that Benjamin Netanyahu is beating the Palestinians by using their own methods against them.

David's Book Club: Empires and Barbarians

A half-dozen years ago, I visited in a European art gallery an exhibition of artifacts from the first decades after the end of the Roman empire. The exhibition and its catalogue were organized to argue a point: that the end of the Roman empire was not a cataclysm but a "transition." The barbarians were not "invaders" but "migrants." Indeed, the barbarians were not "barbaric" at all, but carriers of their own rich cultural traditions, not inferior to tho...

They Couldn't #FireBoehner

Robert Costa's chronicle of the failed #FireBoehner festivities is raw schadenfreude for establishment-minded and moderate Republicans. In late December and this month's opening days, rumors circulated that 1) Speaker Boehner would resign, and 2) enough conservatives were prepared to vote against Boehner to force a second ballot.

Real Environmentalists Support GMOs

People seem to have missed the most important passage from Mark Lynas' amazing apology for his years of activism against genetically modified organisms.