David Frum's Blog, page 25

Democrats Disagree on Fracking, and It's Starting to Show

While President Obama has been able to put off the issue of fracking for a number of years now, there are growing calls within the Democratic Party to increase production of natural gas via the fracking process.

Rand Paul's Biggest Liability: His Dad

Ron Paul's been drawing negative publicity recently. Well, that's the down-side of filling the board of your new think tank with conspiracy theorists, anti-semites, and authors of racist newsletters.

Bashar the Terrible

Here's why there's a red line drawn at the use of chemical weapons. From Jeffrey Goldberg at the Atlantic:

US Sailor Beats Up Attempted Rapist

Feminists and flag-wavers (and flag-waving feminists) can all take pride in this item from yesterday's Washington Times:

Self-Regulation Fails in Congress

This week, President Obama signed an amendment to the STOCK Act that essentially guts the important anti-corruption legislation. The original intention of the STOCK Act was to ban legal insider trading by members of Congress. Because certain committees, such as the Senate Finance Committee, are privy to private financial data, many were using that information for their own personal investments, and shared what they knew with anyone close to them (who conceivably made investments accordingly).

Learn Your Geography, Kids

What country is this?

Not News: Americans Distrust Politicians

This chart from the Brookings Institute's collaboration with the Public Religion Research Institute wonderfully demonstrates that American citizens don't trust their public officials to carry out vague policy proposals:

Country Music Singer George Jones, RIP

Country music legend George Jones is dead:

The Senate Isn't Done With Gun Control

The New York Times reports a pair of efforts to revive gun control in the Senate. This one is oddly ironic, no? (Emphasis mine)

Keeping Your Faith (In Gold)

Matthew Parris of the Spectator and the LondonTimes takes us inside the mind of a small investor in precious metals, i.e, himself. He lost money of course, but he has not lost faith.