Our AEI friend, Steve Hayward wonders about an Obama/Frank conspiracy over on the Ashbrook Center blog No Left Turns. 

Now, if I was in a
conspiratorial frame of mind, and thought Obama was an evil genius, I?d
wonder whether the murky TARP II provision that allowed the AIG bonuses
was deliberately calculated to provoke outrage in order to justify
greater government control over executive salaries across the board, as
indeed Barney Frank has intimated is his desire. Nah. Can?t be that
clever, can they?

Peter Lawler’s review of Gran Torino is worth reading.

By chance, this is the only
hyped movie I didn?t get to see–until yesterday. It?s easily the best
movie of the year, or maybe the last several years. There?s more about
the strengths and weaknesses of our country as it once was and now is
than in all the Oscar nominees put together.