I’ve just read a good item, by Joel Kotkin at City Journal, about a conference in Normandy on the future of Western democracy. It is appropriately gloomy, and savvy readers will catch a whiff of the Iron Law of Oligarchy in the extent to which democratic rule in Europe is anything but representative, and proceeds […]
Bill Vallicella weighs in on the natural-rights question we’ve been discussing, here. We read: The problem is that the notion of a natural right is less than perspicuous. Part of what it means to say that a right is natural is that it is not conventional. We don’t have rights to life, liberty, and property […]
The title, of course, is a reference to the oft-heard quip that there are three branches of government in the contemporary United States: the Executive Branch, The Legislative Branch, and Anthony Kennedy. Justice Kennedy has announced that he is retiring. This is huge news, and a wonderful opportunity. May RBG be next, and soon. Update: […]
Two posts ago we read Michael Anton’s emailed reply to a collection of questions I’d posted in Part 1 of this series. I mailed back a response, and received another reply in return. (There the correspondence stands, for the moment, as I’ve been traveling and working the past couple of days. I’d also like to […]
Our commenter Jacques has replied, in an email to me, to Michael Anton’s response (published in our previous post). I am posting it below. Michael Anton (on the question of “natural rulers”): “One can raise all sorts of objections to this. For instance, if Trump is such a natural ruler, why did he lose the […]
My last two posts (here and here) were in response to an extensive review, by Michael Anton, of Thomas West’s new book on the American Founding, and to a comment by our reader Jacques. In Saturday’s post I laid out some questions that I thought the review, and Jacques’ comment, had raised. I did not […]
In my previous post I linked to a review, by Michael Anton, of a new book on the American Founding by Thomas G. West of Hillsdale College. I have a keen interest in the Founding, and in particular I am, like nearly everyone in the “neoreactionary” community, dogged by the question of just where things […]
I’ve just read a remarkable review, by Michael Anton, of a new book by Thomas G. West, who is a professor at Hillsdale College. (You may know Michael Anton as ‘Publius Decius Mus’, the author of the celebrated essay “The Flight 93 Election” that argued for the necessity of electing Donald Trump in 2016.) Professor […]
As I mentioned recently, it’s been a busy spell for me, with little time or “bandwidth” for writing (though by now I’ve built up quite a backlog of things I’d like to comment on). Now I’m off to Kansas City on business for a few days. Will post as time permits.
I heard some very dark news last night: a woman we know, the closest friend of a couple who are among our own closest friends, has been diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer. She is one of the nicest and most intelligent people I know, and has already been though hell: her husband died in a […]
Well, the long-awaited Inspector General’s report on the FBI’s handling of the Clinton email investigation came out on Thursday. I’m interested enough to read it, but haven’t had the time. Mollie Hemingway has, however, and she gives us a helpful summary of it over at The Federalist. Key points: The philandering Peter Strzok, who was […]
From the Guardian: Einstein’s travel diaries reveal ‘shocking’ xenophobia I guess cultural relativity was just too much even for him. (Some things are true despite being obvious.) I’m reminded of the old joke: “Why did the mob have to rub out Einstein?” “Because he knew too much.” Wait till this mob gets a-hold of him.
As we all know, the accelerating edge of cultural evolution is steered and sharpened at our nation’s institutes of higher learning. Long gone is the cultural Pleistocene of my youth, when one could simply live and think according to the principles, customs, precepts, guidelines, mores, and traditions our parents learned as children, and passed along […]
It’s a busy stretch for me, with little time for writing (sorry about the lack of substantial posts here lately), but I’ll get back to logorrheic bloviation as soon as I can. Meanwhile, I have to post a picture I just ran across: Donald Trump at the G7 meeting, resolutely staring down a hectoring Angela […]
“We often read nowadays of the valor or audacity with which some rebel attacks a hoary tyranny or an antiquated superstition. There is not really any courage at all in attacking hoary or antiquated things, any more than in offering to fight one’s grandmother. The really courageous man is he who defies tyrannies young as […]
Charles Krauthammer is not long for this earth, it seems. Whether you agree with him or not on the issues — sometimes I have, and sometimes I haven’t — he is an intelligent, civilized, thoughtful and articulate man, who has borne a life-altering disability with strength and dignity.
It’s fifty years since Robert Kennedy was shot dead, and the press is gushing in fond remembrance. Not so Boston’s own Howie Carr, though.
Here is a good piece by JM Smith at The Orthosphere on the acedia consuming the modern world.
According to a new report by the Senate Homeland Security Committee, the Obama administration, having repeatedly assured Congress that under the JCPOA Iran would have no access to U.S. financial markets for asset conversion, nevertheless clandestinely issued a license permitting Iran to do exactly that. Apparently the effort failed because the banks themselves, showing more […]
Well! It being The Current Year, the beauty pageant “Miss America”, an iconic American institution, has announced that it will no longer be judging contestants on their appearance, and is getting rid of the swimsuit competition. (As “Iowahawk” quipped online: “well, I guess they can move it to radio now.” We read: The organization is […]
In a recent interview, Bill Clinton expressed sympathy for the #MeToo movement (which, as various wags have pointed out, can be read off as “Pound Me Too”), and said it was “overdue”. I try not to write much about the Clintons anymore — they are perhaps the vilest and most contemptible public officials to have […]
With yet another hat-tip to Bill Keezer, here’s a tart little item, by Don Surber, about the nation’s gradual recovery from Barack Obama’s years of control. Perhaps one day it will all seem like it was just a bad dream.
From Reason.com: how to make your own handgun — no Federal government involved, and all perfectly legal (depending upon your jurisdiction). Here.
Long ago, in a previous age of the world, I found myself in the recording studio with a guitar player, a member of an immensely popular costumed rock band, who was working on a self-financed solo album project. Solo projects by famous band members being, in general, notoriously unsuccessful, I asked him one evening if […]
For as long as I can remember we’ve been lectured about the peaceful streets of England, and how that “scepter’d isle” should be a model for us of the blessings of a government that disarms its people. Meanwhile, old Blighty has been hard at work, for decades now, putting every aspect of its ancient culture […]