thoughts in and out of season
Talk about “Clinton haters” always seemed misplaced; for obsessions about political leaders left/liberals can’t be beat. Case in point: Drawings Are Still Kicking Nixon Around, from the New York Times “Critic’s Notebook.” Thirty years later and they’re still taken with the idea of Nixon as a phallus. Robert Coover’s The Public Burning would I … More ...
You don’t have to like Thomas Friedman to find something interesting in his account of Iran’s Third Wave. Six hundred years ago Ibn Khaldun noted that ideological governments last 30 years, and there’s no reason modern Iran should be different. Presumably something of the sort will apply to other brands of radical Islam as … More ...
If the bishops want to step up and take responsibility for what they do, why did they adopt their new guidelines by secret ballot?
So far as I can tell, they’re still mostly intested in damage control. That would explain why they chose to be addressed by two liberals and some victims—people they knew wouldn’t … More ...
The theory that EU expansion is the solution to popular concern in Europe about job security and crime isn’t Jack Straw’s personal fantasy. Others share it too. Possible bases for the theory include:
War with Holland? We had a poll on the subject several weeks ago and most people thought the idea was silly. Now it’s in the news: US-Kongress droht Niederlanden mit Invasion (“US Congress threatens the Netherlands with invasion”). It seems the Dutch are annoyed that Congress is talking about protecting Americans from the International Criminal … More ...
Why are we the universal policeman? U.S. Will Hunt Masterminds of Rwanda Genocide through an “aggressive and targeted” campaign to hunt down those responsible, with rewards of up to $5 million for information leading to their arrest.
I just finished Crevecoeur’s Letters from an American Farmer. An interesting book in many ways, although rather miscellaneous, and it’s hard to know when he’s telling the truth. One interesting feature: he emphasizes the effect of immigration, national diversity, freedom, and economic opportunity in producing a common American type: decent, orderly, enterprising, prosperous, politically-minded, … More ...
Jack Straw may be loathsome, but I do like his theory that the way to solve problems caused by immigration is to deal with their cause, “the huge imbalance in the quality of life and the standard of living between countries in the EU and those some way to the east,” by enlargement of … More ...
Here’s a discussion in the Catholic context of issues related to the distinction between procedural and substantive conservatism: The Symbiotic Relationship Between Liberals and Conservatives.
A totally nonpolitical and indeed (intentionally) nonsensical quote that I just ran into for the first time since college. It struck me as characteristic and very funny then, and still does:
… More ...“It was a crisp and spicy morning in early October. The lilacs and laburnums, lit with the glory-fires of autumn, hung burning and flashing