Practical politics

What do you say in response to a theory of things that is simplified to the point of absurdity: that asserts that existence is an illusion, or physical objects do not exist, or language is all a rhetorical power-game, or mathematical objects are only physiological states of someone’s brain? Some possibilities:

• Argument. It’s illuminating to

The discussion of the once and future paleoconservatism continues at Taki’s Magazine, with contributions from Daniel Larison and Richard Spencer. Larison seems to think that the new will be much the same as the old, while Spencer seems to identify with a sort of rambunctuous and generally nationalist individualism that perhaps can fuel … More ...

Paul Gottfried says the paleo movement is dead, and calls for youth to take over in the form of a post-paleo movement based on true American conservatism, which is the constitutional liberalism once represented by Taft Republicanism. He sees signs of such a development in the Ron Paul campaign, and in the writings of … More ...

Other people focus their thought by making predictions, so I will too: I predict Eliot Spitzer will hang in there and ride out the storm. Some considerations:

• Bill did, why not Eliot? They’re both psychopaths who like to cross lines and don’t think they’re subject to normal standards. It’s not as if they care about

The past week saw a couple of events that were both predictable and widely predicted, at least among right-wing cranks, but they were still blatant enough to be a bit shocking:

• The signing of the Treaty of Lisbon, a.k.a. Reform Treaty. The treaty reinstates the substantive provisions of the failed European Constitution but in

I can’t say these are good ideas:

• The German attempt to remove old Nazi filmclips from YouTube.
• The threatened criminal prosecution of a German hotel that that let guests visit a Nazi bunker in its cellar.
• The State Department’s Report on Global Anti-Semitism.

The actions of the German nanny state can speak for … More ...

A book by longtime Iranian leader Rafsanjani has apparently been suppressed, or at least withdrawn for fact-checking, because influential Iranians are outraged by its claim that Khomeini wanted at one point to drop “Death to America” as a slogan.

I can somewhat understand the “Marg bar Shah” slogan, ugly though it was, because there … More ...

I’ve been reading a couple of pre-war right-wingers, Hilaire Belloc and Julius Evola. In the few things I’ve been reading, Belloc’s big political concept is Nation, Evola’s is Empire. Belloc seems to be mostly an old-fashioned continental liberal who likes citizenship and equal laws for those of the same nation. He thinks that in … More ...