thoughts in and out of season
A while back I noted the oddity of Catholic neocon George Weigel praising Philadelphia in the 50s as “a town of ethnic neighborhoods in which Catholic kids unselfconsciously identified themselves by parish … dang, it was great” and in a few lines without explanation attacking those who wanted to maintain ethnic and religious boundaries in … More ...
A recent editorial in the New York Times, entitled “The Misery Strategy,” mixes abusive rhetoric with the Orwellian view that evil American leaders are imposing a restrictive immigration policy on the American people. In the midst of it all they nonetheless make a point worth answering:
… More ...[The] idea is that harsh, unrelenting
Every movement needs high-flown rhetoric, and trad rightwingery can’t be any different. Inspired by what seems voguish I’ve put together a few phrases for my own “I have a dream” speech. Additions are welcome.
… More ...I dream of an America that is a normal country.
I dream of an America that is not an all-purpose fantasy,
At bottom, conservatism is simply attachment to a specific society. It is therefore a disposition to maintain the features of the society that make it what it is: the particular people who make it up, the beliefs, commitments and institutions that order it, and the concrete features that define its character and distinguish it … More ...
Our sympathy to the French on the 218th anniversary of the riots and lynchings that led to the unfortunate state of affairs there.
A recent development in Britain suggests one side of “human rights” in today’s world: Home Secretary threatens to suspend human rights laws after terror suspects go missing.
“Control orders” in Britain restrict movements and contact with other people for terror suspects who cannot be brought to court. They replaced detention without trial, which was … More ...
Immigration is is not the only issue that suggests rather strongly that the claim we live in a democracy is mostly propagandistic. To my mind it seems obvious that our government is more technocratic than democratic. It’s a complicated world today, with a complex and largely hierarchical organization, and in such a setting the views … More ...
James Madison points out in Federalist 10 that the more diverse and populous a country the less influence popular sentiment has on its government and the easier it is for national elites to run things in accordance with their own ideas of what makes sense. The reported deal on immigration brought that famous argument to … More ...
The death of Jerry Falwell, and the Pope’s recent visit to Brazil, suggest some thoughts about “gaffes.”
One of the events that defined Falwell in the mainstream mind was his notorious attack on a purple handbag-carrying cartoon character as a homosexual. A problem with the story is that it never happened. That doesn’t seem … More ...
The generation gap was a big thing back in the ’60s. It seems that in France they have multiple generation gaps (see the table below on the right). It’s been called a split into two tribes of young and old, but the situation’s obviously a lot more complex than that.
So what explains it? Dunno, … More ...