Speaking of the Other
As I noted the evening it was given, the most striking feature of Obama’s DNC address was how much it was not about Obama, but about John McCain. Indeed, McCain is mentioned by name 21 times in that...
View Article“The Mainstay of the Torture Regime in this Country”
The point at which Andrew Sullivan condemns a group for “violating one of the core moral absolutes of Christianity” is the point at which we pass into parody. We get to that point early in his recent...
View ArticleCoogan’s “The Troubles:” A Review
One of the curiosities of western Europe’s longest-running armed conflict is how sparse its literature is — and how we must therefore rely on what we have, rather than what we wish to have, when we...
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Obama’s Debate Win
If you want to assess the “winner” of a campaign debate, the only data that matters is the post-debate polling — not the pronouncements of the pundits. It will be some days before we see what effect...
View ArticleThe Trouble With Google
A perennial frustration for conservatives in California is the dilatory attitude of Silicon Valley toward entrepreneurialism, free markets, and limited government. Partly this is cultural — few of the...
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Let Us Not Talk Falsely Now
The 48 hours since the election of Barack Obama have been unkind. Friends once thought sensible recount how they burst into tears, or felt proud of America for the first time in eight years, or stood...
View ArticleThe Failure Caucus
The weekend brings us this Washington Post essay from Christine Todd Whitman and Robert Bostock, in which they argue that “the primary reason John McCain lost was the substantial erosion of support...
View ArticlePlaying To Win In Gaza
As the Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip nears the end of its second week, two things are clear: first, that it will come to some sort of internationally brokered end; and second, that it will end thus...
View ArticleThe Moment When Our Planet Began To Heal
This moment in history, destined to be a where-were-you moment for the present crop of twentysomethings, was mostly missed by me. A morning en route from California to Texas via the miracle of aviation...
View ArticleHolbrooke’s Way
Last week’s NYT Week in Review sported an article by Dexter Filkins on the putative reassertion of civilian influence in American foreign policy. It’s a bad bit of work, not least because it uses...
View ArticleA Responsible Anti-Jihadism?
Better late than never: “I don’t think there is an anti-jihadist movement anymore,” Johnson said. “It’s all a bunch of kooks. I’ve watch some people who I thought were reputable, and who I trusted,...
View ArticleThat Bodyguard Of Lies
Lost in the controversy over the release of the now-infamous “torture memos,” and the forthcoming release of Abu-Ghraib-style photographs, is the broad question of what, exactly, ought to be...
View ArticleOne Man Down
Leave the Internet to itself for six hours, and look what happens: Arlen Specter jumps ship, and the Democrats (probably) get their 60-seat Senate supermajority — which, coupled to a solidly Democratic...
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Hemingway Is Anti-life, Anti-mind, Anti-reality.
This is a chart of the relative stock prices, over the past year, of six major American banks: BB&T, Bank of America, USBancorp, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, and Suntrust. Clearly it’s been a bad year,...
View ArticleMeaningful Moderation
Writing at Obsidian Wings, “Von” argues that the increasing conservatization of the Republican party has not, in fact, resulted in actual conservative policy — which calls into question whether it is...
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The Roots Of Decline
Michael Grunwald’s Time cover story declares that “Republicans have the desperate aura of an endangered species,” and asks (one assumes rhetorically), “are the Republicans going extinct?” If you...
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“Secesh Has To Be Cleared Away By The Hand Of God.”
There’s been a lot of talk about secession lately, mostly because left-wing media seized upon Texas Governor Rick Perry’s comment on the topic, as evidence of conservative disloyalty to these United...
View ArticleAnd The Seeds Of Renewal
Following the publication of Thursday’s piece on the deeply flawed Time Magazine cover piece asserting the death of conservatism and/or the Republican Party, several persons demanded more evidence for...
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The American Future: A Review
Simon Schama is a great scholar, a great writer, and a great historian. Among his many works, The Embarrassment of Riches is the finest history of the Dutch Golden Age in English; and Citizens is among...
View ArticleAs If You’re There, And Lying!
This is too late to matter, but I do want to note this peculiar passage in Mark Leibovich’s piece on California’s governance that ran in the New York Times last weekend: As I waited for Schwarzenegger...
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