Is the G.O.P. getting too cocky, after a deserved moment of triumph in Iraq? The signs are not looking good. My take posted opposite. BAGHDAD BOB AND THE BLACK KNIGHT: Finally, a cartoon. AMERICAN EMPIRE: As a practical matter, I agree with Niall Ferguson (and not just because we’re old friends). The concept is an … Continue reading HUBRIS ASCENDANT
No surprise that Hans Blix wants more time; that January 27 is now seen as the “beginning” of the arms inspection; or that other countries are quite happy to see the process drawn out indefinitely. This was always the danger of the U.N. route. The administration, as is its wont, seems to be saying almost … Continue reading THE DELAYING GAME
Chatting with English friends over the past few days, one theme keeps coming up. America is now, for the first time ever, a real empire. And the Brits know an empire when they see one. Yes, the U.S. has been a dominant global power before now; and, yes, it had an enormous sphere of influence … Continue reading THINKING OF EMPIRE
Finally, some sanity in Britain over foot-and-mouth disease. One group of farmers is refusing to let their healthy cattle be slaughtered for no good reason. I hope it’s the first of many revolts. SOLIPSISM EXTRA: Well I went to bed early last night and didn’t stay up as I usually do to read the next … Continue reading THE FIGHT BACK
Am I the only one to be mildly suspicious of Donna Brazile’s recent confession that she admires Clarence Thomas? In the American Spectator Online, she says that she considers Thomas to be a “role model for black Americans” just “like Jesse Jackson, Tiger Woods and Thurgood Marshall.” Yes, Marshall “had a different path” to the … Continue reading DONNA E IGNOBILE
A reader writes: A question: I’m wondering how Alec Baldwin’s gross, shitty remarks on Twitter have made you feel about your stance on hate crimes laws. If I am remembering correctly, you are against them on the grounds that they criminalise thoughts and motivations instead of just behavior. At any rate, you’ve now said that … Continue reading Press Charges Against Alec Baldwin, Ctd
[Re-posted from earlier today] “I think I shall have to give up teaching females after this year. The nervous irritation caused by two hours’ contact with them is intense. I seem to hate every movement of their minds. The minds of the men, even when they are stupid and ugly, never appear to me so … Continue reading The Queerness Of Keynes
First, Burke on capitalism, via Corey Robin: There must be some impulse besides public spirit, to put private interest into motion along with it. Monied men ought to be allowed to set a value on their money; if they did not, there would be no monied men. This desire of accumulation is a principle without … Continue reading Quotes For The Day
Below are all the posts regarding Andrew’s examination of the Mormon church’s troubled history with race and how it relates to Mitt Romney’s shape-shifting character. Tue Oct 23, 2012 – 8:30pm: Imagine for a moment that Barack Obama had never attended Jeremiah Wright’s church in Chicago and had decided to attend services, and proselytize for, … Continue reading Religion, Race And Double Standards
Daniel McCarthy expects the GOP coalition to come unglued:
Earlier this week the New Yorker’s John Cassidy asked, "Where are the real conservative intellectuals?" The short answer is that "conservative" once signified an intellectual tendency with partisan overtones, now it signifies a partisan tendency that would prefer not to have intellectual overtones — there are no votes in that….
The wings of the GOP coalition over the last half-century have not primarily been separated by "issues" social or economic; they were separated by class markers and style. The ideological differences were secondary to those. But now there’s a politically and economically successful, if brain dead, fusion of the classes. The rich sound like the poor, and the poor angrily demand policies that favor the rich. The only problem for the GOP is that external conditions — the real-world economy and the distaste younger people have for the Baby Boomers’ version of the Republican Party (and their version of Christianity) — are eventually going to overpower this mercenary fusionism.
The anti-intellectualism allows for Paul Ryan's little learning and huge gambles to seem temporarily smart. Dreher's take:
