AUGUSTITIS

I almost felt light-headed some days with all the spare time. I couldn’t read much – my brain’s battery was too low. But I did keep an eye on the papers and the web. This was the month in which it became official that the Bush administration is not interested in restraining the size of the federal government, but in expanding it to serve its own ends. When Fred Barnes concedes it, the conventional wisdom is set. And when the president can say, as he did yesterday, that “when somebody hurts, government’s got to move,” you begin to see why therapeutic liberalism is thriving in this White House. Nixon II? The other aspect of Bush’s domestic policy that is now undeniable is insolvency. The CBO data on the future federal deficit turned out to be chilling. You can argue whether this return to debt was avoidable, after the bubble and 9/11; but you can’t argue that Bush has shown even the slightest concern about it. In other news, The BBC did its bit to undermine the battle against al Qaeda; and it made enemies in law enforcement at home. Yet another prominent “ex-gay” turns out not to be “ex.” A pioneer of “abstinence-only” sex education resigned. An interior design company coopted the Kristols. A critical document showed how the Vatican had a policy of cover-up of sexual abuse of minors for decades. And diversity-mongering reached new heights in the culture. No, I don’t mean the non-reform at the University of Michigan.