The Dish

Brooklyn’s Democratic leader, Vito Lopez, marks a new level of acceptance for big city pols to back full marriage rights for gays – even while representing ethnic, often Hispanic, Catholic voters.

"Think of history as a giant, unpredictable pool game. Tradition is simply the pattern that exists at any given moment on the table. It is where you start from; it constrains what you can do; it commands attention and respect; and yet there is still enormous potential for change. A skilled player will immediately intuit imaginative ways to reorder the whole table; or to play it safe; or to just move it along. In Michael Oakeshott’s words,

"A tradition is not something to which we must adhere; it is something which provides the starting point and the initiative for fresh enquiry. It is no use looking to it for finished conclusions, for settled answers to fixed questions because it is not a tradition of conclusions or even of questions, but of enquiry."

This is what time is; and it is the universe in which practical life has to occur. One thing leads to another; and every moment presents us with choices of how to act and what to do. Yes, there are constraints: the historically contingent pattern you are born into; the genetic lottery; the hazards of physical life. But in the end, practical life does not relent in offering every individual a constant array of choices, trivial and profound, that she has to make. Even not making a decision is a decision…

The conservative, unlike the fundamentalist or Marxist or any other adherent of a direction for time, simply observes that this is the way the world is. He will confront the fundamentalist with a puzzled look, and ask him how he knows for sure that something beyond contingency and choice is at work in human history, that some other force is directing human action and ends. He will enjoy pointing out the collapse of this great theory of history and that one. And in the meantime, he will simply make the choices he wants to make and live.

Laurence Olivier put the conservative temperament in this respect rather well when he said: ‘I take a simple view of life: keep your eyes open and get on with it,’" – The Conservative Soul, Chapter Five.

"I didn’t need a former Bush administration official to tell me that most White House political operatives don’t really like the evangelical base that brought them to power. I’ve seen the evidence for myself, up close and personal. But the more astonishing phenomenon is how current high-level officials of the Bush administration daily go out of their way to insult this critical constituency just weeks before the vote.

Here’s an example: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, someone who claims to be a Christian herself, which, by definition, means you submit to the authority of Jesus and the Bible, last week swore in to the position of AIDS coordinator an open homosexual. The position carries the rank of ambassador. The photo accompanying this column shows the smiling first lady, Laura Bush, and Mark Dybul’s partner, Jason Claire, leering at him.

During her comments, Rice referred to the presence of Claire’s mother and ‚Äì sit yourself down for this one ‚Äì called her Dybul’s "mother-in-law." Do you get the picture? Do you believe God will honor an administration that behaves this way? Do you believe God will continue to protect a country that flagrantly disregards His laws? Do you believe God will be mocked like this without consequences? Do you believe God will bless a party that acts so duplicitously? Remember what I told you on the evening of Nov. 7," – Joseph Farah, Christianist, editor of the conservative website, WorldNetDaily.

Leering?

It’s an open letter by Kevin Tillman, Pat Tillman’s brother (both pictured above in a family photo). It’s brutal and honest and there is so much in it that speaks to our moment. Money quote:

Somehow those afraid to fight an illegal invasion decades ago are allowed to send soldiers to die for an illegal invasion they started.

Somehow faking character, virtue and strength is tolerated.

Somehow profiting from tragedy and horror is tolerated.

Somehow the death of tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people is tolerated.

Somehow subversion of the Bill of Rights and The Constitution is tolerated.

Somehow suspension of Habeas Corpus is supposed to keep this country safe.

Somehow torture is tolerated.

Somehow lying is tolerated.

Somehow reason is being discarded for faith, dogma, and nonsense.

Somehow American leadership managed to create a more dangerous world.

Somehow a narrative is more important than reality.

Somehow America has become a country that projects everything that it is not and condemns everything that it is.

Somehow the most reasonable, trusted and respected country in the world has become one of the most irrational, belligerent, feared, and distrusted countries in the world.

Somehow being politically informed, diligent, and skeptical has been replaced by apathy through active ignorance.

Somehow the same incompetent, narcissistic, virtueless, vacuous, malicious criminals are still in charge of this country.

Somehow this is tolerated.

Somehow nobody is accountable for this.

Well, the founding fathers ensured that every two years someone can be held accountable for this. So you now know what to do.

What’s a blogger supposed to do about reviews of a book? I’ve already been pretty crass in promoting the book on the blog – but mainly because I believe in its arguments and see no reason not to try and get it out to as many people as possible before the election. Reviews are different. Do I link to them? Ignore them? Respond to them? Reviewers have every right to criticize a book without the author jumping down their throats. So I’ll link to the few I’ve seen, and if any raise a serious argument that’s worth addressing, I’ll try and respond just to that argument. Anyway, here’s the Economist’s review. Make of it what you will.

"He leads in a way that the good Lord tells him is best for our country," – Marine General Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on Donald Rumsfeld.

Surely the military leadership can be a place where expression of religious faith of one particular variety is restrained. Especially when we are at war with Islamic extremists, and when we must take every care to make sure our millitary actions aren’t perceived abroad as religiously motivated. And surely military decisions should be made on an empirical, pragmatic basis, rather than on messages from Heaven.

The good Senator from … er, Heaven, has a form for potential judges. Enjoy.

He didn’t want it enough. Who can blame him?

West Chicago, Illinois, 11.50 am.

Is it now a danger to America’s national self-interest? There’s a discussion here. Money quote from David Rieff to Gregory Djerejian:

I think it is American exceptionalism itself, as our official national ideology, that is now dangerous to our national interest in a way it has not been in the past. The reason for this is simple. During much of the 20th century, much of the world (outside of Latin America, that is, where we were always viewed as the empire) concurred with America’s image of itself. Perhaps that was because of what we represented; perhaps, to take the realist approach you and I both favor, it was because it was in Europe’s and much of East Asia’s interest to do so. But at the very least, the sense we had of ourselves did not seem illegitimate to much of the world as it does now. But now is now, and we are still proceeding as if we get a kind of moral free pass no matter what we do, that we are exceptional.