QUOTE FOR THE DAY

“I am at a loss to know how creationism has got mixed up with conservatism. I have always thought of conservatives as the cold-eyed people, unafraid to face awkward facts, respectful of rigorous intellectual disciplines, and decently curious, but never dogmatic, on points of metaphysics. Conservatism thus understood is, in my view, the ideal outlook for free citizens of a free society. Contrariwise, pseudoscientific fads, metaphysical dogmas like “dialectical materialism,” magical explanations for natural phenomena, and slipshod word-games about “agency” and “design” posing as science, arise most commonly in obscurantist despotisms. The old USSR was addled with such things, Lysenkoism being only the best known. You may say that an obscurantist despotism can be conservative in its own way, and you may have a terminological point; but that’s not the style of conservatism I favor.” – John Derbyshire, NRO, in an exchange with Tom Bethell.

Once again, I find myself in complete agreement with the old codger. How can that be? Once you get past his prejudices, which he proudly displays, Derbyshire is actually a recognizable old-style conservative. His description of the conservative temperament and attitude toward reality is absolutely something I share and, as he puts it, absolutely consonant with deep religious faith. I can see now what will be a main line of criticism of my book: that its understanding of conservatism is an English one, not American. Maybe that’s the origin of my detente with the Derb. But if our shared conservatism draws inspiration from English tradition and history, it is also a philosophical argument, available for universal inspection and debate. The point is not whether such a skeptical, empirical, practical, limited government conservatism can survive in today’s America. The point is whether it offers an attractive politics for the West in modernity. I agree with Derb that it is the ideal outlook for free citizens of a free society. I also believe it is the best politics for maintaining our freedom in modernity. Which is why fundamentalists of all kinds – Muslim and Christian – feel so threatened by it.

– posted by Andrew.

EVANGELICALS VERSUS DISPENSATIONALISTS

Here’s a document from some evangelical leaders specifically attacking the notion that the current state of Israel is Biblically mandated. These leaders differ from the increasingly popular and now mainstream fundamentalist notion of the End-Time, the Rapture, and the role that a unified and expansionary Israel will play in such a moment. Evangelical protestantism is not monolithic, but the dispensationalists are clearly gaining ground, as the astonishing success of the “Left Behind” books shows. I should add that dispensationalism is a relatively recent development. Like much that now passes for ancient truth (like the Catholic church’s insistence on the human person present in the zygote), its origins are actually very modern. In this new and modern brand of absolutist faith, the more extreme Christian fundamentalists are similar to many Islamic fundamentalists.

– posted by Andrew.

“KILL ALL NON-MUSLIMS”

London’s most famous mullah unplugged. According to the prosecutor,

“In the course of one lecture [Abu Hamza] accused the Jews of being blasphemous, traitors and dirty. This, because of the treachery, because of their blasphemy and filth, was why Hitler was sent into the world.”

And people question why some of us insist on calling these monsters Islamo-fascists. The answer: because we speak English.

– posted by Andrew.

The Beagles

Longtime readers of the blog will know who "the beagles" are. Now, they’ve been outed by the illustration at the top of the blog, I might as well introduce them to the rest of you, especially the newbies. The original beagle is a pure-bred, called Dusty (foreground, below, dappled in sunlight). She’s eight years old this week. Last December, my fiance (yes, we’ve upgraded again) stumbled across a beagle-mutt puppy from the local animal shelter and fell in love. Dustyeddy_1We called her Eddy. For some reason, her previous owners had called Animal Control to take her to the shelter. Despite flashes of racism, she’s a wonderful dog, easily trained (by beagle standards). She’s a very different personality than Dusty: as outgoing as Dusty is aloof, as friendly to other dogs as Dusty is wary. Eddy has a healthy interest in food, while Dusty is pathological in her obsession to inhale every speck of edible (or non-edible) material in the fastest time possible. Amazingly, Dusty didn’t go nuts when Eddy entered the picture. In fact, they’ve become fast, well, allies, rather than friends. Dusty’s interest in squirrels has soared under Eddy’s influence, and walking the two of them at the same time requires Cirque du Soleil skills. When a squirrel or a chicken bone are within smelling distance, I spin like a weathervane in a storm. Anyway, here they are, the closest I’ll ever get to children. 
 

EMAIL OF THE DAY

“This is in response to your emailer yesterday. I’m a (theologically) liberal Unitarian serving as an enlisted man in the military. I’ve had a number of religious discussions that included a number of dyed-in-the-wool fundamentalists and I’ve never been insulted/dismissed the way your correspondent was. Of course, that may be because I manage to explain my views respectfully without coming off like a condescending, pedantic ass. I think this unknown sailor was probably responding less to that individual’s theology than to what a jerk he was being. Unfortunately, I get the sense that their exchange was representative of too much of the interfaith ‘dialogue’ that goes on.”

BUSH AND TORTURE

If he has to break the law he signed, he will. The consequences of presidents doing this to clear legislative intent are profound. I have no doubt that, for all his platitudes yesterday, the fundamental reason Alito was nominated was to remove one check from the president’s assumption of new and permanent powers. In an issue like the McCain Amendment, Roberts and Alito will back the president against the veto-proof vote of the Congress. That’s why they’re there.

– posted by Andrew.

I HAVE IN MY HANDS THE NAMES OF 57 TERRORISTS

Here’s a question I found myself batting around with Yglesias last week: How many committed al Qaeda operatives, people willing to kill and perhaps die for the cause, do we think there are in the U.S. right now? The initial New York Times piece on the NSA wiretap story suggested that about 500 people were being tapped at any given time. How many do we think were full-blown al Qaeda terrorists? One in ten? One in twenty?

I wonder, because if you’ve ever engaged in the rather morbid thought experiment of contemplating what it would take to stage some catastrophic and deadly attack, it actually seems terrifyingly easy. It would take a fair amount of work and planning, of course, but 9/11 was pulled off by a relatively small team on a relatively small budget, and it certainly seems like you could do a sub-9/11 scale but still highly destructive attack with a lot less—a couple guys, a rented truck, and some explosives, say. And if you were an al Qaeda member in the U.S. in the years following 9/11, mightn’t it seem as though the newly aggressive efforts to track folk like you down meant it was advisable to get anything you were planning executed as quickly as possible?

Maybe we’ve just been that effective at catching these folk—or maybe we managed to deport a big chunk on visa violations—and I’m certainly not implying there aren’t any U.S.-based al Qaeda. But if they’ve got even a fraction of 500 people here involved in their plots, why hasn’t one of them managed to pull anything off?

—posted by Julian