After the dust settles
Okay, so first things first. I should not have pulled the traffic card when responding to Sady about A Game of Thrones. That was, in the words of a wise person I know, “a...
Monthly Archive: August 2011
The Constitutional Conservatism Newspeak
“Liberals are the true conservatives of this generation,” a growingly popular line of argument goes, “because liberals are the guardians of the new American tradition—the New Deal tradition—against the reactionary onslaught of the fake,...
Can Men Discuss Sexism?
“If a male is intrinsically incapable of contributing valid criticism of a feminist critique, then what is the point of a male trying to understand the critique at all?” ~ Paul Crider, in a...
A word of advice for blogger and commenter alike
“If you’re arguing on the internet, you’ve already lost.” Ah, if only it were so easy…
Lessons Gleaned from The Wire
~by Anderson Tuggle “It’s really about the American city, and about how we live together. It’s about how institutions have an effect on individuals. Whether one is a cop, a longshoreman, a drug dealer,...
A kinder, gentler Martin Luther King, Jr.
Dave Weigel uses some fascinating newly re-released Gallup data to remind us that, once upon a time, MLK was about as well-liked by white people as Farrakhan: Why was King so unpopular in 1966?...
Friday Jukebox Blues
Okay I did one a few weeks ago. If nobody objects though here’s a really cool blues song. The original, by Geeshie Wiley is one of the most haunting songs you’ll ever hear. Those...
Sexism in Fantasy
Spoilers for the first three books of A Song of Ice and Fire below. A few noted, minor spoilers for the last two. Sady Doyle apparently wants female characters in George R. R. Martin’s...
The Constitution is Old
~by E.C. Gach Since S&P downgraded the U.S., Fareed Zakaria has been reminding people that currently, “no country with a presidential system has a triple-A rating from all three major ratings agencies.” The downgrade...
Atheist Fight
New Atheist Sam Harris has been arguing that we need government to do extensive redistribution of wealth, with the ultimate aim of reforming human nature. Government should “steer us collectively toward the best civilization...
The end of liberal interventionism would be a wonderful new beginning
For liberalism, that is. Alas, there is no end in sight. Elias points us to this piece by Anne-Marie Slaughter in which she writes: Looking forward, it is really not up to the west,...
How To Design A Consumption Tax That Isn’t Stupid
~by Ryan B Every presidential campaign, there is inevitably a candidate or two (usually Republicans, although maybe Mike Gravel too) who advocate the Fair Tax. They would replace the income tax with a national...
Reihan Salam on race
A little less than a week ago, News Corp’s new iPad publication, The Daily, ran a Reihan Salam op-ed which attempted to argue against, or at least unpack, the common opinion amongst those to his...
Jack Layton, RIP
~by Jonathan McLeod It’s a surreal time in Canadian Politics. Usually, the summer presents us with few goings on, but, sadly, such is not the case this year. I don’t know if it has...
Actions, Consequences, and the Law
Elias Isquith writes, below: In general, I’m not fond of the strain that I see sometimes in politics (on the right and left) that advocates policies which are kind of paternalistic in essence, whether...
“If you seek our monument, look in the hole”
I devoured Mark Steyn’s After America: Get Ready for Armageddon within a few days of its release. If you couldn’t tell, I’m a bit of a declinist, so I tend to nod right along...
Presidential Fictions
Perhaps the strangest reaction to President Obama’s summer-reading list came from Mickey Kaus (emphasis his): Obama’s just-released “summer reading list” doesn’t offer a lot of evidence even for the “reads very widely” thesis. It’s...
Why Do Liberals Care About Ron Paul’s Goldbuggery?
~by Ryan B Let’s call this a sequel to my last post, because it’s at least motivated by some of the same concerns. Short summary of that one: a lot of popular liberal bloggers...
