The failure caucus.
The weekend brings us this Washington Post essay from Christine Todd Whitman and Robert Bostock, in which they argue that “the primary reason John McCain lost was the substantial erosion of support from self-identified moderates compared with four years ago.” The reason that “moderate” support eroded, according to them, because the Republican Party is in [...]
Let us not talk falsely now.
Friday, November 7, 2008
The 48 hours since the election of Barack Obama have been unkind. Friends once thought sensible recount how they burst into tears, or felt proud of America for the first time in eight years, or stood in awe of this historic moment. There is something to the last: it is historic that, as Shelby Steele [...]
On not voting for John McCain.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
This has become entirely too popular, and the addition of a Huffington Post link means I ought to explain my decision to not vote for John McCain. A few points follow, in no particular order: This would not have happened in an actual battleground state. Rest assured that were I not in California, where the Republican [...]
The trouble with Google.
Mon, Sep 29, 2008
A perennial frustration for conservatives in California is the dilatory attitude of Silicon Valley toward entrepreneurialism, free markets, and limited government. Partly this is cultural — few of the Silicon Valley set fall into anything resembling a conservative demographic, being (broadly speaking) young, ethnically diverse, irreligious, and, well, Californian. Partly, too, is it the natural [...]
Obama’s debate win.
Sat, Sep 27, 2008
If you want to assess the “winner” of a campaign debate, the only data that matters is the post-debate polling — not the pronouncements of the pundits. It will be some days before we see what effect the McCain-Obama debate at Ole Miss has on the national polls, but in this first 24 hours following [...]
Coogan’s “The Troubles”: A Review.
Fri, Sep 19, 2008
One of the curiosities of western Europe’s longest-running armed conflict is how sparse its literature is — and how we must therefore rely on what we have, rather than what we wish to have, when we read about it. The low-grade civil war in Northern Ireland is at an ebb thanks to the peace process [...]
“The mainstay of the torture regime in this country.”
Sun, Sep 14, 2008
The point at which Andrew Sullivan condemns a group for “violating one of the core moral absolutes of Christianity” is the point at which we pass into parody. We get to that point early in his recent post complaining about a poll revealing, in the release he cites, “that nearly six in 10 white Southern [...]
Speaking of the other.
Sat, Sep 13, 2008
As I noted the evening it was given, the most striking feature of Obama’s DNC address was how much it was not about Obama, but about John McCain. Indeed, McCain is mentioned by name 21 times in that speech. By contrast, McCain mentioned Obama a whole six times in his own acceptance remarks. When you [...]
Defining the “Bush Doctrine.”
Fri, Sep 12, 2008
Much ink has been spilled in the past 24 hours over a segment from ABC’s Charlie Gibson’s interview with Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin. The clip reveals Palin momentarily confused when confronted with a query about “the Bush Doctrine,” by which Gibson refers to the present Administration’s practice of preemptive war (or, to be [...]
The warrior ascendant.
Thu, Sep 4, 2008
“You know,” I’ve heard so often, “I’d vote for John McCain if he were still the John McCain of 2000.” What luck, then, that the John McCain of 2000 gave a speech on this, the final night of the Republican National Convention. This is the big news out of St Paul, Minnesota, this evening. The John [...]
- McCain remarks preview. Thu, Sep 4, 2008
- 2 Comments
- Sarah’s people. Wed, Sep 3, 2008
- 4 Comments
- Palin remarks preview. Wed, Sep 3, 2008
- 0 Comments
- The fiasco at Invesco. Thu, Aug 28, 2008
- 0 Comments
- Georgia’s defeat and America’s options. Tue, Aug 12, 2008
- 1 Comment
- America’s Stake in the Caucasus. Sun, Aug 10, 2008
- 1 Comment
- Russia, Georgia, and the Western Alliance. Sat, Aug 9, 2008
- 0 Comments
- War in the Caucasus Sat, Aug 9, 2008
- 8 Comments
- John McCain’s Long Odds Mon, Aug 4, 2008
- 0 Comments
- The Berlin missionary. Thu, Jul 24, 2008
- 0 Comments
Asides 
I’m afraid Ed Morrissey has some misplaced faith in the sensibility of the masses. There were points in American history when one could easily have mustered electoral majorities for slavery, Chinese exclusion, lynching, repeal of the First Amendment, and other bright ideas. The reasons one might seek Constitutional changes to protect things like marriage and the unborn is precisely because of that: to establish moral and legal baselines immune to popular change.
Popularity: 20% [?]
I guess Doug Kmiec won’t be attending Mass here. When we were looking to get married, we considered this parish; suffice it to say that it was far too hard-core for my wife, who doesn’t appreciate those qualities as much as I do. “Voting for a pro-abortion politician when a plausible pro-life alternative exits constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil, and those Catholics who do so place themselves outside of the full communion of Christ’s Church and under the judgment of divine law. Persons in this condition should not receive Holy Communion until and unless they are reconciled to God in the Sacrament of Penance, lest they eat and drink their own condemnation.”
Popularity: 20% [?]
The forthcoming Obama Administration may provide actual trials for the Guantanamo detainees. In the absence of a formal declaration of war, it’s the right thing do. It is also the politically dangerous thing to do: watch for the activists from my side to launch a campaign of fear and indignation well before the first terrorist suspect hits American soil.
Popularity: 22% [?]
Dear DailyKos: Incest is bad for reasons going far beyond the medical. Sincerely, Sane People.
Popularity: 22% [?]
“On the face of it, there is nothing overwhelmingly stirring about Sen. Obama. There is a cerebral quality to him, and an air of detachment. He has eloquence, but within bounds. After nearly two years on the trail, the audience can pretty much anticipate and recite his lines. The political genius of the man is that he is a blank slate.”
Popularity: 24% [?]
Latest Flickr photos
- Obama's debate win.
- War in the Caucasus
- "The mainstay of the torture regime in this country."
- The trouble with Google.
- Speaking of the other.
- Defining the "Bush Doctrine."
- The Arkansan and war.
- Coogan's "The Troubles": A Review.
- (34)
- Remnants and rebuilding: the online/think tank intersection. (21)
- Party men, Townhall, and war. (16)
- Whom the gods would destroy.... (14)
- When a dolchstoß is a dolchstoß. (13)
- (12)
- Doctors and demagogues. (11)
- The Arkansan and war. (11)
- ....And your enemies closer. (9)
- Huckabee's math. (9)
- The failure caucus.
- Let us not talk falsely now.
- On not voting for John McCain.
- The trouble with Google.
- Obama’s debate win.
- Coogan’s “The Troubles”: A Review.
- “The mainstay of the torture regime in this country.”
- Speaking of the other.
- Defining the “Bush Doctrine.”
- The warrior ascendant.
Latest Video
Popularity: unranked [?]
Good Photography
Saturday, November 15, 2008
0 Comments