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A friendly critic, some years ago, told me that Chronicles could never succeed, because, although we are often right, we are right much too early. To have spoken about the Islamic problem a few days after September 11 made you look like a prophet. We had been warning about the danger for over 15 years. […]
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Filed under: miscellaneous
Schumacher’s greatest achievement was the fusion of ancient wisdom and modern economics in a language that encapsulated contemporary doubts and fears about the industrialized world. The wisdom of the ages, the perennial truths that have guided humanity throughout its history, serves as a constant reminder to each new generation of the limits to human ambition. […]
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Filed under: politics, economics, populism, agrarianism, decentralism, democracy, tradition, books
Hart has always held certain views outside of the conservative mainstream. An advocate for stem-cell research, Hart debated another National Review editor on the subject in 2004. Early in 2005, Hart wrote a long editorial for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette called “The Evangelical Effect.” Finding fault in Bush’s evangelicalism—in 2000, Bush declared that Jesus Christ was […]
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Filed under: politics, populism
The Democratic party is increasingly linked with the attitudes, tendencies, and policies of peace, whereas the Republican party is increasingly linked with the maintenance and projection of American military power. ~Matthew Continetti, The Weekly Standard
This is a pleasant fiction, at least where Democratic party leadership and elected representatives are concerned. This claim about being a “peace” party is most […]
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Filed under: politics, foreign policy, hegemonism
Chait asserts that “any new libertarian voters the Democrats attracted … would cost them support,” but here he is clearly wrong. According to data analyzed by David Boaz and David Kirby, Democratic House and Senate candidates in 2006 did 24 percentage points better with libertarian-leaning voters than they did in the midterm elections of 2002. […]
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Filed under: politics, populism, libertarianism
As we New Mexicans dig out from under our unusual four inches of snow today, the world continues on much as it has done, which is to say it is heading off in strange directions in defiance of all common sense. Preposterously, our governor, Bill Richardson, is contemplating a run for the White House and has been […]
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Filed under: politics
It is something of a compliment for Eunomia that my unexplained cessation of blogging for four days has caused some of my faithful readers to question whether I am, in fact, still alive. (Then again, it may be a sad commentary on the regularity of my blogging that some assume that only the sweet release of death would keep […]
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Filed under: miscellaneous
In the new Newsweek poll, 48 percent of Americans say they want U.S. forces home within a year; 67 percent want them back within two years. A scant 23 percent believe they should stay “as long as it takes to achieve U.S. goals.” ~Harold Meyerson
If Washington gossip is right, even many of the president’s own […]
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Filed under: politics, foreign policy
Sometimes, current tactical logistical weaknesses must not be used as an excuse for, or a signal of, strategic failure. In 1861, newly elected President Abraham Lincoln faced such a dilemma over the siege of Ft. Sumter. He had decided to ignore his military advice to surrender the fort. While the final published version of his […]
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Filed under: politics, foreign policy
As the world seems to overflow with Obamaniacs and everyone who can put two words together seems to be chanting his name (no middle name, please), Dave Sirota seems to be just about the only person on the left who isn’t buying the snake oil. In another anti-Obama post, he manages to find the few […]
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Filed under: politics
It would appear that democracy promotion remains at the heart of the foreign policy vision of at least a few neocons. Though you might have thought that Iraq (or Lebanon or Palestine or Iran or Bolivia or Venezuela or Bahrain, etc.) would have seemed to show it as a terrible goal for U.S. policy and a source of […]
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Filed under: politics, foreign policy
Republican Rep. Henry Bonilla (TX-23) lost his run-off election. I believe that makes for a nice even 30 lost seats this year. Nothing like kicking the Red Republicans when they’re down.
Perhaps now Mr. Rodriguez, the victor, can bring the kind of expertise and ability that his fellow Texas Democrat Silvestre Reyes has already been bringing […]
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Filed under: politics
In Superman Returns, it’s doubly problematic, because the script has given him a romantic foil, Lois’s boyfriend, who is constantly risking his life - the mark of a real hero - to save Lois and her child. Whereas Superman risks . . . um . . . well, okay, there’s some kryptonite thrown in, and […]
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Filed under: film
Kevin Drum and Digby are annoyed by a recent Jeff Greenfield segment about Obama’s wardrobe in which he compares the junior Senator’s style in New Hampshire to that of…Ahmadinejad! Greenfield is probably mockingly rebelling against the Obama overkill that has flooded the airwaves and filled the commentariat by taking the Obama obsession to “wretched excess,” as he called […]
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Filed under: politics
My Enchiridion colleague Paul Cella has written a very smart post on patriotism, which includes the following:
This is why I say Universalism narrows, despite its claim to do the opposite: the whole vast organic tangle of attachments, memories, prescriptions, and intuitions, which are conjured by the word “country,” and which inspire such songs of love […]
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Filed under: politics
The fate of Iraq — and the future of both America and the West [!]– is increasingly in the hands of one man, a man increasingly being isolated by the media and the Establishment in his belief that only victory will do. Alone like Reagan, one hopes that with his core convictions on the line […]
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Filed under: politics
Then, as primary day approached, Bennie noticed a change in his opponent’s language. Brownback never used to mention abortion on the campaign trail. Now he was publicly pronouncing himself an abortion opponent. When primary day rolled around in early August, Bennie ran up an impressive 36 percent of the vote to Brownback’s 48. But he […]
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Filed under: politics
Because the longer Brownback goes on, the more you sense a distinct lack of passion for standard Iowa fare like agriculture policy or the budget. Compared with the previous speaker, local Congressman Steve King, he’s not even worked up about Iraq. What Sam Brownback clearly wants to talk about–what he thinks people need to know […]
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Filed under: politics
Greg Pollowitz, very definitely missing Sixers, informs me that Steve Young is the great-great-great grandson of Bringham [sic] Young.
But I bet everyone who watches Monday Night football knows that. ~Kathryn Jean Lopez
Yes, I suppose we did already know that about Steve Young. Those of us who grew up with WAC/Mountain West college football against BYU also […]
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Filed under: miscellaneous
The head of the pack is a dangerous place for a Democrat to be. Democrats excel in cannibalizing their front-runners. Just ask those who were knocked out in the primary season (Lyndon Johnson, Ed Muskie and Howard Dean) or those who limped from the ring after 15 rounds (Walter Mondale and Al Gore). ~Thomas Edsall, […]
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Filed under: politics
The irrepressible Dennis Dale on Instapundit’s Iraq “symposium”:
It’s like a film where a gang of kids has to save the town for an oblivious adult population. Get out your decoder rings and meet up at the treehouse, guys, America’s in trouble!
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Filed under: politics, foreign policy
But it’s not clear that the neocons will miss the democracy baggage. Jeanne Kirkpatrick’s famous essay “Dictatorships and Double Standards”—the one that landed her the post of Ronald Reagan’s ambassador to the United Nations, was published in Commentary and considered a primary example of “neo” conservative thinking of the period. But recall that her argument […]
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Filed under: politics
I have been remiss in getting links to the latest material at Chronicles‘ website this week, where they have a number of very good articles up.
Here is Paul Craig Roberts on the war:
Obviously, sending more U.S. troops will not succeed in dismantling the Iraqi sectarian militias. However, a U.S. attempt to dismantle the militias will result […]
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Filed under: politics, foreign policy, Islam
The Wire doesn’t just “evade” arguments over solutions, it posits that no solutions actually exist. ~Peter Suderman
I have never seen The Wire (I don’t own a TV, much less do I have a cable subscription), so this is one of those facets of popular culture that is completely unknown to me. (I was a great fan […]
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Filed under: miscellaneous, pessimism
Iraq is only one front in a larger war being waged against the Western world. We are under siege by people with an ideology, a plan, hundreds of millions of dollars, and an ever increasing presence on virtually every continent. Yet none of the decision makers in Washington is willing to confront Iran; the threat […]
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Filed under: politics, foreign policy