Posted on November 30th, 2007 by Daniel Larison
Someone had mentioned the following in a recent conversation, so I tracked down a source for it:
Huckabee is described by one national conservative leader as a member of the “Christian left.”
This reminded me that the very next day after Novak related this piece of information, Gerson wrote his column praising Huckabee. The description of Huckabee as a member of the Christian left and […]
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Filed under: politics
Posted on November 30th, 2007 by Daniel Larison
Take notes, Obama: Condi Rice dug deep into her bag of tricks and…recycled her “childhood in Birmingham as source of foreign policy insight” argument that she has used far too many times already:
Rice began by saying she did not want to draw historical parallels or be too self-reflective [bold mine-DL], but as a young girl […]
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Filed under: politics, foreign policy
Posted on November 30th, 2007 by Daniel Larison
Michael Moynihan’s article, framing Chavez’s power-grab and the upcoming Russian elections as evidence of “the Cold War’s return,” wouldn’t merit much comment, except that he makes this claim as he tries to tell his audience why they should care about what happens in the domestic politics of other countries:
Despite their obvious contempt for democratic institutions, both leaders still command […]
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Filed under: politics, foreign policy, Russia
Posted on November 30th, 2007 by Daniel Larison
Jim Antle notes that Ron Paul’s campaign has raised over $10 million this quarter. The campaign could reach its goal of $12 million before the next fundraising day, which had been announced as December 16 in commemoration of the Boston Tea Party.
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Filed under: politics
Posted on November 30th, 2007 by Daniel Larison
To hear the pronouncements about Ukraine that issue from that establishment’s nodes every time the country makes it through another election without mass violence, you’d think this was Switzerland. Brussels and Washington pat Ukraine on the head for its ‘maturity’ and its ‘evolving democracy’. The smart locals know they live in a klepto-oligarchy, and that […]
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Filed under: politics, economics, foreign policy
Posted on November 29th, 2007 by Daniel Larison
Ross wrote:
Without the two of them [Huckabee and Paul], you’d have a field whose ideological spectrum runs from Steven Moore to Grover Norquist on domestic policy, and from Michael Ledeen to Norman Podhoretz on foreign affairs. There would be greater party unity, sure, but sometimes unity’s just another word for self-marginalization. I don’t think Huckabee […]
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Filed under: politics
Posted on November 29th, 2007 by Daniel Larison
At what point do we stop granting Giuliani the prestige of being called ”the frontrunner”? He receives this title on account of misleading national polls. In the first four states, he is usually behind, in some cases quite badly. In Iowa, he is tied for third. Iin New Hampshire, he is at best a distant second. In Michigan, […]
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Filed under: politics
Posted on November 29th, 2007 by Daniel Larison
Since it has become a point of contention, it might be instructive to note that Trevino’s rather uncharitable view of the Esphigmenou matter has some relation to his disrespect for the Patriarchate of Moscow, since the latter has interceded on behalf of the monks of Esphigmenou in the past and has already, according to Kathimerini, reasonably […]
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Filed under: Orthodoxy
Posted on November 29th, 2007 by Daniel Larison
Trevino calls me a “fan of Esphigmenou die-hards,” for which he has no proof, and I never said that I was “immunized” from anything. It was Trevino’s baseless accusation that I had endorsed schismatics that led me to point out just how wrong he was. Once again: I do not “endorse” the monks at Esphigmenou. I […]
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Filed under: Orthodoxy
Posted on November 28th, 2007 by Daniel Larison
I used to like Josh Trevino, too, and I was unaware that my views–which haven’t changed an iota since I started writing this blog–seemed so terribly false and misguided to him. They apparently weren’t so false when he invited me to participate in our now-defunct group blog, Enchiridion Militis, for whose successor, What’s Wrong With the […]
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Filed under: politics, foreign policy, Orthodoxy
Posted on November 28th, 2007 by Daniel Larison
In tonight’s debate McCain lambasted Ron Paul for “isolationism” of the kind that “led to caused WWII.” Since the topic in question was the war in Iraq, James notes that this was an absurd comparison. But leave aside how far-fetched the comparison was. Just consider the thinking behind this. Interventionists routinely complain that their opponents “blame America […]
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Filed under: politics, foreign policy
Posted on November 28th, 2007 by Daniel Larison
This House has noted the Prime Minister’s remarkable transformation from Stalin to Mr Bean in the past few weeks. ~Vince Cable
Via James Forsyth
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Filed under: politics
Posted on November 28th, 2007 by Daniel Larison
While I’m on the topic of pro-Ron Paul open letters, I should note that George Ajjan has written an open letter to Arab-Americans on behalf of Ron Paul.
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Filed under: politics
Posted on November 28th, 2007 by Daniel Larison
At the same time, however, there was always a very real danger of identifying – confusing, really – the state with the Kingdom of God. Indeed, the actual history of Roman Orthodox symphonia is a decidedly mixed bag. Our calendar is full of saints who suffered exile and even torture at the hands of the […]
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Filed under: politics, Orthodoxy
Posted on November 28th, 2007 by Daniel Larison
Rasmussen shows that Huckabee now “leads” Romney 28-25 in Iowa. Like Obama, his “lead” is still within the margin of error, but as the latest symbol of his tremendous surge of support and Romney’s collapse it is significant (Rasmussen calls it a “stunning change”). In Rasmussen polling, Huckabee has jumped 12 points during the month […]
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Filed under: politics
Posted on November 28th, 2007 by Daniel Larison
And no, I’m not convinced by arguments that our intervention in WWI brought about WWII; our role, other than urging France and Britain to mitigate their vengeance, was fairly minor. ~Megan McArdle
It was a minor role, if deciding the outcome of the war was minor. Here’s the thing: intervening in WWI was fundamentally a terrible […]
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Filed under: politics, libertarianism
Posted on November 27th, 2007 by Daniel Larison
There’s a lot to be said for questioning the cultural conservative bona fides of someone endorsed by Chuck Norris, Ric Flair and Ted Nugent. Reihan is correct, no doubt, that Huckabee’s embrace of these celebrities fits into a larger appeal to his natural base of supporters (it is probably true that the people who respond most strongly to […]
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Filed under: politics, culture
Posted on November 27th, 2007 by Daniel Larison
It is not yet available, and it is rather difficult to get information about its contents, but an interesting new book is coming out next year on Orthodox theology: The Cambridge Companion to Christian Orthodox Theology. I do know that it will have a submission from Prof. Papanikolaou of Fordham, who recently organised a conference […]
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Filed under: Orthodoxy, books
Posted on November 27th, 2007 by Daniel Larison
So Publisher’s Weekly has reviewed Jonah Goldberg’s Liberal Fascism and given it generally good marks. It is a brief review (located all the way at the bottom of the page), and the points that it highlights mostly sound like a conventional right-liberal/conservative analysis of fascism. I don’t say that dismissively. I think right-liberal and conservative analyses of fascism that […]
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Filed under: politics, books
Posted on November 26th, 2007 by Daniel Larison
But Georgia, on the other hand, presents a set of dilemmas which are lesser in scope, which have a smaller impact on U.S. policy because of the willingness of much of the U.S. media to ignore developments in Georgia which do not suit dominant U.S. paradigms and ambitions. Of course, objectively speaking, the geopolitical risks and moral embarrassments involved in […]
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Filed under: politics, foreign policy
Posted on November 26th, 2007 by Daniel Larison
I’d say that the fall of the Soviet Union discredited several ideas on the left and the right: on the left, the idea that the state should own most of the means of production; on the right, the idea of isolationism, or non-interventionism. It is now patently obvious that if the US had not drawn […]
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Filed under: politics, foreign policy
Posted on November 26th, 2007 by Daniel Larison
Well, let’s remember that all law establishes morality [bold mine-DL]. That’s what law does. The law of speeding is saying that it’s immoral to go at 85 miles an hour. The morality is that we have established a 65-mile-an-hour limit. So that’s what all law does: It establishes that it is wrong for me to […]
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Filed under: politics
Posted on November 26th, 2007 by Daniel Larison
James Forsyth’s view of the prospects for the Annapolis peace conference make a good deal more sense than making comparisons to Munich. The Economist also thinks it will probably lead to very little. Bret Stephens is pretty clearly vehemently opposed to the idea, but at least grants that the gathering, or meeting, or whatever it is, is “pointless.” That is […]
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Filed under: politics, foreign policy
Posted on November 26th, 2007 by Daniel Larison
Even though it is distracting me from the far more important writing of the day (discussing the ins and outs of Battlestar Galactica: Razor), this weekend item (via Sullivan) from Michael Kinsley caught my attention, since it falls under the general category of Obama Supporters Who Are Intent On Making Obama Lose. It is a fascinating […]
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Filed under: politics
Posted on November 21st, 2007 by Daniel Larison
I wish all of my readers and colleagues a very happy Thanksgiving. There will likely be no more blogging over the holiday weekend, and at least for the next few days all of us should be doing something more edifying or at least more sane than blogging and reading blogs.
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Filed under: miscellaneous
