I had tried to post at Redstate, making the case for moderate conservatism, and was promptly banned, for even the most mild criticism of the current conservative commentariat.

Ironically, I found Culture11 only by the sneering mention of it by Moe Lane, and a short Google search afterward.

http://www.takimag.com/blogs/article/culture_snores/

Well, yes, which is what I wanted my original point to be.

Culture11 – heard of it. (I never liked or even understood the name, though – now I find it means “the eleven areas of culture?” Sheesh. Also, I don’t think I ever agreed with any of the “Ladyblog” posters (except Eve Tushnet) about anything, and I could take or leave most of the other writers.)

Memeorandum – never heard of it.

Big Hollywood – never heard of it.

Dan Riehl – never heard of him.

So Culture11 wins by default, I guess. Not that I am in any way representative, but what blogs a person has or hasn’t heard of can be very much a product of happenstance.

In terms of my social and personal obligations I do, however, confess that I regard the input of others as, at best, advisory opinions. So to that extent I find I fit the bill of the slacker lib or the irresponsible libertarian.

I do have a guilty fondness for observing the Constitution and, apart from a praiseworthy commitment to the Second Amendment and a rather selective gesture toward strict constructionism, the Republican has not exactly covered itself with glory of late.

That is most of my apologia for my Democrat credentials.

Yeah, you’re right. We do.

So did Jesus. And creating a better world is the point of MOST of the “obligations” to which you refer. Or at least that’s what I guess as you don’t actually identify any obligations from which liberals want to free you.

What obligations do you have of which I might work to relieve you?

The more I think about it, the more I think it the case that us liberals want to free US from the obligations YOU choose to have. That’s a whole different kettle of fish, isn’t it?

These stereotypes are of limited value, but I agree that Aziz’s description of what conservatives and liberals are “supposed” to be like is a bit strange. I understand what Aziz is getting at in his critique of Limbaugh’s happy-clappy individualism, but he would have done better to describe it in terms of obligation vs. emancipation. I think it is fair to say that liberals are generally interested in being emancipated from the constraints of authority, and liberal activists pursue meliorist goals to remove as many of those constraints in society at large as possible. Conservatives, if they know what they’re about (and Limbaugh does not), are not interested in personal or social emancipation, but want to be left to their own devices in the web of personal and social obligations that they have inherited. On one level, this makes them natural allies for libertarians, who also want to be left to their own devices, but also puts them at odds with libertarians more often than not when the libertarians attack and ridicule these obligations and the social institutions that require them.

Conservatives do largely want to be left alone insofar as they, we, don’t want to be subjected to meliorist social policy, but the virtually anti-social self-indulgence Limbaugh endorses is something entirely different.

The liberal as “slacker layabout” may be the way that some Boomers on the right imagine their counterparts on the left because of their experience in the ’60s and ’70s, but if liberals were, in fact, layabouts rather than politically engaged conservatives wouldn’t have many policies to oppose.

“….it’s supposed to be the conservative who focuses on the pragmatic business of improving our society and the liberal who is the slacker layabout focused more on his immediate happiness than any broader social responsibility.”

Wow. Is that true? I thought it was us libruls who sought to superimpose our better world on everyone else’s reality whereas the hardbitten conservative cowboys just wanted to be left alone with their kinfolks and their corn liquor. Maybe I’m thinking of the libertarians.

Gordianus, I clearly have some remedial jazz listening to do. I will seek out Tal Farlow right away.

Just as well then, because I think it’s as good an example for the flaw in your “cocoon” thesis as anything. Clearly people who didn’t know anybody who voted for Nixon were separated from personal contact with very large parts of America. Whoever misses out on C11 or Memeorandum just as clearly isn’t.

I have no particular beef with C11, and it AFAIK it published interesting stuff. But it wasn’t “can’t miss reading” for anything, and it wasn’t around long enough to have any institutional strength. Stacy McCain argues that this is largely a function of David Kuo’s personal incompetence, and from what I’ve seen I have no reason to believe he’s wrong.

Not at all. Memeorandum is an aggregator of news stories and blog entries. It is a collection of memes–hence the name. As far as I can tell, it has no particular political slant and draws from across the spectrum of blogs depending on what is being discussed most frequently. It is something that many bloggers use to find what other people are saying about the news of the day.

BTW I did catch that interview with the androgynous Terry Gross. I think I caught one with his bizarre brother who later committed suicide.

Art Tatum very fine. I like Toots Thielman, Bird, Russ Malone, Wes Montgomery, etc. I really like the late Tal Farlow, who I got to know after he came out of retirement.

Well, I read way too much crap on the interwebs as it is. But I have just barely heard of Memeorandum. I gather from context that it’s on the “unreformed” Right, politically speaking?

Really? You didn’t think it was deep when the meatball hit Kim Novak and Bertrand Russel in the head, demonstrating that all they had believed was wrong? You thought Whiteman and Angelfood McSpade were shallow?

Hell, Crumb is more conservative than all of us put together You should hear his NPR interview where he takes on the “hippie” movement, cakes without sugar, the cult for native americanism, and the Rolling Stones all in one sentence (though he isn’t that big on sentences).

I love jazz also . Do you like Art Tatum? I always liked what Rubnstein said about him:

“He’s the greatest pianist in the world.”
“You mean the greatest jazz pianist.”
“No, I mean the greatest pianist.”