http://www.amconmag.com/mccarthy www.ToryAnarchist.com Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:29:29 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Noel O'Sullivan puts it well: In the Vindication of the English Constitution he had indeed professed allegiance to the ideal of a balanced constitution, and consequently insisted that the House of Commons alone could not be regarded as the representative of the nation; it was, on the contrary, merely the representative ... http://www.amconmag.com/mccarthy/2009/11/13/the-trouble-with-disraeli/ I should clarify something from the last two posts. Running candidates who are a good fit for their district does not require that Republicans ditch their social conservative base, even if Democrats have had to run antiabortion candidates in order to win in red and conservative-blue districts. The reason for ... http://www.amconmag.com/mccarthy/2009/11/05/asymmetrical-politics/ Jay Cost of RealClearPolitics thinks that the gold medal for faulty analysis this election cycle should go to pundits who say NY-23 shows the Republican Party deeply divided, since, Cost says, "the GOP's divisions - whatever they may be - are utterly, totally dwarfed by the continuing divisions in the ... http://www.amconmag.com/mccarthy/2009/11/05/whose-divisions-are-worse/ I'm in the camp that says Tuesday's election results don't tell us much about what to expect next November. A Republican revival? Conservative comeback? That's not exactly what NY-23 suggests; there Democrat Bill Owens beat Conservative (and virtual Republican) Doug Hoffman by sticking to the common-sense, district-specific playbook that served ... http://www.amconmag.com/mccarthy/2009/11/05/virginia-new-jersey-ny-23/ I have a review of the new book by George H. Nash, dean of conservative historians, up at History News Network here. http://www.amconmag.com/mccarthy/2009/11/03/reappraising-the-right/ Ayn Rand acknowledged Aristotle as the only thinker to whom she owed a "philosophical debt." But Rand's Aristotle was, in at least one instance, really Albert Jay Nock's Aristotle, as this footnote in Jennifer Burns's Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right reveals: Her late use of Aristotle ... http://www.amconmag.com/mccarthy/2009/10/29/aristotle-is-albert-jay-nock/ The GOP might do reasonably well next week, with Republican Bob McDonnell set to coast to victory in Virginia's gubernatorial contest, though I suspect New Jersey might again (as always) dash the party's hopes. I suspect Democratic incumbent John Corzine will pull through in the Garden State. I have no ... http://www.amconmag.com/mccarthy/2009/10/29/the-gops-generational-time-bomb/ This article gets a lot right -- the death of newspapers has been exaggerated. They still sell, though sales are falling, and they're still profitable. The smart ones are becoming more profitable even as sales decline -- in other words, they have a product that has been underpriced until now. ... http://www.amconmag.com/mccarthy/2009/10/29/not-the-death-of-print/ No, but this is what people who connect Hobbes and liberalism have in mind (from de Jasay's masterpiece, The State): Recalling the regimes of Walpole, Metternich, Melbourne or Louis Philippe (only more so), with a blend of indifference, benign neglect and a liking for amenities and comforts, the capitalist state must ... http://www.amconmag.com/mccarthy/2009/10/04/anthony-de-jasay-libertarian-hobbesian/ Very interesting piece on Thomas Hobbes in The Nation, all the more interesting for being a blend of fairly astute political philosophy and a hard-left political agenda. I've been intending to read up on the Hobbes literature -- in the past few weeks I've acquired Hobbes on Civil Association (Oakeshott), ... http://www.amconmag.com/mccarthy/2009/10/04/about-hobbes/