There’s nothing praiseworthy about someone who never has to transcend the ‘worser’ angels of her nature. So if you’ve never had to wrestle with the guy with the horns and pitchfork sitting on your shoulder, I really don’t want to know you. Acting on your bad thoughts can make you scary. But just having them … Continue reading BAD THOUGHTS
Everything You Wanted to Know About What’s Going On in the World But Were Afraid to Ask
The #MeToo Movement’s Brave New World
It used to be that in the absence of saying no she’s saying yes; that by saying no she’s saying convince me; and that by convince me she’s saying yes. And so, much to the delight of us ardent men, she was pretty much guaranteed to be always saying yes. Then it was that no … Continue reading The #MeToo Movement’s Brave New World
MY BEGRUDGING RESPECT FOR STEVE KING
Iowa Representative Steve King is being pilloried in the press for pointing out that, were it not for rape and incest, none of us would be here. “Considering all the wars and all the rape and pillage that has taken place,” notes King, “I know I can’t certify that I was not a part of … Continue reading MY BEGRUDGING RESPECT FOR STEVE KING
DOMESTIC TERRORISM
From the beaches of Normandy to the German surrender ten months later, my father’s job was to align the turrets of hundreds of artillery pieces for the saturation shelling of the stretch about a kilometer to about three kilometers still held by the enemy. If he didn’t end up killing any Germans, it would have … Continue reading DOMESTIC TERRORISM
FIRST WORLD PROBLEMS
I was born in 1950, and came to (albeit nascent) political consciousness about the time of the Kennedy assassination in 1963, by which all I mean is I knew some of what was going on in the world, the names of some of the players, and at least a superficial understanding of some of the … Continue reading FIRST WORLD PROBLEMS
THE CAMPAIGN AS OF AUGUST 2019
Donald Trump may be an idiot, but even an idiot can accidentally hit on the right strategy. He knows that his so-called base, about 40%, isn’t enough to get him re-elected. And there’s nothing he can do to add to it. So his only hope is to discourage enough of the other 60% from voting … Continue reading THE CAMPAIGN AS OF AUGUST 2019
MASS SHOOTINGS AND THE SECOND AMENDMENT
In the wake of the El Paso and Dayton shootings, Presidential candidate Kamala Harris has just taken her turn at the now-obligatory think-of-the-children bleat. It’s almost, but not quite, as obligatory as our-hearts-go-out-to. Politicians have simply got to hire some new writers! In any event, according to Harris, and in a scene reminiscent of the … Continue reading MASS SHOOTINGS AND THE SECOND AMENDMENT
GRETA THUNBERG
How much is myth, and how much is history, we’ll never know, but either way what the Children’s Crusade tells us is that there’s not a whole lot that’s new under the sun. What’s widely acknowledged is that in the Year of Our Lord 1212, a twelve-year-old rabble-rouser named Stephen of Cloyes lead – was … Continue reading GRETA THUNBERG
THE CASE AGAINST HISTORICAL REVISIONISM
I’ll put my civil libertarian credentials up against anyone’s. But I have to confess that the older I get, the less principled I become. I like to think it’s because I’m becoming more understanding, in this case of those powerful communitarian intuitions that so often conflict with what would otherwise be the inviolable sanctity of … Continue reading THE CASE AGAINST HISTORICAL REVISIONISM
ISRAEL’S NEW NATION STATE LAW
Like the proverbial boiling of the frog, it always starts with an imperceptible change in temperature. And every change thereafter is just as imperceptible. If you worry it’s the thin edge of some mephistophilian wedge, you’re an alarmist. You’re awfulizing. What we’re doing bears no relation to what you’re fretting about. Nothing in the Nuremberg … Continue reading ISRAEL’S NEW NATION STATE LAW
