Bookworm Room

Robin of Berkeley nails exactly what happens when, during the course of a long relationship, one person changes politically and the other remains behind.

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In a comment to an earlier post, a reader raised a good issue:  Let’s accept as absolutely true that the proposed Ground Zero mosque is emotionally offensive, and that, for Islamists, a mosque at the site of a battleground is the sign of conquest.  Do those two factors justify refusing the mosque on legal grounds, [...]

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My brilliant brother-in-law put together a chart showing the correlation between a state’s debt load and it’s government (Democratic or Republican).  The chart’s statistics won’t come as a surprise to conservatives, but I bet they’d come as a big surprise to a whole lot of liberals: I wish there was a simple, pithy way to [...]

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Danny Lemieux sent me an email regarding Social Security that I reproduce here.  I know that the bit about the “not for identification” is true, because I have in front of me my card, which has that message, and my children’s cards, which don’t.  I do not know if the rest of the email message [...]

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Every two years, like clockwork, Marinites return the execrable Lynn Woolsey to Congress.  She’s so bad — by which I mean such a loopy Leftist — that I didn’t vote for her even when I was a Democrat.  I was a moderate; she was, and is, a nut case.  But still she wins, regularly sweeping [...]

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On my “real” facebook page, I posted a link to Laffer’s article arguing in favor of lower taxes on the rich.  A liberal friend posted a reply that pointed out that, during the 1950s, which was a time of tremendous US economic strength, the top bracket was taxed at a marginal rate of up to [...]

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If you ever hear about the “Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions” movement (BDS), do not fall for the advertised claims that it is about peace.  It is intended to destroy Israel and is actively hostile to any peace between the two peoples: Please watch this video and, if you are a friend of Israel, send it along [...]

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I was thinking of headlines to rival the one I saw this morning: Landmark vote opens door to Ground Zero mosque For true parallelism, you can’t have as the new occupier the same person or entity that caused the deaths at the site. Instead, you have to have the fellow-travelers, the ideological descendants, the spiritual [...]

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What a week it was at the Watcher’s Council: Council Winners First place with 2 1/3 votes! – The Razor – True Bigots Second place with 2 votes – Wolf Howling – An Overdrawn Race Card Third place with 1 2/3 votes – Rhymes With Right – Shirley Sherrod: Dissent Equals Racism And A Desire [...]

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I was speaking with a friend whose mother is such a devout Catholic that she attends Mass daily.  My friend contends, however, that she is not doctrinally narrow.  Instead, what draws her back to the Church on a daily basis is the service’s unswerving predictability.  In a chaotic world, she has a fixed point.  The [...]

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In German, vermischt means intermingled, mixed; in Yiddish, it means confused, presumably because ones brain is all mixed up.  Almost two months into summer, the Yiddish definition perfectly describes my brain.  I am lost in space, unanchored to time. I’ve known since we booked the airplane ticket that my son was leaving  to visit relatives [...]

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Something is deeply wrong at the New York Times.  I think that, perhaps, someone sensible slipped into their offices in the dark of night and published Efraim Karsh’s op-ed about the Palestinians, and the way in which they’ve been puppets for the surrounding Arab states.  I’m sure whoever let that happen, if caught, will be [...]

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