National Review cruise — November 13, 2016

I’ve been a bit cagey about my whereabouts, but it’s confession time: I’m on the National Review cruise. I book it in January or February, long before #NeverTrump became an issue. I kept the booking because, while I came to disagree with the magazine’s #NeverTrump policy, I never lost sight of the fact that National Reviews’ writers are still some of the best writers and smartest thinkers around.

I also greatly appreciated that, no matter the magazine’s editorial policy, it continued to publish pro-Trump pieces from those contributors who made the same journey I did as the campaign went forward. I doubt that a Lefty magazine would have done as much. Heck, I doubt that Breitbart, which does some great reporting (screaming headlines, solid content) would have done that.

So anyway, here I am on the cruise after first having spent some lovely days visiting with dear friends in The Villages. It’s a tremendous pleasure to me to be in an environment in which I can speak openly, without being worried about being attacked. On my “real-me” Facebook page, my Leftist acquaintances are daily diving deeper into their massive freak out meltdown.

You’ll notice that I call them “acquaintances” now, rather than “friends,” as I used to do. That’s because the viciousness and hysteria they’re demonstrating has gotten so horrible I actually don’t want to call them friends anymore.

I’m a nice person who has a different vision for our country and the government that leads it. I’m not a bigot, nor am I a misogynistic, homophobic, Islamophobic, neo-Nazi monster – but that’s wha the people on my Facebook feed are calling me when they go on their obscene, unhinged anti-Trump voter diatribes. It’s important to note that their howls of outrage are not directed at Trump — they are directed at their fellow Americans. I cannot consider someone who would say or write those things a “friend.”

I could, of course, spare myself the unpleasant experience of reading their rants, but the reality is that I, unlike these Lefties, understand that it’s important to know what people are thinking when it comes to politics and societal issues, especially when I don’t agree with them.

Paying attention to the reality of opposing ideas, rather than to straw men, means that, when I challenge those ideas in my blog or, sometimes, on my acquaintances’ Facebook feeds, I’m challenging their actual ideas, not some Hillary-created straw men that have become so overpowering that people can no longer distinguish Leftist political fantasy from reality.

All of which is to say that I’m really going to enjoy a week in the company of people who think about issues and pay attention to facts, regardless of whether they invariably reach the same conclusions that I reach.

The cruise is a pleasure in any event. Long-time readers know that I love going on cruises, especially Holland America cruises. They offer middle class luxury for someone who wants good food, gracious service, immaculate quarters, and the presence of nice people.

I haven’t yet gone to the official National Review event as today is just the first day of the cruise. I did, however, talk to Deroy Murdock and I can now confidently state that he is exactly what you’d expect from his columns: smart, informed, passionate, and a little bit snarky, without ever drifting into mean. If he’s my first National Review personality, my impression of him bodes well for the other people I’ll get to meet.

Internet access on ships is ferociously expensive, so I don’t know when I’ll be posting this. The one thing I can say is that I’ll never be posting in real time, because I’m going to want to get several posts lined up before I go online. Or at least one long-ish post. It’s more cost-effective to do things that way.

Thanks to my dear friend Wolf Howling, I know that, even if there’s a bit of a lag in my posting, he’ll be putting up posts that keep you informed, amused, and thinking hard. Whenever I read his posts, I find myself thinking, “Wow! I hadn’t thought of it that way before (or, I didn’t know that), but I totally agree.” I am a very fortunate person to be on this cruise; to meet nice, interesting people; and to have a friend who minds the fort.