Conservatives deal with facts and reach conclusions; liberals have conclusions and sell them as facts.
I’ve frequently heaped scorn on Obama’s oratorical abilities. His speeches remind me of the political speeches in old Hollywood movies. In those days, the movies were careful not to take sides in any obvious way, so they’d have political characters make speeches using orotund phrases that contained high sounding platitudes,
Continue readingI’ve read often, especially from liberals, and especially when they’re in a down cycle in elections, that America ought to have a parliamentary style democracy, where the representatives appear in proportion to their votes, as opposed to the American “winner take all” system. The thing with the winner take all
Continue readingCab Calloway in 1934: [youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=hovtGsLPYeA] And Benny Goodman in 1937: [youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=Dh93540ymaY]
Continue readingI had noticed today, when I checked out the British paper the Telegraph, an article in which people were asked to summarize their lives in six words. What I didn’t realize is that there is something of a meme going on out there, not in the internet so much as
Continue readingThese Watcher’s Winners aren’t so recent anymore, since the results came out last Friday, but my last days after been so overwhelming, I figure I’m still ahead of my own curve getting the information up here by Wednesday. First, the Winners, then any comments I might have. On the Council
Continue readingI’m doing something I very rarely do, which is to print an article in its entirety, but the article (a WSJ editorial) is brief and the point is so important, I feel that anything other than full reproduction, with attribution of course, would be a disservice: Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri planned
Continue readingThe strongest tie that binds me to conservatism is my belief that the principle that “that government is best which governs least” applies most strongly in the area of economics. I believe that government should make a few big rules — don’t discriminate, don’t cheat, don’t commit fraud, etc. —
Continue readingJL tipped me off to a Time Magazine web page about Super Tuesday which inadvertently distills in a nutshell the difference between how Republicans and Democrats approach the election. Here is how Time reports the Fox News National Exit Poll results: GOP Results Republicans: McCain 40, Romney 36, Huckabee 18
Continue readingNow that McCain looks inevitable, I’m becoming sanguine. More than that, I’m hunting for his good points, and they are many: 1. He’s a hawk. 2. He will almost certainly nominate strict constructionist Supreme Court justices — and certainly more conservative than anyone Hillary or Obama would nominate. 3. He’s
Continue readingMy 5th grader came home from school and told me that all the kids were saying that people should vote for Obama because he’s black. I asked, “Do they know anything else about him?” “No,” she replied. “They’re just saying [read: their parents are just saying] that people should vote
Continue readingI’m sorry I haven’t been blogging. It’s been a lot of things: overwhelming family demands (not bad demands, just overwhelming demands), overwhelming work demands (some bad, some just overwhelming), and that weird moment of silence that falls while the votes are being counted on Super Tuesday. One other thing: I
Continue readingIowahawk’s classic Bylines of Brutality is now becoming something of a distant memory. To refresh your recollection, in the wake of the NY Times‘ remarkably ill-thought out article about murderous vets, Iowahawk, using the same statistical analysis the Times favors, showed the remarkable violence trend amongst journalists. I thought of
Continue readingIs it just me, or is this precisely the way the media covered Theresa Heinz Kerry when it became apparent that John Kerry was the frontrunner? Once reticent Michelle Obama is big campaign asset Michelle Obama’s fiery campaign style belies the fact that she was hesitant at first about getting
Continue readingIt’s okay to have eclectic, even wacky friends — but if you have friends such as this, you’d better explicitly disavow their wackier beliefs — not just in vague generalities, but specifically. Otherwise, you risk getting tarred with that same brush. And so it goes with Obama’s beloved mentor, Jeremiah
Continue readingI’ve been re-reading a wonderful book that I first read when it was published a little more than a decade ago: As Thousands Cheer: The Life of Irving Berlin, by Laurence Bergreen. As anyone who enjoys popular music knows, Irving Berlin was one of the most extraordinary composers on the
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