Still clearing the spindle (this may take awhile)

I winnowed down half of my emails yesterday, but still have more than 200 to go.  Some of them, I’m embarrassed to admit, date back to early-ish December.  Those that I’m linking to here are still relevant, though, so don’t be deterred by my delay in posting them.  Also, heads up to those who wrote to me a month ago:  You may finally be getting your reply!  I’ll start with a handful of posts from today, and then start digging into the past:

In his inimitable style, Jonah Goldberg reminds us that, when it comes to guns, as with all things, the perfect is the enemy of the good.  (And if you’d like to read an older book that focuses on the deleterious effects on society from the bureaucrat’s futile, expensive, and Kafka-esque search for perfection, read Philip K. Howard’s The Death of Common Sense: How Law Is Suffocating America.)

Orwell wouldn’t be surprised if he returned from the dead today and found himself on Carleton University’s campus in Canada.  Within hours of students putting up a free speech wall, an “activist” student in his 7th year (that’s not a typo) ripped it down, loudly declaiming that “not every opinion is valid, nor deserving of expression.”  Orwell, of course, phrased it better when he said that “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”

We’re taking a moment here for an important public health announcement:  If you’re a woman heading towards or already going through menopause, estrogen therapy not only will not kill you, it will make your life better and, possibly, protect you from certain cancers.  I anxiously look forward (heh!) to the moment when scientists announce that their widely expressed fears about anthropogenic climate change were also wrong, and that we can all stop panicking now.

I’m always embarrassed when I think back to the way I used to admire Thomas Friedman’s faux-sophistication.  Fortunately, as I’ve grown older, I’ve distinguished myself from Friedman by growing wiser too.  That’s why I appreciated this absolutely splendid attack on his most recent idiocy, this one concerning Iran.

Ed Driscoll looks at the icky sexuality and childish adulation that describes so much of the elite Left’s attachment to Obama.  Would it be wrong of me to say that the first part of this way of thinking is a direct lineal descendent of the Democrats’ Jim Crow and slavery approach to blacks, one that saw them view black men fearfully as hyper-sexual beings?

My personal road to Hell is heavily paved with good intentions.  Among those good intentions are book reviews.  I’m fortunate enough to receive books in the mail or on my iPad, and I do really and truly intend to review them.  Somehow, though, the mere phrase “book review” sends me spinning back to 7th grade, and I start procrastinating like crazy.  While I’m procrastinating, I’ll at least give you the link to a very interesting, timely, and somewhat worrisome book that came my way:  Larry Kelley’s Lessons from Fallen Civilizations: Can a Bankrupt America Survive the Current Islamic Threat?.  I won’t give away the ending.  You have to read it yourself, keeping in mind that it was written before Obama’s reelection.

If you thought that the Left is seldom right, you are correct, as this 40 minute video explains.

One of the things the Left does very successfully is to celebrate things that didn’t used to be celebrated (gay marriage, unmarried mothers, etc.).  This GAP Christmas ad campaign is a good example.  As is so often the case when it comes to message, we need to take a page out of the Left’s book.  Instead of constantly challenging their celebrations (challenges that are often divisive when it comes to social conservatives and libertarians), why don’t we start celebrating things we like.  In other words, let’s catch society being good.  When you go on social networks, including new conservative entrants such as Helen’s Page or Ritely, don’t just fulminate about the Left or even praise only conservatives.  Highlight something cheerful and positive that also advances traditional values.

Okay.  I’m down to 175 emails.  More later.  Right now, I’m meeting some conservative gals for lunch.  Yay!