Blue v. Red
Overwhelming obligations and only mild interest have limited the attention that I’ve paid to the JournoList controversy with which readers of the national conservative blogosphere will surely be familiar. Now that the discussion has transitioned into one of the semantics of racism, however, a brief comment is irresistible. By way of background, New Republic publisher…
Curious about how conservative Obama fans are getting along, I checked in with the man whose leg the messiah made tingle with knowledge, David Brooks. Here is a guy who reallly, really wants to believe: If ever this kind of domestic revolution were possible, this is the time and these are the people to do…
Can we now be clear about what it fundamentally means to strive for “bipartisan” action? Reed said economists “on both sides of the political divide” concluded “this stimulus was necessary, that we had to stop the job losses, we had to get people back into the marketplace, that there was a very real fear of…
The Coen Brothers’ 2007 film No Country For Old Men revolves around the tale of several young men engaged in a violent race for a satchel of cash. Tommy Lee Jones plays an aging sheriff investigating the depressing trail of bloodshed, markings that inform the old man that the customs and morals that guided his…
For his latest column, Bishop Tobin imagined the interview he would conduct with President Obama: TOBIN: But the use of tax dollars to pay for abortions is very controversial. It’s a divisive policy. It violates the conscience of millions of Americans who respect life and oppose abortion. Isn’t that completely contrary to your goal of…
Now here’s an interesting, disturbing idea: Undoubtedly you’ve heard the calls for a return of the Fairness Doctrine. Listen, I am so sick and tired of “fair and balanced” as the next person yet I believe in separation of press and state. Hmmm. What to do…what to do? I got it! How about reversing the…
I’m sure Tom Daschle had every intention of filing three years of amended tax returns (one for every year since he was bumped from public office, I believe) whether or not he’d been presented with the opportunity of joining the Obama administration: Thomas A. Daschle recently filed amended tax returns for 2005, 2006 and 2007…
The way in which individuals construct an understanding of their societies is what makes it fatal to paint them all with the bold colors of their affiliations: People will be particularly amenable to certain explanations for events around them — whether they’ve been pushed toward prescribed priorities via social clichés, have an economic interest in…
Ever have an educator explain to you that it is important to hear all sides of an argument and to engage the opposition in dialogue? Well, for many humanities professors, that may be a lesson preached more than practiced: Anyone who needed evidence that the culture wars are far from over could find it here…
I was disappointed to come across this musing from Providence Journal Opinion Page Editor Bob Whitcomb (via RI Future): Why do right-wing radio talk-show hosts like Rush Limbaugh do so well and liberal ones not so well? Consider that Colin McEnroe, a rude liberal, has just been fired by WTIC in Hartford and that national…