Conservatism
A relevant thought for the day from Claremont’s Richard Reeb: Entitlements ought to be understood only as goods or honors that we have earned, not something we think that we, or someone else, ought to have. That necessarily and unavoidably entails taking from one person or group and giving to another. The impolite word for…
Last week, in light of our half-a-billion dollar budget deficit, I linked to a piece by William Voegeli in which he explained that conservatives, while they can accept the necessity of a welfare state, must continue to try to apply the throttle to the always-growing amount of money we spend on government social welfare programs.…
Every now and then, patterns emerge from my scattershot reading habits. Here’s Jeff Jacoby on public education in America: Americans differ on same-sex marriage and evolution, on the importance of sports and the value of phonics, on the right to bear arms and the reverence due the Confederate flag. Some parents are committed secularists; others…
The New York Times piece, “Diet and Fat: A Severe Case of Mistaken Consensus” explains how a scientific “consensus” came into being that a low-fat diet was best (despite evidence to the contrary) (via Dale Light). How’d it happen? We like to think that people improve their judgment by putting their minds together, and sometimes…
Fred Hutchinson has a quick summary of the 5 kinds (are there more?) of conservatism and their historical roots. Offered without comment and merely to pique your intellectual curiosity.
Over at Spinning Clio (two mentions in a week!), I’ve posted about the Post-Modernism of Russell Kirk. I know, I know…but if your interest is pique, please take look.
Believe it or not, there has never been a movie made about Calvin Coolidge. [Cue laughtrack.] OK, that is ENTIRELY believable. Over at Spinning Clio I post about a new documentary that looks at the presidency of “Cool Cal” and attempts to revise some of the impressions we have about him. In short, it is…
Apropos of nothing–er–except conservatism, here’s a conservative lesson for the day. Why, you may ask? Well, every once in a while we need to be reminded, don’t we? So, please open your primer to Russel Kirk’s Ten Conservative Principles. (Regarding the post title, maybe I should try to come up with Captain Kirk’s own list…or…
Peter Berkowitz, a senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, offers a primer on American conservatism. The intro: The left prides itself on, and frequently boasts of, its superior appreciation of the complexity and depth of moral and political life. But political debate in America today tells a different story. On a variety of issues…
Thomas Sowell: If no one has even one percent of the knowledge currently available, not counting the vast amounts of knowledge yet to be discovered, the imposition from the top of the notions favored by elites convinced of their own superior knowledge and virtue is a formula for disaster…what the political left, even in democratic…