Political Thought
Tiverton’s public hearing on charter-related questions potentially to be placed on the next ballot didn’t let out until after 11:00, Monday night, although many in the audience (including the Providence Journal’s Gina Macris) left after the headline-grabbing debate over the future of the financial town meeting had ended. I stayed so late — despite dying…
Given past experience with the vulnerability of our trash receptacles on garbage day, we should have known better. We shouldn’t have run out of garbage bags. The children shouldn’t have filled an unlined can. My wife shouldn’t have put that can out on the street to be emptied into the truck. But it seems to…
I’ve been busy with “life” (work, family, volunteering, recreation, Citadel board meetings;) and haven’t had a chance to post much of substance. That trend continues, so here are a couple things I’ve found interesting over the last few days. Jim Lindgren has looked into–and exposed–the activities and agenda of a group calling itself Service Nation…
In response to Mary Eberstadt’s thought-provoking piece about the accurate prognostications of Humanae Vitae, Todd Zywicki notes (and Glenn Reynolds seconds) the possibility of a cost-benefit analysis with respect to the sexual revolution. It’s difficult to draw a boundary around the topic; to put it in the form of a question that I posed a…
Ed Achorn had a piece yesterday on John Adams and recommended taking in the HBO mini-series that is now out on DVD (I hope to). Coincidentally, I had been thinking about Adams thanks to Matt Allen’s (gratuitous plug!) Independence Day show over the past weekend, during which he read the Declaration of Independence and extolled…
Some aspects of Marxism have a sort of common-sense appeal on first reading. Those of a conservative bent may feel something to be awry, but it takes some sifting to raise, and even then the subtleties foil discussion with those of differing inclinations. Consider Mickey Kaus’s confession of Obamaesque snobbery (via Instapundit): If Democrats had…
I get that winning clients sometimes requires wooing them — especially in the glamor-obsessed entertainment industry. As a government activity, however, this makes me very uncomfortable: When Steven Feinberg entertains people in the television and moviemaking industry, he entertains them in style. He sprang for the Ravioli al Filetto at Venda’s Café, the rib-eye special…
My grimly favorite reaction to the protests which dogged the Olympic flame through London, Paris and other cities was by a Beijing Olympic official, curiously not named in this government sanctioned article, who said that the protests “blasphemed the Olympic spirit.” The irony that the actions of the goons and thugs who have ruled China…
But let’s not lose sight of a principle that looms pretty large in conservative philosophy: that social pressure is often the appropriate means of guiding individuals toward behavior that is healthy for society. This concept puts conservatives at the obvious political disadvantage of giving liberals cover to declare that they judge nothing but judgement and…
