Saturday roundup

While here at LITD we are wont to keep the Three Pillars at the ready when discussing the nature of conservatism, it's important to remember that as a worldview it is the distillation of various strands of thought. And we must admit that some of our forebears had some funny ways about them. Richard M. Weaver's notions that medieval Europe and the antebellum South were as close to model societies as humankind has seen, that jazz was barbaric and devoid of musical principles, and that war could be conducted according to a chivalric code are thorny. Midge Decter had to call out Russell Kirk for remarks that smacked of an anti-Israel stance. Bill Buckley had to pry the fingers of the Objectivists and Birchers from National Review.

All this came to mind earlier today as I digested two nature-of-conservatism pieces I ran across: Matthew Continetti's Washington Free Beacon essay entitled "There's No Escaping Trump" and Andrew Sullivan's New York Magazine piece "America Desperately Needs a Healthy Conservatism."   Continetti is of the face-it-Trump's-impact-on-the-Republican-variety-is-also-leaving-a-permanent-mark-on-conservatism-as-an-ideology variety. Sullivan was inspired to write his piece by having just read Conservatism: An Introduction to the Great Tradition by Roger Scruton. I'm not so sure I buy his assertion that conservatism is, by nature of being a product of a particular place and time (the West over the last two-plus centuries) exclusive to certain peoples. Seems to me the Three Pillars will rock any society in which it's tried. He also veers off into a "conservative" argument for an environmentalism predicated on the global climate being in some kind of trouble. Talk about kinky! But they are both worth a rub of the chin. I may explore the train of thought they've engendered when time permits.

Here's what Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wore to a photo shoot with a construction crew:

Ocasio-Cortez was pictured wearing a $3,500 outfit as she posed with construction workers.​ She was decked out in a Gabriela Hearst blazer ($1,990), Gabriela Hearst pants ($890), and some Monolo Blahnik shoes ($625).

Secretary of State Pompeo on Global-Test's end-run regarding Iran:

"What Secretary Kerry has done is unseemly and unprecedented. This is a former secretary of state engaged with the world's largest state sponsor of terror and, according to him... he was talking to them, he was telling them to wait out this administration."

[snip]

"You can't find precedent for this in U.S. history and Secretary Kerry ought not to engage in that kind of behavior," he said. "It's inconsistent with what the foreign policy of the United States is as directed by this president, and it is beyond inappropriate."
Pompeo  pointed out that he saw Kerry at the Munich Security Conference in February with former Obama Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and Obama Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, calling them "the troika."

"I'm confident that they met with their troika counterparts," Pompeo continued. "I wasn't in the meeting, but I am reasonably confident that he was not there in support of U.S. policy with respect to the Islamic Republic of Iran -- who this week, fired Katyusha rockets toward the United States embassy in Baghdad and took action against our consulate in Basra." 

He added: "Actively undermining U.S. policy as a former secretary of state is literally unheard of."

Great Heidi Munson piece at The Resurgent entitled, "Do You Ever Feel Abandoned By God? Emotions Aren't Always Our Best Guide."  Any given moment in our lives, however dire, is a mere snapshot, and we never have all the facts and context. Plus, God is in charge and loves us infinitely.

Great Daren Jonescu essay entitled "Turning Sadness Into Sentimentality":

I almost called this little essay “Turning Tragedy Into Tripe.” For I am thinking of the inevitable September 11th anniversary “memorials.” There are ways to remember life- or world-changing moments without turning them into emotional pablum. The modern world, however, has lost those ways, just as it has lost its way in general with regard to the meaning of history, the lessons of experience, and the adult imperative of rising above that manipulative sentimentality and cloying “social feeling” which, in the name of “never forgetting,” serve only to infantilize and diminish the souls of men.

If you were personally involved in the 9/11 attacks, or lost close friends or beloved family members that day, you will naturally experience some echo of the old pain as the calendar reminds you of your suffering. But for everyone else, the pretense of deep feeling — whether of the patriotic “USA, USA” sort or the self-centered “Oh, dear me” sort — is something that must be dredged up, much like the popular outpouring of feeling that one witnesses after the death of a celebrity, from Princess Diana to Robin Williams to John McCain. Everyone wishes to be a part of the “event,” and to act out a level of intimate engagement that is not grounded in any personal reality, but rather in a desire to belong, i.e., to share in a great communal feeling through the sort of self-annihilation that late progressive man mistakes for self-expression.

We all know what has to be faced in order for this looming grimness to be reversed:

The federal government collected a record $1,521,589,000,000 in individual income taxes through the first eleven months of fiscal 2018 (October 2017 through August 2018), according to the Monthly Treasury Statement released today.

However, the federal government also ran a deficit of $898,112,000,000 for those eleven months, according to the statement.

Check out the video of the Weather Channel guy waxing dramatic in the Florence wind, leaning into it, while in the background a couple of people stroll by in normal fashion. But, hey, if you're going to perpetuate the meme that weather is getting worse due to human advancement, a little theatricality is useful tool.