So says Quinn Hilyer at NRO
Hilyer straightens out the matter of Santorum's vote for the prescription-drug plan, and puts every milestone of RS's career in perspective.
Monday, January 9, 2012
Saturday, January 7, 2012
It's guys like this . . .
. . . that embody the rot within the Republican party. We're all done listening to a message like, "You have to put up with Reasonable Gentleman Syndrome as your only alternative to radical socialism."
No more.
No more.
"A gentleman in a mug's game"
Michael Walsh at NRO's The Corner on why Romney would lose to the Most Equal Comrade.
In a great-minds-think-alike moment, I was struck by his employment of the term "gentleman." Longtime LITD readers know that the term "Reasonable Gentleman Syndrome" gets used a lot here. It refers to the whole "reach-across-the-aisle" mindset for which John McCain was the poster boy. We're seeing it again in this cycle in Mitt's dance around the question of whether the MEC is a socialist. (Stanley Kurtz settled that once and for all with the indispensible Radical-in-Chief.) Laura Ingraham drove this home on her radio show yesterday by repeatedly playing the clip of Romney saying (about the MEC) "He's a good guy, he's just in way over his head."
No, he's not a good guy.
Yes, we have to live with our neighbors and associates even when we know them to be diametrically opposed to all that we cherish. We're not engaged in a civil war of the 1860s variety. But to characterize our times as pretty-much-normal-and-this-is-just-the-customary-heating-up-of-rhetoric-we-see-at-this-point-in-these-cycles is to willfully indulge in ignorance of the most dangerous kind.
In a great-minds-think-alike moment, I was struck by his employment of the term "gentleman." Longtime LITD readers know that the term "Reasonable Gentleman Syndrome" gets used a lot here. It refers to the whole "reach-across-the-aisle" mindset for which John McCain was the poster boy. We're seeing it again in this cycle in Mitt's dance around the question of whether the MEC is a socialist. (Stanley Kurtz settled that once and for all with the indispensible Radical-in-Chief.) Laura Ingraham drove this home on her radio show yesterday by repeatedly playing the clip of Romney saying (about the MEC) "He's a good guy, he's just in way over his head."
No, he's not a good guy.
Yes, we have to live with our neighbors and associates even when we know them to be diametrically opposed to all that we cherish. We're not engaged in a civil war of the 1860s variety. But to characterize our times as pretty-much-normal-and-this-is-just-the-customary-heating-up-of-rhetoric-we-see-at-this-point-in-these-cycles is to willfully indulge in ignorance of the most dangerous kind.
Friday, January 6, 2012
Individual people are so much more interesting than demographic categories
Big hat tip to Legal Insurrection for bringing this to my attention. There's a lady in Utah running for Congress named Mia Love who has a very interesting bio. Cetainly, there are the obviously noteworthy factors, such as the fact that she's the daughter of Haitian immigrants (that would make her black, for those who pay attention to such things), but what struck me most was the fact that her degree is in fine arts and that she's an accomplished singer and dancer. As a jazz / blues guitarist and freelance writer, I love to hear about "creative types" who have their heads on straight when it comes to ideology. While my own experience bears out the stats about the arts world being overwhelmingly lefty, I'm starting to think maybe there's a significant swath of that world that flies under the radar.
After all, as Mark Steyn, David Mamet and others have said, turning this thing around starts with the culture. All the wonky policy stuff follows once we're no longer living in a sewer.
After all, as Mark Steyn, David Mamet and others have said, turning this thing around starts with the culture. All the wonky policy stuff follows once we're no longer living in a sewer.
Just stick to the message of economic freedom for everybody, guys
Kimberly Strassel makes an important point at the WSJ today about the folly of not only Romney's singling our the "middle class" as the demographic he's going to champion with his tax policies, but Rick Santorum's proposal to give special credits to people with particular types of jobs (manufacturing) or family structures (children).
Come on, guys. Let's be the party - the movement - that dispenses with all that this-group-that-group preoccupation and works to maximize liberty for everybody.
For one thing, these designations are fluid. People move in and out of income brackets and various other types of life situations all the time.
Come on, guys. Let's be the party - the movement - that dispenses with all that this-group-that-group preoccupation and works to maximize liberty for everybody.
For one thing, these designations are fluid. People move in and out of income brackets and various other types of life situations all the time.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Utter disaster
Did you know that the Pentagon presented the MEC three different plans for getting back the drone that Iran captured? That's not the worst of it. Today, Iran is bragging about all the classified technology it now posesses as a result of poring over the drone.
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
The Most Equal Comrade - Constitution-shredder-in-chief
On the heels of the recess appointment for the head post at the new Consumer Protection Bureau, the MEC makes three recess appointments to the NLRB.
Let's head off the "W installed John Bolton as UN ambassador by recess appointment" argument right now. Two differences:
1.) There was an actual recess, as defined by Congressional rules, not a few days away from the job.
2.) It's necessary, at least so long as there's a UN and we're a member, for us to have a UN ambassador. We don't need any stinkin' Consumer Protection Bureau or Labor Relations Board.
Let's head off the "W installed John Bolton as UN ambassador by recess appointment" argument right now. Two differences:
1.) There was an actual recess, as defined by Congressional rules, not a few days away from the job.
2.) It's necessary, at least so long as there's a UN and we're a member, for us to have a UN ambassador. We don't need any stinkin' Consumer Protection Bureau or Labor Relations Board.
It was time to invest in my hope that Western civilization can pull out of its tailspin
Just sent a little contribution to the Santorum campaign. My main motivation: I'm one of that 75 percent of Pubs that still doesn't want a Romney nomination.
Plus, I like the straight-up way Rick S serves his social conservatism.
Yes, I saw the piece by the Cato Institute's Michael Tanner at NRO this morning about Santorum being a big-government guy. My response: Look, pal, the field is narrowing, and Ron Paul has looney-bin foreign policy views. Rick S is no Reasonable Gentleman. He is a principled rightie and the momentum is his now. The examples you cite do not put him in the mush-o Romney/Gingrich camp.
Plus, I like the straight-up way Rick S serves his social conservatism.
Yes, I saw the piece by the Cato Institute's Michael Tanner at NRO this morning about Santorum being a big-government guy. My response: Look, pal, the field is narrowing, and Ron Paul has looney-bin foreign policy views. Rick S is no Reasonable Gentleman. He is a principled rightie and the momentum is his now. The examples you cite do not put him in the mush-o Romney/Gingrich camp.
Monday, January 2, 2012
Ron Paul, the new breed of self-styled "conservatives,' and and the ever-more-brittle state of American politics
Star Parker points out that most of Ron Paul's support among registered Pubs and independents comes from such folks in the 18 - 29 age bracket, and that they claim to be solidly right-of-center but basically subscribe to a "leave-me-alone" ethic, devoid of a stand on the larger issue of what has shaped the uniquely American character over the last 400 years.
While Paul's undeniably spot-on championing of free-market economics and limited government has great appeal, if one circumscribes the totality of one's concerns to that, one is less equipped to see the nuttiness of his foreign-policy views, and they are nutty in the extreme.
While Paul's undeniably spot-on championing of free-market economics and limited government has great appeal, if one circumscribes the totality of one's concerns to that, one is less equipped to see the nuttiness of his foreign-policy views, and they are nutty in the extreme.
The modern-girl ethos and the implications for how long Brazil can be a first-tier player in the global economy
Pundit and Pundette has an interesting, link-rich post on Brazil's plummeting birth rate, the cultural factors that caused it, and the implications of it.
A flying-pigs moment to start off the year
The editorial board of the Washington Post says that ethanol subsidies and electric-car subsidies have been colossal wastes that haven't done squat except distort the markets for fuel and cars.
Sunday, January 1, 2012
"Not a sister"
Kyle Smith at the New York Post muses on the question of why feminists reject Margaret Thatcher.
Lefties always look to amorphous societal institutions to bring about macro-level impovement to human lives. A political leader whose policy orientation was to remove bureaucratic shackles from actual human beings would cause them massive cognitive dissonance.
Lefties always look to amorphous societal institutions to bring about macro-level impovement to human lives. A political leader whose policy orientation was to remove bureaucratic shackles from actual human beings would cause them massive cognitive dissonance.
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