So let me say at the front end that Jonah Goldberg is my favorite contemporary political writer. He is vivid, funny, and almost always on point. He is part of the conservative firmament, and yet does not display some of the irritating characteristics on regular display from the kept conservatives, from the kennel-fed conservatives, from the cautious conservatives. He praises Trump regularly when he thinks he did well, and when he doesn’t, he doesn’t. I take him as a fundamentally honest and consistent commentator. So everything that follows here should be read in that context.
But like many conservatives who love their country, I don’t believe he grasps how corrupt the entire system has become. There is a species of conservatism that sees and pillories the regnant follies, but does so in the belief that the “fundamentals are still sound.” Underneath it all we should still be able to find the Madisonian bedrock. All the foolishness is to be lamented, not to mention dissected, perhaps in a forthcoming article. We have to take this skin cancer seriously, they argue, and schedule the operation for the next mid-terms—not coming to grips with the fact that it is bone cancer, Stage IV. If anything is to be done, it will have to be by a mad doctor from Tijuana.
Speaking of a mad doctor from Tijuana, our president is now Donald Trump, and CNN is getting elephant doctor doses of apricot pit extract.
As a sample of what I take to be a case of this kind of denial, consider this following exchange between Jonah and Mollie Hemingway of the Federalist. The context is this. When Trump recently let us all know that he did not have tapes of his conversations with James Comey, but that somebody else might and you would have to ask them about it, Jonah took umbrage. (What a great word, umbrage, what?) He said that Trump was implying that he was deliberately tapped, quite a different thing than having classified material leaked. Two distinct things, man.
But notice that this assumes that the leadership of the intelligence agencies is not hopelessly corrupt. Trump has been pounded by criminal leaks coming from the upper echelons of the intelligence world, and so he coyly implied that such criminals—who ought to be jail—in addition to their guilt with regard to Crime A, might also have ventured over into Crime B. This is like reasoning that the burglars who took your stereo might also have ventured into the kitchen to help themselves to the silver, and is a quite reasonable bit of reasonable reasoning. Two distinct things all right, both of them equally felonious.
Please realize I am not saying that Trump was wiretapped. I am saying that if he wasn’t, the thing that prevented it was not civic virtue. The wheels have come off of this thing, and this is distressing to those who love our form of government. So distressing that sometimes they overlook the obvious.
Please note that I am not advancing the theory of Trump as “mad genius,” or as a savant politician playing “three dimensional chess.” He might be that, or he might be just doing his New York businessman thing, right out where people who don’t understand it can see it. He might just be a thin-skinned man with poor impulse control, or he might have a plan that will astonish us all when finally revealed.
Maybe, maybe not. But I am arguing—with cautious humility, taking care not to be impudent or blasphemous—that God most certainly is (by our notions of respectability) a mad genius. Without saying anything in defense of Trump’s “new kind of presidential,” without signing up as a personal defender of his motives or intentions, I simply note again that Trump is a wrecking ball. And the things getting wrecked all richly deserve it. And some of us are delighted to observe it, which we can do without sullying the white gloves of conscience. Put in whatever amount of irony you need to use in order to make the previous sentence acceptable.
So who is running the crane?
You say that Trump is a manifest clown. Let me grant it for the sake of the discussion. But he is taking it to the other clowns, the ones whose buffoonery has not yet been recognized as such by all the respectable voices. The fury is because the tactic appears to be working.
The wheels have come off of this thing, and this is distressing to those who love our form of government. Why is it that so many conservatives think this is a perversion of our democracy. If we read the bible clearly, an honest arbiter has to admit that this is the natural outworking of democracy. When you place the hearts of sinful as the god of the system (whether the demos or the wisdom of the elites), you end up with what we have now. Has anyone not read Roman history? Reverend Wilson, your love a system that is obviously… Read more »
Ben Sasse has made a fool of himself on several occasions, popping off reflexively at ‘insults’ President Trump hurled. First, he defended John Lewis (who lied about his previous inauguration attendance) after PDJT called him out. Then, he made a bizarre comment in defense of the federal judiciary after PDJT called Judge Robart a ‘so-called judge’….. this last one was especially obnoxious on Senator Sasse’s part as the federal judicial system is full of ‘so-called’ judges, as Sasse well knows. Seriously wish Ben Sasse would take his schtick and go home.
I’m far less bothered by Trump’s corruption than I am by the nagging fear that the most powerful office in the world, with access to nuclear weapons, is now held by someone from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. The best analogy I’ve heard is that his administration is like a dog driving a truck: Simple people find it amusing, sensible people find it terrifying, and the dog is just licking himself.
Does it bother you at all that the most powerful office in the world can be manipulated so effectively by dark, unknown forces? Trump simply doesn’t have the kind of power that so many in the media insinuate that he has. He seems to be fighting a battle from the bureaucratic forces he is supposed to be leading. That is far more scary to me. The fact that he is not a stooge of anyone other than himself is heartening. If the shoe were on the other foot, wouldn’t you see the same way? Partisanship aside, the system we have,… Read more »
Kilgore, I’m not sure who, specifically, you are referring to by “dark, unknown forces.” Tell me who you mean and I’ll tell you if I agree with you.
The intelligence community and the incessant leaks. Part of the problem is that we don’t know precisely who it is.
The nature of cloak-and-dagger covert operations is that “we” will never know precisely who it is; it has to be done in secret for a reason. And one of the reasons it’s important to have a president who is level headed (which this one assuredly is not) is because, since we can’t know what’s going on, we have to be able to trust those in authority to be doing the right thing. But on that subject, doesn’t it bother you that Trump doesn’t seem to care about whether and to what extent the Russians hacked our elections? That’s pretty serious,… Read more »
“I’m quite confidant Hillary Clinton as president would have insisted on getting to the bottom of it” LOL! You must be forgetting that the Russians didn’t “hack our elections”. Whoever it was that hacked anything hacked Clinton’s illegal home email servers. If you honestly think that Clinton would get to the bottom of her own scandal no matter the cost to herself, then you are beyond all reasonable conclusions concerning what is going on.
You’re wrong on the facts, and you’re also wrong about Hillary Clinton, for two reasons.
First, since the hacking benefited the Republicans, her motivation would have been to get to the bottom of it. But second, even if it hadn’t, she’s enough of a realist to understand that letting the Russians get away with it sets a dangerous precedent that simply cannot be allowed to stand. Unlike Mr. Trump, whose analysis seems to begin and end with whether it benefits him.
So Krycheck, is your day job with CNN or MSNBC? Because none but the most gullible really believe all the fake news you keep parroting. But I’m betting you are not that gullible, but have bought into the “ends justify the means” school of dishonesty.
So, St Lee, anyone who disagrees with you is either stupid or lying?
I find it laughable anyone would consider for one second holding up Hillary Clinton as remotely virtuous when it comes to honesty or integrity in her pursuit of power and influence.
And exactly where is Ms. Clinton these days? Likely hoping she can lay low enough to avoid prison where she belongs.
I didn’t say she was virtuous; actually I trust her as far as I could throw her Secret Service detail. What I said is that she’s a realist who understands how to run a government, unlike the current occupant of the Oval Office.
I don’t want a realist who knows how to run a government, and neither did the Founders…look where that has gotten us, a bunch of lawyers who define what America should be in their terms, then argue endlessly about the meaning of those terms., terms the rest of us have to live by. The Federal government is a mess, constricting every freedom they can figure and the current occupant is perfect to clean house and shake things up. It’s a beautiful thing to watch as the left falls all over themselves trying to anticipate his next move. Good luck with… Read more »
She may be a bureauphile who knows how to run a bureaucracy, maybe, but can she get results?–would you hire her to get any job done? She underperformed against Mr Sanders and Mr Trump (and Mr Obama) when her job was to win. As Sec of state, she left our enemies fearing us less and our friends trusting us less; her own chosen resume highlight, “smart power at its best” (1st Demo debate), was turning Libya from K’daffy’s despotism into a bloody mess. As 1st lady, she brought in the 1st GOP congress in 40 years; you may’ve seen me… Read more »
LOL. The ‘Russians hacked our elections’ has got to be the biggest fraud perpetuated since ‘Hussein is importing yellow cake uranium from Niger’. The gullibility of the left on this meme is astounding.
Krycheck-2: So you are writing letters and making phone calls to all the democrat governors encouraging them to cooperate with the Feds in investigating voter fraud? Because there is the allegation that millions of illegals voted – and Hillary “…doesn’t seem to care about whether and to what extent the [Illegals]hacked our elections…”
Before, when we were talking about homo perversions of marriage, you seemed very genuine. I doubted your cynicism. When you say stuff like this, I think you are trolling.
I won’t repeat what the other posted have said, but there is no evidence of this Russian thing and you reveal yourself to be a dupe for believing it. Even those on CNN pushing it are doing it for cynical reasons. And if you really trust Hillary, I distrust your judgment.
All unbelievers are manipulated by dark unseen forces, but not the ones you have in mind.
I find it heartening that “the most powerful office in the world” turns out to be less powerful than the current occupier imagined it is.
Actually, if you’d quit reciting the WAPO/Bezos narrative, President Trump’s foreign policy is much more peace-seeking than anything we’ve seen since Reagan. I guess you’ve enjoyed perpetual war, terrorism, and regime change?
His foreign policy consists of ceding Southeast Asia to China, and gutting NATO so Putin will have a free hand anywhere in Europe. Nature abhors a vacuum, and if we’re not going to lead the world, Russia and China will be only too happy to fill the void.
That’s how he talked, but that’s not what he’s doing. Depending on whom you listen to, he’s about to start wars everywhere because he dared to let our planes overfly those among our allies whom Russia wants to control, and because he’s sending our ships into those parts of international waters that China wants to control. I’m no defender of the guy and it’s not necessarily to his credit that he’s doing the opposite of what he said he’d do, but at least what he’s doing is better than what he said he’d do. Like Reagan, he’s creating WWIII fears… Read more »
You’re talking about the Reagan who funded and trained the first wave of large-scale Islamic extremism in Afghanistan which still has massive global repercussions to this day, the Reagan who funded and trained death squads in multiple horrific wars in El Salvador and Nicaragua which still have massive global repercussions to this day, the Reagan who simultaneously funded both sides of the incredibly bloody Iran-Iraq conflict which contributed to destabilizing the region, the Reagan who helped American suppliers provide Saddam with the components of chemical weapons and then lying to the UN when Saddam used those chemical weapons against his… Read more »
One thing President Trump has made obvious to me is how much conservatives (and many Christians too, ) actually fear the truth. The truth is always to be cloaked behind polite civilities and if it’s too truthy, we mustn’t speak it. President Trump has a certain kind of truthiness that does not go over well in polite society, but it is so needed in the world today.
When the president of the United States sinks to the level of telling the entire nation about a woman bleeding from her facelift, I don’t think the kind of “honesty” he is demonstrating is necessary in the world today. His twitter rhetoric is on the level of playground insults: You’re ugly! You’re stupid!
It isn’t just polite society that has a problem with childishly ineffective insults. Especially from a person who is presumed to have some level of dignity and class.
Somewhat amusing Jilly, I’ve just come from a discussion with some conservative Christians about socialized healthcare. Last year the Brits,the NIH, performed over 300 labiasplasties on young girls, 150 who were under the age of 15. That’s really rather horrifying. Rather than address the issue or the nature problem, they are now all totally mad at me for having used the word “labiaplasty” in mixed company, which surely reveals a complete lack of class and dignity on my part. Perhaps, but that’s not really the issue is it? So, so often Christians and conservatives get their knickers in a twist… Read more »
MeMe, brain-damaged babies with little hope of recovery are taken off life support in this country all the time. Is Trump willing to pay for treatment for them? The health care “reform” he wants would decrease funding for them and make it possible, once again, for insurance companies to refuse to cover them. Ask the people on this board who oppose using tax money for other people’s health care if they are willing to pay for poor little Charlie Gard. I had to look up labiaplasty, and I am not sure why it is horrifying that the National Health Service… Read more »
Jilly, In the Gard case the parents have raised the money to continue treatment (about 2 million dollars), but the British and EU courts have ruled that it would be cruel to continue to treat the child and that the parents have no say. Additionally, they apparently will not even allow the parents to take him home to die with them in peace (they are probably worried they will rush him to treatment elsewhere). I can’t come up with a defense of the courts here, despite the fact that I think removal of life support is often the best of… Read more »
This is a horrible case. My tendency would be to think that, unless it can be proven that any further treatment is not only useless but painful (and I don’t see how it could be with that level of brain damage), the parents should be allowed to take him home or to pay for experimental treatment. I think the courts have overstepped here.
Here is a BBC article that explains some of the problems with labiaplasty
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-40410459
People concerned about Charlie Gard have managed to raise two million dollars for his medical care.
Well, that is truly icky. When I was 12, I would not have known what those parts were, let alone what was supposed to look normal. This seems to me to be a case where doctors and parents should be counseling girls to accept themselves as they are, or to at least wait until they are fully grown. If the poor baby’s parents have access to the money, they should be free to pursue the experimental treatment. I doubt that it will work, but it will help the parents to feel they have done all that they could. I have… Read more »
Jill, tax dollars should not be used in any way for this type of procedure and especially for those cultures that demand it. Not a single penny of tax money forced out of some working family should be used.
” “re-virginize” girls who are returning to Saudi type countries after time in the west. ”
But wouldn’t that be fraud on the part of the women? (Let’s be honest, they’re not “girls”)
” His twitter rhetoric is on the level of playground insults: You’re ugly! You’re stupid!” Keeping in mind that Trump was far from my first choice for a Republican nominee, I just have to point out that there is an old saying: what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. The first Republican president I remember being constantly portrayed as “stupid” by the media was Ford, but it was a constant mantra by the time we got to Ronald Reagan. The chorus from the left/media: “He’s STUPID.” (performed with the appropriate 3rd grade vitriol) Next Bush one. Chorus… Read more »
Well, remember that it goes both ways. I can’t tell you the number of right wing sites on which people called Obama a chimp down from the trees. Nobody ever called Nixon stupid, but they certainly called him evil! No one ever called Johnson stupid either but they certainly called him vile names including N-lover. I agree that the media has led the charge in calling most Republican presidents stupid. I never called Bush 2 stupid, but I do regret every time I made fun of him for mispronouncing “nuclear.” But think of the gentlemanly manner in which Bush responded… Read more »
” I can’t tell you the number of right wing sites on which people called Obama a chimp down from the trees” Wow, you sure must hang out in some disgusting neighborhoods of the internet. “No one ever called Johnson stupid either but they certainly called him vile names including N-lover.” Of course the one’s calling him that were mostly Democrats, not Republicans. “You don’t deal with it by getting into the mud with them.” I don’t disagree with that, but when liberals have dragged the nation down to such a crass level of argumentation, its is odd they would… Read more »
I don’t believe I’ve said on this thread that Trump (or anyone else) is stupid. I’ve said he’s mentally unbalanced, which seems obvious from his tweets, and which is not the same thing as stupid. I’ve said he’s incompetent and doesn’t know how to govern, which also seems obvious from his inability to do little except create uproar. But that’s not the same as stupid either.
I have a little more confidence in President Trump’s (I love saying that) persuasion skills but I love the image of him as a mad Mexican wrecking ball operator. And yeah, Jonah’s the bomb.
“He might just be a thin-skinned man with poor impulse control, or he might have a plan that will astonish us all when finally revealed.” The latter…and the media et al are drowning in the shallow end of the pool as a result. They fire flaming arrows, Trump launches howitzers. He goads them into looking in one direction, he goes the other way…tactical slight of hand. The self-important arrogant leftists (the reigning religion by numbers) are finally getting back in spades what they have always given with impunity. And it’s about time because they have done enough damage to our… Read more »
Now if only we could get the Republicans, and also the conservatives, to see the wrecking ball as an opportunity to build something good instead of wasting time weeping over the lost “dignity” of the presidency.
Except that’s not what’s likely to happen. A far more likely scenario is that our completely incompetent president, who is in completely over his head, will led us over a cliff.
If you’re conservative, you like his policies and you like that he’s sticking it to people and institutions you despise, but none of that is a substitute for actually knowing how to govern. He doesn’t.
Not knowing how to govern is as good a substitute for knowing how not to govern as we are likely to get.
Zachary, not knowing how to govern is not a good substitute for anything. And don’t tear something down unless you know what’s going to get erected in its place.
I don’t think it is true of conservatives in general that they like to see Trump sticking it to despised institutions. In my experience, most true conservatives value civility, education, good manners, articulate speech, and self-control. The people who are egging on Trump’s wrecking ball are those who see those values as useless because they are beyond their reach. So they enjoy watching Trump’s full frontal attack. They think he’s sticking it to the rich elites in their name. As if.
Yes, Jill, most true conservatives value civility, etc. Most true conservatives could not wield the wrecking ball as adroitly as Trump. It would hurt their consciences. Trump somehow knows it needs to be done and how to do it, and he does it without guilt. Lots of conservatives are so nice they wouldn’t put out a fire in a crowded building for fear of stepping on toes. A high powered hose (wrecking ball or whatever) is needed. Trump’s doin’ it.
“The people who are egging on Trump’s wrecking ball are those who see those values as useless because they are beyond their reach.”
Oh ouch, Jilly! Surely you don’t believe I see “values as beyond my reach?” I mean honestly, how elitist of you. Surely you don’t think the rabble and refuge of society has no values?
I have said before that it is inexplicable to me that you admire Trump, not for his policies which I can understand, but for his general presentation. I take for granted that you value civility, education, and good manners. Nor do I see you as the rabble and refuse of society. Why on earth would I? I doubt that you are any poorer than I am, in terms of income. What you didn’t have the chance for in terms of higher education, you made up for with native intelligence. Your dad was a physicist, while mine was a businessman. I… Read more »
It’s not really about “rich” or “poor,” Jilly. It’s about superficial and phony civility, sometimes called elitism. I’m not accusing you of such things, but I am accusing conservative leaders and often Christians of such things. It is about the idolatry of Western civilization that has come to place more value on keeping up appearances then we do on actually seeking the truth. The truth is often undignified and sure to cause offense, accusations of vulgarity and cruelty, and as such, we are often driven to suppress the truth in favor of so called civility. Rather than being horrified by… Read more »
Okay, but let’s look at the specific example. Trump said, “I heard poorly rated @Morning_Joe speaks badly of me (don’t watch anymore). Then how come low I.Q. Crazy Mika, along with Psycho Joe, came to Mar-a-Lago 3 nights in a row around New Year’s Eve, and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no!” According to photos taken that day, the final statement is untrue. But suppose it had been true. What important truth was contained in Trump’s message? He could have said, “Joe and Mika used to be my friends. I am disheartened… Read more »
“What important truth was contained in Trump’s message?”
That fake news is just that, fake,and that anybody can make things up if they want to. Why do we as a country elevate people like Joe and Mika to the level of “news,” when it is quite clear they simply make things up to increase their ratings? President Trump simply returned the favor and did the same.
His own Twitter feed is fake?
Maybe you should consider Mollie Hemingway as your favorite contemporary political writer.
Trump is a clown? Then what do you call the last four presidents who didn’t enforce immigration law?
Our previous president gave guns to Mexican cartels and let mobs burn down Baltimore and Ferguson.
But Trump is the clown? Honor to whom honor is due. Trump is treating his enemies with exactly the respect they deserve.
The decision to give guns to the Mexican cartels was not made at the president’s level and he wasn’t aware of it until it had already been done. Baltimore and Ferguson were local issues, unless the local authorities request federal intervention, which they did not. And yes, Trump is a clown.
Peter, please reread.
I get your point that you view him as a “wrecking ball” puncturing the overinflated dignity of certain members of our elite.
What baffles me is why you don’t think nepotism beneficiary Jonah Goldberg and war hawk Ben Sasse are clowns.
Because whatever may be wrong with being a nepotism beneficiary or being a war hawk, those things don’t make one clownish.
Of course, if they did then we would still have a couple reasons to call Trump clownish, even there wasn’t anything else.
The fake news media turned anti-Trumpism into a cause célèbre two years ago. When that went bad, they turned it into a food fight. Now they’re flinging their own poo. What next? I don’t know, but I agree that Trump is playing at wrecking ball politics. While his embarrassing tweets are not exactly the tactics I hoped for, he’s definitely yanking down pants on the right people.
The other side is shooting at Congressmen. Half a dozen Republican elected officials could have been assassinated if that guy could aim.
If it means not kicking off the upcoming civil war right now, mean tweets are a small cost to endure.
That’s a really good point. Our outrage can get very selective. A tweet tends to cause greater offense than actually committing an act of violence.
Good point too about how President Trump is helping to create what I call domestic tranquility, in the sense of expressing what many are thinking and letting them know they are being heard. That tends to cool tempers.
… but not on the left, which feels just as unheard (and just as outraged, betrayed, and bewildered) as the right did during the Obama years.
So to the extent that Trump lets the right vent its angst, sure, he’s “helping.” But the right’s angst is by no means *gone*, and now the left’s is building up to dangerous levels. So now we have twice as many angry people, *all* of them feeling dispossessed and powerless.
This, you call “ensuring domestic tranquility?”
“… but not on the left, which feels just as unheard (and just as outraged, betrayed, and bewildered) as the right did during the Obama years.”
No they don’t. Their pride is wounded, their outrage is manufactured. Walk through our abandoned cities, our closed factories, our towns ravished by meth and heroin addiction, our endless streams of suicide and you’ll see what genuine betrayal and outrage really looks like.
“Walk through our abandoned cities, our closed factories, our towns ravished by meth and heroin addiction, our endless streams of suicide…”
Not sure what you’re saying there. Al those people are on the right?
John, for over 50 years, the democratic party ideals and actions have destroyed the black and poor white families. They have destroyed any hope of education in major cities, not by insufficient funds but by deliberately changing methods of teaching. Drug use used to be relatively small in black families, but now there are few black families and drug use is extensive. The factories in the center states were worked by both black and white guys and now they are closed shutting off the opportunity and the value of work while paying minimum wage via welfare, SS, state assistance and… Read more »
Dave, I get that. I don’t get who MeMe was talking about. I read “No they don’t. Their pride is wounded, their outrage is manufactured.”, followed by reference to the problems of abandoned cities, which largely means the problems of urban black Americans, who are notably not right wing, or Trump supporters . I loose track of who is sympathizing with who, or who is being identified with what.
The problems she described are not the same problems as those of urban black Americans. Meth and heroin are hitting white people plenty hard, and the closed down factories are generally much more of a white middle American grievance than a black urban one. “Poor and drugs” shouldn’t automatically cause an “urban black” reflex.
Jane, what you says true, though when I read abandoned cites I think urban core, and then I think mostly black, and I think I am mostly right in that. What I think I understand MeMe to be saying – and maybe I’m misunderstanding – is that the outrage from the left is manufactured and not valid, whereas that on the right is organic and valid. I’m not attributing this to you, but what I would ask some people is: Why is drug abuse something that “hits” working class whites such that they are victims, whereas drug abuse is a… Read more »
John, I have wondered the same thing. I am sympathetic to substance abusers in that I have a pretty strong addictive streak myself. That, plus coming from a long line of alcoholics, I try very hard to avoid setting myself up for problems. But we really do have a double standard here. Unless you get hooked on pain pills due to a chronic condition and a doctor who wasn’t watching you carefully, it does take a bit of effort to start abusing drugs as an adult. For example, even my daughter has no idea where a person might find meth… Read more »
MeMe, I’m not saying you or anyone else should pity the left. What I AM saying is that we’ve arrived at an incredibly dangerous moment in our national life. A real statesman would look at that and say, “Wow, this whole thing could go up in flames. I need to make national reconciliation my #1 priority.” Trump says, “Hang on, now where’d I leave that can of gasoline?” This is especially disappointing because, given that he’s not really beholden to the GOP, he had a chance to *actually tack hard to the center* and start calming things down. But governing… Read more »
What has Trump actually done that disappointed you?
Great question! If you want, I can give you my wish list — what I think a responsible statesman would have done in Trump’s place — and you can compare it to what he’s actually done. But the short answer is that we need a uniter, not a divider, so pretty much *everything* he’s done has disappointed me. We’re all on this boat together; we need leaders who *recognize* that and act (and talk!) accordingly. And for me, the bottom line is this. There are three ways great powers lose their status: getting conquered (not gonna happen); tearing themselves apart… Read more »
As Christians and Americans, we should seek for the murderous left to have no power or voice in the working of our society and governments. Trump has made small strides towards this; destroying the prestige and credibility of CNN would be as much to his credit as his Supreme Court nomination has been.
Never forget: These people want you broke and dead, your kids raped and brainwashed, and they think it’s funny.
Again, I have to disagree with you here. I think every hostile tweet is heating up tempers, and making a lot of people feel absolute despair about the future of their country.
“But I am arguing—with cautious humility, taking care not to be impudent or blasphemous—that God most certainly is (by our notions of respectability) a mad genius.”
Amen! Ask the King of Ninevah about the weird dude who showed up in his city smelling distinctly of fish vomit.
“So let me say at the front end that Jonah Goldberg is my favorite contemporary political writer.”
You really need to get out more.
Hmm. The only thing one reliably gets out of elephant-doctor-size doses of apricot pit extract is cyanide poisoning.