We are not going to appear at the Fox News debate, for we are most seriously displeased. Once the royal majesty of the deal-maker is insulted, how can Ailes still expects the deals to happen? Makes no sense. We have been in a long campaign. Thus far I have said what I think and I …
Presidential Pardon in a World Gone Mad
So let us begin with the “world gone mad” part. David Daleiden, the man behind the Planned Parenthood sting videos, has been indicted by a grand jury in Texas. He made the mistake of gathering secret footage of Planned Parenthood doing appalling things with the bodies of little boys and girls. If he had only …
More to Conservatism Than a Vibe
So how does Donald Trump do it? Do what, you ask? Entirely detached from identifiable conservative principles, and almost equally detached from a recognizable conservative record, he nonetheless is filling up venues with enthusiastic people who are responding to what they think is some kind of conservative vibe. What is it that enabled someone like …
Who Would Palin Comparison?
Ah, what is a political commentator to do? The presidential campaign has not even gotten to the stage of the first voting in Iowa yet, and the whole thing is already a parade of fifteen or more clown cars. What am I supposed to do? I look into my tool chest, and I am already …
Trump, Cruz, and New York Values
Look. It is a commonplace among us, or ought to be, that drivers ed classes in New York teach the students to drive with their knees so that they can give other drivers the bird using both hands. At least that’s what I heard. And this relates, as I am sure you recognize, to an …
Political Freak Outs
As we close in on the first actual voting in Iowa, with actual voters, now just a few weeks away, I would like to register a few cautions. I have addressed the limitations of polling before, but here want to say something about the use made of them by the chattering classes. Keep in mind …
The Wrong Rights
Our Constitution concludes with a Bill of Rights, but these rights are of a particular nature — and are friends of real liberty. But within the last several generations, another set of ostensible rights, with a completely different nature, have crept into our public discourse. These rights, these entitlements, are enemies of liberty. Not only …
7 Tips for Watching This Presidential Campaign
We are now five weeks out from the start of actual voting in Iowa. That being the case, and given that the field has been winnowed to fairly manageable proportions, I thought I should offer a few pointers to those observers who are having trouble tearing their eyes away from this slow-motion car-crash spectacle. 1. …
John Piper and Guns
So I see from the Internet that John Piper set off a flurry of reactions and responses to his gun post. I refer to the one in which he discouraged Christians from packing heat, you can imagine how that went over. For my readers in the UK, yes, this really is a thing. Some churches …
Social Justice Millennials
As I have been working through the Essays of C.S. Lewis, I have noticed how dedicated to the argument he was. He believed in the reality of fixed and objective truth, and believed it was necessary to assume such a fixed reality in order to get anywhere at all. We have to assume that reality …