I want to follow up on the concept of cool-shaming. As we are in the process of airing this place out, this word is a key that can unlock a lot of the rooms, especially the mildewed ones. After my post on cool-shaming, I was contacted by an alert reader (thanks, Eric), who pointed me …
Cool-Shaming
Most of the really big problems in the world are caused by the smartest guys in the room. Having a high intellectual rpm is not necessarily a good thing. This grim reality reminds me of William F. Buckley’s famous comment about responsible governance. “I’d rather entrust the government of the United States to the first …
Out of the Reach of Sarah Palin’s Enemies
Progressives have a very tenuous grasp of the basic realities of causation, but they have an uncanny awareness of the need to control the narrative. If anything whatever happens, of a significance that is worthy of comment, they fit it into their narrative, and they do so immediately. They are marvelous at staying on message. …
Rounding Into the Straight
I haven’t had anything to say about the Wikileaks fiasco, and I still don’t have anything extended to say. But a few little things have occurred to me. The size of the document dumps clearly indicates classified material inflation. Better safe than sorry takes over, and pretty soon you have classified materials which, if stacked …
Our Keystonekoppery Responses
Terrorism is in the first place theater, and we have responded to it with a security system that is equally theatrical. Terrorism is theater that has a violent component to be sure, but that is not the main point. The last thing that our current terrorism is designed to do is provoke a real fight. …
The TSA Must Think We’re Mushrooms
The TSA must think we’re mushrooms. You know, the way they are trying to keep us in the dark, and the way they keep feeding us a fertilizing agent that comes from the south end of a north-bound cow. Allow me to explain. They say that the images from their new porno scanners are images …
Touching Sensitive Areas, or TSA For Short
Here are some points to keep in mind as the controversy about the TSA wends it way through our various news cycles and perhaps, let us hope, into a bill in the new Congress. 1. It does the old heart good to see people get riled up with government incompetence and . . . what’s …
Radical, in a Mainstreamy Kind of Way
I saw a video clip the other day, which I cannot now find, of Andrew Napolitano having a conversation with Sarah Palin. Napolitano is a high octane liberatarian, not to be confused with Janet Napolitano who is . . . um, not. The thing that was striking to me about this conversation was how radical …
Populism and Common Sense
Populism is a fascinating political phenomenon. In the conservative intellectual tradition — in which I have been bobbing about for some decades — there is a deep suspicion of populism. Of course, in the populist tradition, there is a deep suspicion of pointy-headed elites, and so I suppose we’re even. The Founders were certainly concerned …
A Front Row Seat
When Angelo Codevilla’s essay on America’s ruling class came out in The American Spectator, I read it with interest. Good stuff. But then, according to later reports, the essay went viral, and I started hearing political candidates referring to our “ruling class.” The essay was such a hit that they rushed it into print as …