When we say that one doctrine is more important than another one, we are not making a quantitative assessment. It is not the case, for example, that justification by faith alone is beach ball and baptismal modes are a baseball. The doctrines of the Bible are interrelated, and mutually dependant. Many of the doctrines of …
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 …
The Third Amendment and TSA Porn Scanners
Many moderns are baffled by the Third Amendment to the Constitution, the one in which the quartering of troops in private homes is prohibited in times of peace, except by the consent of the owner. Quartering troops in time of war was allowed, but only as regulated by law. Some of the amendments in our …
Principalities and Porkers
Here are some quick takeaways from the election. 1. Now the Republicans are on the hot seat. We move from campaign rhetoric, which always gets the juices flowing, to the actual business of governance. Two test cases for you to watch. The first is that certain Republican principalities and porkers are in line (seniority-wise) for …
The 2010 Chainsaw Massacre
One of the hardest things for me to take in the election of Obama was the smug congratulatory blessing of the Europeans. Well, I think we have fixed all that now. I have mentioned before P.J. O’Rourke’s great line that this was not so much an election as it was a restraining order. It is …