Over at the Corner, Matthew Franck finds much wisdom in the following teleological view of marriage: “The essential purpose of marriage is to attach mothers and fathers to their children and to one another. Absent this purpose, we would not need marriage as a distinct social institution.” I responded to him by email, and hope … Read more
As this blog’s resident conservative I have to take umbrage to Sam’s article below, in which he ascribes to Republicans a reactionary stance towards Obama fiscal policy. It’s true, there are many in my party who seem to want to make it the party of no. Yet I would not go so far as to … Read more
Actually, I’d guess Sam meant to say “reactive” rather than “reactionary”. In a narrow technical sense, however, I’d define the Republican Party as reactionary. While the term is often pejorative, it simply means a group or ideology that seeks a return to a previous state. The Republican Party is pretty open about its desire to roll … Read more
Chris, I fear, has read too much into my use of the word “reactionary.” I meant only to suggest that Republicans have gone with libertarianism over, say, Huckabee-ism or Olympia Snowe-ism, because they are reacting to Obama’s ambitious economic progressivism. This is exactly what we would expect from a minority party: the majority gets to … Read more
I seriously wonder what the Republican Party and its operatives hope to gain by trying to defend and normalize torture as a policy tool. There are a number of possibilities, none of which are particularly heartening. The first is that torture was so widespread and so widely accepted by the Party during its time in … Read more
Nate Silver notices that, of the various oppositional poses that Republicans had to choose from, they have seemed exclusively to pursue the libertarian one. They embraced the tea-party movement, which originated in libertarian circles; they proposed an alternative budget notable for its fantastical belief that you can cut taxes and balance the budget at the … Read more
The government has opened 20 criminal investigations into the TARP program. Bankers screwing people out of money? I never thought I’d see the day! Snark aside, honestly, what else would you expect? It was a large amount of money being dispensed with in a short time in a period of national emergency; it’s very easy … Read more
I think the safest and most succinct way I can react to the news that Khalid Muhammad was waterboarded 183 times in March 2003 by CIA interrogators is by making a flippant pop culture reference: Even Jack Bauer wouldn’t have done it. The only other safe, mature, profanity-free reaction I can offer? Alex, here’s proof … Read more
While I share your horror, Elise, I wish I could share your surprise. It’s hardly as though the United States (and especially the CIA) has kept its hands clean up until now. From our campaigns against Native Americans, to dropping two atomic bombs on civilians, to all the nasty and still-classified things we did in … Read more
I couldn’t help but wryly note that the New York Times published a time-pegged article on the state of play in marijuana politics for April 20th. “420” is a common slang term for marijuana, and April 20th (4/20) is, according to the article, often accordingly known as the “High Holiday”. I don’t actually think that … Read more