Enjoying the view from Limbo
Donald Trump, most of whose likely voters are the sort of people who act outraged every time a progressive dares to question the saintly perfection of the United States military, or any individual member of that military, has allegedly called fallen soldiers “losers” and “suckers.” If he really said it, which I do not doubt, since Trump has probably called everyone outside of...
Most Koreans are currently furious with that proportion of the Christian minority which, having been vilified and demonized by the Moon Jae-in government for months due to their desire to pray together in spite of COVID-19, has taken to holding public demonstrations in Seoul and elsewhere in protest of the government’s restrictions on church gatherings. The government, in response to these conscientious objectors,...
If I were an American progressive, I would be angry as hell at the Democratic Party’s decision to do to my movement — the party’s true grassroots — what the Republicans have done for decades to constitutional conservatives, namely tell us to cool our heels at the back of the bus and not make too much noise during an election campaign. If I...
No, don’t worry, I am not crazy. But Maria Cardona is! Ms. Cardona is the author of a screed entitled “A Trump victory promises 4 more years of American carnage,” which a supposedly mainstream quasi-news outlet called The Hill saw fit to publish under the label “Opinion.” In case you are wondering where Cardona’s numbers come from — as if you couldn’t guess...
These days, hordes of uncivilized, desperate-to-be-cool white people are accosting other white people in restaurants and cafés demanding that the latter raise their fists to verify their support for one of the most prominent communist slogans du jour, “Black Lives Matter.” Ask these hate-filled, inhuman thugs to define “black,” “life,” or “matter,” as those terms are employed in that slogan, and you will...
How much of the challenge of political philosophy is rooted in deficiencies of available language? How many essential truths have failed to reach the ears they needed to reach at the critical moment, merely because the individuals who saw those truths lacked universally familiar points of reference with which to communicate their lightning bolts with sufficient precision, or at least with the shattering...
If a man claiming to be a religious leader has made twenty million dollars of personal profit from his church or other church-affiliated enterprises, then he is not a spiritual leader — he is a businessman. His product is the illusion that immortality can only be reached through his material gain. If a president is not intellectually capable of giving a coherent answer...
Every smoker tells himself he will quit — but “not right now,” when he has so much stress to deal with in his life. Every drinker says, “I know I have to cut back, and I will — after I get through this divorce / get over this problem with my boss / survive my exams.” Everyone taking antidepressants insists he will reduce...
I have no time for people who tell me the profit motive is freedom, or that greed is a virtue. The profit motive is merely one of a thousand reasons to act in the state of freedom — certainly a practically useful reason, but hardly definitive of the state of freedom, anymore than what Aristotle calls useful friends (co-workers, regular customers) are definitive...
I have no time for idle conversation with casual acquaintances. To speak of light subjects with people close to me (i.e., people I already know to be earnest and thoughtful, and thus whose incidental thoughts are of some intrinsic interest to me) has a value analogous to a bit of butter on fresh bread — inessential, but nonetheless pleasant. But to speak in...
Follow: