Enjoying the view from Limbo
Liberty's Labors Lost / World Politics
by Daren Jonescu · Published March 18, 2026 · Last modified April 15, 2026
During the absurd and wholly outrageous test-run assault on Venezuela, in which Donald Trump ordered an authoritarian president kidnapped and then “replaced” with that same president’s regime, all with the intention of grabbing control of that country’s oil reserves, though without having asked any of America’s leading oil men in advance whether they would be stupid enough to set up shop under the...
Headline I just read, from Real Clear Politics: Mark Levin: Bannon, Tucker Carlson, and Megyn Kelly have contributed nothing to conservatism or the country. Of course I will not read, and do not recommend, the accompanying article, apparently a transcript from an episode of the money- and audience-grubbing Levin’s Trump sycophant jamboree hilariously called “Liberty’s Voice.” But I will merely point out, for...
The baby boomer generation, or rather the portion of that generation that did not permanently lose itself in the “drug culture” of the 1960s, invented the phrase “The Greatest Generation” to describe those Americans who had lived through, and won, World War II. That is to say, they invented this nickname to describe their parents. A quaint tribute, much like giving your mother...
Bear with me as I meander through a few vague thoughts about the war in Iran (and by extension everywhere else) that have been swirling around in my head this past week, and which I have deliberately chosen not to catch, ground, and tie to a spot, for the simple reason that some realities are too ugly to entertain for more than a...
Liberty's Labors Lost / World Politics
by Daren Jonescu · Published March 2, 2026 · Last modified March 15, 2026
A text message exchange with a young friend of mine yesterday, March 1st here in Korea: She: I’m struggling with deciding how many clothes I should bring to Seoul. On another side of the earth, war is happening.I: Yes, there are now multiple wars happening, due to a few idiots who think they can do whatever they want. I hope you will be...
George Will, the long-compromised Republican establishment conservative, has somewhat miraculously rediscovered his principles with aplomb during the Trump era, presumably due to the liberating effects of being forcibly ousted by the populist pogrom from his secure home within the party establishment. Exemplary of his octogenarian rejuvenation is his take on the Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision to strike down Trump’s global reign of terror...
A few random thoughts (not all of them mine) regarding the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to strike down Donald Trump’s global reign of economic terror by means of his “signature policy initiative,” namely his tariffs-by-mood-ring-and-mean-girl-whim fanaticism. First, from former Republican congressman Justin Amash on X: I’m not sure there’s ever been a president more distant from the ideals of the Founders of the...
The First Lady.— I cannot even imagine what it would be like to be the kind of person who would be interested in watching a documentary about Melania Trump — or “Sweet pea,” as her friend Ghislaine Maxwell affectionately called her, though this cute friendship, I suspect, is not mentioned in the documentary. Unaccomplished, vain, apolitical, amoral, a non-entity who, like everyone who...
What does it mean to be open-minded, in the sense required for serious learning and self-development? It certainly does not mean assuming that every idea is as good as every other, or that no one’s perspective is truer than anyone else’s. That is not openness; it is relativism. Relativism is the death of thinking, philosophy, and self-development, because it suffocates the desire that motivates…
Bad Bunny was the performer at the Super Bowl half-time show. I never heard of Bad Bunny before this month. I understand he sings in Spanish. (I cannot verify whether “sings” is strictly the correct verb here, though I suspect not, based on the photos of Mr. Bunny that I have seen; and I surely will not attempt to verify it by listening...
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