M. B. Mathews has posted something of a cri de coeur at American Thinker: There has been a huge influx of blue state people to red states in the past three years. This is a good thing because the Democrat voters, the blues, see what is happening in their own states and …
Category: political dynamics
May 09 2022
Everything New Is…Old Again?
A number of years ago, someone I worked with asked me to describe libertarianism. There are a host of answers to that question, most of them pretty good. I replied with one I find more polemically effective than the rest…possibly because I concocted it: “A libertarian is a conservative who remembers what conservatism used …
Apr 11 2022
Faith Among The Faithless
Relax, this won’t be a religious piece. Rather, it’s about one’s reluctance to award credence to persons who’ve already proved unreliable. We start from this story: Nearly 100 House Republicans are urging Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint a special counsel to investigate Hunter Biden’s foreign business deals, saying they had the …
Feb 19 2022
Parallel Processes
In the early morning – obscenely early by most Americans’ standards – is when the ideas that spur deeper contemplation usually occur to me. Perhaps that’s because the more recently awakened is one’s mind, the more likely it is to perceive without distraction. The world certainly provides a wealth of distractions, but at 4:00 …
Feb 17 2022
Godwin’s Veto
Many of you are likely familiar with the Heckler’s Veto. The gist is that a single heckler can shut down a speaker unilaterally. Perhaps he is so loud, so obnoxious, that nearby authorities are willing to silence the speaker just to rid themselves of the heckler. Or perhaps the cost of removing the heckler is …
Feb 17 2022
Labels Can Mislead
We tend to trust labels. (At least, we did back when we were a high-trust society, but perhaps I shouldn’t assume that it remains the case.) If the package says “Chocolate-chip cookies,” we proceed on the assumption that the package contains chocolate-chip cookies. If we discover afterward that it contains something else, our readiness …
Jan 27 2022
What You Don’t Know You Know (Or Pretend That You Don’t)
Most Gentle Readers probably remember Donald Rumsfeld, when he was the Secretary of Defense in the Busy the Younger Administration, talking about “known unknowns” and “unknown unknowns:” gaps in our knowledge that we’re aware of, and others that we’re not. Rumsfeld’s comments were important not only at that time and for those circumstances, but …
Jan 26 2022
Bullies, 2022 Edition
During today’s early-morning news sweep, my eye caught on three stories in particular: Antifa Wins At Dartmouth OSHA Drops Vaccine Mandate Savor the Democrats’ Humiliation All three are relevant to the subject given by the title of this piece. The first is an example of how bullies prevail when not opposed by forces …
Jan 12 2022
Patterns Redux
Long, long, LONG ago, I wrote a half-satirical essay about patterns in the lives and doings of public men. It’s in the “Baseline Essays” section, which should tell you a wee bit about what I think of its significance. Before proceeding here, I exhort you to go thence and read it, even if you …
Dec 27 2021
Comprehension: A Primer
First, a few quotes: You say: “There are persons who have no money,” and you turn to the law. But the law is not a breast that fills itself with milk. Nor are the lacteal veins of the law supplied with milk from a source outside society. – Frederic Bastiat, The Law …
Dec 16 2021
Conquest’s Second Law In The Saddle
You remember Robert Conquest’s Second Law of Politics, don’t you? Any organization not explicitly right-wing Will sooner or later become left-wing. This is the consequence of a powerful dynamic: the dynamic of power-seeking. It’s a fairly simple progression, yet there are persons who fail – or refuse – to understand it: Any organization …
Dec 14 2021
Brutal But More Likely Than Not
Yes, I’m back. I needed a few days off, in part to get The Discovery Phase released, but in larger part to flush the static out of my head. Anyway, it’s hard to type with your fists. Puts a lot of stress on the keyboard, too. This morning, I encountered an unusually frank …
Nov 12 2021
Masks Are Dropping Everywhere
Yes, Gentle Reader, the time has come for full disclosures. (No, not by me; I have nothing interesting to disclose, except that I was once a crazed Albanian dwarf with a harelip and a hump, but was rescued from a life of squalor by master surgeons in the employ of a Communist conspiracy that …
Nov 01 2021
A Bellwether Election?
Apparently, the polls are now unanimous: Glenn Youngkin commands a significant lead over Terry McAuliffe in the race for governor of Virginia. Even the blatantly partisan Washington Post has called out McAuliffe on his lies, gaffes, and dirty tactics. Were the polls a reliable indicator of anything, Virginia would elect Youngkin its next governor…but …
Oct 27 2021
They’re Going For Broke
The signs are all there. Consider this rather naive piece. “More Bad Polls For Joe Biden – Will Democrats Ever Learn?” Learn what? That one should sit on one’s opportunities until they’ve evaporated, as the Republicans do? Truly, if anyone in this country knows the value of political hegemony, however brief its tenure …
Oct 17 2021
Warning: The Following Conversation Did Not Happen…
…as reported here, that is: MAJORITY LEADER: All right, why are you holding us up now? MINORITY LEADER: The usual reason: you’re overspending, you’re doing unConstitutional stuff, and you’re weakening the country. MAJORITY LEADER: You’ve gone along with us before. I know this bill doesn’t have as many sweeteners in it as previous ones. …
Sep 01 2021
A Comment On Commentary
Back in the heyday of blogging, everyone and his halfwit Uncle Herman had a blog. There were, at peak, over 50 million such sites. Most, of course, were of no broad consequence: little was posted there, and most of that was worthless. However, they gave their “proprietors” a sense that they could be listened …
Aug 24 2021
It’s Happening Again
…but then, it was to be expected. Yea verily, even by those who claim that it’s not happening. There are phenomena whose geneses we understand – “we” being interpreted to mean “those of us who study such things” – perfectly well. We cannot plausibly claim that we didn’t expect them to happen. Yet …
Aug 20 2021
For Those Who Think Electing Republicans Will Save Us
Have a few words from Joe Hoft of Gateway Pundit: The United States now has a bona fide ruling class that both controls and transcends government, which sees itself as distinct from the rest of society and as the only element that may act on its behalf. The ruling class considers those who …
Aug 19 2021
How Did This Happen?
…grunt…wheeze… Sheesh! Getting rid of that Curmudgeon nuisance was a trial. He pops in at random hours, grabs the keyboard, and refuses to let go. I had to lever it away from him with a crowbar. (A few blows about the head and shoulders helped, too.) But all is well once more, at least …
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