To learn who rules over you, simply look to those you are not allowed to criticize. [Multiply attributed, most often to Voltaire.] The above seems sound. Certainly many aristocracies treated the criticism of the rulers — lese majeste — as a serious offense. In some such lands it was treated more harshly than …
Category: political combat
Jul 16 2022
An Alternative Strategy No One Will Like
Concerning the prospect of mail-in ballots and similar fraud-enabling measures in the upcoming midterms, Stephen Kruiser has a few words to say: During the Obama years, I used to say that any GOP candidate had to make sure that he or she was “outside the margin of ACORN.” I’ve updated that to “outside …
Jun 24 2022
A Little Confirmation
Now and then, we get a “Kinsley gaffe” – i.e., when a politician accidentally tells the truth – that tells us more than we ever knew. (Sometimes it’s more than we wanted to know, but that’s a subject for another tirade.) We have one before us today: For decades, the Democratic Party had …
Jun 22 2022
War Of The Cablecasters
If you don’t watch Tucker Carlson’s nightly “openings,” you’re missing some of the best and most entertaining commentary available: Ridicule, Alinsky tells us, is the unanswerable weapon. Ridicule of a self-described comedian who no longer even tries to be funny – the last time Stephen Colbert even made an attempt at humor was …
Jun 14 2022
The Requirements Of Civil Debate
Just a quickie this morning, as I have a powerful need to unshackle myself from this electronic ball and chain and do something that will have a true effect on the world, even if it’s only to mow my lawn again. We know that genuinely civil debate is impossible today. Most Americans have …
Jun 09 2022
Key To Understanding The Violence
In just five more days, we’ll be “celebrating” an event the Left would prefer that you not remember: On June 14, 2017, a gunman walked onto a baseball field at Eugene Simpson Park in Alexandria, Virginia, opening fire on politicians and wounding House GOP Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana and four others. …
Jun 05 2022
A Refutation
It’s looking like another brain-trying, body-exhausting day for me – yes, it’s that again — so allow me a quick squib before I go forth to challenge Mother Nature once again. The clip below should tell you what Democrats — any Democrat will do – really think of your right to keep and …
May 22 2022
The War Of The Words
Yes, the title has been used by others. But the motif is critical to political combat in our time. Words are weapons. Words are tools. Define or be defined! — Michael Emerling I read in this morning’s news sweep that a Republican Congresswoman, Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-AZ), has introduced a “Women’s Rights” …
May 11 2022
“Not Done”
Historically, much that is not illegal by statute has been restrained by an unwritten social code. Nineteenth Century England, the closest approach to a classical-liberal polity in Europe of that era, had extensive codes of that sort. Because English society was stratified by class, there were several such codes, which included rules by which …
May 10 2022
Masks Off Dept.
First, the scene at Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles, just this past Sunday: Marxists try to disrupt Mass at Cathedral of our Lady of the Angels. Security, ushers and parishioners said they were not having it.#cathedral #Catholic pic.twitter.com/HlN8yHxPKL — Romangod7 (@Romangod7) May 8, 2022 And what do the Usurpers think …
May 02 2022
A Time For Candor
There is no longer any politics in our political contests. There is only slander. As pleased as I was to see Andrew Cuomo resign the governorship of New York, the accusations that elicited his departure depressed me rather badly. Cuomo, for all that I dislike him as a man and a public official, …
Apr 02 2022
Celebrating Their Achievements Part 2: WTF, Over?
In a comment upon the earlier essay, my Gentle Reader George asks: How is it possible for anybody this inept and inarticulate to get to such a position? I realize she “moved up” on her back however, I cannot honestly believe that ANYBODY (let alone a dim) could think putting her in such …
Apr 02 2022
A Long, Long Time Ago…
…there was a company called Disney. Its products were aimed at American youth, typically below the age of puberty. The consistent quality and generally uplifting character of those products made it one of the most successful entertainment companies ever formed. Its founding genius, Walt Disney, was the icon of the company for the whole …
Mar 27 2022
Sex As Strategy And Tactics
It goes essentially without saying that sex, owing to our nature, is a principal attractor. However, the reverse of the coin is seldom discussed: it’s also a principal distractor. Clever sorts can use sex or parasexual matters to distract target audiences from what ought to be get their greatest attention, just as a stage …
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 02 2022
Right Ways And Left Ways
Time was, soldiers had a saying: “There are three ways to do anything: the wrong way, the right way, and the Army way.” It was facetious, of course; an Army that refrains from doing things the right way as a matter of policy wouldn’t last very long. But the saying expresses some of the …
Jan 27 2022
Something That Desperately Needed To Be Said
Today – indeed, for some years now – any attempt to argue with someone on the political Left has been met with vituperation and accusations of evil motives. “Racist!” “Sexist!” “Xenophobe!” and so forth have become the Left’s standard responses to any sort of disagreement. These pejoratives have lost some of their ability to …
Jan 17 2022
Revolutions Without Bloodshed Part 1
They’re rare. The State that finds its hegemony threatened almost always responds with violence. Violence, after all, is the State’s stock in trade. It’s the characteristic method of rulers to use force and violence to work their wills upon us. In the majority of cases, they could get their way in no other …
Jan 09 2022
Immanentizing the Eschaton of the Republic
“Don’t let them immanentize the eschaton!” – William F. Buckley, 1966 It has been said, and truly, that whatever the Left accuses the Right of doing is what the Left is already doing, or planning to do in the immediate future. In today’s political battlespace, that has a particularly large force. Have …
Dec 17 2021
Preparing For Armageddon
A funny way to open a column in the second half of Advent, eh? But it’s what’s on my mind. The eighteen entries in my “Future Columns” folder can wait another day. Here is the stimulus for today’s exercise in futility: Please take the twelve minutes and watch it. It’s one of …
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Margaret’s Recent Novels
