Category: political combat
May 13 2021
The Dam Is Creaking
Folly, the late Barbara Tuchman wrote in her book The March of Folly, is “knowing better but doing worse.” More lucidly if less lyrically, a fool is one who refuses to learn from his own mistakes. He persists in a course of action that has led him astray previously – perhaps on several occasions …
May 06 2021
Onus Of Criterion
A weird-looking phrase, eh what? I first encountered it in Michael Emerling’s recorded talk on “The Essence of Political Persuasion.” The tactic he described was a real eye-opener – and smashingly relevant to conditions today. The “onus of criterion” tactic relies upon your adversary’s unwillingness to admit that there’s no imaginable evidence that …
Apr 19 2021
Good Ideas Always Resurface
A long, long time ago, back when there was music on AM radio and I was a wee proto-engineer who spent his days correcting other people’s errors in Fortran (Fortran-66, mind you), a colleague commenting on a promotion we in the Computing Center were attempting urged us all to “Think visual.” He exhorted us …
Apr 17 2021
Pushing The Outside Of The Credibility Envelope
Courtesy of Weasel Zippers, we have this literally incredible story about Joe Biden’s “popularity:” Joe Biden approaches the 100-day mark of his presidency with a relatively strong job approval rating and the public continuing to express positive views of the coronavirus aid package passed by Congress last month. Moreover, nearly three-quarters of Americans …
Apr 07 2021
A Giggle To Start Your Day
Here it is, from the irreplaceable Maura Dowling: CAPITALIZING ON DEMOCRAT HYPOCRISY “Last week, our president decided to go on national news and basically disparage our state,” [Georgia State Representative Wesley] Cantrell began. “We have a new election integrity law here that we passed a couple of weeks ago, and our president, …
Mar 16 2021
Getting It Through The Thickest Heads
I have a graphic of which I’m particularly fond: It’s critical not to appear weak. Weakness invites disrespect. Weakness shown to an enemy invites a savage attack. Even if you’re secretly strong behind a facade of weakness, inviting disrespect is bad policy. Tempting an enemy to attack is lunacy. This is hardly rocket …
Mar 14 2021
Some Dark Thoughts
“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.” – Originator unknown, though often attributed to Albert Einstein “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. No use being a damn fool about it.” – Thomas Sowell, concerning the “War on Drugs.” “If what …
Feb 17 2021
A Critical Lexical Shift
Yesterday’s column by Mike Gonzalez illuminates yet another tactical stroke against American conceptions of equality: the substitution of the word equity, a quite different concept. The core of the thing: Equality is the standard of our old Constitution, the one framed in 1787 and amended since then, most memorably in the Bill of …
Feb 13 2021
Forked Tongues Dept.
I didn’t bother to watch any of the “debates” among the various Democrat aspirants to the 2020 presidential nomination. Thus I was unaware of much that took place in those exchanges that would later become items of controversy. Most recently, the following surfaced: Yes, Gentle Reader: Kamala Harris really did say all those …
Feb 11 2021
We Really Can’t Help It…
…we humans have a hard time separating people’s personalities and characters from our opinions of the ideas they espouse. We tend to assess the validity of a Cause according to the strengths and weaknesses of those who promote it: their public conduct, their cumulative reputations, and whatever we can learn about their pasts. The …
Feb 03 2021
Moral Agents And Leftist Strategy
I slept late this morning – that’s right, I snored on until the unGodly late hour of 4:30 AM — so I’m a bit behind on my news-reading. Nevertheless, our favorite Bookworm’s latest piece has stirred my mental cauldron, and I must “write it out” before it can divert me from my other duties. …
Feb 02 2021
Lessons from Fantasy- the wisdom of J.R.R. Tolkien
Many people know of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit;” younger folk are more likely to know his work through the film adaptations of his work, while old fogeys like me read and loved his stories in printed form first, then enjoyed the movies, too. Young or old, however, Tolkien’s …
Feb 02 2021
The Ethic Of The Left
Shamelessly stolen from 90 Miles From Tyranny: In what way is this incorrect? Indeed, the game-show metaphor could be extended: one contestant could cause another to lose points by calling him a fascist, a racist, or (gasp!) a Trump supporter. Hasn’t that happened often enough – and on network television, at that? …
Jan 30 2021
The Real Plague
New York State has suffered badly under the House of Cuomo. Emperor Mario was disastrous. I was glad to see him go even if his replacement was a centrist wimp. But Mario’s son Andrew is deadly and doesn’t care who knows it: What’s that you say, Andrew? It sounded a lot like this: …
Jan 29 2021
Tipping Points Journal
Many have asked, as America slides down the generously Vaselined slope toward totalitarianism, just “where the tipping point is.” That is: What incursion on Americans’ rights would – or will – provoke actual armed insurrection aimed at reestablishing Constitutionally limited government? Time was, the most widely agreed such point was a major incursion …
Jan 28 2021
“Is It Safe?”
Suffice it to say that opinions vary. But the question reposes upon a fallacy: that safe has a specific, objective, and universally agreed meaning. It does not. There are no safe substances.There are no safe activities.There are no safe places.Only degrees of risk…Some of which are incalculable. I could go into a long …
Jan 27 2021
Concerning The Two Party System
Recall this political convulsion from more than a century ago: [T]he Republicans, in the early 1890s, led by Ohio Republicans William McKinley and Marc Hanna, launched a shrewd campaign of reconstruction. In particular, in state after state, they ditched the prohibitionists, who were becoming an embarrassment and losing the Republicans large numbers of …
Jan 03 2015
The Tirade Of Tirades
Now the rainman gave me two cures, Then he said, “Jump right in.” The one was Texas medicine, The other was just railroad gin. And like a fool I mixed them And it strangled up my mind, And now people just get uglier And I have no sense of time. If you’re around my age …
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