Weblog
Further Studies in Gaffe-ology by James Bowman
The hard-hitting journalism of The New York Times took us behind the scenes yesterday to show us the oppo research operation of the Obama campaign in action at the very moment when it pounced on Mitt Romney’s remark that he was “not concerned about the very poor.” The writer, Helene Cooper, seemed almost as excited as Brad Woodhouse, “a high-octane party spinmaster” for the President who mans what she calls the campaign’s “flub watch.” Everybody else calls these things gaffes, by the way, but for some reason Ms Cooper thinks another word is required — maybe because people are getting a little sick of the gaffe-hunt. She also includes this curious parenthesis: Charles Murray's "Fishtown" in popular culture
As readers may know, Charles Murray's new book, Coming Apart: The State of White America, has been getting a lot of buzz, and for good reason: Murray presents an important and provocative thesis about the growing disconnect in values between America's richest and poorest citizens, a rising "cultural inequality":
Must-Read Alert: Andrew Roberts in demolition mode by Roger Kimball | from PJ Media
Which would you prefer: a female al-Qaeda terrorist? Or a Somali refugee who has dedicated her life to combatting religious oppression and fighting for women’s rights? You might think it a no-brainer: the Somali refugee, right? Not if you are Deborah Scroggins, who shows that the question really is a no-brainer, but in a sense [...] by Roger Kimball | from PJ Media
Ah, the venerable London School of Economics. According to its web site, the elite social science institute was “set up to improve society and to ‘understand the causes of things.’” The LSE, continued the bulletin, “has always put engagement with the wider world at the heart of its mission.” What better way to accomplish that [...] by Roger Kimball | from PJ Media
John Stuart Mill famously described Conservatives as “the stupid party.” The description has unwritten boundless hilarity among liberals for more than a century, but that is only because they (stupidly?) neglected to take Mill’s deeper message on board. Every true partisan of liberalism, Mill wrote, should pray for the enlightenment and acuity of Conservatives [...] Annals of the Nanny-State, Mid-West Edition by Roger Kimball | from PJ Media
In “Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents,” his brilliant anatomy of covert state despotism, Edmund Burke noted that “the forms of a free, and the ends of an arbitrary [i.e., despotic] Government” are not at all incompatible. You may well live in a country in which the law of the land states [...] Annals of the Nanny-State, Midwest Edition by Roger Kimball | from PJ Media
In “Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents,” his brilliant anatomy of covert state despotism, Edmund Burke noted that “the forms of a free, and the ends of an arbitrary [i.e., despotic] Government” are not at all incompatible. You may well live in a country in which the law of the land states that [...] by James Bowman
In my book, Honor, A History, I wrote of Lord Herbert of Cherbury who, shipwrecked at Dover in 1609, commandeered the only rescue boat and, with his drawn sword, kept anyone else off of it and on the sinking ship except Sir Thomas Lucy. He later mentioned the incident in his autobiography without any apparent sense of shame. The point was to show that the Victorian notion of chivalry was not, as is often thought, medieval in origin but an invention of the late modern era. When a hundred years ago this April the gentlemen on board the Titanic made way with remarkable unanimity for "women and children first" on the doomed vessel’s lifeboats, they must have had a strong sense not only that they were behaving honorably and chivalrously but that such notions of honor and chivalry were the most up-to-date and progressive ones available and not some throwback to a more primitive era. Monkeys with clubs: the case of la Gingrich by Roger Kimball | from PJ Media
I am down in Antigua for a few days with friends sorting out the problems of the world. It seems as remote as it is beautiful here high on a bluff overlooking Green Island then three thousand unobstructed miles to the coast of Africa. Modernity is just about everywhere, though. The beach below my window [...] by James Bowman
Jay Cost of The Weekly Standard’s "Morning Jay" has a great analysis of the slight uptick in the President’s approval rating in recent weeks — something he sees as reflecting a solidification of the Democrats’ liberal base in response to Mr Obama’s aggressively left-wing moves in recent weeks. If so, this would be consistent with the finding of the latest Washington Post-ABC News Poll showing, in the words of the Post’s analysts, Jon Cohen and Dan Balz,"a dispirited and polarized electorate that is sharply divided over his record." But the poll also showed a worrying result for his Republican opposition. According to the Cohen-Balz tag-team of Chris Cillizza and Aaron Blake,people still blame former President George W. Bush for the weakness of the economy by nearly two to one: |
About ArmaVirumque
( AHR-mah wih-ROOM-kweh)
In the Aeneid, the Roman poet Virgil sang of "arms and a man" (Arma virumque cano). Month in and month out, The New Criterion expounds with great clarity and wit on the art, culture, and political controversies of our times. With postings of reviews, essays, links, recs, and news, Armavirumque seeks to continue this mission in accordance with the timetable of the digital age.
Follow us on Twitter:
Shortcut
To contact The New Criterion by email, write to: Contact
|
