Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Current Affairs

  • Mexico City and Washington Gang Up on Phoenix

    A very good piece by Debra Saunders in the SF Chronicle.  It is heartening to know that not everything that emanates from San Francisco is PeeCee nonsense. 

  • Are Immigration Laws Discriminatory?

    Liberals routinely complain that immigration laws such as the recently enacted Arizona Senate Bill 1070 are 'discriminatory.'  This is nonsense, of course, but it is important to understand why. 1.  Let's start with the very notion of discrimination.  Discrimination as such is neither good nor bad.  In this respect it is like change.  Change as…

  • I Was Forced to Show My Papers!

    Things are really getting bad here in the fascist state of Arizona.  Why just this morning I was forced to show ID when I went to vote.  I strolled into the polling place looking a fright after several hours of hiking.  I introduced myself as 'King Blog' but that cut no ice with the  old…

  • The Upside of the Arizona Bashing

    The ACLU and — are you ready for this? — China have joined the bash Arizona band wagon.  The upside is that many liberals and illegals will leave or not come here in the first place. And that makes Cactus Ed very happy.  He recommends Arizona: How Big is Big Enough?  and Immigration and Liberal Taboos. From the…

  • Cardinal Mahony, nAZi Hunter

    When I first landed in Arizona, way back in 1991, I noticed bumper stickers that read, 'Do AZ I do.'  Well, if you do AZ I do, does that make you a nAZi? Apparently, Cardinal Roger Mahony,  Catholic Archbiship of Los Angeles, thinks so: "I can't imagine Arizonans now reverting to German Nazi and Russian Communist…

  • George Will

    Astute thinkers such as George Will give me hope.  See his latest article, Europe's Lack of Discipline.  The indiscipline, however, is also ours.

  • Arizona SB 1070: The Threat is Stronger than the Execution

    Eine Drohung ist stärker als eine Ausführung is a saying often attributed to grandmaster Aron Nimzovich.  (On the correctness of the attribution, chess aficionados will find interesting this piece by Edward Winter.)  It occurred to me this morning that the maxim also applies to SB 1070, about which I have said quite a bit of late. (Scroll…

  • Michael Scarpalanda on Arizona Senate Bill 1070

    Craig M. Thompson writes: I have enjoyed your commentary on the current situation in Arizona.  I ran across an interesting article at The Witherspoon Institute on illegal immigration called Arizona, Congress, and the Immigration Mess.   And I was hoping that you might comment on some of the points that he makes against SB 1070.  Thanks for…

  • Los Angeles on the Skids

    "The mayor's residence is near Wilshire Boulevard, which is named for a socialist who made and lost several fortunes before dying destitute. The life of Henry Wilshire is a cautionary tale for this city where the climate is usually Mediterranean and the fiscal climate is now Greek."  Read the rest of George Will's Trickle-Down Misery…

  • California is to the USA as . . .

    . . . Greece is to the European Union.  (Heard today on the Michael Medved show.)

  • Conservatives Versus Libertarians on Immigration

    Victor Reppert thinks that a conservative case can be made against immigration restriction but cites a libertarian article in support of his contention.  But as I see it, it is important to distinguish carefully between conservative and libertarian positions on this and other issues, despite several important points of agreement.  Pace Reppert, no conservative who…

  • Top Ten Dumbest Things Said About Arizona’s New Immigration Law

    Here.  The mendacity and journalistic malfeasance of liberal quill-drivers has reached an all-time high. Their wild exaggerations and hysterical allegations will do more to help the new law achieve its objective than its actual enforcement.   Illegals are leaving and we can expect fewer to turn up here.  Why migrate to the land of nAZis when you can…

  • Heather Mac Donald on The NYT’s Scurrilous Attack on AZ SB 1070

    Here.  Excerpt: The so-called 287(g) program acts as a “force multiplier,” as the Times points out, adding local resources to immigration law enforcement—just as Arizona’s SB 1070 does. At heart, this force-multiplier effect is what the hysteria over Arizona’s law is all about: SB 1070 ups the chances that an illegal alien will actually be…

  • More on Immigration Law: Arizona House Bill 2162. Response to Reppert

    On Friday, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed HB 2162 which modifies and clarifies SB 1070 which was signed into law the week before.  Here is a passage from 1070 which is constantly misrepresented in the liberal press, including the Arizona Republic newspaper: FOR ANY LAWFUL CONTACT MADE BY A LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIAL OR AGENCY OF THIS STATE OR…

  • More on Arizona Senate Bill 1070

    Joseph A.  e-mails: I greatly admire Victor Reppert for a number of reasons – I think the Argument from Reason is pretty amazing and effective when formulated and defended well, and Victor remains one of the most soft-spoken and polite bloggers around. Agreed. But a number of thoughts occurred to me when reading his and…