Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Current Affairs

  • Should Felons Have the Right to Vote?

    Bernie Sanders thinks that felons should have the right to vote even while incarcerated.  That is a foolish and irresponsible view. 1) Felons have shown by their destructive behavior that they cannot productively order their own lives. Why then should they have any say in the ordering of society?  Why should the thoughtful vote of…

  • Prager, the Left, and ‘Easter Worshippers’

    Why Hillary and Obama Tweeted About ‘Easter Worshippers’ amgreatness.com/2019/04/23/why-hillary-and-obama-tweeted-about-easter-worshippers/   Dennis PragerApril 24, 2019 Sometimes, a few sentences tell you more about a person—and, more importantly, an ideology—than a learned thesis. That is the case with tweets from Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in response to the mass murder of more than 300 Christians and…

  • Weimar Villanova

    Dreher reports.  I am finding it harder and harder these days to resist Kulturpessimismus. As for Notre Dame de Paris, it would be irresponsible to speculate as to its cause. Let the facts emerge. Whatever the cause, there is something deeply symbolic about its destruction: the de-Christianization of Europe. A Fox News commentator this morning…

  • Is Illegal Immigration a Crime?

    It is. Nancy Pelosi and other prominent Democrats have been lying to us. Illegal immigrants are subject to criminal penalties. While improper entry is a crime, unlawful presence is not a crime. One can be unlawfully present in the U. S. without having entered improperly, and thus without having committed a crime.  If a foreign…

  • Is She Believable?

    It depends on what 'believable' means.  Many find Christine Blasey Ford 'credible' or 'believable.'  But there is a tendency among the commentariat to conflate her believability with the believability of the content of her allegation against Judge Kavanaugh. Those of us who want to think clearly about this SCOTUS confirmation business need to keep some…

  • The Greatest Hysteria in American History

    A voice of sanity: You and I are living through the greatest mass hysteria in American history. For many Americans, the McCarthy era held that dubious distinction, but what is happening now is incomparably worse. [. . .] If you vote Democrat this November, you are voting for hysteria, lies, socialism and even the cheapening…

  • Kelly Sadler and John McCain

    Kurt Schlichter gets it right.

  • A School Shooting?

    Suppose a man commits suicide using a handgun while seated in a car parked on the premises of a former school.  Would you call that a school shooting? A 'liberal' would. 

  • Should Gun Manufacturers be Sued for Gun Crimes?

    Suppose I sell you my car, transferring title to you in a manner that accords with all the relevant statutes. It is a good-faith  transaction and I have no reason to suspect you of harboring any  criminal intent. But later you use the car I sold you to mow down  children on a school yard, or to…

  • The Craphole Contretemps Continues

    But Rod Dreher is having second thoughts. Worth your time.

  • Jonathan Haidt on the Age of Outrage

    Worth your time, but leftist bias is in evidence. The Democrats have moved much farther to the Left than the Republicans to the Right. Haidt seems quite oblivious to this. But he's young. Give him time.   The first comment, by one Christopher Conole, is on target (minor edits by BV): Professor Haidt is very late…

  • Dennis Prager Responds to Bret Stephens

    Here. I used to have a fairly high opinion of Bret Stephens. What happened to him? Here is my detailed and measured critique of Bret Stephens on the topic of disagreement. It begins like this: Our national life is becoming like philosophy: a scene of endless disagreement about almost everything. The difference, of course, is…

  • What’s the Matter with Germany?

    Argues that the trouble with Germany is that it is anti-Enlightenment. The author ignores, however, the German Enlightenment and its main exponent, the great philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804). It is not easy to play the history-of-ideas game well!

  • Can You Obstruct a Fraud?

    Andrew C. McCarthy is rock-solid.

  • Incitement to Violence

    Required reading.