Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Leftism and Political Correctness

  • On the Illicit Use of ‘By Definition’

    What is wrong with the following sentence:  "Excellent health care is by definition redistributional"?  It is from a speech by Donald Berwick,  President Obama's nominee to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, speaking to a British audience about why he favors government-run health care. I have no objection to someone arguing that health care…

  • Dissecting Leftism and Jihad Watch

    Leftism and Islamism are the two main threats we face.  (Sorry, Al, your global warming is about as much a threat to us as your marital cooling.)  Both threats are totalitarian and  the threat is 'synergistic' inasmuch as leftists tolerate and enable militant Islam, which is obviously inimical to their modus vivendi, all the while…

  • The Trouble With Larry

    I share Steve Burton's misgivings about the work of Lawrence Auster.  We need a broad coalition to defeat leftists and Islamists.  A certain amount of intramural squabbling  is to be expected and may even be healthy, but not if it ramps up to internecine warfare.

  • John Pepples Wants a New Left

    During our lazy float down the Rio Salado today, Mike Valle and I had a lot to talk about. He mentioned a new blog he had come across entitled I Want a New Left. The author, John Pepples, aims to develop a self-critical leftism.  Now, having read quickly through most of his posts, I am…

  • NASA Then and Now

    In the '60s, under the leadership of JFK, NASA put a man on the moon.  Forty years later, under the 'leadership' of BHO, 'NASA' has become an acronym for Nurturing Arab Self Awareness.  (From an e-mailer to the O'Reilly Factor)  Image found here. On second thought, the e-mailer's suggestion can be improved upon:  Nurturing Arab…

  • The Empty Suit Suit: U.S. vs. Arizona

    The ridiculous lawsuit the DOJ is bringing against Arizona could be called the 'empty suit suit' inasmuch as  behind it are a bunch of empty suits in line behind the Empty Suit in Chief. See Lawrence Auster, The Gravamen of the DOJ's Case Against Arizona. It is nice to know that not everything in The Arizona Republic,…

  • Best Evidence of the Greatness of This Country

    Keith Burgess-Jackson writes: The best evidence of the greatness of this country is that people are clamoring to get into it. Almost nobody—including self-loathing progressives—wants to leave it. It is also the best evidence of the failure of Communism and those socio-political schemes that are ever on the slouch toward Communism.   They needed walls to…

  • Church, State, and Arizona SB 1070

    E. J. Montini of the Arizona Republic reports that ". . . one of the lawsuits challenging SB 1070 is based on the notion that the law inhibits First Amendment freedom to worship."  As Montini correctly states, "Among other things, SB 1070 makes it a crime to knowingly transport, harbor, conceal or shield an illegal…

  • Gaza, Iran, and the Left’s Double Standard

    Here.

  • Of Black Holes and Black Hos

    Is 'black hole' code for black ho?  The NAACP seems to think so.  One wonders how many NAACP members could explain what a black hole is.  Hallmark caved and pulled the card.  Disgusting.  All decent people need to stand up against the politically correct lunacy of the race-baiting Left. We've been around this block before.  For a…

  • A Diversity Paradox for Immigration Expansionists

    Liberals love 'diversity' even at the expense of such obvious goods as unity, assimilation, and comity.  So it is something  of a paradox that their refusal to take seriously the enforcement of immigration laws has led to a most undiverse stream of immigrants. "While espousing a fervent belief in diversity, immigrant advocates and their allies have presided…

  • Madrid Gay Pride March Bans Israelis over Gaza Flotilla Raids

    Welcome to the bizarro world of the Left.  Analysis in What Explains the Hard Left's Toleration of Militant Islam?

  • Helen Thomas Disgraces Herself

    Good riddance to this superannuated leftist gasbag.  Former mayor of NYC, Ed Koch, delivers a just and fitting verdict: Helen Thomas, 89, who is of Lebanese descent, claims to be a professional journalist. As such, she is subject to professional standards. Her statement that Jews should “get the hell out of Palestine” and go back…

  • The Essence of Progressivism

    From George F. Will, The Limits of the Welfare State: Lack of "a limiting principle" is the essence of progressivism, according to William Voegeli, contributing editor of the Claremont Review of Books, in his new book "Never Enough: America's Limitless Welfare State." The Founders, he writes, believed that free government's purpose, and the threats to…

  • The Left’s Double Standard on Race

    "Comedian Bill Maher stereotypes black people as ghetto hoodlums and there's no outcry. The long-standing racial double standard always shields the left."  Here.