Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Politics

  • On Legal and Illegal Immigration

    A reader from Down Under poses this question: America is experiencing immigration problems somewhat like Australia's. The idea of  'multiculturalism' some would say is beginning to show its flaws. Who do you believe should be allowed to enter your country? Please feel free to be as politically incorrect as you like. 1. First of all,…

  • Sports and Politics

    When it comes to sports I'm a participant, not a spectator; when it comes to politics, I'm a spectator, not a participant. I watch politics, not football; I run races, not for office. Related articles The Rationality of Political Ignorance More on the Rationality of Political Ignorance

  • The Golf Address

    Lincoln and Obama share the Illinois connection.  There the similiarity ends.  And the Maureen Dowd parody begins: FORE! Score? And seven trillion rounds ago, our forecaddies brought forth on this continent a new playground, conceived by Robert Trent Jones, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal when it comes to spending…

  • More Proof that the Left Sees Politics as War

    Andrew McCarthy comments on the Rick Perry indictment.  Alan Dershowitz:  Perry indictment is "What Happens in Totalitarian Societies." The scumbags of the Left will dismiss the folks over at NRO as right-wing nutjobs, but that won't work with Dershowitz.  Or how about Jonathan Turley, who has spoken out against the lawlessness of the Obama administration?…

  • Victor Davis Hanson on Obama the Mendacious

    Here (HT: Bill Keezer): [. . .] Barack Obama is once again lamenting the charge that he is responsible for pulling all U.S. peacekeepers out of Iraq, claiming that the prior administration is culpable. But Obama negotiated the withdrawal himself. We know that not because of right-wing talking points, but because of the proud serial…

  • More on the Rationality of Political Ignorance

    Alex L. writes, "I was interested in the post where you mentioned voting rationality.  I've heard this argument as well — that the chance your vote will influence elections is minuscule, so it's not rational to vote." But that is not the argument.  The argument is not to the conclusion that it is not rational…

  • The Rationality of Political Ignorance

    There are those who love to expose and mock the astonishing political ignorance of Americans.  According to a 2006 survey, only 42% of Americans could name the three branches of government.  But here is an interesting question worth exploring:  Is it not entirely rational to ignore events over which one has no control and withdraw…

  • Hillary: A Woman of No Convictions

    You have to read this.  It's polemical as hell, but say it ain't so!

  • Jimmy Carter: Hamas a “Legitimate Political Actor”

    Unbelievable.  Is there any limit to the moral bankruptcy of the Left? Has Carter read the Hamas Charter?  Ron Radosh: To understand what Hamas is all about, one has to turn to historian Jeffrey Herf’s important article about the organization. Based on a close reading of the Hamas charter, Herf shows that its aims and…

  • Linkage and Thinkage

    Anne Applebaum exposes the emptiness of that empty pant-suit, Hillary Clinton. Jon Voight proves that not every Hollywood type is morally obtuse. Reality is Neoconservative.

  • Why Sam Harris Doesn’t Criticize Israel

    Although Sam Harris is out of his depth on philosophical topics, and wrong about religion, he talks sense on politics and is courageously blunt about the threat to civilization of radical Islam.  Hats off to Harris!  Excerpts with emphases and comments added: One of the most galling things for outside observers about the current war…

  • Weakness is No Justification: The Converse Callicles Principle

    Might does not make right, but neither does impotence or relative weakness. That weakness does not justify strikes me as an important principle, but I have never seen it articulated. The Left tends to assume the opposite.  They tend to assume that mightlessness makes right.  I'll dub this the Converse Callicles Principle. The power I have to…

  • The Duty of LInkage

    I feel it to be my duty to do my bit, day by day, to counteract the tsunami of liberal-left Unsinn from the crapweasels of PC by linking to outstanding writers and thinkers.  There is no way  I can write with the authority of a Victor Davis Hanson or a Thomas Sowell or a Charles…

  • Response to an Objection to My Last ‘Hobby Lobby’ Post

    Dennis Monokroussos writes, Your post on why the left “went ballistic” over the Hobby Lobby case was well-done as usual, and I for one was grateful for your emphasis that the so-called contraceptives in question were really abortifacients, and that the latter is not a proper adjective for the former. I do have a couple…

  • Liberalism: Coercive and Illiberal

    I've been pounding on this drum for years.  I am happy to see that people are coming around. Liberalism as an Instrument of Coercion The Liberal War on Liberalism Rather than being what it began as, a “narrowly political strategy for living peacefully in a world of inexorably clashing comprehensive views of reality and the…