Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Politics

  • Harry Reid, Latter-Day McCarthyite

    Here: [Senator Joseph] McCarthy in the 1950s became infamous for smearing his opponents with lurid allegations that he could not prove, while questioning their patriotism. Reid has brought back to the Senate that exact same McCarthy style of six decades ago — and trumped it. During the 2012 presidential campaign, Reid libeled candidate Mitt Romney…

  • The Central Axiom of Partisan Politics

    According to Charles Krauthammer (Things That Matter, Crown Forum, 2013, p. 64), To understand the workings of American politics, you have to understand this fundamental law: Conservatives think liberals are stupid.  Liberals think conservatives are evil. Robert Paul Wolff unwittingly provides corroboration: On Easter Sunday, it is only fitting that the reliably despicable Ross Douthat…

  • Philosophy and Politics: Frege, Heidegger and Others

    Worth repeating from an old post: Hate speech?  That's a term leftists use for speech they don't like.  No one in his right mind could see Heidegger's magnum opus, Sein und Zeit  (Being and Time),  published in 1927, as anything close to hate speech.  The claim that it is is beneath refutation.  Nor can his…

  • Blue on Blue: California Asians Object to Affirmative Action

    A rift within Democrat ranks.  Excerpt: California’s Democrats have long chafed against Proposition 209, a 1996 voter-backed measure that said: “The state shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, colour, ethnicity, or national origin” in public employment or education. In January SCA 5,…

  • Take the High Road with Liberals?

    When liberals are up to their usual scumbaggery ought one take the high road with them, patiently making one's case in gentlemanly fashion and rebutting theirs, assuming there is one, all the while ignoring their insults and slanders?  In The Liberal Slandering of Paul Ryan Peter Wehner takes seriously and replies earnestly to the mouthings…

  • Government Overreach Stymied

    Glenn Reynolds reports on successful pushback against such outrages as the FCC's "plan to 'monitor' news coverage at not only broadcast stations, but also at print publications that the FCC has no authority to regulate." I hereby introduce 'obamination' to refer to those abominations perpetrated against the populace by big government, whether perpetrated by the…

  • What is Putin?

    Victor Davis Hanson has his number: Again, what is Putin? He is a constant reminder to the postmodern Western mind that the human condition has not yet evolved beyond the fist. He is a bumper-sticker example of Aristotle’s dictum that it is easy to be moral in your sleep, given that verbiage without power is…

  • David Gelernter on the Diversity Obsession

    From The War on Truth (emphasis and a bit of ascerbic commentary added): How can we explain intelligent, articulate, intellectually vigorous people stuck in time, repeating themselves endlessly like robots? Even if the diversity crusade hadn’t become an embarrassment and a sham, the sheer mindless obsession of it suggests a seriously neurotic institution. Yale doesn’t…

  • Obama Watch

    An Orwellian Nation of ObamaThink Is it Over and We Just Don't Know it?  Related articles Orwellian Bullshit Pelosi's Orwellian Mendacity: A STFU Moment

  • Politics and Ridicule

    Dennis Prager was complaining one day about how the Left ridicules the Right.  He sounded a bit indignant.  He went on to say that he does not employ ridicule.  But why doesn't he?  He didn't say why, but I will for him:  Because he is a gentleman who exemplifies the good old conservative virtue of…

  • Obama the Lawless

    Besides being incompetent and mendacious, Obama is brazenly lawless, as Mona Charen documents.  

  • Obama, the Main Mama of the Nanny State

    Obama is this dude's main mama: It is amazing how shamelessly blunt the Obaminators are in promoting ObamaYomamaCare.  They leave no doubt that pussification and wussification are high on their agenda. There is also something incoherent  about a law that allows these pajama-clad mama's basement dwellers to remain on their parents' health care plans until…

  • Two More from Victor Davis Hanson

    So much penetrating, fact-based critique from the conservative side, and what do lefties have by way of response?  'Obamacare' is a racist slur.  The race card is all they have left. How Presidents Lie.  Excerpt: When the president speaks now, few listen. He realizes that and so, like Richard Nixon, must add emphatics as a…

  • The Four G’s Revisited

    Conservative:  God, guns, grub, gold Libertarian: Guns, grub, gold, grass Liberal: Government, government, government, government.  More specifically: Related articles Conservatives, Liberals, and Happiness The Government Is Us? "Reflections on the Political Right and Left," By Paul Gottfried

  • The Pope is a Buffoon When it Comes to Economics

    There is too much buffoonery in high places. It would be nice to be able to expect from popes and presidents a bit of gravitas, a modicum of seriousness, when they are instantiating their institutional roles.  What they do after hours is not our business.  So Pope Francis' clowning around does not inspire respect, any…