Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Politics

  • The Role of Ridicule in Politics

    Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon. Conservatives have a tendency to try to win every debate with logic and recitations of facts which, all too often, fail to get the job done because emotions and mockery are often just as effective as reason. The good news is that liberals almost never have logic on their…

  • Politics as Polemics: The Converse Clausewitz Principle

    Would that I could avoid this political stuff.  But I cannot in good conscience retreat into my inner citadel and let my country be destroyed — the country that makes it possible for me to cultivate the garden of solitude, retreat into my inner citadel, and pursue pure theory for its own sake. Political discourse…

  • H. L. Mencken on the Perfection of Democracy

    "As democracy is perfected, the office of the President represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be occupied by a downright fool and complete narcissistic moron." –…

  • The Folly of “I Have Nothing to Hide”

    This is an entry from the old blog, first posted 28 December 2005.  It makes an important point worth repeating, especially in light of such recent scandals as the harassing by the Internal Revenue Service of individuals and groups whole political views differ from those of the current administration. …………..  In an age of terrorism, enhanced…

  • Obama the Sophist

    Victor Davis Hanson: [. . .] In short, Obama is the most impressive sophist of his age. In classical rhetoric, when the speaker was about to equivocate, he added an emphatic adjective or parenthetical that he was never more candid and sincere. Sometimes he inserted “on the one hand / on the other hand” to…

  • Gibson Guitars and Government Abuse of Power

    On 1 September 2011 I commented on the Obama administration's attack on Gibson.  Now the Gibson guitar raids make sense.  The article concludes: The Gibson Guitar raid, the IRS intimidation of Tea Party groups and the fraudulently obtained warrant naming Fox News reporter James Rosen as an "aider, abettor, co-conspirator" in stealing government secrets are…

  • The Real Voter Suppression of 2012

    An excellent article by John Fund that begins thusly: The 2012 election season was filled with angry cries of “voter suppression,” almost all of them regarding attempts by states to require voter ID and otherwise improve ballot integrity. Bill Clinton warned that “there has never been — in my lifetime, since we got rid of…

  • We are the Government?

    Obama assures us that the government is us. Do you believe that nonsense?  (And it is, literally, nonsense and not merely a falsehood.)  Then you you need to inform yourself for your own good. IRS and AP Scandals Cast a Big Chill on Free Speech  (Little Boomer allusion there, to The Big Chill, 1983) Four…

  • The Government Is Us?

    Liberals like to say that the government is us.  President Obama recently trotted out the line to quell the fears of gun owners: You hear some of these quotes: ‘I need a gun to protect myself from the government.’ ‘We can’t do background checks because the government is going to come take my guns away,’…

  • There is More to Life than Politics

    There is more to life than politics, but to keep it that way some engagement in it is necessary.  Related articles Politics is War and Conservatives Need to Learn How to Fight

  • Thatcherisms

    Here.

  • Victor Davis Hanson on Generation Screwed

    Here. Are the Obaminations of the current administration inadvertently building a libertarian-leaning youth movement that will unseat both the RINOs and the leftists?  One can hope. Many young people voted for Obama because they think him 'cool.'  Well, he is one cool dude, no doubt about it, except that the criterion of cool is not…

  • Matt J. Salmon on Same-Sex Marriage

    Here: In an interview aired over the weekend, Rep. Matt J. Salmon (R-Ariz.) told a local news station that his son’s homosexuality has not led him to change his position on gay marriage. “I don’t support the gay marriage,” the congressman said. But Salmon emphasized that he loved and respected his son and did not…

  • Realpolitik

    The weak invite attack.  That is a law of nature.  Nations are in the state of nature with respect to each other.  Talk of international law is empty verbiage without an enforcement mechanism.  There is none.  Or at least there is none distinct from every extant state.  The same goes for diplomacy.  There needs be…

  • There is More to Life than Politics

    There is more to life than politics, but to keep it that way, some engagement in it is necessary.