Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Politics

  • The Conservative Disadvantage (2010 Version)

    We conservatives are at a certain disadvantage as compared to our leftist brethren. We don’t seek the meaning of our lives in the political sphere but in the private arena: in hobbies, sports, our jobs and professions, in ourselves, our families, friends, neighborhoods, communities, clubs and churches; in foot races and chess tournaments; in the…

  • Santayana on Americans and Socialism

    George Santayana (1863-1952), Character and Opinion in the United States (Norton, 1967), p. 171: His instinct [the American's] is to think well of everybody, and to  wish everybody well, but in a spirit of rough comradeship, expecting every man to stand on his own legs and to be helpful in his turn. When he has…

  • Obama Underappreciation Syndrome

    Remember Bush Derangement Syndrome?  Charles Krauthammer once again advances our social-psychological understanding.

  • A Natural Experiment in Political Economy

    Read it.  Given that liberal policies do not work, why are there so many liberals?

  • Why Liberals Don’t Get the Tea Party

    Good analysis by Peter Berkowitz. Excerpt: Born in response to President Obama's self-declared desire to fundamentally change America, the tea party movement has made its central goals abundantly clear. Activists and the sizeable swath of voters who sympathize with them want to reduce the massively ballooning national debt, cut runaway federal spending, keep taxes in…

  • The Beat Generation, the Tea Party and the Meaning of ‘Beat’

    Many thanks to that indefatigable argonaut of the cybersphere, Dave Lull, for bringing Lee Siegel's The Beat Generation and the Tea Party to my attention.  An auspicious find in this fine October, Kerouac month hereabouts.  If I wanted to be unkind I would say that the article proves that anything can be compared to anything. …

  • Joseph Sobran

    Joseph Sobran is dead at the age of 64.  Beginning as a paleocon, he ended up an anarchist, and apparently something of an anti-Semite.    His 1985 Pensees: Notes for the Reactionary of Tomorrow, however, contains a wealth of important ideas worth ruminating on.  A couple of excerpts, not necessarily the best: "The poor" are…

  • No Provision in Islam for Mosque-State Separation

    John Hick, An Interpretation of Religion (Yale UP, 1989, pp. 48-49): From the point of view of the understanding of this state of islam [submission to Allah] the Muslim sees no distinction between the religious and the secular.  The whole of life is to be lived in the presence of Allah and is the sphere…

  • The Politics of Gold

    The price of gold has topped $1300 an ounce.  And this while inflation is low.  The upswing is driven mainly by the fear of inflation.  In order to handle otherwise unsustainable levels of debt, the government will resort to 'monetizing' it, i.e., printing money and causing inflation.  By counterfeiting its own currency, a government steals…

  • What Explains Islamist-Leftist Collaboration?

    An analysis by Daniel Pipes.  Excerpt: Why, then, the formation of what David Horowitz calls the Left-Islamist "unholy alliance"? For four main reasons. First, as British politician George Galloway explains, "the progressive movement around the world and the Muslims have the same enemies," namely Western civilization in general and the United States, Great Britain, and…

  • A Tea Party Manifesto

    Here.  The authors, Dick Armey and Matt Kibbe, make it clear that fiscal responsibility and limited government are the central concerns of Tea Partiers. The criteria for membership are straightforward: Stay true to principle even when it proves inconvenient, be assertive but respectful, add value and don't taking credit for other people's work. Our community is…

  • The Losertarian Party

    Politics is a practical business: it is about the gaining and maintaining of power for the purpose of implementing programs and policies that one believes to be beneficial, and for opposing those whose policies one believes to be deleterious. As the Converse Clausewitz Principle has it, it is war conducted by other means.  For this…

  • Gallup Poll: Americans Oppose Federal Suit Against AZ Immigration Law

    Here.  The notion that the Obama Justice Department would waste millions suing  a state for passing a law that mirrors the content of a Federal law is absurd on the face of it, especially when the same Justice Department turns a blind eye to sanctuary laws which actually do violate the Supremacy Clause; but also from…

  • Terry Goddard

    He is the Arizona Attorney General.  I just watched Greta van Susteren ask him repeatedly whether the DOJ should drop the inane lawsuit against the state of Arizona anent S. B. 1070, and he would not answer the question.  What a weasel! Of course, he's a Dem.  Perhaps the weasel should replace the jackass as…

  • Did Holder, Napolitano, Obama, et al. Lie When They Said They Hadn’t Read the Arizona Law?

    J. O. e-mails:  A caller on the Dennis Miller Show called in and said something very insightful I thought you would like. Miller was asking callers to call in about Eric Holder et al. not reading the Arizona Illegal Immigration law, and the caller said that he thought they HAD read it and were lying…