Tag Archives: Politics

Marco Rubio Went To Disney World, And Republican Donors Paid For It

Posted on November 8, 2015 by

When the average, middle class Republican donor put up $40 to support the Republican Party, do you suppose (s)he knew that it would pay for Marco Rubio going to Disney World? Marco Rubio’s Use of Party Credit Card Reinforces a … Continue reading →

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Prediction: Hillary Clinton Will Win The White House

Posted on October 24, 2015 by

Hillary’s toughness may be her greatest strength. I’m increasingly under the impression that she could win, and win big. How, after all, do Republicans capture the White House if the women’s vote breaks 52-48 (a low-ball estimate) for Clinton? Surely, … Continue reading →

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Marco Rubio Is Not Outraged “Over A Dead Lion”

Posted on August 4, 2015 by

Marco Rubio signals that he’s anti-environmentalist and anti-feminist in the same (poorly worded and incorrectly punctuated) tweet: “Look at all this outrage over a dead lion, but where is all the outrage over the planned parenthood dead babies.” Rubio Tweet … Continue reading →

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Steven Pinker Says Violence Is On The Decline. Really.

Posted on March 10, 2015 by

A short and excellent talk, by Steven Pinker, on the global decline of violence.

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“Why the Germans? Why the Jews?” Thinking about Gotz Aly’s New Book, 70 Years after Auschwitz

Posted on March 5, 2015 by

Given that this week marks the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, I’d like to share a new book on the Holocaust that I’ve been reading: Gotz Aly’s Why the Germans? Why the Jews? It raises the question of … Continue reading →

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How Do You Know? Factive Verbs in Relation to Political, Religious, and Scientific Discourse

Posted on March 3, 2015 by

I’m thinking about factive verbs this morning in relation to such things as global warming, God’s existence, evolution, the future of the stock market, etc. ESTABLISH, for example, is a very strong, emphatic verb, as in, “I’ve established the truth … Continue reading →

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Pipeline vs Freeway: What is Net Neutrality, Really?

Posted on February 25, 2015 by

Net neutrality treats the Internet as a data pipeline, akin to a water pipeline. It doesn’t discriminate between the content that flows through it. That’s all net neutrality is. But there are Republican politicians who want to monetize the Internet … Continue reading →

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An Atheist Leads a Prayer at a City Council Meeting…

Posted on January 8, 2015 by

No, it’s not the beginning of a joke, but it made me smile. Naturally, before Preston Smith, an atheist, got started on his invocation, a number of the pious council members of the fine city of Lake Worth, Florida, split … Continue reading →

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Walter Russell Mead Declares Peak Obama

Posted on December 21, 2014 by

Peak Left? Playing off the idea of peak oil, Walter Russell Mead, in The American Interest, declares this moment in Obama’s presidency to be “Peak Left” for the United States. The tide is going out for liberalism, says Mead, and we’re … Continue reading →

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What Dave Bratt Means

Posted on June 12, 2014 by

I see Dave Bratt as signalling two big things: (1) Republicans will solidify their image as anti-Hispanic over the next couple of years, making it harder for them to win national elections (especially in the 2020s); and (2) Hillary has … Continue reading →

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The Case for Doubt in a Single Paragraph

Posted on April 10, 2014 by

If you already believe something, should you attend to the opinions of naysayers, complexifiers, and qualifiers? It depends on whether you’re coming to an issue for therapy or truth. And the quality of the second opinion matters. Every liberal should … Continue reading →

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The Center Does Not Hold: Bastard Christianities

Posted on April 6, 2014 by

If his lecture outlining his argument is any indication, Catholic intellectual Joseph Bottum’s new book, An Anxious Age: The Post-Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of America (Image 2014), is going to be talked about “far and wee”: The major event … Continue reading →

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What Hillary Will Win In 2016

Posted on March 16, 2014 by

The Supreme Court. A reader at Andrew Sullivan’s blog makes the point concisely: A president Clinton will have […] a very gray Supreme Court (FOUR octogenarians in her first term).  Think about what that means for all those Voting Rights Act cases … Continue reading →

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“Republicans make you work for your money, and try to let you keep it.”

Posted on March 8, 2014 by

This was in The New York Times this past week: “Democrats are for a bunch of freeloaders in this world as far as I’m concerned,” said Gari Day, 63, an Avis bus driver from suburban Detroit. “Republicans make you work … Continue reading →

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On the Future of the Republican Party, This Photo of an Empty Conference Room at CPAC Devoted to Minority Outreach Pretty Much Says It All

Posted on March 6, 2014 by

Via Twitter:  John Hudak‏@JohnJHudak Big problem for GOP. Most important #CPAC2014 panel. Topic: minority outreach. View: largely empty room. pic.twitter.com/LQKQ0QwwVc   11:09 AM – 6 Mar 2014

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Critical Thinking: Roger Kimball Is Against It

Posted on February 25, 2014 by

Catholic conservative Roger Kimball is editor of The New Criterion, which is a great journal. I read it. I like it. But sometimes Kimball comes a little unhinged. He often seems, for example, to regret that the Enlightenment ever happened at … Continue reading →

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House Of Cards Becomes House Of Cardinals

Posted on February 23, 2014 by

This is a pretty amusing parody of Kevin Spacey’s Machiavellian character in House of Cards. 

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Ann Coulter’s Prediction on Immigration, and Her Prescription

Posted on January 30, 2014 by

Ann Coulter makes a prediction: At the current accelerated rate of immigration–1.1 million new immigrants every year–Republicans will be a fringe party in about a decade. I think her prediction is basically accurate if the GOP does not adjust to … Continue reading →

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Limbaugh Dropped from KFI Signals Ongoing Decline of Baby Boom Right

Posted on January 12, 2014 by

Another conservative canary swoons in the right-wing coal mine. Los Angeles-based KFI (AM640) is probably the largest radio station west of the Mississippi, reaching south to San Diego, north to Fresno, and east to Las Vegas. And effective January 20th, … Continue reading →

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Republicans Face a Demographic Tsunami in 2016

Posted on November 3, 2013 by

Ruy Teixeira explains: How bad could 2016 be for Republicans? Pretty bad. Start with the likelihood that minorities, who voted 80 percent for Obama, will increase by 2 points to 30 percent of voters. Add to that the continued growth of heavily … Continue reading →

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