2008

2007

"The Oil No-Brainer" from Friday, 29 June; 633 words

     "The Left’s answer to demands for increased oil drilling is uniformly, 'The United States cannot drill its way out of its energy problems.'  Actually, yes it can, and could have been doing so for over a decade now if only Bill Clinton had bothered to exercise the prescience we were assured lingered, as if somehow in-born, with the very fabric of his soul.  (Or something.)"   READ

"Bill Clinton, Vanity Fair, and Old News" from Thursday, 05 June; 620 words.

     "Among principled anti-Clintons (I consider myself one), the thinking has always been that when someone is as psychologically stunted as Bill Clinton, there’s no moral cause in making things up about him.  Left to his own devices, he will shoot himself in the foot sooner or later, leaving the critic ample opportunity to explain the wound.  As far as that goes, Clinton has long been the gift that keeps on giving."   READ

"Back Alley Conservatism" from Thursday, 29 May; 656 words.

     "Libertarianism is basically conservatism with a few critical departures, those having mainly to do with edifying stoners and tweaking the fancies of terribly unserious people.  But for the first time in recent memory, Libertarians have nominated a reasonably serious man, Bob Barr, who in the final analysis could be just enough to the Right of John McCain to satisfy disaffected conservatives.  A significant thing, since Republicans haven’t bothered with nominating a conservative since 1984."  READ

"Campaign '08: Never More Embarrassing?" from Tuesday, 29 April; 610 words.

     "I’ve been thinking about the 1800 presidential election a lot lately.  Partly because a book on the subject has been lingering in my consciousness, but mostly because its example has served as a rebuttal whenever someone says this year’s election could become the most contentious in American history.  People who say things like that ought first be able to name twenty presidents, and probably even their opponents, before waxing philosophic on the tone of modern elections. " READ

"Ben Stein's Important Movie, Falling Short" from Thursday, 24 April; 603 words.

     "But as sure as the Sun will set in the West, we know the broader scientific community has no tolerance for anything other than the strictest adherence to Darwinism (warts and all).  So after seeing Expelled I tried to imagine the viewer who wasn’t already aware of the metaphorical wall, who actually was in doubt whether their child would face undue criticism for asking similar questions in a high school or college class, or who wasn’t at least peripherally aware of college professors who were denied tenure, or fired altogether, for raising the question of Intelligent Design.  Said another way, I had trouble figuring out why Expelled was made."  READ

"Tibet: This Year's Fashionable Victim" from Thursday, 10 April; 609 words.

     "But China provides no less misery for Tibet and Darfur today than Saddam Hussein did for Iraq in 2002; the difference being that virtually no one is really interested in helping them end their collective suffering.  (Or as Mark Steyn writes in America Alone: “Everyone’s for a free Tibet, but no one’s for freeing Tibet.”)  Because of this, the Tibet protests are merely fashionable at the roots, despite being somewhat intellectually viable at the outside edges.  Give people four months and a hand-to-hand battle between the Obama and Clinton camps at the Democratic national convention, and they’ll go back to ignoring Tibet again."  READ

White Guilt and CYA in Eugene, Oregon" from Friday, 04 April; 608 words.

     "Of the nearly 154,000 people who live in Eugene, Oregon, only two percent are black.  (Scatter that sort of ethnic disparity through Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills and some people will call it isolationist and racist, but never mind.)"  READ

"For the Corporation" from Wednesday, 26 March; 636 words.

     "When your basic philosophical tenet is 'From each of his own, to each of his own,' it’s going to be hard to understand how and why corporations work, which is why liberals are so vexed by the idea of jobs being moved overseas.  Here the conservative takes a split: Of course something awful happens whenever an American loses a job, but there isn’t a Right-winger worth his salt who doesn’t take the Kudlow Creed imminently more seriously than its Communist counterpart."  READ

"(Jeremiah) Wright Reasoning" from Saturday, 22 March; 701 words.

     "Senator Obama’s point was that he can no sooner divorce himself from Wright than he can his grandmother, which seems a stunning lack of tenacity for someone who thinks he can handle our enemies better than George W. Bush has handled them."   READ

"Last Words on William F. Buckley, Jr., 1925 - 2008" from Wednesday, 19 March; 1,767 words.

     "For writers, more than any other group of people, there is just something romantic and majestic about dying with their boots on.  It speaks not only to the character of the man (to soldier on while clearly so unwell) but the personal meaning of his mission.  All writers – and by “writer” I mean someone who is compelled to manage words by a force they cannot understand – hope to die as Mr. Buckley died: At home, hip deep in words, perhaps sensing that something more severe than normal is amiss but hoping beyond hope there is enough time to finish the next sentence, and then the next paragraph, and then, God willing, the next chapter…."  READ

"Understanding Eliot Spitzer" from Tuesday, 11 March; 697 words.

    "We tend to assume a man can fill his brain with Dr. Phil’s 'homey witticisms about relationships,' or something similar, and call it self-awareness, but at the end a man has to know himself.  No amount of masking (say, through marriage and child rearing) will calm the desires he, as a man elected to uphold the laws of New York State, should want to control.  And until you understand that, you cannot understand Eliot Spitzer."  READ

"Hillary Clinton v. The Clinton Skeptic" from Friday, 11 January; 801 words.

    "On the other hand, skepticism should always be the fallback position when it comes to the Clintons.  Likely that Senator Clinton doesn’t open her eyes in the morning without first wondering how it might impact her poll numbers.  There is no earthly reason to believe that a woman who hasn’t displayed a spontaneous reaction in fifteen years suddenly found her emotional center – one day before the New Hampshire primary, which she was primed to lose badly – and decided to show everyone, as a means of conveying her resolute earnestness. "  READ

"Notes on Iowa" from Friday, 04 January; 594 words long.

    "One could comfortably assume that once Iowa rolls up its sidewalks, we can go back to ignoring it for another four years.  Regretfully, however, the closer we come to continuous election cycles, the closer we come to All Iowa, All the Time; the next crop of malcontents will start drifting in two years from now, meandering in corner diners and boring everyone anew.  Ten months before Election Day, those of us with attention spans cannot help but feel utterly exhausted; all their faces and ideas already seem to blend together.  Who do you support?  Huckabamaclintmey.  That’s my guy.  Or gal."  READ

"Imus, in Passing (An Essay of Some Length)" was completed Tuesday, 17 April (but released Monday, 23 April); 2,921 words long.

    "The byproduct of this incident should be that black Americans feel compelled to finally decide just what should be offensive to black Americans, and why.  We know now that “nappy-headed ho’s” is out, but if taken as an honest intellectual exercise, then whoever next refers to Condoleeza Rice as a “house slave” should also be drummed out of respectable business; because if one is racist, so is the other.  Same for whoever next refers to Clarence Thomas as an “Uncle Tom.”  Same with whoever next alters a picture of Michael Steele to make him look like Sambo."  READ

"On Taking Offense" from Wednesday, 14 March; 777 words.

    "Now, why would a homosexual’s taking offense to a candidate’s non-action matter more than a Catholic’s taking offense?  Well, Edwards has made a gamble based upon the direction of things within his party: If a liberal candidate is even rumored to be abandoning gays (e.g., by not responding forcefully enough to things like Coulter’s poorly constructed joke), he will lose virtually all of Democratism in the pink and feathery aftermath.  But if the same liberal forsakes Catholics, he’ll lose only a comparatively few Democrats, which is a chance Edwards is much more willing to take."  READ

"Kenneth Eng is Not Smart" from Wednesday, 07 March; 758 words.

    "Modern Americans are tempted from the first to deconstruct Eng’s prejudice as a means of understanding him.  This is one of our most irritating traits as a culture; understanding why someone is a racist isn’t nearly as important as simply knowing he is, but for some reason it will make us feel better to know what drives him, as though our knowing will somehow clear his mind of plain idiocies."  READ

"Hillary Clinton, in Danger of Decline" from Tuesday, 06 March; 777 words.

    "When you hear pro-Clinton Democrats wonder aloud whether Barack Obama is qualified to be president, feel free to ask exactly what Hillary Clinton has done to make her imminently more qualified than Senator Obama, or anyone else in the field.  Senator Clinton has served one full term (and about two months of a second term) in the Senate but has held no other office.  This means she has only four more years of on-the-job experience than Obama, unless you count the eight years she spent sticking her nose into her husband’s business."  READ

"Al Franken for Senate (?)" from Wednesday, 21 February; 715 words.

    "As Al Franken sat broadcasting his last radio show, one couldn’t help but get a tingly, “our long national nightmare is over” feeling.  Air America started as an intellectual abortion and continued downward from there, failing at every conceivable turn to implement financial restraint or quality control measures, in the end deciding it was easier to beg liberal billionaires for more funding than to make itself worthy of free market success.  Good riddance to bad rubbish, and all that."  READ

"Anna Nicole Smith: Still Dead (And Other Observations)" from Wednesday, 14 February; 830 words.

    "Anna Nicole Smith had nothing inside her recommending fame or fortune.  She was all looks, when she had them, and when she finally realized there was nothing else to her, she hid behind drugs and plastic surgery to keep herself from having to think about it. "  READ