The Rhetorical Presidency

1. So of course the headline of my previous post was unfair. Every single Republican from Hatch to Romney, though, has interpreted the president’s comments the same way. Call it the rhetorical exploitation of his rhetorical etch-a-sketchy moment. 2. I don’t have time to be linking but: . . . . Continue Reading »

On the Square Today

Elizabeth Scalia on a great challenge to Christian understanding : Ecce homo : Christ enjoying ecstatic welcome as he enters Jerusalem, only to be rejected, scorned, debased, and destroyed just a week later.  Ecce all of us , for all of our triumphs contain the threat of annihilation, . . . . Continue Reading »

Corky Is A Person

Writing for the Weekly Standard , Wesley Smith speculates about the imminent legal recognition of nonhuman personhood: For years, animal rights activists have been preparing the intellectual ground to overcome the “animals aren’t persons” legal impediment to their goal of allowing . . . . Continue Reading »

No Obama Did Not

The key Obama quote: “I’d just remind conservative commentators that for years what we’ve heard is, the biggest problem on the bench was judicial activism or a lack of judicial restraint — that an unelected group of people would somehow overturn a duly constituted and passed . . . . Continue Reading »

Feds Raid Oakland Pot School

Oakland is a terrible wreck of a city. Terrible violence. Gang infestation. Not enough cops. Awful political leadership.  A disgraceful school system in which widespread malfeasance borders on misfeasance in education, often cheating students out of their futures.  I used to live . . . . Continue Reading »

First Links — 4.3.12

Egypt’s Copts Pull Out of Constitution Talks Aya Batrawy,  The Globe & Mail Brideshead and Baseball Joseph R. Wood,  The Catholic Thing Conservative Misreadings of Jane Jacobs Jason Epstein,  NY Review of Books The Emerging ‘Asexuality Movement’ Rachel Hills, . . . . Continue Reading »

Obama Comes Out Against Judicial Review

Our good friend CJ Wolfe in the thread notes that we postmodern conservatives were prophetic when we pronounced that it won’t be long before liberals become born-again defenders of judicial restraint. But as Pete noticed, the president actually went further, suggesting that judicial review of . . . . Continue Reading »