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Leo, say it ain’t so!

Considering that many of the scholars that blog here are, to one degree or another, Straussians, I found this blog over at Spengler . . . well, informative. http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/spengler/2010/10/22/leo-strauss-destroyer-of-judaism/ Because I’ve not read Strauss and what . . . . Continue Reading »

Alphabet City

In yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, Norman Podhoretz emerged from semi-retirement to express his approval for Sarah Palin . No, I don’t propose to revisit the Sarah, pro- and con- debate, which will remain sterile and tedious until she actually, like, runs for something (or not). But I . . . . Continue Reading »

Whither the Post-Healthcare Realignment?

Over at Cato, Julian Sanchez has written a post about how the aftermath of healthcare reform could reveal faultlines in existing political coalitions and trigger realignment: There’s no intrinsic commonality between, say, “left” positions on taxation, foreign policy, and reproductive . . . . Continue Reading »

Do Tea Partiers Dream Of The General Will?

David Brooks thinks so. But to link the tea parties to the ’60s left by way of Rousseau, he has to draw our attention away from the nationally disaggregate and locally-rooted character of lots and lots of the tea partiers. The recent tea party convention does underscore how the tea parties . . . . Continue Reading »

Tea & Tom

The best way to counter the Tea Party movement, which is all about stopping things, is with an Innovation Movement, which is all about starting things. [ . . . ] Obama should bring together the country’s leading innovators and ask them: “What legislation, what tax incentives, do we need . . . . Continue Reading »

On Corruption

I don’t usually say this — in fact, I’ve never said it — but go read Frank Rich: specifically, his long column on the Decade of Bamboozlement . Beneath the flash of the cons that characterized the past ten years, however, is a quieter and truer truth: corruption. It is, as . . . . Continue Reading »

Which is more annoying?

Which is more annoying: Leftists who in the wake of Climategate have suddenly discovered a love for public choice theory or libertarians who in the wake of Climategate have studiously ignored public choice theory? Whatever your answer to that question, I hope it suggests that public choice theory . . . . Continue Reading »

The Neverending Loyalty Debate

Responding to Helen , Conor fails to acknowledge the distinction between “critiquing an argument” and “writing a hit piece”, or at the very least implies that the two phrases may be used interchangeably. It’s funny, I thought Helen’s post made it pretty clear . . . . Continue Reading »

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