I’ve never been especially interested in horses, and I almost never watch horse races. One exception was the 1975 match race between the unbeaten filly Ruffian and that year’s Derby winner Foolish Pleasure. As we watched, Ruffian broke down towards … Continue reading →
Ever the eager teacher of Life Lessons for America, Obama obliges us by offering a classic example of the non-apology masquerading as an apology. The rules: (1) Start with a conditional. “If” is usually best. This reduces the “apology” to … Continue reading →
I’ve come to the conclusion that one of the main themes of the coming election isn’t just “change.” It’s guts. Why else would Hillary lie about having come under fire in Bosnia? Surely claiming there was physical danger involved in … Continue reading →
It’s not news that in times of economic strife, grownup children often go back to live with their parents, if they’re desperate enough or shameless enough and the parents are kind enough to have them. And since this is a … Continue reading →
Fred Barnes seems to be channeling neo-neocon in his latest Weekly Standard article. Towards the end of his piece describing Iraq’s recent progress towards reaching those benchmarks we used to hear so much about, Barnes asks some of the same … Continue reading →
It’s no accident that Obama does well with young voters. There’s something about his rhetoric that especially appeals to the idealism of youth. As Betsy Newmark points out, the young are often “too ignorant of history to realize that change … Continue reading →
[Part I] Moral relativism is the idea that there is no absolute good and evil, but that all customs and practices of mankind must be evaluated in terms of their function in the society where they are found. Any attempt … Continue reading →
It used to be that virtually every society on earth had its own moral and social code and believed it was the best on earth—and not just the best for that particular society but the best, period. The only question … Continue reading →
In this, the dawn of the new year of 2008, I do hereby solemnly resolve…to make no New Year’s resolutions. You heard it here first. Ah, where are the resolutions of yesteryear? The ones to diet, or to exercise, or … Continue reading →
I’m still unpacking in my new apartment, but even though I carefully numbered each packing box, and kept a list of what’s where, I apparently wasn’t specific enough. So now, in all those boxes labeled “kitchen” and sub-labeled things like … Continue reading →
I’ve been slowly reading Allan Bloom’s 1987 book The Closing of the American Mind. It’s a fascinating discussion of trends in higher education that have only continued—and accelerated—in the ensuing years, so that even though some details in the book … Continue reading →