25 May 2020
Minding The Campus has just posted a longish essay of mine on the latest attempt to repeal California’s Proposition 209. This may well be my last piece on that soon to be put to bed wonderful site. It will be missed.
I sent my essay off last night but this morning saw John Fund’s superb new piece at National Review whose concluding argument is very similar to mine. I discussed it briefly in a new paragraph I was able to add just before mine was posted. (You may be forgiven for thinking I described his article as “perceptive” because he agrees with me….)
18 May 2020
In a 1906 speech at Stanford University that was the original and still perhaps the most articulate argument for organized, collective national service, William James called for “The Moral Equivalent of War.”
Ever since — from the New Deal’s Civilian Conservation Corps to the Peace Corps to AmeriCorps to the “war” on poverty and drugs— politicians of all stripes (but more often than not liberals) have attempted to persuade us to enlist or even draft us under that banner to fight for various causes.
Today a short piece of mine appeared at City Journal online comparing the warlike rhetoric of Democrats and Republicans. You’ll have to read the whole thing (don’t worry; it’s short) to see my argument, but here’s a teaser: in the “war” on Covid-19, the Democrats are conscientious objectors and the Republicans are willing to take more casualties.
3 May 2020
In my post immediately below, R.I.P. M.T.C., on the lamentable demise of Minding The Campus, I had high praise for Bryan Garner’s Garner’s Modern English Usage, even going so far as to put it on the same pedestal as The Chicago Manual of Style. For reasons that will become clear if you follow my instruction, […]
3 May 2020
I am sad to report the imminent demise, on June 30, of the eminent online journal, Minding The Campus, outstandingly edited by John Leo — with much more than a little help from his wife, Jacqueline Leo — for the past thirteen years. Approaching eighty-five, John has decided to retire, and thus to retire MTC. […]
14 April 2020
Abigail Thernstrom passed away last week. She was an impressive woman, as ably documented by Roger Clegg in National Review. I am proud to say she was a good friend, and she was also quite a force. With so many fools around, it’s especially sad to lose someone who so efficiently refused to suffer them […]
14 March 2020
[NOTE: This post has been UPDATED] Heather Mac Donald has a typically (for her) superb article on the “misguided response to COVID-19.” I encourage everyone to read it. But… I just sent her the following comments: This piece is terrific, as usual! I admit, however, to feeling some uncomfortable dissonance between my view of the […]
1 March 2020
As most of you know, the Babylon Bee is a hilarious satire site. In fact, since the Dems, Libs, and Progs have become so deranged it has become so difficult to tell satire from reality that Instapundit has for a long time been referring to the Bee as our newspaper of record. In that spirit, […]
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