Category Archives: Political Philosophy

Palin's Polite Politics

Elections, John McCain, Political Philosophy, Sarah Palin

What is National Rifle Association Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre doing with the Senator from Nevada, Harry Reid? More importantly, what is Sarah Palin doing campaigning for Sen. John McCain? How like a people-pleasing woman! Isn’t it time Palin stuck to a principled set of political prescriptions, and got over her gratitude to McCain for supposedly turning her into a supernova?

Palin rushed to McMussolini’s rescue in Tuscon, Arizona, mouthing the offal she repeated on their first campaign trail: “‘Before there were protests on Main Street and marches on Capitol Hill, there was the maverick of the Senate, fighting for us.'”

On the other hand, McCain’s primary challenger, J.D. Hayworth, is a run-of-the-mill Republican, only slightly better than McCain is some respects, and worse in others.

Perhaps because there is not much of a philosophical divide between the man she supposedly owes and his challenger that Palin is doing the friendly thing for a friend. Still, the effect of endorsing Rand Paul this year, Doug Hoffman last year, and now McCain again—makes Palin seem a little flaky.

The media loves McCain (and his mindless daughter) too much to fault Palin for stumping for him.

Update II: Canadian Anti-Coulter Cretins Crave ‘Positive Space’

Ann Coulter, Canada, Christianity, Fascism, Free Speech, Individual Rights, Judaism & Jews, Law, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim, Liberty, Political Philosophy

I’m so very pleased that Ann Coulter has, by necessity, turned her wrath on one of the most oppressive instruments in the Canadian state, the Human Rights apparatus. The Human Rights Commission, a Kangaroo court, operates outside the Canadian courts, affording its victims none of the defenses or due process the courts afford. For example, mens rea, or criminal intention: the absence of the intent to harm is no defense in this “court.” Neither is truth.

The apparatchiks of this machine have designated certain groups as protected species. Thus, the bedrock of western law, the rights of the individual, is turned on its head. Based on your membership in a group, you get to claim protected species rights—and acquire a lien on the property of other groups, who become prime potential offenders. The quasi-judicial Tribunal then acts on these definitions in the substance of its decisions. It’s all great for social cohesion.

And the designations keep growing. Last I covered the quasi-courts, it was deliberating as to whether to extend protection against discrimination on the grounds of “social conditions.” In other words, much like in the US, you do not posses absolute rights to your property. However, over and above the infraction against freedom of association and property that is American Civil Rights law, the Canadian kangaroo code would make it an offense to refuse to rent your apartment, for example, to a welfare recipient.

Devastating complaints have been launched against individuals whose speech the protected species dislike, often bankrupting and destroying innocent individuals guilty of exercising property rights or expressing politically incorrect thoughts.

In a truly free society, the kind we once enjoyed, one honors the right of the individual to associate and disassociate, invest and disinvest, speak and misspeak at will. Simple. So long as your mitts stop at my mug, you ought to be free to do as you wish. (Including ingesting drugs and ending one’s life, for vices are not crimes. “If for harming himself a man forfeits his liberty, then it can’t be said that he has dominion over his body. It implies that someone else—government—owns him.”) People ought to be arrested only for crimes they perpetrate against another’s person or property.

Particularly apt is Ann’s swipe, in “Oh Canada,” at the mob mentality and congenital stupidity issuing from the free-thinking Millennials (whom I’ve described at length in “Your Kids: Dumb, Difficult And Dispensable”):

the Ottawa University Student Federation met for seven and a half hours to hammer out a series of resolutions denouncing me. The resolutions included:

“Whereas Ann Coulter is a hateful woman;

“Whereas she has made hateful comments against GLBTQ, Muslims, Jews and women;

“Whereas she violates an unwritten code of ‘positive-space’;

“Be it resolved that the SFUO express its disapproval of having Ann Coulter speak at the University of Ottawa.”

At least the students didn’t waste seven and a half hours on something silly, like their studies.

Update I (March 25): Where do you think “The Silly Sex?” would land this writer were she to return to Canada? Or “Women Who Wed the Wrong Wahhabi”? Or “‘Obsession’ By Muhammad”?

Update II: Coulter has never called for the conversion of Jews, as Myron (and lefties) contends. I’ve long since “Disentangled [That] Coulter/Deutsch Dust-Up”:

Although some Christian denominations have watered it down, a general filament of the Christian faith is the belief that salvation is predicated on accepting Christ. If Coulter were more than a brash, bonny (if bony) babe, she’d have explained that doctrine: To get past the Pearly Gates, Christians believe one has to accept Christ.

“But is belief in ‘perfection’ or ‘completion’ through Jesus tantamount to hostility to Jews?” asked Gabriel Sanders of the Jewish daily “Forward.” And he replied, quoting Yaakov Ariel, a professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a specialist in Jewish-Evangelical ties: “A conservative, Jesus-oriented faith doesn’t mean, in and of itself, that people are anti-Jewish. Some of the more favorable attitudes toward Jews have developed in Evangelical circles.”

Updated: ‘The Shangri-La of Socratic Disinterest’

Canada, English, Intelligence, Media, Neoconservatism, Political Philosophy

Rex Murphy, easily Canada’s finest political writer, has furnished us with the best description of the Bill O’Reilly Show: the Shangri-La of Socratic disinterest.

I would imagine that to practice the Socratic Method, a man must possess a curious mind and be less of an egotist, attributes the intellectually incurious Mr. O’Reilly lacks.

In any case, “the Shangri-La of Socratic disinterest” is a wonderful turn of phrase.

Update: I see we’ve been visited by one of the many fans of the big-government, interventionist neoconservative Bill O’Reilly. Did I miss that lot! This from “DUMB AND DIRTY NEOCON ARTISTS”:

Like any leftist, neocons support the meddlesome expansion of the “Managerial State” at home. Somewhat at odds with many liberals, the neocons want to take the same intrusive crusade abroad. This is what defines Bush’s neoconservative administration: social engineering both at home and abroad.

Updated: 'The Shangri-La of Socratic Disinterest'

Canada, English, Intelligence, Media, Neoconservatism, Political Philosophy

Rex Murphy, easily Canada’s finest political writer, has furnished us with the best description of the Bill O’Reilly Show: the Shangri-La of Socratic disinterest.

I would imagine that to practice the Socratic Method, a man must possess a curious mind and be less of an egotist, attributes the intellectually incurious Mr. O’Reilly lacks.

In any case, “the Shangri-La of Socratic disinterest” is a wonderful turn of phrase.

Update: I see we’ve been visited by one of the many fans of the big-government, interventionist neoconservative Bill O’Reilly. Did I miss that lot! This from “DUMB AND DIRTY NEOCON ARTISTS”:

Like any leftist, neocons support the meddlesome expansion of the “Managerial State” at home. Somewhat at odds with many liberals, the neocons want to take the same intrusive crusade abroad. This is what defines Bush’s neoconservative administration: social engineering both at home and abroad.