Sam, I agree with you that Rand Paul is off base in his remarks about the Civil Rights Act, but I have a few quibbles about the way you make your argument. (I see that when you aren’t going after Ayn, you are going after Rand with equal intensity. Young libertarians seem to love the Rands as much as young collectivists seem to despise them!) Now I ... Read More
First, I think Adam Serwer has really crystallized the basic problem with how conservatives (and a fair number of over-polite liberals) talk about race. It seems really weird to give Goldwater all this credit for not being personally racist while championing a cause supported by racists, and say this is the same thing as Kennedy and Johnson being racist but ... Read More
Sam Barr’s most recent post makes the rather shocking claim that Rand Paul, the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate seat in Kentucky being vacated by the retiring Jim Bunning, is a racist, or at least that he is not a non-racist. Sam deduces this from the fact that Mr. Paul is not a “consistent libertarian,” that he “picks and ... Read More
In his recent essay “The Failure of the American Jewish Establishment,” Peter Beinart laments the disconnect young liberal American Jews feel from Israel and the American organizations that support it (i.e. AIPAC). He argues that Zionist organizations have moved rightward with the Israeli government and have largely shut out liberal dissent: “…by defending virtually anything any Israeli government does, they ... Read More
As I said yesterday, the Kentucky Senate race between Rand Paul and Jack Conway should be a real battle. Paul is probably not helping himself by insisting, as many libertarian ideologues but few Senate hopefuls do, that the 1964 Civil Rights Act was wrong to ban racial discrimination in private establishments like restaurants and movie theaters. INTERVIEWER: Would you have ... Read More
America has long had a complex, almost schizophrenic attitude towards religion.
I don’t pay enough attention to politics in my home state of New Jersey. I think I fear it would sap all of my youthful idealism. I certainly did not celebrate Chris Christie’s victory last fall. And his governance so far has been exactly what I feared. He’s actually trying to do what he campaigned on: make huge cuts to ... Read More
In his essay “What Makes A Life Significant,” William James gives voice to the “manly virtues” that Wagley, in her “Defense of Manliness,” seems to want to defend. I say “seems” because, like Sam, I’m not exactly sure what her article is advocating for. If it’s anything like what James wanted when he called for a life of “precipitousness, so ... Read More
I like to think of David Brooks as The New York Times’ “Chronicler of the Powerful and Rich.” He’s gotten some pretty extravagant (and hilarious) criticism for his work as the Chronicler of the P&R — work which should basically be read as a twice-weekly “What Should I Think?” guide for Upper East Side Manhattanites — but for the most part, honestly, ... Read More
