Category Archives: Featured
And many nations shall join themselves to the Eternal in that day
In the Holy Land the three monotheistic religions and their post-theistic secular equivalents collide at the speed of light, propelled by myth and contingency, compressed by the gravity of underlying unity, in black hole singularity. Every fascinated observer who transits … Continue reading
Posted in Featured, History, International Relations, Philosophy, Religion
Tagged al-Farabi, al-Gahazali, America, Arab Middle East, Buddhist, Christian, Enlightenment, God, Hegel, Heidegger, Hermann Cohen, Hindu, Ibn Rushd, Israel, Jew, Kojeve, Moghuls, Mongols, Murder, Muslim, Nietzsche, Nihilism, Palestinianism, Physics, Post-Modernism, prophecy, Rosensweig, Sikh, Strauss, Stupidity, Sufi, terrorism, Theodicy, United Nations, World War, Zechariah, Zionism
39 Comments
Inventing the World
When the “principle of thought” – and “not by chance” - “invented” the atomic bomb, the line of development traced in Hegel’s passage on the mechanization and distantiation of valor reached a self-contradictory, self-immolating conclusion. The eclipse of the gun … Continue reading
Posted in Culture & Entertainment, Featured, History, Philosophy, War
Tagged Al Qaeda, Alan Turing, American Democratic Capitalism, Blogosphere, Cyberwarfare, Globalization, GWF Hegel, Imperial Way Japan, Philosophy of Right, Revolution in Military Affairs, Russian Soviet Communism, Theory of the Internet, War, WikiLeaks
14 Comments
On Loughnerism
A reflexive and all-embracing hostility to the state/statism leads the far right toward the ultra-right (and ultra-left): It’s a self-contradictory and philosophically untenable position for anyone who aspires to be accepted within the mainstream of politics – which is a long way of saying that it is irrational, and, when pressed, must manifest as insanity. Continue reading
Posted in Featured, Politics
Tagged Barack Obama, HotAir, Jared Lee Loughner, Mark Levin, Michelle Malkin, Rush Limbaugh, Tea Party, Tucson Memorial
30 Comments
Almost Everyone Vs. The Whole Thing
In the survey of modern philosophy that comprises the first essay of Leo Strauss’s last, posthumously published book, the author addresses Hegel at a key point, but mainly to shunt him aside: [Hegel's] system of philosophy, the final philosophy, the … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Featured, History, Philosophy
Tagged Hegel, Hermann Cohen, Husserl, Kojeve, Leo Strauss, Marx, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer
43 Comments
Notes on the Invention of the World
The principle of the modern world – thought and the universal – has given a higher form to valour, in that its expression seems to be more mechanical and not so much the deed of a particular person as that … Continue reading
Sought/found
A familiar morality play, or maybe a Passion Play, has just been staged in our nation’s capital. The “Hide/Seek” exhibition currently at the Smithsonian addresses themes of gay and lesbian identity and socio-political marginalization. Not very surprisingly, the curators included … Continue reading
Posted in Art, Featured, Politics
Tagged Andrew Sullivan, Brent Bozell, David Wojnarowicz, Diamanda Galas, Eric Cantor, Hide/Seek, John Boehner
30 Comments
Prelude to an escape from history
Pessimism about one’s own nation is an all-encompassing and all-defining condition, because everything any of us positively can be or seek as individuals is affected where not wholly determined by our membership in a national community – the state broadly … Continue reading
Public Lessons: Pedophilia, Bullying, and the Case of Alex Knepper
Increased sensitivity regarding sexual relations between adults and minors means that the 1981 movie Private Lessons probably could not be produced today – at least as a light, upbeat comedy. Yet the willingness to accept the “normal urges” of the … Continue reading
Posted in Culture & Entertainment, Featured
Tagged Alex Knepper, Bullying, David Frum, Dextro, NewsRealBlog, Pedophilia, Sadly No, Teen Suicide
26 Comments
A vote for steady incremental decline
Tom Friedman’s Sunday column is largely devoted to the idea of a third party rescuing America from the “stagnating two-party duopoly that has been presiding over our nation’s steady incremental decline.” In response the very reliably leftwing Steve Benen attacks … Continue reading
Posted in Featured, US History
Tagged Democratic Party, Republican Party, Steve Benen, Tom Friedman
12 Comments
Last Testament: Ill Fares the Land by Tony Judt
If a resuscitation and revival, a last ditch effort at salvation, or a transfiguration of social democracy is not on today’s political agenda, that may be all the more reason to pass this book on, following Tony Judt’s last requests, to a young person looking forward. It may even be the conservative thing to do. Continue reading
Posted in Books, Featured, Politics
Tagged Conservatism, Edmund Burke, Social Democracy, Tony Judt
42 Comments
The Iraq Syndrome
Many on the right think President Obama’s Oval Office address last night should have credited “the Surge,” and they would have preferred thanks to his predecessor for taking and implementing a decision that Senator Obama and others fiercely criticized. The … Continue reading
Posted in Featured, History, Politics, War, Writing
Tagged Barack Obama, Dextro, Iraq, Sinistro
14 Comments
One Cancer Under God: On Defending Woodrow Wilson
If you’re going to excise the Wilsonian progressive cancer down to the last cell, as per Glenn Beck, then, when you’re done with your surgery, you may have less of the patient left over on the operating table than you’ve discarded as hazardous bio-waste. Continue reading
On re-reading Liberal Fascism: Defining Evil Down
The comforting exaggerations and ideological short-cuts, historical curse words, the imputation of the the worst imaginable intentions to all political adversaries, reflect an unreformed, self-defeating desperation. Maybe, as Goldberg writes in the last paragraph of Liberal Fascism, when protesting the other side’s insulting tactics, it’s past time to cry, “Enough!” Continue reading
Posted in Books, Featured, History, Politics
Tagged Conservatism, Fascism, Jonah Goldberg
94 Comments
Portrait of a Failed Presidency: "What the Heck Are You Up To, Mr. President?" by Kevin Mattson
As though to make it inescapably clear that the Carter Presidency lacked the Mandate of Heaven, even the national 4th of July celebrations in Washington DC were rained out, and a week later Skylab came crashing to Earth… Continue reading
