I’m guessing it’s not Harry and Nancy.
“The Land We Belong To Is Grand”
Mark Steyn writes that the world should be thankful for America:
…Americans aren’t novelty junkies on the important things. The New World is one of the oldest settled constitutional democracies on Earth, to a degree the Old World can barely comprehend. Where it counts, Americans are traditionalists.
We know Eastern Europe was a totalitarian prison until the Nineties, but we forget that Mediterranean Europe (Greece, Spain, Portugal) has democratic roots going all the way back until, oh, the mid-Seventies; France and Germany’s constitutions date back barely half a century, Italy’s only to the 1940s, and Belgium’s goes back about 20 minutes, and currently it’s not clear whether even that latest rewrite remains operative. The U.S. Constitution is not only older than France’s, Germany’s, Italy’s or Spain’s constitution, it’s older than all of them put together.
Americans think of Europe as Goethe and Mozart and 12th century castles and 6th century churches, but the Continent’s governing mechanisms are no more ancient than the Partridge Family. Aside from the Anglophone democracies, most of the nation-states in the West have been conspicuous failures at sustaining peaceful political evolution from one generation to the next, which is why they’re so susceptible to the siren song of Big Ideas
“The Land We Belong To Is Grand”
Mark Steyn writes that the world should be thankful for America:
…Americans aren’t novelty junkies on the important things. The New World is one of the oldest settled constitutional democracies on Earth, to a degree the Old World can barely comprehend. Where it counts, Americans are traditionalists.
We know Eastern Europe was a totalitarian prison until the Nineties, but we forget that Mediterranean Europe (Greece, Spain, Portugal) has democratic roots going all the way back until, oh, the mid-Seventies; France and Germany’s constitutions date back barely half a century, Italy’s only to the 1940s, and Belgium’s goes back about 20 minutes, and currently it’s not clear whether even that latest rewrite remains operative. The U.S. Constitution is not only older than France’s, Germany’s, Italy’s or Spain’s constitution, it’s older than all of them put together.
Americans think of Europe as Goethe and Mozart and 12th century castles and 6th century churches, but the Continent’s governing mechanisms are no more ancient than the Partridge Family. Aside from the Anglophone democracies, most of the nation-states in the West have been conspicuous failures at sustaining peaceful political evolution from one generation to the next, which is why they’re so susceptible to the siren song of Big Ideas
“The Land We Belong To Is Grand”
Mark Steyn writes that the world should be thankful for America:
…Americans aren’t novelty junkies on the important things. The New World is one of the oldest settled constitutional democracies on Earth, to a degree the Old World can barely comprehend. Where it counts, Americans are traditionalists.
We know Eastern Europe was a totalitarian prison until the Nineties, but we forget that Mediterranean Europe (Greece, Spain, Portugal) has democratic roots going all the way back until, oh, the mid-Seventies; France and Germany’s constitutions date back barely half a century, Italy’s only to the 1940s, and Belgium’s goes back about 20 minutes, and currently it’s not clear whether even that latest rewrite remains operative. The U.S. Constitution is not only older than France’s, Germany’s, Italy’s or Spain’s constitution, it’s older than all of them put together.
Americans think of Europe as Goethe and Mozart and 12th century castles and 6th century churches, but the Continent’s governing mechanisms are no more ancient than the Partridge Family. Aside from the Anglophone democracies, most of the nation-states in the West have been conspicuous failures at sustaining peaceful political evolution from one generation to the next, which is why they’re so susceptible to the siren song of Big Ideas
More Old Fogie Discussion
There’s a long discussion over at Slashdot about the whether not email is for old f@rts.
A lot of good points over there, the most salient of which is that it’s not so much a generational thing as a “having a life” thing. Young people have a lot more free time to jabber at each other on IM, but for serious work-related discussions, email will remain essential for a long time (though I’m pushing clients to establish internal corporate blogs for a lot of this kind of discussion, to avoid spam issues, and provide better archiving and organization of topics). Also, with Facebook or other social networking sites, you’re limiting yourself to other Facebook members.
[Update in the afternoon]
Speaking of Facebook, as someone who has signed up, but not figured out why, what is a “friend” in Spacebook terms? What are the implications of it?
That’s Some List
Look at the support that Thompson is getting from some very notable lawyers (and law professors). He definitely seems to be the candidate of the Volokh Conspiracy, with the support of at least three of the conspirators (Eugene himself, Jonathan Adler, and Orrin Kerr). Interesting, considering the libertarian bent of the site.
[Update a few minutes later]
I’ve never been to Thompson’s web site before. I was just looking over his policy positions. A lot of it is motherhood (the devil’s always in the details) but I find very little there with which I disagree. I have to say that I particularly liked this one: “I am committed to…dissolution of the IRS as we know it.”
I was hoping that he would outright advocate eliminating the Department of Education as well, but that might be seen as too extreme a position in a general election campaign.
No space policy, though, or even a general science and technology policy, other than energy. Wonder if he’d like some suggestions?
That’s Some List
Look at the support that Thompson is getting from some very notable lawyers (and law professors). He definitely seems to be the candidate of the Volokh Conspiracy, with the support of at least three of the conspirators (Eugene himself, Jonathan Adler, and Orrin Kerr). Interesting, considering the libertarian bent of the site.
[Update a few minutes later]
I’ve never been to Thompson’s web site before. I was just looking over his policy positions. A lot of it is motherhood (the devil’s always in the details) but I find very little there with which I disagree. I have to say that I particularly liked this one: “I am committed to…dissolution of the IRS as we know it.”
I was hoping that he would outright advocate eliminating the Department of Education as well, but that might be seen as too extreme a position in a general election campaign.
No space policy, though, or even a general science and technology policy, other than energy. Wonder if he’d like some suggestions?
That’s Some List
Look at the support that Thompson is getting from some very notable lawyers (and law professors). He definitely seems to be the candidate of the Volokh Conspiracy, with the support of at least three of the conspirators (Eugene himself, Jonathan Adler, and Orrin Kerr). Interesting, considering the libertarian bent of the site.
[Update a few minutes later]
I’ve never been to Thompson’s web site before. I was just looking over his policy positions. A lot of it is motherhood (the devil’s always in the details) but I find very little there with which I disagree. I have to say that I particularly liked this one: “I am committed to…dissolution of the IRS as we know it.”
I was hoping that he would outright advocate eliminating the Department of Education as well, but that might be seen as too extreme a position in a general election campaign.
No space policy, though, or even a general science and technology policy, other than energy. Wonder if he’d like some suggestions?
Better Luck Next Year
The game’s not quite over, but barring a miracle, the Buckeyes are going to the Rose Bowl. Surprisingly, given how Michigan started the year, the defense played well enough to win. Except for that one horrible play that allowed the long touchdown, they’d be within a score of winning, and they’ve been shutting down Ohio State’s offense in the second half. In fact, it’s pretty amazing that the defense held them to two scores considering how much time they had to spend on the field.
But you can’t win if you don’ t score. It was the offense that let them down, particularly with all of the dropped passes.
Still Michigan’s season ended a lot better than anyone might have thought it would after the first two games, when a lot of people expected them to have a losing season, and not go to a bowl game at all. It’s obviously a huge disappointment for Hart, Henne and the other seniors, who have never beaten Ohio State, and now never will. The question is, will Lloyd want to go out on this note, or try at least one more time to beat Jim Tressel next year?
That Darned Anglosphere
Walter Russell Meade, on the Jews and the WASPs.