Philosophy, Political Commentary, War Commentary

Daniel Kaufman, RIP

6 Comments

Wow. Timothy Sandefur (who I met at the Magna Carta symposium in June) lost his brother in the San Bernardino massacre:

For centuries, people have pondered the meaning of evil. But the solution to the riddle is that evil has no meaning. Evil is the absence of meaning; it is meaninglessness. To build, to create, to act in the world—these all have meaning. Evil cannot. It is only a black hole that can tear apart meaningful things, and return them to the hollow silence of the universe. This is what we mean when we say that evil is “banal.” It lacks the infinite grandeur of even a grain of sand, let alone of laughter, or of a kiss. In that sense, evil does not matter. It is incapable of mattering. It cannot live or mean things. The best it can do is look on in ire, envy, and despair. And the envious are always walled off from the world that we, the living, inhabit, by an invisible and impervious barrier that they erect themselves; they always have the deadly touch of King Midas. We defy evil and envy when we live. Living in this world sheds light into darkness. It is all we can do, and all that needs to be done, and it is more than enough. Therefore, we shall live. We shall be joyful, hard-working, silly, creative, and smart and sexy and brave and fun. Be a brief candle that helps spread another light.

Read the whole thing.

History, Media Criticism, Political Commentary

Islam

43 Comments

Americans don’t like it. Not even Democrats. And with good reason.

There are many good people who are Muslims, but Islam is a problem. We are not at war with Muslims, but Islam is at war with us, and has been since it was founded, thirteen-hundred years ago.

[Update a few minutes later]

After the latest mass murder, CAIR’s push for sharia rolls on.

[Update a few more minuts later]

More from Andy McCarthy: Is Islam a religion?

I’d say no. It’s a totalitarian ideology masquerading as a religion. Which may be one reason that, unlike other religions, the Left seems to have an affinity toward it.

[Friday-afternoon update]

The hidden reason Americans dislike Islam. They know military people who have first-hand experience with it:

Yes, they were in the middle of a war — but speaking from my own experience — the war was conducted from within a culture that was shockingly broken. I expected the jihadists to be evil, but even I couldn’t fathom the depths of their depravity. And it was all occurring against the backdrop of a brutally violent and intolerant culture. Women were beaten almost as an afterthought, there was a near-total lack of empathy for even friends and neighbors, lying was endemic, and sexual abuse was rampant. Even more disturbingly, it seemed that every problem was exacerbated the more religious and pious a person (or village) became. I spent enough time outside the wire and interacting with tribal leaders to get a sense of the reality around me, but the younger guys on the line spent weeks at a time living in the heart of the local community. I remember one young soldier, after describing the things he’d seen since the start of the deployment, gestured towards the village around us and said — in perfect Army English — “Sir, this s**t is f**ked up.”

Yup. There are millions of good Muslims, but Islam is a big problem, and has been for over a millennium.

Business, Economics, Health, Media Criticism, Political Commentary

ObamaCare Has Gone Critical

20 Comments

…and it’s on life support:

…let’s recap. Obamacare has depressed job growth, costs are escalating at a higher rate, barely a dent has been made in the numbers of uninsured, and insurers are either exiting the markets or failing altogether. Under any other circumstances, a program that failed on its promises so badly would have all sides moving quickly to repeal it and work on a replacement. Don’t bet on that outcome from this White House and its dwindling number of Democratic supporters on Capitol Hill. They will surely try to sell us the illusion of competence and success.

Because they’re as delusional about it as they are about the war.

Business, Economics, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Social Commentary

Los Angeles

3 Comments

City of losers.

Hell, it’s a whole beautiful state of losers:

Later, at the site where world leaders are meeting to negotiate a climate pact outside of Paris, Brown urged a small crowd to “never underestimate the coercive power of the central state in the service of good.”

“You can be sure California is going to keep innovating, keep regulating,” the Democratic governor said. “And, shall I say, keep taxing.”

Texas beckons. I just hope the transplants don’t ruin it there, too.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary

According To The FBI Director

Obama is full of merde about Hillary’s email crimes.

I think everyone is assuming that Hillary won’t be indicted (or at least that the FBI won’t recommend that she should be) because it is simply politically unthinkable. Well, maybe, with Lynch in charge, but if she fails to indict for all of the obvious crimes, you can count on a steady drip of leaks right up to elections day. Maybe with Comey resigning in protest a month or so before the election. I’ll bet that the FBI now has all of the deleted emails, and I’ll bet there’s a lot in there, including obvious quid pro quo with regard to the Clinton Foundation, and perhaps a lot of clear payoffs from inimical governments.

[Update a while later]

COmey: “We don’t give a rip about politics.”

That should make the Democrats very nervous.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Popular Culture, Social Commentary

About Donald Trump

24 Comments

Mollie Hemingway hates everybody. I agree.

[Update a while later]

“Choose the form of your destructor“:

People who are unhappy with the things Trump is saying need to understand that he’s only getting so much traction because he’s filling a void. If the responsible people would talk about these issues, and take action, Trump wouldn’t take up so much space.

And there’s a lesson for our ruling class there: Calling Trump a fascist is a bit much (fascism, as Tom Wolfe once reported, is forever descending upon the United States, but somehow it always lands on Europe), but movements like fascism and communism get their start because the mechanisms of liberal democracy seem weak and ineffectual and dishonest. If you don’t want Trump — or, perhaps, some post-Trump figure who really is a fascist — to dominate things, you need to stop being weak and ineffectual and dishonest.

They can’t help it. It’s who they are. It’s what they do.

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