Comments on: Book Selections of the Month: “American Nerd” by Benjamin Nugent and “Being Logical” by D.Q. McInerny http://toddseavey.com/2008/08/01/book-selections-of-the-month-american-nerd-by-benjamin-nugent-and-being-logical-by-dq-mcinerny/ Conservatism for punks. Wed, 07 Jan 2009 17:37:03 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.9 by: Todd Seavey http://toddseavey.com/2008/08/01/book-selections-of-the-month-american-nerd-by-benjamin-nugent-and-being-logical-by-dq-mcinerny/#comment-16823 Fri, 08 Aug 2008 14:09:52 +0000 http://toddseavey.com/2008/08/01/book-selections-of-the-month-american-nerd-by-benjamin-nugent-and-being-logical-by-dq-mcinerny/#comment-16823 Oh, and I should perhaps note that Benjamin Nugent thinks (not knowing me, obviously) that Democrats are nerds and Republicans are basically jocks who just want everyone to "suck it up." He now edits an environmental website. I don't entirely agree, but it's always nice to hear Democrats saying they aren't cool. Oh, and I should perhaps note that Benjamin Nugent thinks (not knowing me, obviously) that Democrats are nerds and Republicans are basically jocks who just want everyone to “suck it up.”

He now edits an environmental website.

I don’t entirely agree, but it’s always nice to hear Democrats saying they aren’t cool.

]]> by: Todd Seavey http://toddseavey.com/2008/08/01/book-selections-of-the-month-american-nerd-by-benjamin-nugent-and-being-logical-by-dq-mcinerny/#comment-16822 Fri, 08 Aug 2008 14:03:56 +0000 http://toddseavey.com/2008/08/01/book-selections-of-the-month-american-nerd-by-benjamin-nugent-and-being-logical-by-dq-mcinerny/#comment-16822 Thomas Frank already seems to be making a career out of that false argument. But Republicans are rarely even claiming to be pursuing small government, and it's certainly not true that there is a mismatch between actual free-market thinking and the laws of economics in the way that there inevitably was between Marxism and econ. There's a huge difference between "can't work" and "so unpopular no one even claims to have tried." More important, though: Hong Kong exists, the leap from de facto peasantry to urban electricity by the laissez-faire nineteenth-century northern U.S. existed, etc. The success stories already exist, they just aren't ones Republicans show any interest in replicating. No such victories for communism. But I'll post new, more politics-centered posts this month, to coincide with the major-party conventions. Thomas Frank already seems to be making a career out of that false argument. But Republicans are rarely even claiming to be pursuing small government, and it’s certainly not true that there is a mismatch between actual free-market thinking and the laws of economics in the way that there inevitably was between Marxism and econ. There’s a huge difference between “can’t work” and “so unpopular no one even claims to have tried.”

More important, though: Hong Kong exists, the leap from de facto peasantry to urban electricity by the laissez-faire nineteenth-century northern U.S. existed, etc. The success stories already exist, they just aren’t ones Republicans show any interest in replicating. No such victories for communism. But I’ll post new, more politics-centered posts this month, to coincide with the major-party conventions.

]]> by: David http://toddseavey.com/2008/08/01/book-selections-of-the-month-american-nerd-by-benjamin-nugent-and-being-logical-by-dq-mcinerny/#comment-16820 Fri, 08 Aug 2008 12:26:17 +0000 http://toddseavey.com/2008/08/01/book-selections-of-the-month-american-nerd-by-benjamin-nugent-and-being-logical-by-dq-mcinerny/#comment-16820 Ironically, the gulf between Republicans' talk about small government and their track record actually running the government runs the risk of making Libertarians seem (to the rest of the electorate) like those Marxists who say "well, you know, real Communism has never been tried." In the real world, true minimal government is probably just as likely to come into being as "real" Communism. Ironically, the gulf between Republicans’ talk about small government and their track record actually running the government runs the risk of making Libertarians seem (to the rest of the electorate) like those Marxists who say “well, you know, real Communism has never been tried.” In the real world, true minimal government is probably just as likely to come into being as “real” Communism.

]]> by: Todd Seavey http://toddseavey.com/2008/08/01/book-selections-of-the-month-american-nerd-by-benjamin-nugent-and-being-logical-by-dq-mcinerny/#comment-16539 Fri, 01 Aug 2008 19:28:18 +0000 http://toddseavey.com/2008/08/01/book-selections-of-the-month-american-nerd-by-benjamin-nugent-and-being-logical-by-dq-mcinerny/#comment-16539 Mary Bennet (_Pride and Prejudice_) -- and speaking of nerdy, for anyone wondering, my use of "ur" as a prefix means "earliest," sort of like "proto-," a usage inspired by the city of Ur, in what is now Iraq, its most prominent surviving feature a ziggurat dedicated to the moon goddess Nanna, the Illuminator, something probably familiar to all those idiots, some of them nonetheless nerds, who are into Wicca (which was itself constructed a tad more recently, sometime around 1954 -- by a male): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Ziggurat_of_Ur Mary Bennet (_Pride and Prejudice_) — and speaking of nerdy, for anyone wondering, my use of “ur” as a prefix means “earliest,” sort of like “proto-,” a usage inspired by the city of Ur, in what is now Iraq, its most prominent surviving feature a ziggurat dedicated to the moon goddess Nanna, the Illuminator, something probably familiar to all those idiots, some of them nonetheless nerds, who are into Wicca (which was itself constructed a tad more recently, sometime around 1954 — by a male):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Ziggurat_of_Ur

]]> by: Laura http://toddseavey.com/2008/08/01/book-selections-of-the-month-american-nerd-by-benjamin-nugent-and-being-logical-by-dq-mcinerny/#comment-16538 Fri, 01 Aug 2008 18:38:51 +0000 http://toddseavey.com/2008/08/01/book-selections-of-the-month-american-nerd-by-benjamin-nugent-and-being-logical-by-dq-mcinerny/#comment-16538 Which Austen character? Elizabeth Bennet? Anne Elliot? Certainly not Emma Woodhouse. Which Austen character? Elizabeth Bennet? Anne Elliot? Certainly not Emma Woodhouse.

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