Archive for the 'Politics' Category
For anyone who has a hard time remembering the difference between the Manhattan Institute and the Manhattan Project (I didn’t name either and run only the latter), tomorrow will be especially challenging — on Wednesday, Sept. 17 at 6:30:
•not only will I be hosting the usual third-Wednesday-of-the-month libertarian/conservative creative-people Manhattan Project social gathering at Merchants […]
Posted in Politics, Sci./skepticism | 8 Comments »
Tracy Quan is a Manhattan-dwelling former prostitute turned Salon columnist and novelist, presumably drawing heavily upon her own experiences in creating the adventures of Nancy Chan, the business-savvy call girl heroine of Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl, Diary of a Married Call Girl, and now Diary of a Jetsetting Call Girl, which I’m happy […]
Posted in Politics, Libertarianism, Culture | 9 Comments »
My liberal ex is no less patriotic for being left-leaning — and was thus delighted to hear about my parents’ decades-long practice of raising an American flag in the morning and taking it down at sunset (I learned some of the rules of proper flag-handling myself during my stint in the Boy Scouts — including […]
Posted in Politics, Culture | 5 Comments »
Some elite thinkers might think that I sully myself by writing with even the tiniest sympathy for figures like McCain, Palin, or Ted Nugent, as in yesterday’s post. And I admit it’s hard to know when to stay above the fray and when to risk looking like a partisan participant in it — and […]
Posted in Politics, Libertarianism, Culture | No Comments »
One reason to think McCain may yet win is that he didn’t seem to me to be merely distancing himself from the GOP establishment with his “reform” speech Thursday — it’s also a great way to appeal to what we not long ago called the Perot voters (populists who probably also like Palin). Remember the […]
Posted in Politics, Libertarianism | 2 Comments »
I can’t fault Republicans less ideological than myself for being fired up after Palin and McCain’s convention speeches. Neither, though, can I blame (all of) the “Obamacons” and Obama-sympathizing libertarians for wanting to further punish the Republicans for their misbehavior over the past eight or fourteen years. I have never been entirely satisfied […]
Posted in Politics, Libertarianism | 11 Comments »
There’s more to the Republican convention than the Republicans’ first-ever female v.p. nominee, but let’s talk about her some more anyway, along with some related topics (fine though McCain’s speech was):
•Katherine Taylor pointed out to me that a writer who, like me, was a recipient of a grant from the Phillips Foundation, helped spark the […]
Posted in Politics, Libertarianism, Culture, Music | 5 Comments »
That headline does not refer to tonight’s birthday girl, Dawn Eden (and note that this month’s Debate at Lolita Bar occurs Sunday, Sept. 28, NOT tonight as it normally would) but rather to tonight’s other conservative female star, Sarah Palin. (But if my birthday party co-organizers were able to follow my suggestion about putting […]
Posted in Politics, Libertarianism, Sci-fi and such, Culture | 9 Comments »
Our Debate at Lolita Bar does NOT take place tomorrow night as it normally would but rather on Sunday, Sept. 28 — but in the meantime, tomorrow does bring a PARTY!
Yes, I have somehow ended up cohosting a fortieth birthday party for my ex-girlfriend Dawn Eden, chastity-promoting Catholic author of Thrill of the Chaste.
Wednesday, September […]
Posted in Politics, Culture | 1 Comment »
If all has gone according to plan, yesterday, the day after my pre-written, automatically-posted blog entry about communism vs. punk, I dined with friends in the Boston area — not all at the same meal (merely for scheduling reasons) — who ranged from a Billy Bragg fan to an actual living, breathing Southern Republican politician, […]
Posted in Politics, Libertarianism | 2 Comments »
Cretins, many residing in places like Brooklyn or Berkeley, who see resistance to capitalism as the ultimate purpose of punk or other creative impulses — not to mention the ultimate purpose of politicians — would do well to stop for a moment today and remember the plight of Gorki Aguila. He’s the punk rocker and […]
Posted in Politics, Culture, Music | 2 Comments »
I think it would’ve been gauche for McCain to announce his running mate today, when Obama’s doing his whole Sermon on the Mount/Zeus in Clash of the Titans thing.
Worse, though, on any day, would be McCain announcing that his running mate were Lieberman or Huckabee. I expressed my dread of the former on Sunday […]
Posted in Politics | 3 Comments »
Politicians love to accuse each other of being divisive demagogues — making such claims helps them be unifying demagogues. Obama is one of the most amazing cases I’ve yet seen of someone who manages to say, in effect, “Let us stop fighting and come together (behind me), so that partisan bickering can end (and […]
Posted in Politics, Libertarianism | No Comments »
Watching this week’s Democratic convention tie itself into politically-correct knots trying to make the whole production “green” (not to mention all-union) has of course been hilarious — but it should never be forgotten that these uptight, rule-making, obsessive nitwits want desperately to govern us all in the same Kafkaesque fashion. The Democrats are not […]
Posted in Politics, Sci-fi and such, Culture | No Comments »
(As a goodwill gesture on the first day of the Democrats’ convention in Denver.)
Pragmatically speaking, is Obama the only alternative to the U.S. fighting simultaneous, arguably unnecessary wars in Eastern Europe, Afghanistan, Iraq, and even Iran?
I’d be willing to limp along with higher taxes and a weakened economy for a few years to avoid all […]
Posted in Politics | 1 Comment »