Posted on December 5th, 2007 by Daniel McCarthy
The Robert Taft Club is hosting a panel discussion tonight on the society, politics, and the biological sciences with Charles Murray (co-author of The Bell Curve), Tom Bethell (author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Science and a senior editor of the American Spectator), John Derbyshire (of National Review), Ron Bailey (Reason‘s science correspondent). The [...]
Filed under: events, Science, Social criticism
Posted on May 9th, 2007 by Daniel McCarthy
Brian Doherty argues that neoliberalism and (neo)conservatism aren’t nearly as dead as they ought to be. Neoliberals by that name may be dead; neoliberalism reigns. Conservatism (especially minus libertarianism) may be out of ideas, but still commands enormous armies of dedicated voters—more than any other self-identified ideology. To put it another way, the Soviet Union [...]
Filed under: academia, Ideology, Social criticism
Posted on April 17th, 2007 by Daniel McCarthy
A fast fact or two from the May Harper’s: Percentage of Pakistanis and Indonesians who say that attacks on civilians are sometimes justified to defend Islam: 3 Percentage of Americans who say that attacks on civilians are sometimes justified: 24 No doubt a great deal depends on how the survey question is worded. Even so, [...]
Filed under: magazines, Social criticism, War
Posted on April 13th, 2007 by Daniel McCarthy
That’s the unfortunate lesson of the whole Imus flap. Of course his remarks were uncivil — that’s the whole point of talk radio, which is about the lowest form of discourse imaginable. If you had to fire any radio blowhard to said something offensive (politically incorrect or not), there would be no talk radio. Imus [...]
Filed under: Social criticism
Posted on March 31st, 2007 by Daniel McCarthy
Last Thursday I attended the Culture of Enterprise event at the Cato Institute, “What Should Be a Culture of Enterprise in an Age of Globalization.” Thomas Woods gave a talk that was an absolute tour de force and, fortunately, it’s available on-line. Hear it here (MP3), or watch it here (Real video). Those links also [...]
Filed under: Culture, economics, Liberty, Social criticism
Posted on March 27th, 2007 by Daniel McCarthy
Georgetown government professor Patrick Deneen was one of the speaker’s at last weekend’s “Liberty, Community, and Place in the American Tradition” shindig in Charlottesville. He made a very interesting case, drawing on Leo Strauss, for what he called America’s “alternative” tradition, of which the Anti-Federalists were the prophets. Deneen has a blog and has posted [...]
Filed under: Philosophy, Social criticism
Posted on March 16th, 2007 by Daniel McCarthy
Of course not, though I’m not at all sure that Aussie journalist Guy Rundle makes much of a case to the contrary. He argues that the negative image of Australia put about by left-wing British journalists is a substitute for dealing with what a “slatternly disgrace” the British working class has become. That rings true [...]
Filed under: Pop culture, Social criticism
Posted on December 16th, 2006 by Daniel McCarthy
A friend brings to my notice this piece (originally from the Wanderer) which comments on my “GOP and Man at Yale” article from a few months back. It’s a fair piece, but it misses an important point: the difference between talk-radio conservatism and the political philosophies of a Kirk or a Weaver is not just [...]
Filed under: Conservatism, Social criticism, Websites
Posted on December 7th, 2006 by Daniel McCarthy
Paul Gottfried on the difference between Right and Left: While the Left rails against the bogus Right (that is, the neoconservatives) as the sponsors of a military state that is taking away popular liberties, it knows where its real domestic enemy is to be found. The media Left lurches fitfully into attack mode against the [...]
Filed under: Conservatism, Social criticism
Posted on September 25th, 2006 by Daniel McCarthy
I’m looking forward to “Apocalypto.” While promoting the new film, Mel Gibson put the collapse of Mayan civilization in context: In describing its portrait of a civilization in decline, Gibson said, “The precursors to a civilization that’s going under are the same, time and time again,” drawing parallels between the Mayan civilization on the brink [...]
Filed under: Film, Social criticism, War
