Savoranola? Rhymes with granola? Maybe he was just in a hurry to dash off his dismissive insult and didn’t check the spelling. But what would Savonarola have to do with any of this? Maybe he means that Caleb is an unusually brilliant thinker dedicated to moral and political reform? Maybe not. Maybe it just confirms that Podhoretz naturally buys into the textbook Western Civ boilerplate that reproduces liberal historians’ prejudices about any Christian figure who was more than moderately serious about the requirements of his religion.

In a post entitled, “Sorry, Savoranola” [sic], Little Pod complains:

Funny that Caleb Stegall should seek to impose a loyalty test and oath on me… It seems like I was editing a magazine a decade ago that was pro-life and anti-gay-marriage while you were building your log cabin…

This is a typical activist response: I was busy talking about virtue (or anything else you’d care to name) while you were out in the world actually living the good life. In other words, Podhoretz is saying that he is the better ideologue. I think we can let him have that particular “honour.” After all, he was editing a magazine and supporting policy proposals and discussing legislation! Aren’t these the things that really matter in living the good life?

As an NR contributor, Little Pod would know all about loyalty tests and oaths. He’s probably passed them all with flying colours and also probably enjoyed watching others fail them over the years. But isn’t it interesting how the commissars themselves are always the first to think in terms of loyalty oaths and always the first to complain about being dictated to and imposed upon?