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A Surge by Ron Paul?
The results of a new Zogby Poll suggest that the campaign of former Libertarian Party presidential candidate Ron Paul is showing signs of life. According to the poll, 3 percent of the Republicans surveyed identified him as their preferred candidate, putting him ahead of fellow conservative dark horses Tom Tancredo and Duncan Hunter. Even more interesting is how well Paul seems to be doing among women--a full 6 percent of Republican women claim to be supporting his candidacy, which is the same percentage that are backing Fred Thompson.
Posted by John Moser | Link to this Entry | Comments [272] | 3/27/2007 11:48 AM
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Tony Snow’s health
I am truly sorry to hear that, apparently, the small growth removed from Tony Snow was cancerous. And the cancer has spread to the liver. I am truly sorry about this. He is a very good fellow.
Posted by Peter Schramm | Link to this Entry | Comments [8] | 3/27/2007 10:49 AM
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Does Huckabee have heart?
I don’t think Mike Huckabee serves his interests well in this RCP interview. He overuses the notion of terror, and at most offers lukewarm support for the surge, though he doesn’t exactly distinguish himself from anyone else in the GOP there. I don’t find any real evidence of an effort to appeal to social conservatives either.
Posted by Joseph Knippenberg | Link to this Entry | Comments [1] | 3/27/2007 10:05 AM
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A national party once more?
Brendan Miniter thinks Republicans should listen to ex-gov Bob Ehrlich of Maryland. Else "Hillary Clinton could win the presidency by losing both Ohio and Florida and carrying instead Colorado, Iowa and Missouri." Since Ehrlich has endorsed Giuliani, is that what Miniter is suggesting?
Posted by Joseph Knippenberg | Link to this Entry | Comments [3] | 3/27/2007 7:03 AM
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Not enough big men on campus?
According to this WaTi article, there’s a growing gap between the numbers of men and women receiving bachelor’s degrees. Female degree recipients outnumber their male counterparts by about 200,000 now, increasing to 300,000 in less than a decade.
Posted by Joseph Knippenberg | Link to this Entry | Comments [1] | 3/27/2007 6:54 AM
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Law-and-Order Fred Surging
...largely, Gallup’s study shows, at the expense of law-and-order Rudy. McCain’s support remains stable, and Romney has dropped to fourth. I have to say that Rudy REALLY WAS an aggressive prosecutor and crime-busting mayor of the major American city.
Posted by Peter Lawler | Link to this Entry | Comments [9] | 3/26/2007 11:37 PM
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I don’t think I’m recommending
this book, but for reasons that are obvious from the description, I’ll probably read it. Anyone read any of this guy’s stuff? For the record, here’s more backstory than you’d ever want to know.
Posted by Joseph Knippenberg | Link to this Entry | Comments [2] | 3/26/2007 1:10 PM
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Final Four hopes
As a Washingtonian during the first Thompson-Ewing era (also the Reagan era), I can’t help but hope that Georgetown goes all the way (a sentiment not necessarily popular in Ohio, I’m well aware). As a long-standing Georgian, I’m for any team that can beat a team from Florida. As a San Francisco native (and one-time northern Californian), I hate to have to support UCLA, but I will against Florida. My only consolation is that John Wooden (may he continue not to rest in peace) once coached UCLA. As a Michigan State alum (during the Woody Hayes era), I’ll reluctantly support Ohio State, should it make the finals against either Florida or UCLA. Summary, in case you can’t (be bothered to) figure out my place-based considerations: Georgetown, then OSU, then UCLA, then (shudder, groan) Florida. Note that none of these considerations has anything to do with basketball excellence. Update: If you need another reason to root against Florida, there’s always this.
Posted by Joseph Knippenberg | Link to this Entry | Comments [8] | 3/26/2007 10:12 AM
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Tribe and Obama on Constitutonal Interpretation as Weird Science
...The Constitution is much more complicated--not to mention "physical"--than we thought. (Thanks again to Ivan the K.)
Posted by Peter Lawler | Link to this Entry | Comments [8] | 3/26/2007 9:45 AM
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Meet the new boss...again
John Fund writes that the Congressional Research Service has decided not to identify earmarks. Three cheers for Sen. Tom Coburn, who says he will attach an amendment to every appropriations bill demanding CRS prepare a full report on the earmarks in it. "Let senators vote for secrecy and prove they don’t want a transparent process or let them deliver what they promised," he says. "The choice will be theirs and the American people will be watching."
Posted by Joseph Knippenberg | Link to this Entry | Comments [1] | 3/26/2007 7:46 AM
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Happy Birthday Flannery!
Because we managed to utterly ignore St. Patrick’s Day, it’s no surprise that Flannery O’Connor’s birthday almost passed without a mention here. But Flannery is surely the outstanding literary and philosophical figure in the history of the South, surpassing even Faulkner on the level of insight and at least his rival on the level of artistry. Walker Percy, great as he was, made it clear that he didn’t think of himself as in her league. She’s the most impressive example of homegrown American Thomism, a part of our intellectual history that we’ve neglected at NLT.
Posted by Peter Lawler | Link to this Entry | Comments [2] | 3/25/2007 10:25 PM
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George Will vs. Our Spectacular Anger
George takes on the "look-at-me" self-indulgence of "anger chic," which he sees, in his fair-and-balanced way, in the outrage so many claim to feel about either or both President Clinton and the current President Bush. He prefers the old-fashioned and more genuinely political "reluctant anger," which is directed against real evildoers and is actually employed by reason to change minds. Required reading for all bloggers!
Posted by Peter Lawler | Link to this Entry | Comments [7] | 3/25/2007 10:12 AM
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Sweet Sixteen LIsts... The Best TV Shows Ever
In spirit of March Madness and all that: Here are several "best of" lists.
I expect nobody much cares about the 16 best songs about Georgia. I was really impressed by the TV list, though. I don’t have the comprehensive programmatic knowledge required to know whether the list is accurate, but I do know that I really enjoy these shows. Two exceptions: LAW AND ORDER (tedious) and FRIENDS (too stupid even for me). I nominate as replacements: the first BOB NEWHART SHOW (psychologist Bob) and KING OF THE HILL. And I would add the qualification only the first couple of seasons of ROSEANNE, which I would probably replace with THE WONDER YEARS or the early years of SCRUBS. Because I appreciate the aggressively middlebrow character of the list, I’ll resist the temptation to nominate CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM.
Posted by Peter Lawler | Link to this Entry | Comments [4] | 3/25/2007 10:07 AM
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Petty, but revealing
A father of a student sent me the enclosed, without comment. The Faculty Senate of the University of Florida, by a vote of 38-28, denied former Governor Jeb Bush an honorary degree. The president of the University said he was "tremendously disappointed." Perhaps, but he shouldn’t have been surprised. Is this arbitrary denial of a normal honor to a very successful governor, albeit a Republican, not revealing about the character of faculty? We may be reaching the point when parents might well begin to consider if it is worth exposing their children to the hard hearts and petty minds of such people. Shameful.
Posted by Peter Schramm | Link to this Entry | Comments [12] | 3/24/2007 10:36 AM
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Fifty Obscure But Classic Movie Quotes
The Evangelical Outpost guy has provided us with more wisdom, more laughs, and more wonderful memories than any official film institute list. He begins with BILLY MADISON and the Whit Stillman trilogy (three of the smartest and funniest movies ever made). And he doesn’t neglect the randomly insightful if mostly dreadful PCU.
Posted by Peter Lawler | Link to this Entry | Comments [1] | 3/24/2007 12:19 AM
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A Reagan-related bleg
An old friend, who I will see next week (at this conference--agenda here), sends this question: [W]hen someone warned Reagan that a particular decision might cost him his support among the
religious right he replied "well who else are they going to vote for?"
Have you heard that? Any idea where I could find it? Anyone have a source for this story? By the way, my relative silence stems from the fact that I’m in Savannah, enjoying a homeschool fieldtrip focusing on colonial history.
Posted by Joseph Knippenberg | Link to this Entry | Comments [4] | 3/23/2007 6:06 PM
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Backlash on the Sexualization of America’s Youth
Kathleen Parker writes about a new kind of "debutante" ball--the "purity ball"--that is, she argues, in response to the extreme sexualization of America’s youth. I had not heard about such balls before reading this and I doubt very much that I would want to attend or send my daughter to one. They, like many other things in this world, are simply not to my taste. On the other hand, I share Parker’s sense that the reaction to them from feminists has been rather breathless and hysterical. And, what’s more, their criticism of these balls is entirely devoid of any criticism of the culture that inspired them. Is it not at least possible for these feminists to consider that the kind of sexual "self-assertion" they have popularized has resulted in some very negative consequences and that--in their own way--these people have chosen to react against it? It is easier, I know, to assume that these people are ignorant buffoons reacting against modernity. To do more would require thought and the acceptance of facts that may not conform with the prevailing feminist ideology.
Posted by Julie Ponzi | Link to this Entry | Comments | 3/23/2007 4:15 PM
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Wife Beating and Funeral Pyres
James Panero at Armavirumque notes the news about a German judge who refused to grant an accelerated divorce to a woman of Moroccan descent. The Moroccan woman claimed spousal abuse as justification for the acceleration of proceedings but the judge, in refusing to grant the acceleration, quoted the Koran and cited passages that lend support to wife-beating to support her argument that there were no grounds for it. The judge speculated that wife-beating was part of Moroccan culture and did not constitute anything out of the ordinary that would justify an accelerated divorce! In response to this news, Panero quite cleverly points to Sir Charles Napier who famously responded to the custom of suttee in colonial India this way: "You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours."
Posted by Julie Ponzi | Link to this Entry | Comments [16] | 3/23/2007 12:09 PM
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