Paying for the Dish

I admit to taking advantage, as often as I can, of all the wonderful creativity and analysis on the internets these days, without paying (when I can get away with that). But I have chosen to subscribe to Andrew Sullivan’s blog – what he offers is far more thoughtful than anything I could find in most newspapers or magazines. I followed him in the early aughts and loved his New York Magazine weekly essays, now sorely missed. When a small-c conservative as reasonable and open as Sullivan cannot find a place in the mainstream it is pretty frightening, and he deserves support, therefore. A quote from a recent posting of his about the nonsensical idea of defunding the police:

And when the likelihood of an African-American being killed by a civilian is almost thirty times the likelihood of being killed by a cop, it seems to me perverse that almost all the attention is on the police. 

It’s even more perverse to respond to this by calling to abolish the police altogether. In order to tackle three percent of black lives lost, you favor removing the primary force trying to prevent 97 percent of them! However problematic the police, what kind of practical sense does that make? And the immediate results in a city like Minneapolis show just how reckless — how deeply dangerous to black lives — this kind of strategy is. Demoralized cops are quitting in droves; gangs are re-taking the streets; neighborhoods are becoming war-zones.

Sullivan also invites speakers like the brilliant, young Coleman Hughes to his podcasts. As I have, I believe, written before on this site, when I was Hughes’ age, I was still learning the alphabet.

No, I’m not doing PR for Sullivan as part of some kickback scheme – I do think he is worth your time, like Sam Harris or the Commentary podcast. There is so little sanity out there.

U.S. Election

About the American election – I found both candidates anxiety-inducing. But I think conservatives and Republicans should be pleased: Biden will be president, but the progressive left has been dealt a serious blow. I hope the Republicans will hold the Senate – should that happen, this will be the first time in 116 years that the one who won the presidency didn’t carry the Senate. That would be terrific. Further, it would seem Trump got more votes from minorities this time around, as well as from white women, whereas white men moved over to Biden. This puts to death the notion that Trump supporters can be dismissed as white supremacists and bigots, et cetera.

There is a genius somewhere in the American voter and in the system of checks and balances. Biden goes to the White House with the GOP potentially in the driver’s seat. I think the example of Susan Collins in Maine is noteworthy: she won by nine points when her opponent spent $100 million. And yet the state of Maine went Democratic. The United States is a healthy democracy with robust public debate. I’m not naive, and Biden could – and likely will – disappoint. But I hope he will cut the vile AOC/Ilhan Omar/Rashida Tlaib gang of antisemites and economic illiterates out of the picture.

JFK

It has been said – I have said it, maybe even on this website – that the current Democratic Party would never select tax-cutting, hawkish, war hero, Cold Warrior JFK as their leader. Sadly, this is true. Say what you will about JFK, but once we had leaders, and he was one of those leaders.

November 11th

Remember to visit my other site. And please enjoy this A.E. Housman poem, relevant to the day. Really quite simple and profound.

Here Dead we Lie

Here dead we lie because we did not choose,

To live and shame the land from which we sprung.

Life, to be sure, is nothing much to lose;

But young men think it is, and we were young.