Weblog Entry for 17 August 2003

NY Times piece on the United Nations, mentions that it’s less ecumenical about holidays than the city that surrounds it:

"Don't they observe Jewish holidays here?" a rookie reporter asked during the Passover season last spring. "Yes," replied the correspondent for Israeli radio. "On Jewish holidays the General Assembly or the Security Council passes anti-Israel resolutions."

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Longtime conservative Philip Gold is leaving the movement, revolted by what conservatism has turned into, as he writes in Minnesota Law & Politics. On his way out, he makes with the snark at the expense of his former fellows:

Civil liberties? Like limited government, this commitment now resides with the libertarians, a pert little faction composed mostly of people who, when told about something going on in the world, reply, “Yes, but how would it work in theory?” [...]

Yeah, there’s a lot of junk science out there serving lefty environmental enthusiasms. But conservatism invented junk refutation. [...]

(By the way, there’s a conservative brand of PC. It’s called “solid,” as in “He’s a solid thinker.” As in, not an original bone in his body, but he knows whom to quote and whom to hate.) [...]

And then, of course, there’s the “America’s Greatness” crowd, centered on the Weekly Standard, a couple of think tanks, a few in-and-out-of-government personalities and steadfast refusal to acknowledge Acton’s Axiom: Power corrupts … yes, even American power. [...]

If you’re a liberal like me, you’ll eat it up like candy, at least till he starts laying into the Democrats and the far left towards the end. (Though after the argument I’ve been having recently with a fervent anti-porn leftist, I’m perfectly happy to grin along at the far left’s expense.)

(via Elisabeth Riba)

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