Jul
14
2008

URLs du Jour

2008-07-14

  • I let out a soft low moan when I noticed the New York Times article where John McCain pointed to Teddy Roosevelt as his presidential idol. I consulted the index of Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Fascism: just way too many entries for Roosevelt, Theodore.

    Karl at Protein Wisdom has an excellent summary why a confessed admiration for Teddy is a red flag to anyone who supports limited government and individual liberty.

  • Speaking of Jonah, his recent column is worth reading, if only from the Barack Obama quote he pulled from The Audacity of Hope:

    I find comfort in the fact that the longer I'm in politics the less nourishing popularity becomes, that a striving for rank and fame seems to betray a poverty of ambition, and that I am answerable mainly to the steady gaze of my own conscience.

    I find myself wondering which would be worse: if he actually believes that, or if he doesn't.

    The boys at Power Line use Jonah's column as a springboard to excerpt Ryan Lizza's New Yorker article on Obama's rise. Think of it as the "scary parts" version.

    Or, in 4-blockworldese:

    full of himself

  • The Big Idea du Jour is from Kenan Malik at Butterflies and Wheels. He takes a hard look at multiculturism, and the notion that cultures must be protected against "decay", often by coercive measures:

    Modern multiculturalism seeks self-consciously to yoke people to their identity for their own good, the good of that culture and the good of society. A clear example is the attempt by the Quebecois authorities to protect French culture. The Quebec government has passed laws which forbid French speakers and immigrants to send their children to English-language schools; compel businesses with more than fifty employees to be run in French; and ban English commercial signs. So, if your ancestors were French you, too, must by government fiat speak French whatever your personal wishes may be.

    The kicker is the reminder that we've seen a similar kind of thing before:

    A century ago intellectuals worried about the degeneration of the race. Today we fear cultural decay. Is the notion of cultural decay any more coherent than that of racial degeneration? Cultures certainly change and develop. But what does it mean for a culture to decay? Or for an identity to be lost?

    Today's "progressive" multiculturists would no doubt blanch at the notion that their views are similar to KKK-like notions of racial purity. But that shoe seems to fit pretty well.

    (via Will Wilkinson.)


Last Modified 2012-10-11 4:06 PM EDT