Todd Seavey has a good post up about the vacuity of many arguments about who is a “real” libertarian/progressive/liberal/conservative/Scientologist/whatever. And I’ll readily agree that many of these arguments quickly grow petty and pointless. If someone wants to stipulate that by “libertarian” they mean “someone who derives all his political positions from an absolute principle of […]

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Dave Weigel, guest-blogging at The Economist, notes this from a speech by New York congressional candidate Eric Massa: “When Bill O’Reilly insults us, he insults 200 years of tradition,” Mr Massa said. Yes, Daily Kos is five years old, but “he insults the traditions of Thomas Paine, nailing his pamphlet on that lamp post in […]

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Predictably, both sides in the Scott Thomas bruhaha are claiming vindication in the aftermath of TNR‘s statement yesterday, though I’m not sure either is entitled to it. One key detail of the contested diaries has indeed been proven to be inaccurate: The incident where soldiers mocked a disfigured woman eating in the chow hall occurred […]

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My post the other day on the blogospheric spat about the deployment of the language of “eugenics” against supporters of abortion rights (including the right of parents to abort children with genetic defects) provoked this reply from John Goes: This controversy is plainly another front in the ongoing war between pro-life and pro-choice movements. If […]

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I’d been hearing from friends at TNR that they’d essentially confirmed their controversial correspondent’s stories last week, but were crossing T’s and dotting I’s before issuing an official statement. But since the controversy itself has raised barriers to further investigation, they’ve wrapped it up and posted their findings. Almost everything checks out, though I see […]

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…the surprising (and little–remarked upon) appeal of Bill Richardson seems like a better indicator than the wholly predictable failure of Mike Gravel to inspire great public enthusiasm.

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Richard Powers is one of my favorite living novelists, but I’ve been finding one of his tics hard to understand. He routinely alludes to a familiar company or institution, making it clear beyond any doubt which he’s referring to, but then either scrupulously and pointedly avoids naming it, such that the absence of the name […]

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Kathryn Jean Lopez wants to know: Will Andrew Sullivan, who endorsed John Kerry for president, ever not be labeled a “conservative blogger”? Here’s a better one: If Kathryn Jean Lopez thinks supporting George Bush is a sine qua non for being described as a “conservative blogger,” are we entitled to stop flattering her with the […]

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John Tabin asks: There’s no question that Mike Gravel has a libertarian streak. That Gravel is almost certainly going to do even worse than Dennis Kucinich in the Democratic primaries is a telling indicator of how infertile the ground on the left is for Brink Lindsey’s big idea, no? Err, no. It’s a telling indicator […]

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Ross Douthat is defending his application of the term “eugenicist” to people who don’t have any quarrel with selective abortion of fetuses with Down Syndrome, in part on the grounds that some people who support reproductive freedom take the position that, in fact, there is nothing wrong with the “eugenic” goal of seeking to ensure […]

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