I admit that I am increasingly incapable of thinking of anyone as “worthy of contemporary political lionization” at all.  Nonetheless, I agree that the apodosis follows to whatever extent one is capable of affirming the protasis:

If we are to regard the founding generation as being worthy of contemporary political lionization — and we most assuredly should — then we must consider those who marched at Selma to be so, too.

(source: On the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Selma – The Washington Post) Continue reading →

From George Weigel (in two venues):

A last, and singularly sinister, element in Putin’s refinement of Leninist political methodology has involved his efforts to buy, through various fronts, as much as he can of the Western pro-life and pro-family movements. This is another genuine novum. Stupid businessmen and financiers are as old as Lenin’s famous observation, almost a century ago, that the capitalists would sell him the rope with which he would hang them. Historically ill-informed and ideologically blinded politicians are a lot older than that. But the idea that Western social activists committed to the defense of the traditional family, and to the right to life from conception until natural death, should claim to find an ally in a blood-soaked Chekist like Vladimir Putin — well, that is something different, and something ominous. That it has to do with Putin’s cronies’ spreading Russian gold among cash-strapped Western non-governmental organizations is not to be doubted. Those who fall into this trap were once known as “useful idiots.” Their utility may be marginal, in the larger scheme of things; the idiocy ought not to be in question.

(source: Lenin Meets Corleone)

In sum: The notion that Putin’s Russia can be a genuine partner in international pro-life and pro-family work is a snare and a delusion, given the murderous character of Putin’s regime. There can be no serious ecumenical dialogue with clerical agents of Russian state power.

(source: Ukraine: Disinformation and Confusion | George Weigel | First Things)

The mere fact that the following related piece could find an epigraph from Texe Marrs should tell you something has gone wonky in the universe Continue reading →

(source: Hotter than Average)

There are so many parts of life that could use a warning sign like this one.

In many current discussions–this colloquy with my friend Jeff, for instance–it becomes important to ascertain the intention of an action, not just the fact of a behavior.  In other contexts, “behavior modification” is often a useful goal; in matters of justice, however, we must determine who is liable to punishment for an action, and who is liable for the consequences of an action.

When we do that, may I humbly suggest that we take as our operational definition of “intention” the “victory condition” or “success condition” of the action?  That is both cognitively realist and consistent with the formative tradition of our best understandings of justice.

When we speak of the “end” that we “aim at” or “tend toward” in an action, we often accidentally shift the ground of argument. Continue reading →

Jim Geraghty reports that Mike Huckabee recently signed an endorsement deal in which he “rips [the] ‘mainstream medical community'” on behalf of a shady diabetes product. From the description, he would appear to be implicitly but very clearly urging diabetics not to avail themselves of the medical care they need:

Prescription drugs aren’t going to cure you. They’re only going to keep you a loyal pill-popping, finger-pricking, insulin-shooting customer so Big Pharma and the mainstream medical community can rake in over $100 billion annually.

Shameless and disgusting if done at any time. Done while publicly declaring that he’s “leaning towards” running for president? “Everybody grab a broom!” (Major content warning at that link.)

Update: Okay, out of fairness – yes, you can manage the symptoms of diabetes without insulin, if you alter your diet in severe ways. And yes, some doctors recommend doing the finger-prick test more often than you need to, because the system of which they’re a part profits from overuse of those tests. But the suggestion here is that the medicine does no good and is all a sham. Moreover, there is no cure for diabetes, but this ad strongly suggests that in fact, there is, and the doctors are hiding it from you. Check out how Huckabee is labeled on screen in the video:

Sorry, there are no “former diabetics.” Broom this man at once.