NRO Thoughts

Took a moment to swing by National Review Online to read my favorites. Here are some quotations I enjoyed.

Jonah Goldberg on National Review Online: This pattern seems to hold across social and economic policy and elite attitudes. Once an entitlement becomes widely held, it is permanent. Once any group swells its ranks to sufficient size that it becomes, well, a "group" in democratic parlance, its members begin to be treated with increasing respect, no matter how wrong or "deviant" we might have thought them not long ago. Wiccans, Druids, Goths, even fans of Margaret Cho, and, to a very limited extent, pedophiles have gained grudging acceptance.

The reasons for all this are complex, with some trends dating back to the French Revolution, when the Jacobins deified the masses and democratized God. Identity politics, pandering, multiculturalism, pragmatism, the decline of political parties, etc. all factor in too. In a sense this is just one more gripe about modernity.

Moving from Jonah to Jay...

Jay Nordlinger's Impromptus on National Review Online: How much would you pay to hear President Bush — answering some point that Kerry has made — say, "Nice tan, by the way"?

Hee, hee.

Speaking of blows, particularly of the low kind: It just may be that Sen. Ernest "Fritz" Hollings (D., S.C.) is the meanest man in politics. I have a sharp memory of a 1984 Democratic-primary debate — one moderated by Barbara Walters. Hollings was a candidate, and so was Reuben Askew, the former governor of Florida. Hollings thought Askew had misquoted him (or something), and Hollings barked, "You got a tic in your ear, too?" (Askew suffered from an eye twitch.)

Anyway, Hollings keeps calling Bush a "draft dodger." In recent days, he has said, "Look at the record. We're defending a Silver Star recipient against a damned draft dodger." Earlier in the month, he had said, "The Silver Star is being kicked around by a draft dodger."

A) Bush is not a draft dodger. And b) the Democrats nominated a genuine draft dodger for president twice, in the 1990s. Shouldn't Democratic senators keep their mouths shut on this? I mean, facts aside?

This is why I will never live in one of these new-fangled subdivisions!

A letter from an Impromptu reader... "Jay, I serve on the board of our co-op [in Manhattan], and at a recent meeting a fellow member brought up the subject of flag display. Since 9/11, we have flown a flag in front of our apartment building every day. He stated that 'recently, a tenant came up to me and said that flying the flag means we support George Bush for president.' I objected, saying that the flag is not Republican but American. After a very brief discussion, we voted to either keep the flag up all the time or fly it only on holidays. You already know the answer because I wouldn't be writing you if the flag were flying every day. Flag flyers lost 5-3. It was a sad day for me, and this story has outraged more than a few of my friends. Sad day for the Democrats on my board as well."

Enough fun for today!