Let me begin thus: even after all this time — and even after all the damage that has been done to the country by the left and the various and variegated intrusions and infiltrations of its ideology throughout our culture, our language, and our very espistemology — there are those on the right who are still so committed to covering for their mistakes about Obama (a “good man” who loves
language / intentionalism
June 30, 2015
No, intentionalism didn’t kill the rule of law, and putative conservatives should know better than to claim otherwise
July 17, 2014
End game: the left, illegal immigration, and the ongoing coup
Progressives have always detested the founding and have long embraced the self-serving assumption (insofar as it gives them the rationale for counter-revolutionary impulses) that the US is an illegitimate, colonialist nation built on stolen land and stolen labor. And Obama, steeped in this doctrinaire academic leftist cant, was nurtured and molded and in many ways created — as the moderate “pragmatist” and “post-racial” President — to be the left’s trojan
June 18, 2014
Intentionalism, redux: Redskins and textualism
“Trademark board rules against Washington Redskins name”: The U.S. Patent Office has ruled the Washington Redskins nickname is “disparaging of Native Americans” and that the team’s federal trademarks for the name must be canceled. The ruling announced Wednesday comes after a campaign to change the name has gained momentum over the past year. The decision by the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board is similar to one it issued in 1999.
April 4, 2014
Radical identity politics, homosexuality, and the irony of the new jihad
I had planned to pen a long blistering attack on both the radical pro-gay political orthodoxy, and the cowardly risk-averse actions of Mozilla, whose CEO resigned when it was learned — and some say, leaked, by way of an increasingly politicized IRS run, as is the Federal Civil Rights Division, by “progressive” activists (who in earlier times we’d simply call “authoritarians,” “fascists,” or “everything this country’s founders and framers hoped
October 3, 2013
How intentionalism can save us from Obamacare: addressing the left’s big canard
We’ve all heard it by now: “ObamaCare is the law of the land!” — the implication being, even from some Republicans (and John McCain), that a law passed using parliamentary gimmicks and tied to budget reconciliation cannot possibly be dealt with by the House in what is, in fact, a budget standoff. But those constitutional and ethical points aside (the Dems passed the law in a corrupt manner, foregoing regular
May 3, 2013
“And that’s the difference: intent”: on “racist” goats and racialist hermeneutics
Finally. Someone with some journalistic balls points to the naked emperor and makes it quite clear, in a loud and unshakable voice, that what we’re all looking at isn’t a “smallish, fur-lined scepter.” Perhaps what’s been missing all these years in my discussions on meaning, intent, and the idea that what we believe we’re doing when we interpret — that is, how our conscious ideas about the process influences the
May 2, 2013
Who stole America, redux
It was by all accounts an experiment gone wrong, though not desperately so. It involved the mixing of household chemicals in a bottle. Which I’m not terribly interested in other than to expose how the school and school board reacted. “Zero Tolerance Watch: Teen Faces Felony Charges for Science Experiment“: […] No one was hurt. There’s no sign that Wilmot was up to something malevolent. The kid’s own principal thinks
April 30, 2013
“Native Americans incensed over pro-gun rights billboard in Colorado”
Me, I’m amused at their being incensed. But then, I tend not to let PC culture turn me into a ridiculous scold. Denver Post: Two billboards in which images of Native Americans are used to make a gun rights argument are causing a stir with some residents who say the image is offensive and insensitive. The billboards in this northern Colorado city show three men dressed in traditional Native American
March 18, 2013
A Nazi salute? It depends. What was the intent?
Who needs hypotheticals? Here, what we have — at least, if you listen to the principals and their various positions — a real live instance of calling your dog “boy” within ear shot of a hyper-sensitive elderly black man. USA Today, “Greek soccer player earns lifetime ban for Nazi salute”: Greek midfielder Giorgos Katidis earned a lifetime ban from the Greek national team after celebrating a late, game-winning goal for
March 4, 2013
“Pickle Company to Distraught Mom: Yes, We’ll Change Our Name”
“Cains Pickles removes a derogatory term from its labels after a mother’s protests,” Andri Antoniades informs us by way of editorializing — that “derogatory” term being “midget”, for those of you who didn’t know that any pickles short of, say, “Uncle Willy’s ‘Sho Do Likes Me Some o’ Dem Pickles’ Pickles” could even muster the audacity to deride or denigrate. Yet the Cain pickle company, being risk-averse as are most