— Which, of course, isn’t much of a deterrent to leftist demagogues like Obama, because “wrong” only means wrong in the sense that it can be measured against something demonstrably right — and the grounds for making such epistemological value judgments have been replaced, in our postmodern worldview, by meaning-by-consensus, manufactured or otherwise. Or, to put it another way, Obama is only wrong if enough people agree he’s wrong; if

David Harsanyi, Denver Post: Tax credits? Spending freezes? Deficit commissions? The president is starting to sound a lot like one of those fiscal he- devils the Democrats have been warning the nation about for years. Not to worry, true believers, Barack Obama only sounds like he’s making sense. The proposed three-year freeze sham accounts for less than a measly one-sixth of the federal budget and the deficit panel already has

A lengthy response to my argument against the “hidden mind” by this person. Here’s the gist: All Vedantam is really saying is that there is such a thing as an Amity/Enmity Complex, that it can manifest itself as racism, and that, if we are to control such socially destructive behavior, it would behoove us to understand what causes it. Fifty years ago, he would have been loudly denounced as a

At the risk of bringing up a sore subject… From NPR, “How ‘The Hidden Brain’ Does The Thinking For Us”: After making a silly mistake, it’s not uncommon for a person to say, “Oops — I was on autopilot.” In his new book, The Hidden Brain, science writer Shankar Vedantam explains how there’s actually a lot of truth to that. Our brains have two modes, he tells NPR’s Steve Inkseep

…one day we’ll all be asking, “where were you the day the right wing blogosphere lost its collective shit over a self-important nobody named Ellie Light“? Me, I was at home, watching football, doing my best not to act like some political hyena or wannabe investigative journalist. Unlike most everyone else. But then, I’ve never been much of a pack animal, anyway.

Don’t say we didn’t warn you. Chris Stirewalt, Washington Examiner: Pundits on the Left are suggesting that the reason Massachusetts voters rejected Martha Coakley — aside from her personal failings as a candidate – is that Democrats in Washington failed to pursue a sufficiently liberal agenda. As Sen. John Kerry and the other leaders of the Massachusetts Democratic Party were still standing on stage, jaws slack and eyes vacant, commentators

And the best way to punish heretics? Punish everyone, just to be on the safe side. Like, say, by striking a blow against an already troubled economy. James Pethokoukis: Scott Brown’s stunning capture of the Massachusetts Senate seat held for decades by Ted Kennedy was a political black swan, a near-unpredictable event. The result ends the Democratic supermajority in the Senate and leaves key parts of the Obama agenda in

…this MA special election is shaping up to be pretty much fucked, wouldn’t you say? Meh. No biggie. I mean, it ain’t like there’s much at stake or anything… **** update: “Fucked,” he reiterated.