Conservative Donnybrook

I have added a new feature to the website: The Donnybrook Forum. I have set it up for the simple reason that we cannot post about every topic that everyone wants to discuss. This should allow for our readers to bring up discussions that haven’t yet been broached in a post. It is my intention to leave the forum unmoderated, but we will have to see how that works out. If we begin to get a bunch of SPAM®, I may have to revise that idea.

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I am the party responsible for the deleted posts under the Tibbets thread. I apologize if I offended anyone. I was not attempting to silence any discussion, point of views or disagreements. Instead, I was attempting to keep the Tibbets post an obituary. As Karl had opened another thread I did not see the harm. Know that in the future I will not delete any comments without prior consensus of the Donny Brook authors.

Again, my apologies for not handling this situation better. Feel free to berate me in your comments to this thread. they are secure!

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Over at Taki’s, Jack Ross has some thoughts on Norman Podhoretz and the New York Intellectuals. The “Intellectuals” were a group of writers, originally leftist and many Trotskyite, most NYU alums, who became influential in politics and literary criticism. From this milieux came the early neoconservatives, including Irving Kristol and Nathan Glazer.

Ross:

The Trotskyists—many of whom were, indeed, New York Intellectuals— gave to neoconservatism its totalitarian mind, and a fervent belief in the redemptive power of violence.

A little overblown, perhaps. Totalitarian? Not quite. But still, these are guys who write manifestos, preach global revolution, promote militarism, and despise localism, tradition, and culture. So, not exactly what I’d call conservative, either.

There is actually a documentary on the N.Y. Intellectuals called “Arguing the World” that is moderately interesting–not enough to buy, but a good candidate for Netflixing.

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The White House released this statement:

 ”The president is very disappointed to hear this [Barry’s indictment], as this case is now in the criminal justice system, we will refrain from any further specific comments about it. But clearly this is a sad day for baseball.”

WHAT?! this is a great day for baseball.  It is time to purge the sport of steroids and all other forms of cheating!  Figures, Bush is on the wrong side of things again.

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Iowa Republicans have the hots for Huck. 

According to Real Clear Politics, which averages the results of major political polls, Mike Huckabee has surged past Giuliani, Thompson, and McCain in Iowa Republican Caucas polls, coming in at 20%, up 10% from this time last month. 

Romney still leads the pack with 28.5%.

Ron Paul holds steady at 4%. 

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Well, it is about time!  Barry Bonds has been indicted!  Hello slammer, goodbye title (assuming Seelig has the integrity to take it)!  Barry provides by far the worst example of character in sports today.

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In the words of the never-to-be-forgotten urban philosopher, Rodney King, “Can’t we all just get along?” I am willing to admit that I crossed a threshold in naming a few of you Anti-American. For that, I apologize.

I will simply ask that our commenters, please confine your comments to the topic of the post. I will give a very recent example of what I consider a transgression. SM offered a post about a recent court case concerning abstinence. One of our commenters responded with a post about “the law.” Was he referring to United States law? No. He was referring to St. Augustine’s understanding of God’s law. Now, I am every bit as much of a believing and practicing Catholic as the next guy. But, when we discuss court cases on this website, it would seem that we are commenting on contemporary United States (or State) law and the culture which creates/tolerates/precipitates it. We are not talking about moral law that was “promulgated” 1600 or more years ago. Such a comment is completely unresponsive to the original post and drags the whole discussion off-topic. You may personally hold the view that contemporary law is divorced from our foundations as a Christian country; I may hold that view; and I’m pretty sure SM holds that view. But, that is not the topic of the post.

Please make sure if you are going to comment that the comment is pertinent to the original post.

Relatedly, let us all try to take each others posts and comments in the most charitable possible light. I make that pledge to anyone who posts here or comments here. I hope that all of the readers and contributors can find it in their hearts to start over and do the same.

On a slightly different note, I must note that something is working. Daily we are breaking records for visits. Already today at 6:37 Eastern Time, we have logged more visits than on any other single day in the history of Conservative Donnybrook. I attribute that first to excellent content. But, also to some extent to the readers and commenters that we have attracted to this site. I’d like to publicly congratulate all of the contributors to this site. And, I would also like to thank our readers and commenters.

Let us all try to start again.

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Kudos to Sen. Brownback for acknowledging that the surge in Iraq is “successfully working,” after his initial reservations.

Rich Lowry of NRO writes,

U.S. military deaths have decreased by more than 50% since June, and Iraqi civilian deaths have decreased by 50% since August.  Sectarian violence also has decreased.  Mortar rocket attacks are at their lowest level since February 2006.

Brownback and Joe Biden introduced an Iraq Federalism Bipartisan Amendment earlier this year, a Senate resolution that “calls upon the Bush administration to pursue federalist, semi-autonomous regions in Iraq — presumably Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish entities — with a modest federal government located in Baghdad.”  This, of course, angered the Bush administration, which advocates a strong, centralized Iraqi government and fears that the federalist principles of the Brownback-Biden Amendment would increase sectarian violence.

The resolution, despite White House admonishment, proved strong on the Senate floor, garnering the support of democrats and republicans alike and passing  by a wote of 75-23.

Perhaps more importantly, this “political surge” has the backing of the Iraqi President Jalal Talibani, who applauded the amendment as “strong belief that the amendment promotes the unity and territorial integrity of Iraq and is not, as some have mischaracterized it, a call for partition.” He also emphasized that the amendment as being ”completely consistent with the decision Iraqis have made to adopt a federal form of government in their Constitution.”

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Don’t teach it in public schools.

Judge Posner has penned a decision affirming a Wisconsin District Court’s decision to uphold an employer’s decision to not renew a probationary guidance counselor’s contract on the ground that she promoted abstinence.

When the flegdling guidance counselor found pamphlets promoting contraception on her desk, she quickly “recycled” them and ordered new literature on abstinence.  When her probationary period ended and it came time for contract renewal, which would have granted her tenure, it was denied.  She claimed that this amounted to religious discrimination.  The court, however, correctly decided that she was denied tenure based solely on her actions (the scrapping of contaception materials in favor of abstinence literature) and not the cause of her actions (religious belief).

A murky area, indeed. 

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In an effort to familiarize myself with the heritage of our Conservative Donnybrook, I have just watched the movie “Red River,” from which the banner image at the top of this page featuring John Wayne slugging Montgomery Clift comes. I wasn’t disappointed. Cowboys, gunfights, the Frontier, Indians, an epic cattle drive complete with stampede, the railroad, lost love, wagon trains, the Duke… It doesn’t get any better.

I also recently screened another film classic: “Tommy Boy” starring the late, great Chris Farley. It occurs to me that there is an identifiable sub-genre of comedy: where the plot involves the protagonists on some sort of automobile journey, throughout which their car gets progressively mangled and destroyed.

E.G. the following: Tommy Boy; Planes, Trains and Automobiles; National Lampoon’s Vacation; The Blues Brothers. But there must be more. Suggestions?

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