From all appearances, Judge Alito looks like an excellent pick, certainly more energizing and compelling a choice than Harriet Miers. It boils down to this, it seems to me: if there's gonna be a brouhaha, and there is, we might as well make sure that it's not wasted on a nominee about which we're lukewarm. Let's get it on. Best wishes to you, Judge Alito.
qb
Monday, October 31, 2005
Friday, October 28, 2005
A Sigh of Relief
Peggy Noonan has done it again. Put words – her strongest suit – to your servant’s thoughts. Sort of. Consider this closing excerpt from her October 27 column:
*****
Our elites, our educated and successful professionals, are the ones who are supposed to dig us out and lead us. I refer specifically to the elites of journalism and politics, the elites of the Hill and at Foggy Bottom and the agencies, the elites of our state capitals, the rich and accomplished and successful of Washington, and elsewhere. I have a nagging sense, and think I have accurately observed, that many of these people have made a separate peace. That they're living their lives and taking their pleasures and pursuing their agendas; that they're going forward each day with the knowledge, which they hold more securely and with greater reason than nonelites, that the wheels are off the trolley and the trolley's off the tracks, and with a conviction, a certainty, that there is nothing they can do about it.
I suspect that history, including great historical novelists of the future, will look back and see that many of our elites simply decided to enjoy their lives while they waited for the next chapter of trouble. And that they consciously, or unconsciously, took grim comfort in this thought: I got mine. Which is what the separate peace comes down to, "I got mine, you get yours."
You're a lobbyist or a senator or a cabinet chief, you're an editor at a paper or a green-room schmoozer, you're a doctor or lawyer or Indian chief, and you're making your life a little fortress. That's what I think a lot of the elites are up to.
Not all of course. There are a lot of people--I know them and so do you--trying to do work that helps, that will turn it around, that can make it better, that can save lives. They're trying to keep the boat afloat. Or, I should say, get the trolley back on the tracks.
That's what I think is going on with our elites. There are two groups. One has made a separate peace, and one is trying to keep the boat afloat.
*****
I find over the last year or so that I have spent less and less time and energy pondering political things and more and more time and energy pondering spiritual things. (They are exclusive sets, or so they tell me.) Yeah, the Miers nomination – and she’s a great American patriot, don’t get me wrong – was a boneheaded move that self-inflicted unnecessary headaches on my beloved President Bush. No, the president does not deserve all of the unalloyed vitriol that is spewed his way; these three hurricanes, and quite probably 9/11, would have happened no matter who was at the tiller. All that, and so much more.
Still, despite the plain fact that such malignant attitudes could be rationally and successfully contested, I find myself disengaging from the Op-Ed page and all of the related venues for one simple reason.
It’s not quite the bunker mentality that Noonan seems to describe. It’s more of a resignation to the Second Law, a concession to the monotonic descent to disorder. And a subconscious decision to operate in a sphere in which my influence actually counts for something instead of being merely an oboe amongst the brass.
And I find myself doubting that many of our so-called “public servants� are really all that wise, all that noble. The public they “serve� surely cannot conceal its contempt for them, that much is clear. And so what’s the point? Even if they were noble, we don’t view them that way. Substantive arguments are viewed as war, or at least intemperate rudeness. George Will is a “brute?� Really? And if that gentle sage can be labeled a “brute� – that’s the root of the word “brutal,� may I remind you – then what chance do I have to be heard at the level of merits?
It’s not fear of being persuaded to abandon my current beliefs; I’m secure enough in my identity to handle that. And it’s not shame; I’m convinced that being a conservative is worth the price one pays for making it known. It’s just a sigh of resignation, of futility.
And of relief. What greater joy is there than to retreat from all of that and take refuge in the park across the street with three healthy boys, all of them wide-eyed with the naïve assurance that if they just packed enough engines onto that model rocket, it could carry them off to Cygnus?
*****
Our elites, our educated and successful professionals, are the ones who are supposed to dig us out and lead us. I refer specifically to the elites of journalism and politics, the elites of the Hill and at Foggy Bottom and the agencies, the elites of our state capitals, the rich and accomplished and successful of Washington, and elsewhere. I have a nagging sense, and think I have accurately observed, that many of these people have made a separate peace. That they're living their lives and taking their pleasures and pursuing their agendas; that they're going forward each day with the knowledge, which they hold more securely and with greater reason than nonelites, that the wheels are off the trolley and the trolley's off the tracks, and with a conviction, a certainty, that there is nothing they can do about it.
I suspect that history, including great historical novelists of the future, will look back and see that many of our elites simply decided to enjoy their lives while they waited for the next chapter of trouble. And that they consciously, or unconsciously, took grim comfort in this thought: I got mine. Which is what the separate peace comes down to, "I got mine, you get yours."
You're a lobbyist or a senator or a cabinet chief, you're an editor at a paper or a green-room schmoozer, you're a doctor or lawyer or Indian chief, and you're making your life a little fortress. That's what I think a lot of the elites are up to.
Not all of course. There are a lot of people--I know them and so do you--trying to do work that helps, that will turn it around, that can make it better, that can save lives. They're trying to keep the boat afloat. Or, I should say, get the trolley back on the tracks.
That's what I think is going on with our elites. There are two groups. One has made a separate peace, and one is trying to keep the boat afloat.
*****
I find over the last year or so that I have spent less and less time and energy pondering political things and more and more time and energy pondering spiritual things. (They are exclusive sets, or so they tell me.) Yeah, the Miers nomination – and she’s a great American patriot, don’t get me wrong – was a boneheaded move that self-inflicted unnecessary headaches on my beloved President Bush. No, the president does not deserve all of the unalloyed vitriol that is spewed his way; these three hurricanes, and quite probably 9/11, would have happened no matter who was at the tiller. All that, and so much more.
Still, despite the plain fact that such malignant attitudes could be rationally and successfully contested, I find myself disengaging from the Op-Ed page and all of the related venues for one simple reason.
It’s not quite the bunker mentality that Noonan seems to describe. It’s more of a resignation to the Second Law, a concession to the monotonic descent to disorder. And a subconscious decision to operate in a sphere in which my influence actually counts for something instead of being merely an oboe amongst the brass.
And I find myself doubting that many of our so-called “public servants� are really all that wise, all that noble. The public they “serve� surely cannot conceal its contempt for them, that much is clear. And so what’s the point? Even if they were noble, we don’t view them that way. Substantive arguments are viewed as war, or at least intemperate rudeness. George Will is a “brute?� Really? And if that gentle sage can be labeled a “brute� – that’s the root of the word “brutal,� may I remind you – then what chance do I have to be heard at the level of merits?
It’s not fear of being persuaded to abandon my current beliefs; I’m secure enough in my identity to handle that. And it’s not shame; I’m convinced that being a conservative is worth the price one pays for making it known. It’s just a sigh of resignation, of futility.
And of relief. What greater joy is there than to retreat from all of that and take refuge in the park across the street with three healthy boys, all of them wide-eyed with the naïve assurance that if they just packed enough engines onto that model rocket, it could carry them off to Cygnus?
Monday, February 07, 2005
If Only Alec Baldwin Had Been Serious
Drudge is linking to a story in the IH-T about disaffecteds for whom the Bush victory on 11/2/04 was the last straw and who are actively making plans to emigrate to more liberal-friendly Canada, where many of them can pursue their agnostic or extramarital agendas unfettered and unencumbered by the emotional load of a diversity of social opinion weighing on their shoulders. They are in desperate search of a more uniformly accommodating politic, it seems...and they will surely find it on Front Street.
Alas, it looks as if only 18,000 will make it this year. qb wonders aloud, "how can I help you guys?"
qb
p. s. ...many of them, in a delicious twist of irony, from the Seattle area. What a hoot *that* is!
Alas, it looks as if only 18,000 will make it this year. qb wonders aloud, "how can I help you guys?"
qb
p. s. ...many of them, in a delicious twist of irony, from the Seattle area. What a hoot *that* is!
Friday, February 04, 2005
The Divine Conspiracy
Those of you needing something inspiring to read might want to pick up a copy of Dallas Willard's _The_Divine_Conspiracy_. Man, is it ever toothsome reading. You will never look at the Sermon on the Mount in quite the same way. qb is just about halfway through the book - it's not the easiest read in the world - and is mesmerized by the depth of it.
BTW, as qb learned this morning, if you pray for other people out of a desire to be their hero, it's time to check under the hood. God does not favor using His power to make US look good. About time qb learned that!
qb
BTW, as qb learned this morning, if you pray for other people out of a desire to be their hero, it's time to check under the hood. God does not favor using His power to make US look good. About time qb learned that!
qb
Tuesday, February 01, 2005
The Right to Be An Ignoramus
Perhaps qb would think differently if he had lost someone in the World Trade Center or the Pentagon or in a field in Pennsylvania on 9/11...but the outrage over CU Professor Churchill's speaking engagement at some obscure college in the Rust Belt seems a bit over the top. In what way, precisely, does Churchill actually threaten us? One extremist after another keeps popping his head up and exposing himself for what he is, and qb is actually grateful for that.
The present political environment, in large measure created by President Bush's stubborn resolve, has been cathartic: the Michael Moores and the Howard Deans and the Terry McAuliffes and the Jacques Chiracs of the world have nowhere to run from their legacies and nowhere to hide from their true identities. Churchill is just another sorry example of the self-loathing left, and it comforts qb greatly to have such folks raise their heads instead of lurking down beneath somewhere, undetected and unexposed.
The present political environment, in large measure created by President Bush's stubborn resolve, has been cathartic: the Michael Moores and the Howard Deans and the Terry McAuliffes and the Jacques Chiracs of the world have nowhere to run from their legacies and nowhere to hide from their true identities. Churchill is just another sorry example of the self-loathing left, and it comforts qb greatly to have such folks raise their heads instead of lurking down beneath somewhere, undetected and unexposed.
Monday, January 31, 2005
Mount of the Holy Cross 2005
I made the mistake yesterday of lingering over the "Best New Gear" edition of Backpacker magazine, and it reminded me that 2005 must be the year in which I summit the Mount of the Holy Cross via the Notch Mountain shelter. I'll want to take a group with me to share the views, and maybe reminisce a little about how John Eldredge's books have brought the Scriptures to life again for me. An overnight next to the shelter would be a total gas.
Any of you who has summited by the Notch Mountain route, I'd be grateful for your tips and observations and trip reports. I'm a seasoned fourteener veteran (if 15 summits qualifies for that - does it change your opinion if one of them was Longs?), but my rather extreme experience descending in 2002 from the saddle between Kit Carson and Challenger Point has chastened me a bit about my intuition up there at 14,000'. (If you are the one who found my beloved North Face shell halfway down the big snowfield on June 26th, congratulations on a worthy find.)
Any of you who has summited by the Notch Mountain route, I'd be grateful for your tips and observations and trip reports. I'm a seasoned fourteener veteran (if 15 summits qualifies for that - does it change your opinion if one of them was Longs?), but my rather extreme experience descending in 2002 from the saddle between Kit Carson and Challenger Point has chastened me a bit about my intuition up there at 14,000'. (If you are the one who found my beloved North Face shell halfway down the big snowfield on June 26th, congratulations on a worthy find.)
A Luddite No More
OK, folks, you win. The trend has overcome qb. Welcome to qb's blog, a repository of random musings from the fringe, a stream of consciousness with no apparent thematic center.
In qbland, we lean pretty far to the political right, but contrary viewpoints get a fair hearing if they're expressed with elegance and style. If you're up to the task, bring it on.
Enjoy!
qb
In qbland, we lean pretty far to the political right, but contrary viewpoints get a fair hearing if they're expressed with elegance and style. If you're up to the task, bring it on.
Enjoy!
qb
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