Comments on: Quote notes (#15)

By: The 2013 Anti-Progress Report | Radish

The 2013 Anti-Progress Report | Radish — Tue, 07 Jan 2014 11:33:59 +0000

[…] Kevin Williamson may be the only reason to read National Review: […]

By: admin

admin — Wed, 14 Aug 2013 01:15:41 +0000

Thanks — I agree.

By: admin

admin — Wed, 14 Aug 2013 01:15:07 +0000

Spandrell made the same criticism, but I think you are both being a little over-sensitive to the inevitable — and ultimately trivial — markers of tribal identification. The substance of the argument was entirely in keeping with your analysis. Hence: “front man for the permanent bureaucracy” (which is permanent precisely because you can’t vote against it).

Williamson thinks the only solution is to massively down-size a bureaucracy that by its very nature will always be a political enemy. (Good luck with that.)

By: Lesser Bull

Lesser Bull — Tue, 13 Aug 2013 22:46:58 +0000

The quote says about the opposite of what you say it does.

By: Foseti

Foseti — Tue, 13 Aug 2013 18:33:48 +0000

The problem with this quote (and National Review more generally) is that they lead you to believe that Obama has anything to do with the permanent bureaucracy and that you can vote against the permanent bureaucracy by voting for someone else.

The genius of the whole system is that you can’t vote for or against it. It has no front man. There’s no head to cut off.

By: Contemplationist

Contemplationist — Thu, 08 Aug 2013 20:46:47 +0000

After unthinkingly accepting the NRO line on those crazy ‘Birchers,’ I was shocked to read
their actual literature and especially Foseti’s review of Robert Welch’s book.
JBS was simply an Old Right organization and was purged for it. It’s amazing how
much propaganda one can swallow even when one fashions oneself to be ‘independent-minded.’

By: admin

admin — Thu, 08 Aug 2013 17:53:35 +0000

I was boycotting it after the Derbyshire purge, but I can’t resist the occasional trawl for Williamson (and — an embarrassing vice admittedly — Steyn). There’s got to be someone there who’s next in line for the axe, and once it falls, having followed them will suddenly become a source of reactionary cool. You’ve got to admit one thing about the National Review, it has the most distinguished casualty list of any publication in history. It’s the left-wandering Overton window in action.

By: spandrell

spandrell — Thu, 08 Aug 2013 17:20:52 +0000

I think you should give hat tips, unless you want us to think that you browse NRO often.

Do you?