Okay, the link below was supposed to go to a Washington Times story about Ronald Reagan being picked in a poll of Esquire readers as the greatest living American. Clinton was the most loathsome. As I understand it, that was actually a category. Most loathsome living American. Geez, Clinton's not that bad. He's far too pathetic to be loathsome.

So anyway, the link is broken. But the VRWC is alive and well!

The Goldberg file on Muslim whining in America.

Whether you agree with Goldberg or not (and at least to a point, I do), this article is substantially different from the typical right-wing response to the "Islam is a religion of peace" phrase. Goldberg is right in that Islam is suffering from a PR problem, and from a desire to justify itself. And he neatly points to the Nazis in such a way that I believe it would not invoke Godwin's law. Still, I am uncomfortable with some of his statements, particularly the line that implies that it's their own damn fault. Even in context that kind of thinking is unconscionable.

WFB discusses an appropriate response to Harvard's English Department's invitation, un-invitation, and re-invitation of Tom Paulin.

Buckley's approach is wise and correct, but you and I know Harvard will not follow it. They've already blown it thrice on this issue, and although we all know that embarassments run in threes, Harvard will not risk further ridicule. This is a pity. I'd like them to take a principled stand once to restore my faith in higher education.

One thing that bothers me is an appeal politically to ideology. Ideology is Communist code for keeping people in line, and when otherwise intelligent and well-educated people start to talk about another person's ideology I begin to worry. We need to talk about other people's ideas. We are all familiar with Ralph Waldo Emerson's bromide, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." Some contend that he was serious; others, that he was joking. I'm no Emerson scholar, but it seems to me that the scholar of transcendentalism was perhaps the least dogmatic of the public figures of his age. A little inconsistency is marvelous; for one, wrestling with inconsistencies prevents us from embracing self-perpetuating ideologies.

I'm going to dig up some information on memes. Here is a link to an essay by Scott Bidstrup, someone with whom I personally have many disagreements (which is not to imply that we've communicated or that he's even aware of my existence), but the man can write an excellent essay. Neal Stephenson discusses memes and viral principles in Snow Crash in a way both readable and engaging. The point of the above is that we should beware self-perpetuating ideologies, and remember that good questions when properly asked and answered let us know what we know and don't know.

To claim that there is a Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy is as foolish as claiming there is a Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy. Neither the right nor the left in America is particularly organized, and certainly not to Comintern levels. Even the Comintern was not as well-organized as they or Joe McCarthy liked to believe. For further edification on the KGB and the Comintern, I would direct everyone to the Mitrokhin Archive and The Black Book of Communism. Even when viewed critically, together these books paint a picture of a true international conspiracy. What goes on in American politics is nowhere near as grotesque and anti-democratic as the demagogues like to paint it.

On both sides.

My first link:

Buckley Uncovers All (With the Help of Al Gore)

Bill Buckley addresses Al Gore's attempts to draw the VRWC into the open.

Welcome to my new blog. Obviously this joke was close to dying a worthy death when those fools Tom Daschle and Al Gore revived it. I can't really say that I'm happy about it. The name says it all: Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy. It reminds me of that great line from Sneakers when Redford's character reproaches Ben Kingsley about being connected to organized crime. Kingsley replies: "Don't kid yourself- it's not that organized."

Anyway, my intent here is to post links to the latest VRWC-related materials in an attempt to show the utter silliness of the VRWC idea. Surely, if there was a vast right-wing conspiracy, it would be both more secret and more effective than the slapdash organization we have now.