Redstate

Posted at 10:26pm on Apr. 14, 2008 Obama's Marxist Underpinnings. Is it any wonder he said what he said?

A slip of the tongue with enough tongue to hang himself.

By Erick

I've long argued that Barack Obama is the weaker of the two Democratic candidates. I think, if the press gives him enough rope, he'll hang himself if he hasn't choked on his foot first. His latest comment is the latest greatest indicator of my theory panning out.

This morning I did a blogginghead.tv conversation with Jane Hamsher. We talked about this and I was willing to concede that Obama did, as he said, choose his words poorly -- he misspoke. But I maintained in our conversation as I do now that this misspeaking was actually an unguarded moment when Obama spoke what he actually believes.

I do agree that when times are hard, people take comfort in their faith. It's a natural thing for Christians to do. When troubles plague me or my family, I see refuge in the Lord. And I could give Obama a pass if that's what he meant, but I think he was not saying that. In fact, I think he was revealing his contempt for middle America.

Read on . . .

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Communism | Karl Marx | Obamafiles — Comments (33)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 2:35am on Mar. 25, 2008 Please Continue To Pray Peacefully As We Round You Up For Slaughter

By Ben Domenech

Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before. (NAS)

I was asked by a friend once about the two bumper stickers I had on my first car when I was a teenager. One was a Catholic pro-life sticker written in Spanish - the other, a small flag of Tibet. He asked me if I was trying to get my car keyed by everyone at once, or if they would just take turns.

For me, the question still is: Why aren't conservatives leading the way for Tibetan freedom?

While it may inspire very different demographics, I still believe that these two battles speak to the very soul of American conservatism. If conservatism means anything, it means this: that we are all born with an equal claim to certain rights given to all mankind, and that these include the right to live, and live freely, regardless of whether your life is inconvenient, or another claimed to own it, and the power to determine its fate ... and the right to worship, regardless of whether the deity you serve is unpopular with the ruling authorities of your nation. The claim to the first principle gave rise to the abolitionist movement and the Republican Party; the claim to the second gave rise to the Pilgrims and the birth of America itself.

And that principle is at the heart of the conflict in Tibet today.

It doesn't matter whether or not you believe the Dalai Lama's message about the nature or theology of the divine - that is irrelevant. What matters, in the case of the recent "unrest" in Tibet - such an adorable, innocent little word these foreign beat reporters use, as if China was turning restlessly in its sleep - is that the freedom to worship in this case has not just been torn from an entire people. It is their right to exist, to direct their own paths in any meaningful way.

Read on . . .

Posted in China | Communism | Foreign Affairs | Human Rights | Tibet — Comments (55) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 1:14pm on Mar. 12, 2008 On Buckley, Chambers and the West

By Paul J Cella

Call me an eccentric or a crank if you must. Accuse me of tilting at windmills like old Don Quixote: But by all that is holy I will do what I can to insure that so enormous an event as the passing of William F. Buckley, Jr., shall not be swamped by the tormenting transience of the blogosphere, and by so insignificant an event as a presidential election.

Being the eccentric that I am, I had been for almost ten days reading precisely nothing but Buckley (with one brief interlude of Oakeshott-on-Hobbes). Most of the Atlanta Public Library’s collection of Buckley nonfiction is now at my house, though I cannot hope to compete with the beautiful picture presented by my friend Kevin Holtsberry (see above).

So ten days of Buckley — and then Odyssey of a Friend arrived at my local branch, and Buckley retreated (though he never vanished) to make room for the greater man.

Odyssey of a Friend, as most Conservatives know, is a collection of letters, sent by Whittaker Chambers to Buckley during the late 1950s and early 1960s. It was published by the latter, after the former’s death. The rough sketch of a great work of history and philosophy, a book which Chambers never completed, emerges from these riveting epistles. Its haunting lineaments are unmistakable, but most of its specifics are lost to us.

Read on.

Posted in Communism | History | Whittaker Chambers | William F. Buckley — Comments (5)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 1:02pm on Mar. 5, 2008 Buckley's Triumph

By Paul J Cella

William F. Buckley, Jr.’s greatest triumph was over Communism, that cruel system of “Liberalism in a hurry” which enslaved half the world, cowed half the rest, and thoroughly poisoned the high intellectual endeavors of man down to this very day.

In his lifetime this wicked system was overthrown, and praise God for it. The walls came tumbling down. So upon learning of the great man’s death, I thought it proper to return to his work under this head — to his work back before it was a triumph but rather an arduous struggle, demanding intellect, dexterity and perseverance. It was these, exercised by Buckley and all the great Cold warriors, which made the triumph possible.

Posted in Communism | History | William F. Buckley — Comments (9)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 8:01am on Nov. 29, 2007 Ron Paul is not a Goldwater Republican

By Neil Stevens

Look, there's a fair amount of Senator Barry Goldwater's track record that I don't agree with, even if his run for the Presidency in 1964 was standard for conservatism for a quarter century. But in the debate tonight, when Representative Ron Paul repudiated our fight in Vietnam, Ron Paul repudiated Barry Goldwater.

Read On...

Posted in 1964 | 2008 | Barry Goldwater | Communism | Contra Tyrannum | Iraq | Ron Paul | Vietnam | War — Comments (35)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 6:23pm on Nov. 18, 2007 A fragment on Conservatism and Progress

By Paul J Cella

Here is a Sunday question: what is the status of the idea of PROGRESS in Conservative thought? Read on.

Posted in Communism | Conservatives | History | Nazism | progress — Comments (2)/ Email this page » / Read More »