I am not interested in"second chances"--- on the taxpayers' nickel. However, I do think voting for policy rather than celebrity (or notoriety?) is always preferred. And he ran a better campaign, while she ran as NOT the guy who cheated on his wife.

I am/was ambivalent about the substance of the issue, but I am NOT ambivalent about someone who is willing to stand up and say the constitution matters.Also, I advise a very dispirited group of College Republicans who, at the moment, are no longer dispirited. That is no small thing...

Also, agree that lib books have no epiphanies; they are neither charming nor based on core truths!

Sorry-- don't mean to hate on Toad, he is entertaining... I have just known too many people just like him! And Mole, Rat & Badger's lives are so comfortable, and enchanting. I also enjoyed the Borrowers-- stories about tiny people building lives on the fringes of "real" life, using ordinary items for very different purposes. Also, Important! Re: Kenneth Grahame-- remember T.Roosevelt's intro, where he mentions earlier, beloved books by the author? "the golden age" and "dream days"? I got them used from Amazon or a friend, and they are enchanting!

When I was a child, my Dad started me with ER Burroughs& Heinlein, so I didn't read much written for girls until my daughter was reading; now, I enjoy re-reading the "Anne of Green Gables" books now & then; it is wonderful to be immersed in a world where people knew there was a right & wrong, and generally tried to choose the right. Funny, genuinely "good" people or characters are generally more interesting than self-consciously cynical or rebellious ones (as in the Wind in the Willows!)

Eastern NC bbq is my favorite-- pulled pork with a vinegar-based sauce, eaten with cole slaw, and mountain dew or SWEET tea-- heaven! When I go visit my daughter in Richmond, I try to remember to bring a stash for her. B's BBQ is best, in Greenville NC, but most Parker's are great, though even better, any church BBQ where they rented a big cooker msde from an old oil drum, and they cook a whole or half hog for 12 hours... (whew, just thinking about it) Anyway, eastern NC, vinegar-based is good.

Cont' from #25: Now and then I must pause to figure out what that entails, but not often. I love my country, but it is more of an abstraction than my work or my family-- and my God. The Shema-- "Hear, oh Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one." everything comes after-- and if the Church is the best way to hear and know what that entails, I see no question. Whether I always ACT on that is a different question. Short answer: no.

"(To the good Catholics who assert that there is no tension between faith and reason, one observes that any such claim assumes that one's own faith is the one true religion and one's own reasoning is the only reasonable reasoning.)"This quote threw me, since I believe my faith to be the one true religion (why else would I follow it?), but I do NOT believe my reasoning to be infallible. I follow C.S.Lewis, who suggested that all religions have some reflection of truth, since all are striving to know the One True God, and understand His revelation of Him self, but that Christianity (the Catholic version, for me if not Lewis) is the truest experience & reflection of that truth. If God points me elsewhere, I will pursue that. Jesus said "render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are Gods." Caesar's face is on the money & the laws; God's face is written on my heart, and He created & preserves my life.

I like the idea of donating what I gave to the Romney/Ryan campaign-- not sorry for those donations, but happy to give that much to something like this.

I love NRO, it was the first place I found that fed my converted soul. Delighted to have digital. I hope Jim Ixtian didn't mean quotas or ethnic preferences, just more "diversity" of point of view? (a perfectly good word which has been ruined). I would be happy to read someone's thoughts on how/if the Black vote (or whichever) could be courted, released from thrall to the Dems, etc. BUT, I wouldn't consider the site to have the same feel if we had token "Asian conservative" feeds, or whatever. I am at a university, folks-- these ideas can get ugly fast, shut down the conversation... Caution, please!

My libertarian friends are feeling very self-righteous now, and I really can't deal with that. Frankly, I am much readier to go with Bill Whittle's "common sense resistance" than get on another mainstream political bandwagon. 

Good thoughts-- thank you. And if you don't mind my saying so, very compatible with Thoma Aquinas' thinking.  After all, Natural Law, that part of eternal law knowable by reason, is always compatible with eternal law, or the Mind of God. Therefoe, if is true, it can be explained in non-theological terms. 

Thank you for the reminder. Be not afraid. 

Sorryabout the county/city mixup-- I either heard it wrong, or my brain misfired... Not sure anymore 

I agree with the NC governor numbers; NC was really burned by Bev Perdue... the only reason she beat McCrory last time was the Obama flood. I have even seen cars with BOTH an Obama 2012 and a McCrory 2012 sticker. the vote for Dalton will be low info dedicated Dems.

at my university (a NC state school), we are not supposed to speak with parents AT ALL unless the student has signed off on the Buckley release (I never thought about the name of the release before).  It makes it difficult to help the students who may need it the most. I am more casual with this than I should be, but with serious issues I try to be careful. I have personally had one student who was essentially defrauding his parents, and tried to use me to cover up for him, and convince them he was really going to graduate. I have heard of similar cases in other areas of the university in past years...