Thanks to everyone from Ricochet who downloaded Comply on Sunday. The book is now in a lot more hands than it was before. And that was the goal. An additional thanks goes to everyone who had already downloaded it in the past months as well.

Thanks for the kind words! It is hard work but it is a lot of fun too. I should have mentioned: The last book in the series, Resist, will be out this summer. Thanks again!

Call me the absolute cynic but I wonder if this Princeton Mom even really exists. Those words read more like they've been written by someone who works at Princeton who wants to make sure contributions keep flowing back to the university.

I mean, if both spouses went to Princeton, their chances of making donations back to the school for many years are quite high. However, if a Princeton woman marries a guy who went to say, DeVry, then I have to believe loyalties would be split, and the alum wouldn't continue to feel as connected to her alma mater. Thus, she might not donate as much, if at all.

Like I said, me the cynic. 

"I was just thinking what an interesting concept it is to eliminate the writer from the artistic process. If we could just get rid of these actors and directors, maybe we've got something here."

Catch 22

Joseph Heller

How is it? Overrated.

The disagreement . . . 

I feel for Peter. It's tough for all of us to make objective judgments when it comes to our culture. Too often we want rid of parts of our culture simply because we personally don't like them. Not because those parts are dangerous--but because they offend us. In doing so, we try to create some kind of "moral" framework--that fits our own sensibilities--as to what is "good" and what is "bad" regarding films, music, games, etc.

What we should be instead looking at is how those components affect the society as a whole. For example, if a certain type of music is making its listeners turn into zombies who attack little old ladies, then something might need to be done.

But, the fact is, despite the perceived worsening of our culture, the USA is a much less violent place than it was 40 years ago, even though we have more porn, more f-bombs, and more "violent" video games. Given these facts, I'm not sure what Peter is getting at. He and the rest of us should remember an immoral culture is the one that infringes on our rights, not our tastes.  

At the start I found myself vigorously agreeing with Peter. By the end, I found myself vigorously disagreeing with him. The agreement . . .

In retrospect, I'm not sure the 2012 Presidential election was winnable for any Republican who was running. So, I won't go as far as to say Rick Santorum could've won. But Peter was right that at least Rick would've fought back. This is important because among conservatives there is definitely the idea of winning (or losing) and sticking to our principles at the same time. Consultants believe in the opposite and that's why conservatives despise them.

I look at this way. We know how it all ended up for Romney: he lost, trying to be as milquetoast as possible. And it went as many conservatives predicted months beforehand, with him not bringing up Obamacare and him being 0h-so-deferential to Obama.

Whereas, if we're going to lose, we might as well lose in grand fashion--even if it may be Goldwater '64-like--with guns blazing. Attacking Obamacase, attacking unemployment, attacking the tax system, etc. What do we have to lose? Rick Santorum would've done that.

C.W. McCall's  "There won't be no country music." Total tree hugging song . . . but dang I love it. 

I'm 42yo and I scored an 88. I'm never gonna grow up . . . of course, that was always the plan.

EJHill, oui oui! He's got nuthin' on Rob Halford.

And my concerns have abated. I will listen.

Before I listen to this, please reassure me that "Lileks defends cruising" doesn't mean "cruising" in an early 80's, Al Pacino-type of way.

Wow . . . LSD, God, Darwin, quantum mechanics . . . I'm not quite so ethereal or scientific. So, I'll stick to the mundane. 

I believe it to be true but cannot prove that, had they been alive, every last liberal in this country would've sided with the British back in 1776. Sure, they would've loved the red, white, and blue, only in a different pattern. 

Sorry, I got to this party a little late . . . 

I said it before on another post months ago and I will say it again: the topics of abortion and gay marriage are never, ever, ever, never, ever, never going to go away just because conservatives stop talking about them. The reason? Liberals believe these are winning issues for them. Libs love talking about them. They'd talk about them morning, noon, and night if they could. So they're gonna find some way to weave these topics into any discussion--taxes, defense, environmentalism, etc. So, we as conservatives/Republicans must inevitably have a position on abortion and gay marriage. That James and Douglas don't understand this is strange.

Moreover, what I hear in this podcast--in so many words--is this: why don't those social conservatives just shut up? Why can't they put their principles on these two topics to the side? Don't they understand that economic matters are more important?

The reason we won't is because we believe abortion and gay marriage are issues of character, integrity, and morality. And there can be no coherent, free enterprise, rights-respecting economic system without these qualities. 

How do these three guys not have a show on FoxNews? It would surely be the most popular programming and make Red Eye look like amateur hour. 

As for the woman who asked them about her 7 year old son who is a republican among democrats in his elementary school, I would've answered her question with a question: what's your son doing there?

It drives me nuts. We have conservative parents who will some day not allow their kids to go to rock concerts. Won't allow them to play outside for another half hour. Won't allow them to stay up late to watch a tv show. Won't allow them to eat their dessert first. Won't allow them to drop a swear word once in a while.

But . . . these same parents will march their kids off to public school where their children are molded into good little socialists over the next 11 years. And they'll do it mindlessly, as if there isn't another alternative in the world. That school will do more harm to your child than any music, play time, tv show, dessert, or 4-letter word ever could.

Joe Hagan--so that's who it was. Didn't run into him. I had no less than five people, including an NR writer, ask me if I was the mole. True story. 

I could go on and on about Mike Murphy but I only have 200 words here. Instead, I'll attempt to defend my favorite RINO, Rob Long, using my own opinions about conservatives and the media.

We conservatives jumped the shark long ago when it comes to criticizing the MSM. In fact, the only reason a majority of conservative pundits have jobs today is due to their ability to point out MSM bias. Why? Because it's easy. And hey, I know these people gotta eat. But after years of them doing this, conservatism is no further ahead than it was before. That amounts to years of people wasting time.

What the MSM is doing is neither unconstitutional nor illegal. We hate it because it works. Given that, you'd think we conservatives would have more than one channel. But, we've wasted our time over the last 20 years criticizing instead of creating more than one Foxnews. And given that channel's lonely status, it's easy for the uninformed to avoid.

If we had more conservative reporters and channels, we could even the odds. Until then, we just sound like whiners. You're welcome, Rob.