Radio Free Delingpole #10: Doomed
Blue Yeti ·
March 8, 2012 at 2:23am
More glad tidings from across the pond as eternal optimist James Delingpole is joined by author and historian Tim Stanley, author of The Crusader: The Life and Tumultuous Times of Pat Buchanan. We get a view of Super Tuesday on Wednesday from abroad, a lyrical lament for The Herminator, a frank discussion of why the conservative party is doomed, and a crackling conversation on a litany of personal liberties including (but not limited to) drugs, drinking, guns, and you guess it -- gay marriage.
Ricochet members, subscribe here (you'll also find the direct link there). Everyone else, listen in below.
Our thanks to EJHill for the lovely wedding photograph.
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Comments:
Jan '11
Re: Radio Free Delingpole #10: Doomed
I too am tired of the republican politics. While we're looking for Anybody But Romney we forget that the republican and independents will vote for Anybody But Obama.
Nov '10
Re: Radio Free Delingpole #10: Doomed
OMG! The wedding photo made me choke with laughter. I may never be the same. Can't wait to listen to the podcast. I enjoyed the last one with Mr. Stanley.
May '10
Re: Radio Free Delingpole #10: Doomed
I think EJ just caused a mass damage to laptop keyboards across the country. I just sprayed mine, too. And through my nose, no less.
May '10
Re: Radio Free Delingpole #10: Doomed
Yes, I'm sure James is very appreciative.
Apr '11
Re: Radio Free Delingpole #10: Doomed
Mr. Delingpole,
You misunderstand American conservatism. You believe in The Church. American conservatives believe in God.
Edited on March 8, 2012 at 3:28amOct '10
Re: Radio Free Delingpole #10: Doomed
Only a Brit would marry a woman with a face like that.
Feb '11
Re: Radio Free Delingpole #10: Doomed
Radio Free Delingpole #10: Doomed
One of these days, you should try to do one of these with John Derbyshire.
[Edit due to some really weird formatting glitches the spontaneously appeared when I tried to post. Very strange.]
Edited on March 8, 2012 at 4:20amJun '10
Re: Radio Free Delingpole #10: Doomed
Mr. Delingpole,
You misunderstand the conservative attitude toward homosexuals. We are not against gay people. We are opposed to the leftist gay agenda because it promotes promiscuity. We are against events like gay pride marches because they offend public morality. And we are against gay marriage, despite the fact it might mitigate against promiscuity, because we believe that children are best raised by a man and a woman joined in marriage.
Best regards,
~Paules
P.S. We understand that swapping out your package (at public expense, no less) won't change a thing when the problem is in your head.
Edited on March 8, 2012 at 4:22amFeb '11
Re: Radio Free Delingpole #10: Doomed
Possible conversation from that episode:
"The world will end by November"
"No, it'll end by August."
"It's ending tomorrow."
"I actually died during this podcast"
"I've been dead since before I joined Ricochet"
Edited on March 8, 2012 at 4:24amMay '10
Re: Radio Free Delingpole #10: Doomed
Mr. D.,
I think being at a distance your perspective is shaped too much by our (and your) MSM who would like everyone to think that Mitt is a weak candidate who produces no enthusiasm. I wish you could have been here last Saturday in Washington State. More than 4x the anticipated number of people showed up and the energy level for replacing the current president was palpable. Everyone will vote and work for whoever the candidate turns out to be. No one present could remember a GOP event anything like it taking place here.
Apr '11
Re: Radio Free Delingpole #10: Doomed
I loved your latest Mr. Delingpole. I am also sure you can appreciate this:
It is one I find myself turning to often in times of trouble.
Mar '12
Re: Radio Free Delingpole #10: Doomed
Anyone else here have face-blindness? I'm pretty face blind and it took me several minutes of staring to figure out what seems "funny" about that picture.
Jun '10
Re: Radio Free Delingpole #10: Doomed
Me too. My first thought was "why is Don Rickles wearing the uniform of the Irish Guards?"
Edited on March 8, 2012 at 4:51amJan '11
Re: Radio Free Delingpole #10: Doomed
That Prince William is one lucky man…
Edited on March 8, 2012 at 6:04amMay '10
Re: Radio Free Delingpole #10: Doomed
Oh, EJ!
May '10
Re: Radio Free Delingpole #10: Doomed
It's as if all those state referendums in the US about marriage never happened. Somehow, intelligent people still maintain the absurd notion that a majority-held perception of marriage and homosexuality hurts Republicans with those same voters.
Willfulness is the very essence of humanity — all of our accomplishments and all of our failures. It's why the West is dying.
Nov '10
Re: Radio Free Delingpole #10: Doomed
I'm as rock-ribbed as any Delingpole libertarian in devoutly yearning for government liquidated to the point of leanest, most bare-boned, exiguous existence.
But I must say, you fellows really miss the wood for the trees.
The sine qua non of lean government is a virtuous, self-ruling, responsible citizenry. The principles of right conduct are not obvious. We do not learn them or act on them without assistance. Self-rule does not equate with the libertarian notion of autonomy. (I explain this further here).
Most "social issues" are deeper than -- and determinant of -- the economic issues. Things actually go in this direction far more often than vice versa.
Once you present people with the not unreasonable argument that they're not responsible for their economic situation (e.g., the Great Depression and the New Deal), and spin that "meme in public imagination" out over a couple of generations, it then becomes eminently easier to present the far more unreasonable argument that people are not responsible in ways far more insidious and radical. The penultimate form today is identity politics, of which "gay" liberation is exemplary. Same-sex marriage = homosexuality will have to be taught. Publicly.
1/3
Edited on March 8, 2012 at 8:52amNov '10
Re: Radio Free Delingpole #10: Doomed
"Liberation" for identity politics means: the desire not to be thought of as abnormal. So it will have be taught.
Teaching children in public schools about the choiceworthiness of homosexuality approaches the nadir of irresponsibility.
Or does it?
Occasion was, just a few decades ago, that college conservatives regularly greeted campus "Gay & Lesbian Awareness Day" with "Incest and Bestiality Awareness Day." Conservatives were intensely reviled for drawing such analogies -- deemed as they were grotesque calumnies because so unerringly beyond the pale, indeed divorced from anything that's even remotely feasible.
Flash forward two decades, and -- surprise, surprise -- we have the über-prestigious Martha Nussbaum -- the doyenne of liberal, bien pensant rationality -- informing us that incest marriages should be accepted. (See p. 9-10 here).
So I eagerly look forward to the day when Ricochet has two conservatives chiding us rubes to "get with the times" in accepting incest, bestiality and polygamy.
Nota bene: My venturing such a claim cannot be thought any more an impertinence -- a hypothetical ripped from cloud cuckoo-land -- than proffering analogies to incest could have been thought an impertinence just a decade or so ago, not to mention the impertinence...
2/3
Nov '10
Re: Radio Free Delingpole #10: Doomed
and rank implausibility of anyone a few generations ago merely concocting the idea of same-sex marriage as remotely possible as a public teaching.
Moreover, it's of no moment that Delingpole counts five of his most stalwart conservative friends as homosexual. What we are talking about is a public teaching. Any generalized teaching of the conditions for public happiness cannot admit of exceptions when it comes to marriage between the sexes, as admitting of exceptions dissolves the public teaching of any meaning. To domesticate homosexuality is to domesticate all things (as the example of Nussbaum and incest shows), which is of course impossible. It is rank nihilism.
It is one thing to have political differences in civil society. It is entirely another to have serious differences over the very foundations of civil society itself. The latter is the negation of civil society.
3/3
Apr '11
Re: Radio Free Delingpole #10: Doomed
Sigh.
C'mon James, it's frustrating to see you include "gay marriage" on a list of "personal liberties." Please tell me this was an innocent oversight and that I don't need to take time here - of all places - to point out that the question of which personal relationships deserve government recognition has absolutely nothing to do with personal liberty?
If you favor the redefinition of marriage, I respect your view. But as conservatives it is essential that we maintain a high standard of intellectual clarity and take care to never employ the linguistic dishonesty of the left.
A society is free to decide - wisely or unwisely - that the government should redefine marriage to include committed couples of the same-sex, but to suggest anyone has a "right" to the public sanction of marriage is as nonsensical as a "right" to free contraception.
This may seem a nitpick, but if we can derive one common lesson from last week's fallen - James Q. Wilson and Andrew Breitbart - it's that we ignore the small stuff at our peril.