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The Surge is Working, But...
by Christopher Chantrill
IT’S pretty clear that the “surge” in Iraq is making progress. And as Dean Barnett observes, the left is taking it badly. SO HOW HAS THE LEFT reacted to this positive development? Poorly, angrily, and childishly. In other words, characteristically. Actually, it is not surprising that the surge is working. The surge is a military operation in which the US Armed Forces are doing military things, like unfold
| 07/31/07 11:34 am ETDebating YouTube
by Christopher Chantrill
SHOULD REPUBLICAN presidential candidates descend to the level of YouTube? Actually, more to the point, should they subject themselves to the Children-of-the-Welfare-State worldview of the YouTube generation? Hugh Hewitt says: No. But Patrick Ruffini thinks that a Republican YouTube debate is on, whether we like it or not. Governor unfold
| 07/30/07 4:55 pm ETAlarm bells on China
by Christopher Chantrill
CLASSICAL liberals thought that they had won the argument over free trade back in the nineteenth century. But the apologists for directed trade or mercantilism keep popping up again. Like William Hawkins from the US Business and Industrial Council. The "global economy" is not based on the "harmony of interests" once envisioned by 19th century classical liberals, but on cut-throat unfold
| 07/30/07 11:52 am ET"Can I Help You?"
by Christopher Chantrill
IT’S a Gilded Age, writes Peggy Noonan, an age of fabulous wealth, but the manners aren’t so good. Noonan reports daydreaming into a store on Madison Avenue recently "Hi! Let me help you find what you’re looking for!" She is a saleswoman, cracking gum with intensity, about 25 years old, and she has made a beeline to her mark. Hmm. And another store: "How are you today? How can I help you?" Those dread unfold
| 07/27/07 5:50 pm ETMean-spirited Universities Sit on Cash
by Christopher Chantrill
OUR DEMOCRATIC friends in the House of Representatives recently passed an education bill to take $18 billion away from the evil student loan industry and give it to students. We at Road to the Middle Class have criticized them for this, a mindless shoveling of more cash and subsidies to the universities. Now Senator Kennedy is pushing the bill through the Senate. But that’s not the real problem, writes
| 07/27/07 11:12 am ETThe Cruelty of the Welfare State
by Christopher Chantrill
EVERYONE knows that the welfare state is the most wonderful thing in human history. Finally, after the madness of the nineteenth century when the poor went unfed and the homeless unsheltered and children uncared-for, we have a system that cares. Then there are the folks like us here at Road to the Middle Class that believe that the welfare state is the cruelest, most uncaring system in history. This column by
| 07/26/07 11:34 am ETGrabbing The High Ground
by Christopher Chantrill
BACK IN the old days before the French Revolution the world was a conservative place. Rigidly conservative. And the reason was pretty simple. In the agricultural age if you made a mistake out on the farm it was curtains. The only thing to do was to stick with what worked: tradition. But since the Enlightenment tradition has been on the defensive. In fact even gradual reform has been on the defensive. Human rights and reason have carried all before them. In the old days, the reformer had to unfold
| 07/25/07 4:24 pm ETBritish Conservatives in a Pickle
by Christopher Chantrill
IN BRITAIN they are trying to dry out after 50 year floods. But in the Conservative media they are drowning from the incompetence of Conservative leader David Cameron. At least that’s what ASimon Heffer thinks. The leader of the Labour Party, he writes, has shown himself to be a “serious politician.” The Leader of the Opposition, by unfold
| 07/25/07 12:23 pm ETThe Secret Life of Cars
by Christopher Chantrill
YOU MAY not have wondered how a car makes you feel, but BMW has. That’s what Richard Morrison found out. Says the “driver interfaces psychologist” at BMW: We’re constantly asking the question: what kind of psychological space is a car? Well, of course, we’ve all wondered that. And we’ve wondered how many people call their car by a nickname (26 percent of women), the unfold
| 07/24/07 9:36 pm ETDemocrats' New War on Poverty
by Christopher Chantrill
DEMOCRATIC presidential candidates Barack Obama and John Edwards both want to declare a new war on poverty, writes Linda Chavez. Mr. Obama wants to tie the minimum wage to the Consumer Price Index, which would price the lowest-skilled workers, especially young blacks, out of the job market, not to mention increase inflationary pressure on wages.
Mr. Edwards would have the government create 1 million unfold
| 07/24/07 11:23 am ETThe "New Victorians:" a Trend or a "Trend?"
by Christopher Chantrill
IT WOULD all seem pretty sensible if it weren’t that the trendy New York Observer’s Lizzy Ratner was all over it. According to Suzanne Fields the new generation of twentysomethings are getting married earlier and having children. Websites for "modest clothing" are expanding, and Wendy Shalit, who earlier wrote about "A Return to unfold
| 07/23/07 9:29 pm ETDean Barnett's 9/11 Generation
by Christopher Chantrill
WE KNOW all about the Boomer generation, says 40-ish Dean Barnett. Forty years ago, they (that is, we, since I’m a boomer) checked out of their generational challenge. Confronted with a generation-defining conflict, the cold war, the Boomers—those, at any rate, who came to be emblematic of their generation—took the opposite path from their parents during World War II. But now we have the unfold
| 07/23/07 11:59 am ETWhat Do Women Want?
by Christopher Chantrill
THE FEMINISTS don’t want to hear it, according to Megan Basham, but married women are trickling out of the workforce. And it’s because they don’t want to work full-time. Only 21 percent of working mothers report a preference for a 40+-hour work week, while only 16 percent of at-home moms say the same. What could be driving this? Feminists say it’s the post 9/11 unfold
| 07/20/07 6:44 pm ETWhen the US Leaves Iraq
by Christopher Chantrill
CALL ME a conspiracist, but I believe that US political class has already decided to leave Iraq. I base this on the behavior of presidential candidate John Kerry during the 2004 election campaign. Time and time again he would rail at the Bush administration for not doing something—like ramping up training of Iraqi security forces—and then it would turn out six months later that the Bush administration was doing it, but just hadn’t splashed it all over the media. It was as though Kerry knew unfold
| 07/20/07 11:08 am ETEating beef 'is less green than driving'
by Christopher Chantrill
THEY’RE coming to take you away, those lefty global warming types, those watermelons—green on the outside, red on the inside, socialists in drag. Now some Japanese scientists have computed that, according to the Daily Telegraph, eating meat contributes to global warming. Producing 2.2lb of beef generates as much greenhouse gas as driving a car non-stop for three hours, it was claimed unfold
| 07/19/07 6:34 pm ETDem House Solves College Costs With Subsidies and Regulation
by Christopher Chantrill
WITH COLLEGE costs soaring way above the rate of inflation and many graduates finding that they can’t find jobs to pay off their loans, what would you do if you were Congress? Naturally, you would increase the already vast subsidies for higher education and you would get tough on price gougers with new regulations, as reported by Ruth Mantell of Marketwatch.
| 07/19/07 11:48 am ETWho Is Norman Borlaug?
by Christopher Chantrill
EVERYBODY knows Paris Hilton. But who the heck is Dr. Norman Borlaug? Like, whatever? Step away from that remote! And listen. Norman Borlaug is the guy behind the green revolution, the advances in grain breeding that has produced staggeringly large increases in crop yield in the third world. It started in Mexico, as Elizabeth M. Whelan reports. Over the course of 20 years, he developed unfold
| 07/19/07 12:15 am ETThe Not-so All-Night Debate on Iraq
by Christopher Chantrill
THE UNITED States Senate is the world’s greatest deliberative body, and last night they debated a motion to begin troop withdrawals from Iraq. But it turned out not to be quite the extravaganza we were promised, according to Shailagh Murray, Paul Kane and Debbi Wilgoren in the Washington Post. Reid, the majority leader, initially had threatened to schedule votes throughout the predawn hours. unfold
| 07/18/07 10:51 am ETIn the Belly of the Beast
by Christopher Chantrill
THE REASON we need the welfare state, liberals tell us, is because we need a safety net to protect us from the excesses of the free enterprise system. Without the rights and the protections of an activist government people would suffer. Corporations have no mercy. The moment you can’t do the job, you are out on the street. That’s why we need workers’ rights and consumers’ rights and a host of benefits provided and enforced by government. No doubt we do need protection from unfold
| 07/18/07 12:51 am ETIt's a Regional War, Stupid
by Christopher Chantrill
FROM THE very beginning of the war on terror, it was obvious that the war was not just a war against Al Qaeda or Saddam Hussein, but a war to prevent the emergence of a single regional hegemon in the Middle East. Democrats profess not to know this, and Republicans barely seem to know it. But President Bush does, according to Michael Ledeen. In his press conference Monday, the president said: The unfold
| 07/17/07 11:34 am ETGermany and France on Collision Course
by Christopher Chantrill
THE EURO has climbed to stratospheric levels in recent months, approaching $1.40 to the euro. But Ambrose Evans- Pritchard thinks it will all end in tears. The high euro is sitting on the back of a revived German economy, achieved by a signal achievement of German companies in moderating the wages of German workers. By screwing down wages, Deutschland AG has deflated costs since 1995 by 20pc against France, unfold
| 07/16/07 3:59 pm ETL.A. Diocese Pays for Abuse
by Christopher Chantrill
THE ROMAN Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles has agreed to pay out over $600 million to plaintiffs to settle claims of sexual abuse by clergy, reports the Associated Press. The settlement pushes the total amount paid out by the U.S. church since 1950 to more than $2 billion, with about a quarter of that amount paid by the Los Angeles Archdiocese. It is, of course, right and proper that the Catholic unfold
| 07/16/07 11:52 am ETReligion is Safe With Democrats Says TIME
by Christopher Chantrill
FOR YEARS Democrats have warned that religion and politics don’t mix. You’d expect them to say that because Democratic voters are secular. Democratic voters don’t mix religion and politics. In fact they don’t really “get” religion at all. If they feel a religious impulse they call it “spirituality.” The trouble is that the American people are religious. That makes it difficult for Democrats to win elections. But now things are changing. unfold
| 07/13/07 10:47 am ETWorking Moms Want to Cut Back on Work
by Christopher Chantrill
WOMAN, WE know, is the “victim of the species.” That’s what Simone de Beauvoir, haute bourgeoise and existentialist, wrote in The Second Sex, and she should know. Back then, high-born victims like the Beaver wanted jobs, careers, anything that men did. But now the average working victim, according to the Pew Research Center, wants to work part time. Here’s how AP reported the unfold
| 07/12/07 5:37 pm ETHewitt Talks to Republican Jews
by Christopher Chantrill
CONSERVATIVE talk-show host talked to the Republican Jewish Coalition recently, reports Current Jewish Issues. He was not optimistic when it came to the next presidential election. People look back at the 1980 election, Hewitt told his audience, and remember only that it was a landslide. But, of course, in fact it was a close-run thing and Reagan only began to break away in the last week. Hewitt remembers. He was unfold
| 07/12/07 11:35 am ETGlobal Warming and Solar Heating
by Christopher Chantrill
WHO DO YOU believe? Today there were two articles on the relation between solar radiance and global warming. In the American Thinker D. Bruce Merrifield writes that the global climate is driven by a variety of solar variations and that CO2 and methane concentrations are a product of heating and cooling rather than a cause of it. The current 100 year solar radiation cycle may now have reached its peak, and unfold
| 07/11/07 4:47 pm ETThe End of the Newspaper Columnist
by Christopher Chantrill
ABOUT TWELVE years ago, according to columnist Bruce Bartlett, a pal called him up and suggested he write a column for the Detroit News. He agreed, and eventually the column got syndicated. But now Bartlett is hanging it up. No more columns, thank you; there’s more money and more editorial control in writing books. In fact, he reckons, “the demand for traditional column writing has pretty much unfold
| 07/10/07 10:47 pm ETBritish Conservatives Issue Plan To Fight Social Breakdown
by Christopher Chantrill
IT’S called Breakthrough Britain and it has been billed as the most important document on social welfare in Britain since the Beveridge Report of 1944 that set the agenda for the post World War II welfare state. The idea behind the report is fairly simple, according to George Jones. It says that: It is time to unfold
| 07/10/07 11:35 am ETKeeper of the Tower Lives in France
by Christopher Chantrill
IS THIS what Britain has come to? The chap who keeps an eye on the crown jewels in the Tower of London lives in north-western France. Brittany, to be exact. And why would Major General Keith Cima live in France? It starts with the basics: “less traffic, less crowding, affordable housing.” Then there is the matter of the schools. Our younger unfold
| 07/09/07 7:47 pm ETNow The Lawyers are Upset
by Christopher Chantrill
THE BRITS are just waking up to the idea that lawyers are miserable. Apparently 25 percent of them want to leave the profession, according to Sathnam Sanghera. But of course this is nothing compared to lawyer misery in the United States. Here, 40 percent of lawyers want to leave the profession. In fact, lawyer misery has become an industry. [T]here are now almost more books, articles and websites unfold
| 07/09/07 11:30 am ETThe Underclass As Residue of Social Mobility
by Christopher Chantrill
MOST OF us like to write about the underclass as a failure of the welfare state. Underclass unemployment, crime, and social pathology are all the consequence of anesthetizing poor people with subsidies and rewarding failure. But Matthew Parris has a different idea about the underclass, at least in Britain. He sees it as the residue left in the “sink estates” [public housing] after everyone else has unfold
| 07/06/07 6:26 pm ETThe Real David Halberstam
by Christopher Chantrill
FOR WHAT seems like forever we have been taught to celebrate David Halberstam as the intrepid journalist who blew the lid off the Vietnam War. He wrote about how The Best and the Brightest betrayed the United States in their fumbling little war in Vietnam. Actually, it wasn’t like that at all, according to Mark Moyar, author of an expose about Halberstam, Triumph Forsaken. It was Halberstam and his unfold
| 07/06/07 11:30 am ETIs Government Force? Michael Moore Says No
by Christopher Chantrill
WE ALL KNOW, or at least we’d better know by now, that Michael Moore thinks that government health care, as practiced in Canada, Britain, and Cuba is hunky-dory. (I know. Have you asked a Brit about her wonderful NHS lately?) Libertarian John Stossel got to ask him about this on ABC’s 20/20 TV show. How come he could be so relaxed about government unfold
| 07/05/07 4:16 pm ETDon't The Pols Get It?
by Christopher Chantrill
NOW THAT the Democrats are back in control of Congress we are hearing calls for increasing taxes on business and the rich. A couple of senators, one of them a Republican, want to increase taxes on financial partnerships from 15 percent to 35 percent. And then there are the genius Democrats in the House, according to Richard W.Rahn: At the same time, House Democrats proposed an increase of 4.3 percentage unfold
| 07/05/07 11:18 am ETArnold Kling on Trust in Society
by Christopher Chantrill
THE BIG problem of the human race is the problem of extending trust beyond blood kin. In traditional society you just don’t trust people who are not blood kin. That works pretty well in an agricultural village but it begins to be a problem in the city. So mankind has developed the radical notion of extending trust beyond the limits of blood kin. As Arnold Kling puts it: A high-trust society is one where trust unfold
| 07/04/07 11:37 pm ETBBC Scare Quotes for Climate 'Scepticism'
by Christopher Chantrill
IT’S truly amazing, when you think about it, that after all the scare stories and media advocacy that the BBC would find itself reporting the results of a public opinion poll on global warming: The public believes the effects of global warming on the climate are not as bad as politicians and scientists claim, a poll has suggested. What is more, the public is not at all sure that the motives of the climate change advocates are unfold
| 07/04/07 10:39 am ETThe Broken Society in Germany
by Christopher Chantrill
YES, YES. For decades we have been worrying about little girls in school. Feminist organizations have been gussying up studies showing how girls are hopelessly shortchanged by just about everything. Now the real results are coming in, according to The Economist. In eastern Germany, that would presumably be Brandenburg and Pomerania, the girls have left to go west, and they have left unfold
| 07/03/07 4:50 pm ETA Father Speaks
by Christopher Chantrill
IN THESE diverse postmodern days what should a father do? The father of teenaged girls, that is. Doug Giles has some ideas. You see, he doesn’t get with the “hip and groovy dad” bit that lacks a strong “opinion regarding their [daughters’ dating life.” No sirree. Says he: Yes, unfold
| 07/02/07 4:22 pm ETSteyn on Immigration and the "Pork-filled Rooms"
by Christopher Chantrill
HOW DOES he do it? We are talking about Mark Steyn, of course. His post-immigration-bill article fairly gushes with Steynisms, as in:
| 07/02/07 11:53 am ET
Faith & Purpose
“When we began first to preach these things, the people appeared as awakened from the sleep of ages—they seemed to see for the first time that they were responsible beings, and that a refusal to use the means appointed was a damning sin.”
Finke, Stark, The Churching of America, 1776-1990
Mutual Aid
In 1911... at least nine million of the 12 million covered by national insurance were already members of voluntary sick pay schemes. A similar proportion were also eligible for medical care.
Green, Reinventing Civil Society
Education
“We have met with families in which for weeks together, not an article of sustenance but potatoes had been used; yet for every child the hard-earned sum was provided to send them to school.”
E. G. West, Education and the State
Living Under Law
Law being too tenuous to rely upon in [Ulster and the Scottish borderlands], people developed patterns of settling differences by personal fighting and family feuds.
Thomas Sowell, Conquests and Cultures
German Philosophy
The primary thing to keep in mind about German and Russian thought since
1800 is that it takes for granted that the Cartesian, Lockean or Humean scientific and
philosophical conception of man and nature... has been shown by indisputable evidence to be
inadequate.
F.S.C. Northrop, The Meeting of East and West
Knowledge
Inquiry does not start unless there is a problem... It is the problem and its
characteristics revealed by analysis which guides one first to the relevant facts and then,
once the relevant facts are known, to the relevant hypotheses.
F.S.C. Northrop, The Logic of the Sciences and the Humanities
Chappies
“But I saw a man yesterday who knows a fellow who had it from a chappie
that said that Urquhart had been dipping himself a bit recklessly off the deep end.”
—Freddy Arbuthnot
Dorothy L. Sayers, Strong Poison
Democratic Capitalism
I mean three systems in one: a predominantly market economy; a polity respectful of the rights of the individual to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; and a system of cultural institutions moved by ideals of liberty and justice for all.
In short, three dynamic and converging systems functioning as one: a democratic polity, an economy based on markets and incentives, and a moral-cultural system which is plural and, in the largest sense, liberal.
Michael Novak, The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism
Action
The incentive that impels a man to act is always some uneasiness...
But to make a man act [he must have]
the expectation that purposeful behavior has the power to remove
or at least to alleviate the felt uneasiness.
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action
Churches
[In the] higher Christian churches... they saunter through the liturgy like Mohawks along a string of scaffolding who have long since forgotten their danger. If God were to blast such a service to bits, the congregation would be, I believe, genuinely shocked. But in the low churches you expect it every minute.
Annie Dillard, Holy the Firm
Conversion
“When we received Christ,” Phil added, “all of a sudden we now had a rule book to go by, and when we had problems the preacher was right there to give us the answers.”
James M. Ault, Jr., Spirit and Flesh
Living Law
The recognition and integration of extralegal property rights [in the Homestead Act] was a key element in the United States becoming the most important market economy and producer of capital in the world.
Hernando de Soto, The Mystery of Capital
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