Sobran Columns -- Archive, 2006

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December 28, 2006	•	Old Movies, Eternal Morals The movies teach us to expect too much from romantic love and to think violence can make the world just.
December 25, 2006	•	Master of Ennui If you want to make the audience wince, don’t show them a man being shot dead.
December 21, 2006	•	Last Laugh Thank you, dear Lord, for giving me this friend for so many years.
December 18, 2006	•	Logic, Anyone? If you say something, you should be prepared to stand by it.
December 14, 2006	•	The Magician Hillary Clinton has kept her old implacable enemies, while Barack Obama has quietly stolen many of her old friends.
December 11, 2006	•	Yes, It’s a Cheney — Or Something Let’s talk about the forgotten man in all this: the father, or as he would now be called, the “biological” father.
December 7, 2006	•	How Lincoln Gave Us Kwanzaa Rap has given the ancient maxim new relevance: ars longa, vita brevis.
December 4, 2006	•	In Praise of Bush America may not be the greatest country on Earth, but it’s got to be one of the funniest.
November 30, 2006	•	The Jim Webb I Met In Washington, everyone covets the reputation of being a maverick, precisely because the genuine article is so rare.
November 28, 2006 A reprint from Universal Press Syndicate	•	The Case for Conspiracy Government officials don’t have to worry about costs.
November 23, 2006	•	The Atheist’s Pulpit From an atheistic point of view this is often a disappointing universe, but if a bit of superstition makes it marginally more bearable at times, why complain?
November 20, 2006	•	Book and Movie Never, surely, has a man gone to such bizarre lengths to dispose of an unwanted wife.
November 17, 2006	•	Apocalypse Soon Flag burning. And going nucular.
November 13, 2006	•	Science, Religion, and Hate If you want to understand how liberals see the world, here is where to start.
November 9, 2006	•	The Republican Future What can the Republicans do in 2008? I have an idea ...
November 6, 2006	•	Election Projections If your vote were to change anything, the Supreme Court would have to overrule it.
November 2, 2006	•	Normal Brains Mad scientists and their blundering assistants — in the movies and in foreign policy
October 31, 2006 A reprint from Universal Press Syndicate	•	Your Money and Your Life A government with limitless power to spend and tax is going to have a “service” that may treat you as a one-man black market.
October 26, 2006	•	A Republican Recovery? Bush is beyond recovery, but the Republicans, if they abandon him, will not be.
October 24, 2006	•	The Executive Empire Politics breeds evasion, abstraction, and euphemism.
October 19, 2006	•	Getting Up There Aging — it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.
October 17, 2006	•	Responses, Hot and Cool From “I love you” to daring damnation
October 12, 2006	•	Bush’s Learning Problem Kim and Bush: The questions are more or less the same.
October 10, 2006	•	News from All Over the Place You gotcher Democrats, yer Yankees, and the Bad Quarto. And then there’s other stuff.
October 5, 2006	•	Violent Religions Is it tolerance or merely the spiritual sloth of people who no longer take religion seriously?
October 3, 2006	•	Hamlet’s Lame Creator Throwing invaluable light on the origins and history of the world’s most famous play
September 28, 2006 A reprint from Universal Press Syndicate	•	Spelling It Out A culture that doesn’t believe in itself
September 26, 2006	•	Thou Shalt Not Reelect How nonvoters can revolutionize American politics
September 21, 2006	•	The Islamic Enigma Religion and wishful thinking
September 19, 2006	•	Bad Muslims Getting the wrong impression about Islam?
September 14, 2006	•	Everybody Knows Government propaganda has replaced popular folklore as a source of what “everybody knows.”
September 12, 2006	•	Wild Justice Hamlet — A symphony of cross purposes
September 7, 2006 A reprint from Universal Press Syndicate	•	Neglected Genius There’s art that isn’t appreciated in its own day, and there’s art that’s appreciated far too much.
September 5, 2006 A reprint from Universal Press Syndicate	•	Victim of McCarthyism My new sympathy for the underdog, the minority, the dissenter, the Other
August 31, 2006	•	Glorious War! War would seem to be at the opposite pole from conserving anything.
August 29, 2006	•	Islam and the Vacuum Filling the gap left by secularized Westerners who find it hard to believe that religion can be a decisive force in politics
August 24, 2006 A reprint from Universal Press Syndicate	•	Two Ways of Lying The fancy way of systematic pretense
August 22, 2006 A reprint from Universal Press Syndicate	•	Finding the Flaws Governments are made to be bribed.
August 17, 2006	•	Heavenly Turmoil Plutophiles, Plutophobes, and media bias
August 15, 2006	•	Nation-Building and Islam A formula for mutual incomprehension and endless conflict
August 10, 2006	•	Language in Rubble Killing needs euphemism.
August 8, 2006 A reprint from Universal Press Syndicate	•	Relearning the Obvious Peace more horrible than war
August 3, 2006	•	Gibson’s Offense An unapologetic worshipper of Jesus Christ defies the secularist taboo on Christian expression in the marketplace.
August 1, 2006 A reprint from Universal Press Syndicate	•	Keeping Marriage Straight Marriage as an institution is prior to the rights attached to it.
July 27, 2006	•	The Bush Revolution Old sayings that don’t make any sense.
July 25, 2006 A reprint from Universal Press Syndicate	•	Fantasy and Imagination Grasping the remote implications of ideas
July 20, 2006 A reprint from Universal Press Syndicate	•	It Can’t Transpire Here Not all change is progress; some is decay.
July 18, 2006	•	Murderous Martyrs A world that seems like a baffling alternative universe
July 13, 2006	•	“Everyone Has His Reasons” In the Middle East everyone seems to have his reasons to hate everyone else and both agree only on the necessity of war.
July 11, 2006	•	The Lawless State Conservatives and liberals are both favoring dictatorship.
July 6, 2006 A reprint from Universal Press Syndicate	•	Sir John and Miss Redgrave The lobby that silences great artists
July 4, 2006	•	St. Paul and the Liberal Agenda The hijackers of religion know an enemy when they see one.
June 29, 2006 A reprint from Universal Press Syndicate	•	My Ilk and I The implications of the ad hominem argument
June 27, 2006	•	The Behemoth of Bust The one, the only ... and the greatest career in baseball
June 22, 2006	•	The Hamlet That Never Was It is unnecessary to postulate an earlier play.
June 20, 2006	•	What Would Gore Have Done? It has taken this “conservative” president to give liberals second thoughts about their long adulation of executive power.
June 15, 2006	•	Tolerance Strikes Again Tolerance to make the blood run cold
June 13, 2006	•	Our Dreams Came True The seductive dream democracy always inspires
June 8, 2006	•	The Cheap Pathos of Civil Rights A perfectly good word loses its meaning.
June 6, 2006	•	The Bush Touch Tragedy in a nutshell
June 1, 2006 A reprint from Universal Press Syndicate	•	Shakespeare and Ms. Grundy Individuals and representatives
May 30, 2006	•	The Real Bill Buckley Everyone has a story.
May 25, 2006	•	A Vibrant Democracy Both parties now feel it’s vital to deceive the voters with conservative slogans.
May 23, 2006	•	The Commandments of Men The Land of the Licensed
May 18, 2006	•	Apologies to the Swedes There’s at least one who is warm, and sweet, and funny, and ...
May 16, 2006	•	The Case for Popular Poetry Aren’t we all poetry lovers by nature?
May 11, 2006	•	President Disastro Just the way Thomas Jefferson would have wanted it
May 9, 2006	•	Bush’s Place in History Seldom has one man gotten on so many people’s nerves for so many different reasons.
May 4, 2006	•	Blaming Bush No matter how much harm it does, men continue to believe in its promises.
May 2, 2006	•	Why Do We Need Government? Two vocabularies for wrongs
April 27, 2006	•	Apocalypse Now? The scandal that explains everything else
April 25, 2006	•	Bush’s Misgovernment Just one of many
April 20, 2006	•	Free Speech in the Nominal Democracy Voluntary compliance with the limits
April 18, 2006	•	War and Faith A joke for the gods
April 13, 2006	•	Shakespearean Masterpiece A woman with undaunted mettle
April 11, 2006	•	As November Approaches Bush asked to be judged by his conduct of the War on Terror, and he is getting his wish.
April 6, 2006	•	The Philosopher and the Fossils The scientific method and the abuse of language
April 4, 2006	•	Jesus' Government Not exactly a hearty vote of confidence
March 30, 2006	•	Jack’s Story Something that wasn’t inevitable happened.
March 28, 2006	•	Bush’s Intelligence Religions of peace
March 23, 2006	•	Buckley and His Heirs The founder derided
March 21, 2006	•	Bush’s Latest Idea Do we really owe our freedom to wars?
March 16, 2006	•	A Quagmire of Ideas Nobody foresaw that the Iraq war would lead to Bush’s claim of intellectual leadership.
March 14, 2006	•	Battle Cries We don’t owe our freedom to elections but to effective checks on power.
March 9, 2006	•	“Too Goyish” Jews can’t possibly be as bad as their defenders make them sound.
March 7, 2006	•	We the Sheep Civics for suckers
March 2, 2006	•	The Bimbo’s Day in Court A very focused blonde
February 28, 2006	•	A Sinking Ship Yanking the rug out from under National Review
February 23, 2006	•	The Irving Danger No one has the last word on any war.
February 21, 2006	•	Irving Loses Again A blasphemy trial
February 16, 2006	•	Playing for Laughs Potentially, one of television’s enduring comedy series
February 14, 2006	•	Cheney and Chappaquiddick The Leno-Letterman pillory
February 9, 2006	•	Fake Pollocks? Fortunately for Pollock, he never painted anything that looked like anything.
February 7, 2006	•	Liberal in Chief Not all cultures are ready for multiculturalism.
February 2, 2006	•	Penumbras, Emanations, and Stuff Making the Constitution superfluous
January 31, 2006	•	Candor, Anyone? A concatenation of empty applause lines that no speaker could possibly intend sincerely and no listener could possibly take seriously
January 26, 2006	•	Only Mozart Contributing to the cause of world peace
January 24, 2006	•	The Reluctant Emancipator Republicans, big government, and war
January 19, 2006	•	Lincoln’s Party What did Lincoln say about the need for freedom of speech or a free press?
January 17, 2006	•	How to Handle a Woman Learning from a pro — Richard III
January 12, 2006	•	The Heyday of Kennedyism Freestyle accusations and bogus predicates
January 10, 2006	•	The Case against Football But it gives the clergy something to talk to the laity about.
January 5, 2006	•	Bush’s Alpha Male The daunting effect a ruthless man can have on weak men
January 3, 2006	•	The Bard in Retirement It’s like contending that Bach finally gave up writing fugues for hip-hop.

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