Long List
There are times when there is far too much high quality discussion in the blogosphere to be taken in within a reasonable day, or week.
In late December, Lawrence Auster, of View from the Right, challenged the assertions of David Gelernter in the January issue of Commentary. The piece, entitled Americanism - and Its Enemies, was for Auster, if I read him correctly, far from mainstream as he saw the Gelernter column as a defining a new American religion. As he put it – “Gelernter redefines Americanism as no longer merely a civic religion, but (I kid you not) as a "Judeo-Christian religion" (you heard right: he defines Americanism as a "Judeo-Christian religion"), the central belief of which is that every person in the world is "entitled" to "democracy, freedom and equality," because "freedom comes from God."” Unfortunately at the time, the original article wasn’t available online, so I just earmarked the piece as something to return to at a later date.
Next comes Joe Carter, of the Evangelical Outpost, and his first blog symposium to discuss the article. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Bernstein opens the doors and the column is now available online. The window of opportunity to respond to the symposium closed on Tuesday night, and since I’d been remiss and failed to visit Joe’s site until late that afternoon, I had no entry. The good news is that I’ve now read the original column, and several of the responses to the symposium, in particular those from folks listed on the sidebar or members of the Homespun Bloggers. I highly recommend that you read them, and join in on the discussion as time permits. As for my response, it’s forthcoming, even though it will not be an official part of the symposium.
There are several other items that are must reads, and that I’ve not been able to comment on thus far this week, so I hereby share the links:
Tom, the Redhunter, has begun an excellent series on Just War Theory. Thus far he has the Intro, and Parts I, and II.
From John J. Tkacik Jr., writing for the National Review, a column entitled The Invasion of Taiwan. Toss in Mark Noonan's post at Blogs for Bush and you'll have a fair view of the concern many share over China's ambition for Taiwan, and their doubt of our willingness to intervene.
A Sandy Berger update from the NY Post or Washington Times.
Norman Podhoretz follows up his WWIV column from last September with The War Against World War IV.
An excellent Winds of War post at Winds of Change. There are many different directions that we could take from here.
Frank Gaffney on the upcoming budget proposal from the White House. If the President takes the course Gaffney is describing, we should be troubled and should make it clear to Congress that it is a mistake. One we cannot afford.
There are many more that I'm sure I'm missing. Until next time...
