In my latest Loonie Politics column I say the task now for everyone is to find a constructive way forward, not to retreat further into sneering tribalism.
“The common theme of the essays that make up this book is that the proper design of public policies requires a clear and sober understanding of the nature of man and, in particular, of the extent to which that nature can be changed by plan.”
1st sentence of author’s Introduction to James Q. Wilson Thinking About Crime Revised Edition
“I argue for a sober view of man and his institutions that would permit reasonable things to be accomplished, foolish things abandoned, and utopian things forgotten. A sober view of man requires a modest definition of progress.”
James Q. Wilson Thinking About Crime
“The criminologist and sociologists are right, then, when they tell us that man is a ‘cooperating animal.’ But what they rarely realize is that cooperation only works if someone is willing to punish infractions. It must be done as a purely neutral phenomenon, with the punishment fitting the crime, not the criminal. Ideally, every individual should carry with him the remorseless sense that somewhere someone cares whether they break the law.”
William Tucker Vigilante: The Backlash Against Crime in America
In my latest Loonie Politics column I say one major reason the US Presidential race is closer than you might expect is that most of the unrest over race and police misconduct is in cities controlled by the Democrats, in states controlled by the Democrats, suggesting their approach to social harmony is not working.
In my latest Loonie Politics column I say those who sweep aside the rule of law through vandalism, personal violence and other forms of “direct action”, regardless of their cause and its legitimacy, have succumbed to the deadly sin of pride.
“’I don’t regret anything I’ve ever done, as long as I enjoyed it at the time,’ she [Katharine Hepburn] once said. That really is not a sound thought, and not even worldly…. If he enjoyed the rape, he should feel no regret for having done it?”
William F. Buckley Jr. in National Review August 11, 2003