NRO's The Corner: Obamacare ‘like a house on fire’ with more flammable parts yet to come

can I have a side of honey mustard

Once, when Ronald Reagan was running around trying to be president, Mike Deaver went to him and said, “Governor, I think it’s time we had a new speech. We’ve been giving your current speech over and over.” Reagan said, “I like the speech, Mike. You get me new audiences.”

I’m going to tell a story I’ve told over and over — but perhaps there are new readers who haven’t heard or read it yet.

Years ago — it was 2003 — I was at an Upper East Side dinner party. The nice thing about going to these things is that, no matter how painful they are, you have journalistic fodder for a long time to come.

The Supreme Court had just ruled on a Texas sodomy law. Everyone was celebrating the decision. The Court had overturned the law. My hostess asked me what I thought (basically).

I said, “I admire the dissent of Clarence Thomas. He said that the law was dumb, and that, if he were a Texas legislator, he would vote to overturn it. At the same time, he could find nothing in the Constitution that forbade Texas to make the law.”

My hostess did not look at me with disagreement or contempt. She looked at me with confusion and disbelief. Who could hold a view such as mine or Thomas’s?

If you wear the black robe and wield the gavel, you have the powah, baby. And you use your power to do good, as you conceive good. Who would pass up such a chance?

I believe that, for the majority of judges in last week’s gay-marriage ruling, the question was not “Does the Constitution allow states to define marriage?” but “Do you favor gay marriage? Yes or no?” Judging is not for everybody. Judging requires a certain neutrality, which can be annoying. It requires fidelity to constitution and law. A judge has a constituency of one: the constitution and law. Most people, I think, would rather be lawmakers than judges. I myself would rather be a lawmaker. But if I were a judge, I think I’d do my job.

Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/420436/gay-marriage-and-the-nature-of-judging

sit down, Uncle Jay has a story he's told a thousand times.

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/420765/speed-of-social-change-in-america

there's some interesting stories in the comments from readers about their interactions with real life lesbians

Listen, I have no brief for the Confederate flag, to put it mildly. But I may have less of a brief for the herd mentality, and the kind of social panic that is characteristic of this country.

By the way, there are a helluva lot of Che Guevara T-shirts in the streets. When are they going away? When will they be stigmatized? When will that face be replaced by, say, the face of Armando Valladares, Oscar Biscet, or some other Cuban human-rights hero?

If you live long enough, you realize that today’s right-wing alarmism is tomorrow’s ruthlessly enforced norm. Some years ago, when people were touting civil unions, right-wingers would raise the prospect of marriage — gay marriage — and the civil unionists would say, “You alarmists and scaremongers! No one’s talking about marriage, for heaven’s sake! You would really deny a person the right to visit his loved one in the hospital? Or to leave him his estate? What kind of monster are you?”

oldcodyjr • 10 hours ago

Saw "Field of Dreams" the other day. Remember James Earl Jones great speech? Something about America can change on a dime, but the one constant is baseball. 'Oh, the people will come, Ray."

I wanted to cry.

Because we've ruined, too.

there's some interesting stories in the comments from readers about their interactions with real life lesbians

yeah the one about harassing "queers" at the office really puts the lie to this "how dare you call us bigots because we oppose gay marriage" argument as if anybody bought it in the first place. corner comments on any gay-related post are a sewer but this one takes the wedding cake. surely nordlinger and the nro editors would protest that they can't control the comments but at this point the ssm posts are pure hater bait. and hate-reader bait.

Order66 • 13 hours ago

All of the change you mention requires cooperation, if not complicity, on the part of otherwise normal people. It is until it isn't. Then, snapback.

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dagny Order66 • 13 hours ago

Remember in the 70s when they wanted to make us switch to the metric system? Like that.
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Order66 dagny • 13 hours ago

They're still trying to sell soccer, too. Part of it is that I just like to resist for the sake of resisting. A good chunk of my contempt for soccer and the metric system is due to the fans and champions of soccer and the metric system. Sorta like it works for me RE: Rand Paul.
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Kan2 Order66 • 12 hours ago

I keep think the attempts to make us a soccer country are one and the same as the progressive cause. All the kids are forced to play the dam game, and nobody gets to be crowned the winner.
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Order 66 is among my favorite commenters. I imagine him wearing a Palpatine shroud around the office, proudly.

the famously anti-nationalistic sport of soccer

dagny is my favorite commenter, hands down. literally "more catholic than the pope" peggy noonan with a sociopathic mean streak

she's so patronizing and nasty it's actually hilarious.

A judge has a constituency of one: the constitution and law.

Isn't that two?

Our chief weapon is surprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise.... our two weapons are fear and surprise...and ruthless efficiency.... Our three weapons are fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency...and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope.... Our four...no... amongst our weapons.... amongst our weaponry...are such elements as fear, surprise.... I'll come in again.

Speaking of Peggy Noonan, I once came across a really dark, depressed column in which she said people should give up on the pursuit of happiness, it was a fuckin hideous ruse, there is no such thing as happiness. Haven't seen a recent picture, but she was pretty damn cute for a long time, maybe a magnet for conservative attentions which disillusioned her or confirmed this underlying sense of things, maybe she was tampered-with by early Catholic girl school indoctrination, who knows? I felt bad for her, wondering if more of this sort of public venting might help her move past, but didn't see any more. She probably doesn't believe in psychiatry, or if so, what kind (shudder). Occasionally seen this kind of candor from other conservatives----"People are no damn good, " more in sorrow and resignation than anger or smirkage---good subject for a book (anthology?)

recent noonan pic: http://i.imgur.com/JQmC1cX.jpg

this place has kind of turned into the "kevin williamson rolling shitshow" hasn't it. haven't seen anyone else making waves recently.

it's early in the season

I just read (about) that piece.

what a cheap little fuckface

Jonah:

We are now in the crazy stage where people are shouting at me that I (or Charles Krauthammer, or George Will or Erick Ericson or Kevin Williamson) must be a liberal if I don’t support Trump. Never mind that the objective evidence leans overwhelmingly that support for Trump puts your conservative convictions in doubt. Are we really going to go down the insane path of saying that real conservatives must abandon good manners and respect for women to demonstrate their purity? Count me out of that nonsense. And, even if you yourself think Trump’s comments are funny or entertaining or not that big a deal or just a gaffe, at least ponder for a second about whether you think they will help Republicans win the presidential election. Everyone loves Reagan. Everyone says we need a great communicator. Well, the point of being a great communicator is to communicate. That is to say, it is to persuade people. If you think that Trump is the right guy for that project, you’re the one who just doesn’t get it.

Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner

enjoy the reapening, fuckwits

The comments sections on their Trump threads this morning are great.

this has to be jay nordlinger moonlighting under a pseudonym. or else he has a disciple.

http://www.bemidjipioneer.com/columns/3815082-marilyn-heltzer-dont-try-any-language-unless-you-are-very-fluent

Die, you psychopath

If a couple who are nationals of Egypt enter our country and have a baby while they are here, why is it sensible to presume that child’s allegiance is to the United States rather than Egypt?

just to cite a you know ahem wink/nudge *random* example #terroristbabies

Because they buy Duck Dynasty products?

Currently questioning the allegiance to the United States of someone who wants to throw away its hundreds of years of world status as an immigrant country.

hey fuckos you wanna trade the 14th for the 2nd?

Yet, every person present in the United States is not presumed to have fealty to the United States, which is what “jurisdiction” means in the Fourteenth Amendment.

fealty!

fe·al·ty
ˈfē(ə)ltē/
nounhistorical
a feudal tenant's or vassal's sworn loyalty to a lord.
"they owed fealty to the Earl rather than the King"

But yes land of the free yadda yadda.

clearly we need to have these egyptbabies swear a blood oath of fealty

1) All my life, gays have pleaded for tolerance, understanding, and respect. They have been right to do so. And they have received more and more of those things. Today, others are pleading for those things from them. (I think of florists and bakers, for example.) They seem in no mood to give them. I can understand — but it’s still wrong.

2) The other day in Salzburg, I was listening to a tableful of Americans and others decry and defame the Republican party, and praise and exalt the Democratic party. (Typical day.) One woman said, “Fiorina is dangerous. She’s smart. She’s dangerous.” Honestly, she sounded worried. I thought that was a nice compliment to Carly.

3) Our senior editor Rick Brookhiser came up with a characteristic mot: “National Review was tough on immigration when Donald Trump was still on is first wife.”

4) I once knew a writer who said that he always did something when he wanted to avoid writing: clean his apartment. “I had the cleanest apartment in Chicago,” he said. That was before Twitter — the ultimate writing-avoidance.

5) The maker, or makers, of those Planned Parenthood videos? I think they should win every award under the conservative sun. Under the human sun, actually. They’ve done a tremendous service. Harriet Beecher Stowe, with a novel, rocked the conscience of America. These videos should do something similar, if the American conscience is open to rocking.

https://youtu.be/880cjhasH00?t=39s

Kevin Williamson:

To the feminist writer Marie Shear we owe millions of bumper-stickers and T-shirts reading: “Feminism is the radical notion that women are people.” But apparently that is to be considered a thing of the past as sex-selective abortionists pull off the metaphysically impressive feat of aborting girls who aren’t people, thus simultaneously performing the Left’s holiest sacrament—abortion—and its one unforgivable sin—discrimination.

I hate the 21st century.

dishonest rhetoric is an NRO specialty of the house

affording florists the right to selectively ignore the rights of others is the civil rights battle of our time

marmaduke-strength characteristic mot also

as sex-selective abortionists pull off the metaphysically impressive feat of aborting girls who aren’t people, thus simultaneously performing the Left’s holiest sacrament—abortion—and its one unforgivable sin—discrimination.

you just know he was really proud of this one.

@NRO
ESPN Owes Curt Schilling, and America, an Apology

holy shit folks, you gotta check this out:

#NRORevolt

i guess Jonah told the neofacha types supporting trump they weren't welcome, and they are taking it pretty well

"I can't believe the nro would alienate white supremacists who think Trump should be president. very short-sighted...cuckservatives"

link?

Never mind -- found it. Ugh. Sorry I asked.

Kathryn Jean Lopez retweeted
Jay Nordlinger ‏@jaynordlinger 17h17 hours ago
@KevinNR P.S. WFB used to tease me by paraphrasing a Bob Hope line from a movie: "He'll have a lemonade -- in a DIRTY glass!"

uh

Kevin D. Williamson ‏@KevinNR 17h17 hours ago
True fact: You can go into the seediest bars in Georgetown and order a "Nordlinger" and they'll bring you a Dr Pepper float. @jaynordlinger

from Road to Utopia

xxp

the tweet that starts that exchange is great

xp lmao yeah that's it. "seediest bar in georgetown" is like "shortest globetrotter" right?

I thought a "Nordlinger" was a punch in the dik