Carl Scott

When I hear the harpsichord in Vivaldi or Bach, if I picture anything, it would be rococo drawing rooms—George Washington asking Jane Austen for the pleasure of a dance. When I hear it in pop, perhaps thanks to Peanuts and the great Vince Guaraldi , I picture green lawns and white . . . . Continue Reading »

Let’s start off soberly, even on a note of august regret. One of the things Thomas Jefferson and John Adams agreed upon was that the primary point of republican popular suffrage was to elect a natural aristocracy . The same hope and intention gets expressed, albeit in a more guardedly . . . . Continue Reading »

That is, when considering foreign policy on the big threats, Islamism now, communism then.  The policy of the former president, while hotly criticized in the campaign, is basically retained by his successor. So Troy Senik of Ricochet says was Bush’s own prescient view, which has become . . . . Continue Reading »

Again, here at pomocon what we really want is for you to read all 28 erudite pages of Jim’s piece. Really. It’s quite accessible, too. But for you lazy ones out there seeking a good laugh, another reason to like Will Smith, and a more, er . . . bottom-line expression of American . . . . Continue Reading »

Pro-or-con, I have found most takes on American Exceptionalism rather tiresome.  Especially over the last few years.  Our Jim shows you here, (the correct link) however, why it matters and is anything but a tiresome subject.  More discussion in the post below. Like Jim’s best . . . . Continue Reading »

The Ashbrook Center blog No Left Turns is calling it a day . All good things must come to an end, and good internet things sometimes must come to an end sooner. It is not too anthropomorphic to say that, along with the original James Poulos-authored Postmodern Conservative, No Left Turns was the . . . . Continue Reading »

The always-formidable Rich Lowry of National Review has penned a most glorious sentence, well actually, it’s a clause. Here’s the build-up to it, in his recent column arguing against the supposed inevitability of gay marriage: “ . . . Nation-wide, no referendum simply upholding . . . . Continue Reading »

So John figured out quick that the numbers below were the most typically assigned Federalist Papers: had I listed 10, 39, and 51, it would have been even more obvious. So now, the question is, which Federalist Paper, outside of the more commonly read ones, do you find the most interesting? . . . . Continue Reading »

Okay, pomocon readers, what is the significance of the following number sequence? 1 2 6 9 10 15 23 39 47 48 49 51 55 62 63 70 71 78 Hint: this has something to do with a piece much-linked-to today in the conservative blogosphere. . . . . Continue Reading »

Oh, what a tangled web did Obama weave, When first he “composited” Genevieve. Vanity Fair has published extracts from a forthcoming biography of Barack Obama featuring letters he sent one of his college girlfriends, Alex McNear, and journal entries written by Genevieve Cook, a girlfriend . . . . Continue Reading »