In a recession, the problem most people and organizations face is too little money. But clearly, that's not the case with the ACLU, which apparently has ample time and money to sue to prevent a charter school from unconstitutionally promoting Islam. In a way, this is very good to hear, because it makes it easy to direct my giving to organizations with more urgent needs. On the other hand, what the hell is wrong with the leadership at the ACLU? In theory, for all I know, it unconstitutionally promotes religion. In practice, what important freedoms are being violated? The establishment clause was supposed to prevent a minority from being oppressed by a majority, not to prevent a minority from oppressing itself. I admire a huge amount of the work that the ACLU does on issues like habeas corpus and wiretapping. Why, then, do they so often seem intent on turning the organization into the highbrow edition of Stuff White People Like?
Justice Hugo Black:
No tax in any amount, large or small, can be levied to support any religious activities or institutions, whatever they may be called, or whatever form they may adopt to teach or practice religion.
She can't read the wikipedia entry to double check?
Of course not.
And she admired the ACLU's work on wiretapping and habeas corpus so much she voted for Bush a second time.
This is our "elite."
We're doomed.
I have to disagree with you here. Megan may imagine herself to be among our elite, but she is anything but. She is dull, vapid, self-absorbed, inexperienced, provincial and so sure of her own brilliance that she never feels she has anything to learn. People like her aren't elite, no matter what circles they run in. They are tiresome, naval-gazing bores that history will forget.
ReplyDeleteOh no, I agree with you 100%. I'll add quotation marks.
ReplyDeleteWow, just wow. I was a bit concerned by your fascination with McArdle, but posts like these (which one commenter aptly described as "wanting the ACLU to only do Stuff Megan Likes") make it abundantly reasonable. These kinds of wonderings would be embarrassing in a high-school diary, never mind the public output of a former *shudder* journalist for the Economist.
ReplyDeleteKeep on keepin' on.
Heh. McArdle's my case study. Reading her work over a long period of time enables me to see patterns and contradictions, and gradually reveals enough of McArdle's thought processes to begin to understand how she makes decisions. She, especially, is an interesting study because she thinks like an authoritarian leader but is still as vulnerable to the elite as an authoritarian follower. It's utterly fascinating.
ReplyDeleteMaybe this is an American thing, where our belief in our exceptionalism makes it easy for us to imagine that we'll be as rich and powerful as our heroes one day. It's apparently a fundamental tenet of libertarianism--if everyone else would just get out of the way, they'd be rich-rich-rich!
She writes in the comments later "they also piss me off as a complete waste of money and energy" in reference to the ACLU. So much for the wiretapping and habeas corpus business.
ReplyDeleteYou know what I think is a complete waste of money and energy? Megan's entire flipping blog.
In a recession, the problem most people and organizations face is too little money. But clearly, that's not the case with the ACLU, which apparently has ample time and money to sue to prevent a charter school from unconstitutionally promoting Islam.
ReplyDeleteI hear the schools in my district are still, even in a recession, holding summer school. Outrageous!
I also love how, by using the adverb "unconstitutionally", she's basically admitting that the ACLU actually does have cause.
Sure, but an authoritarian leader doesn't care about fairness or honesty, he just wants all the power in every relationship. McArdle opposes the ACLU in this case because she supports charter schools because she wants to eradicate government schools.
ReplyDeleteHer parents paid $38,000/yr for her schooling and her dislike and distrust teachers, teachers' unions ands public schools is very deep. She claims public schools don't work and of course she doesn't want to pay the taxes, although for some unknown reason she fixates on federal school taxes and utterly ignores state property taxes.
McArdle admits that she didn't do especially well in school and her success had its basis in the prestige of her prep school. Yet she's spoken often of her superior skills and education. It's a contradiction, and that's always revealing. Authoritarian leaders are still authoritarians, and depend on others to give them the acceptance their parents did not.
The followers don't care about contradictions because their criteria for success is obedience.
"Now"
ReplyDelete