NOW ONLY WARFARE REMAINS

by Brett Stevens

There is no binary for intelligence, although there are different plateaus, which operate in a method similar to a binary when a specific task is considered. At 120 IQ points, there is a threshold which determines the ability of people to understand complex political issues, and another exists at 125 IQ points.

But to see these issues clearly also depends on having a certain spirit that is capable of leadership. That is a warlike spirit, a gut instinct of what is right, and an awareness that, without being forced to do otherwise, people inevitably drift back into the usual narcissistic oblivion that turns great civilizations into degenerative stupidity.

WHAT IS TO BE DONE?

by Andy Nowicki

In the aftermath of George W. Bush appointee Judge Vaughn Walker's utterly predictable decree to overturn Proposition 8 in California, conservative judicial scholars are preparing to take the fight to the Supreme level.

They are no doubt combing over the wording in the 138-page decision with magnifying glass in hand, underlining and circling words and phrases, selecting where they think Walker's argument is most vulnerable to legal critique.

Meantime, as this showdown looms, most of politically-engaged Red State America continues to do what it does best: fret, fulminate angrily, write dour letters to newspapers about the impending end of marriage, and solemnly hold up homemade magic marker-scrawled signs at Tea Party rallies.

As a paleocon duly opposed to state-sanctioned homosexual so-called "marriage," I find all of this Sturm und Drang tiresome, headache-inducing, and, well ... totally gay.