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To be conservative is to withdraw from the fog of current events and look to more permanent things.

Withdraw from the fog of current events? Are you suggesting that conservatives ignore what's going on around them? Or does "fog" suggest something else? Please explain....

"First reports are always wrong," as Rumsfeld (undoubtedly not originally) put it. It is no accident that it was the SecDef saying that, because the lack of adequate timely intelligence is excruciating to the commander in the field; in battle his people die because of what he doesn't know. The problem is known as "the fog of war."
During an emergency anyone in a responsible position has no choice but to operate in that sort of fog, because he never has a perfect understanding of the exact consequences of his actions - and because failing to make a decision is a decision, and typically a bad one.
That is a description of an emergency. But suppose that there isn't an emergency, and people act as if there were one. What you will then see is people making decisions which do not have to be made, on the basis of inadequate information. That is the other side of the coin from the commander who cannot make a decision when the emergency occurs, and it obviously results in poor - sometimes almost crazy - decisions. People shooting family members because they thought a burglar was in the house . . . that sort of thing.
Obviously the conservative thing to do is to plan for contingencies in advance and to prevent emergencies from arising in the first place. And, having done so, to trust those plans and stick to them when the contingencies arise, even in the excitement of the moment. That is why we build hospitals, put emergency rooms in them, and staff them with doctors and nurses who know what they are going to do when a patient presents with dire symtoms.
The unconservative thing to do is to claim at all times that there is an emergency under way, and that normal procedures are inadequate for them. It is the business of journalism to entertain its audience, and it does so exactly by suggesting or saying that today is not a "business as usual" day. Which is IMHO a fair explanation of why people with a conservative temperament don't decide to become journalists.
And, in the context of this thread, that explains why a judge who didn't read the newspaper might be superior to one who did. We have a fundamental right to know what the law is. That right can only be vindicated by judges who go by the book rather than the newspaper.
Order in the Court: Chief Justice Thomas Presiding (Ingraham)
Laura's E-Blast ^ | February 8, 2005 | Laura Ingraham