Free Republic

Glenn Reynolds is correct in his weekend post to point to the social theory of the New Class as key to understanding the convulsions in the middle and upper middle class; I’ve written about it myself here at VC and in a 1990s law journal book review essay. The angst is partly income, of course — but it’s also in considerable part, as Glenn notes, “characterized as much by self-importance as by higher income, and is far more eager to keep the proles in their place than, say, [Anne] Applebaum’s small-town dentist. It’s thus not surprising that as its influence...

Tom Friedman, please take note. China’s lack of political wrangling is not an asset, it’s what will drag it down. Friedman’s and other liberals’ utopian dream of a benevolent dictator has never worked. It fails because unrestrained dictators, with the best of intentions, make mistakes – often grandiose mistakes. And when they are criticized and challenged, they fight to hold on to power. And then they become the Stalins, the Pol Pots and the Kim Jong Ils of the world. And China’s single party autocracy has made a grandiose mistake. It has embarked on a building spree that according to...

RUSH: Folks, I realize this is serious out there, and at some point I may have to issue a fatwa to stop this. If I sense it's really getting out of hand, of course I'll take action. I'll stand up and I'll just tell everybody here involved, "Cut this out and get serious." I don't want to bleed on any of you. It's unbecoming (sigh), but you don't know what being surrounded by negativism is. I am surrounded by it. It takes a concerted effort on my part every day to avoid it, to not be affected by it. I...