Sobran's Washington Watch --- Archives, 2006

Joseph Sobran’s
Washington Watch
Archives, 2006

Joe’s Washington Watch columns are posted at this site by special agreement with The Wanderer three weeks after they are published in The Wanderer.

Joe began writing his column for The Wanderer in 1986. Beginning with the April 3, 2003, column, the Washington Watch columns are archived on this website and are accessible from every page. To link to the listing for the current column from offsite, use this link: http://www.sobran.com/wanderer/index.shtml#current.

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December 28, 2006	•	No column was published in this issue.
December 21, 2006	•	Redeeming Clinton • ¡Viva Fidel! • Benign Reality • Down Memory Lane Clinton can stop worrying about his legacy now. • The litanies of his leadership • It doesn’t take a village, after all. • A splendid history of National Review.
December 14, 2006	•	After Rumsfeld • What’s in a Name? • Whatever Happened to Hell? It’s one thing for the captain to go down with his ship; but another for him to refuse to recognize that it is sinking. • A man poised on every political fence, perfectly in tune with the Zeitgeist • If there is one striking theme throughout the entire New Testament, it is that time is running out.
December 7, 2006	•	Terror at the Departure Gate • Up to Old Tricks? • The Great Victim Contest The despairing fury you feel when at the mercy of a bullying power • If the ERA is finally adopted, it isn’t hard to foresee how it will be applied. • The forces of organized touchiness never sleep.
November 30, 2006	•	Bush at Bay • The Two (?) Parties • The Indignant Atheist Neocons are showing no awareness that prudence is both a practical necessity and a duty. • A perpetually baffling question • Why don’t atheists just roll with the punches?
November 23, 2006	•	Thumped • Remembering a Protestant Friend • Paganism without Gods They saw the lightning and heard the thunder but kept confidently expecting sunshine. • A pair of kittens pretending to be lions • No sympathy for the Oxford don who sneers that a just God wouldn’t permit a Bush presidency.
November 16, 2006	•	It’s Over (Finally!) • Second Thoughts • My Favorite Atheist George Allen and George Bush make us forget the days when Dan Quayle was regarded as the dumbest Republican in Washington. • For the neocons, this is a moment in history that requires a lot of very fast talking. • Which of his books did Mark Twain like the best?
November 9, 2006	•	The Crazy Season • Islam and the Bomb • Survivors In modern politics, we always seem to be arguing about things we should never even have to think about. • Suicide bombing was a novelty in Beirut in 1983, but it quickly caught on in spite of many condemnations. • Did the Soviets toss in their hand too soon?
November 2, 2006	•	Hope Springs Eternal • Kuo’s Complaint • Will v. Aquinas It is fatally easy to forget that there always remains an intractable area of mystery and unpredictability. • Like his father, Bush has left his conservative base feeling betrayed. • Leave it to lofty George Will to take a cheap shot at both the Catholic Church and St. Thomas Aquinas in the same breath.
October 26, 2006	•	Fall Prospects • Village Atheist • Faith and Reason The Republicans have lost whatever sense of direction they had. • He evidently knows nothing about religious experience, except by hostile caricature. • Beng variously disappointed and indignant that religion hasn’t quietly withered away
September 14– October 19, 2006	•	There are no *Washington Watch* columns for these dates.
September 7, 2006	•	The Shame of the Sobrans • Conservatism without War? Leveling with the public • Everything conservatives have stood for is in danger of being forgotten.
August 31, 2006	•	News We Didn’t Need • Buchanan on Immigration • Correction • The Priest and the Professor Just when you think the news media can’t get any more revolting, they do. • Rarely has a book rocked me as Pat Buchanan’s latest one has. • The etiquette of pluralism requires us to refrain from noticing publicly the harsher teachings of great religions. • A spiteful response to an act of love
August 24, 2006	•	The Plight of Pluto • The Mystery of Islam It appears that astronomy is far from being the settled science we have supposed it to be. • The horrors of today’s headlines seem prefigured in the Koran.
August 17, 2006	•	The Bush Democrat • Condi Agonistes • The Gibson Case (Continued) • The Future of Fidel A dreadful omen for the Republicans this fall • What a curious figure she is. • More than meets the eye? • Exiles have always been Communism’s chief export.
August 10, 2006	•	Dog Days • After Fidel • Foxman’s Revenge Taking the fun out of a summer that wasn’t too much fun to begin with • Cuban Communism and American socialism • Special diabolical attention?
August 3, 2006	•	The Bush Aberration • Wasted Assets Maybe there is no justice in this world, but there is certainly hubris. • Disowning Bush
July 27, 2006	•	Remember Sarajevo! Zionism and Wilsonianism
July 20, 2006	•	No column was written for this date.
July 13, 2006	•	A Check on Executive Power • Fathers and Sons • The Vice of Legislation • The Eyes Have It For once I am happy to see the Court’s liberals prevail. • The old men had their faults, but they never made you feel the end of the world might be just around the corner. • Why should an increase of coercion and a corresponding diminution of liberty be regarded as intrinsically desirable? • My eyesight
July 6, 2006	•	You Say You Want a Revolution? • Oil Glut? • The Middle Way • A Century of Funny Money • A Plea No time for understatment! • What happens if there is an end to Middle East oil dependence? • A church headed for schism • Am I the only person who takes this personally? • My eyesight
June 29, 2006	•	Worse Than We Imagined • Origins of Jihad • Conservatism, A to Z Making a war is like causing a hurricane. Only a fool would predict happy results. • One quiet evening in Colorado ... • A feast for the mind
June 22, 2006	•	The Homeless Conservative • Triumph! • Windfalls I’ve never talked with a public figure who seemed less like a public figure than Jim Webb. • The only thing we have to fear is hope. • The alternative to chaos
June 15, 2006	•	Equality versus Discrimination • Superdebt • Cover Girl • There He Goes Again You just can’t think of everything. • It isn’t history that is coming to an end, but American prosperity. • Ann Coulter and William Blake • Trust Cohen to keep his eye on the wrong ball.
June 8, 2006	•	Morituri • Let ’Em Crumble • The Delusion of Control Quiet acts of charity • Aggressive acts versus containment • Aggravating chaos
June 1, 2006	•	Faithful to the Novel • Mugged by Reality • A New Home for Conservatives? Deliberate lies • The same old liberal optimism • Refugees from the Republican Party
May 25, 2006	•	Will Congress Change Hands? • Security Matters • Legacy of Distraction The evils of the present • Public relations setbacks • The stage-magician
May 18, 2006	•	A Letter from Tehran • The Big Idea • The Celebrity Glut The shrewness of Ahmadinejad • A passé idea • Remember when scandals were, well, scandalous?
May 11, 2006	•	The Age of Terror • The Gracious Giant • Snow’s Job Second thoughts are at least half a century overdue. • A kind and charming man • Not a job I’d want
May 4, 2006	•	Presidents and Precedents • Proof Text • Just Thought I’d Mention It The new irreverence • Same room; different universe • Admitting error
April 27, 2006	•	The Dirt on Opus Dei • Rumsfeld’s War • Narnia on the Screen Makes your blood run cold • If only Bush were a Democrat! • Deserving success
April 20, 2006	•	The Immigrant “Invasion” • Now They Tell Us • Easter Tidings The irreversible population change is a historical development that demands new ways of thinking. • By nearly every conservative standard, Bush has failed miserably. • Anything But Christianity
April 13, 2006	•	Cynthia Strikes Again • Pummeling the Profs • Darwin’s Dilemma Why are charges of racism more frequent now than ever before? • The moment to gamble all that’s left of neocons’ influence • Darwin’s account of human nature is plainly false.
April 6, 2006	•	The Bush Era • Hard Times for Neocons • What About Hell? A single man’s eccentricities • Those who get the full treatment and those who don’t • What’s the Holy Spirit been up to?
March 30, 2006	•	From Cakewalk to Quagmire • Faith in War The limits of optimism • Our liberties are not won in wars, but at home.
March 23, 2006	•	Revolt of the Sidekicks • Sports News • Dee and the Future What both parties worry about • Making records meaningless • What modern science owes to magic
March 16, 2006	•	Reflections on Turning Sixty • The Real Enemies So far, so good. • How I found my future
March 9, 2006	•	Hope at Last • Buckley Bails Out • Bugs Invade Canada! I’m inclined to say that the gradualist approach has had its chance. • Peace is not a left-wing cause. • The impasse in media bias
March 2, 2006	•	Bush: Visionary or Impostor? • Do It to Julia! Two views of Bush • How to get the Hitler monkey off your back
February 23, 2006	•	The Perp • Blasphemy and Law • Who’s to Blame for the Church? An incomprehensible brawling debate • European culture is tolerant of anti-Christian blasphemy, but nervous about anti-Muslim blasphemy. • The Church and the Simple Message
February 16, 2006	•	Bad Sports • The Cartoon War • Unprecedented Behavior • Good News for Liberals Sports and virtue • Free speech and war • Mourners usually refrain from assailing each other until the body is buried — well, except in Sicily. • Oh, good! more government expansion is needed.
February 9, 2006	•	No Retreat • Democracy Scores Again • Exceptions to the Rule The disadvantages of confirmation • Unpleasant surprises • When politicians speak the truth
February 2, 2006	•	At the Finish Line • That’s My Boy? • Culture of Death The ancient Catholic strategy of jiu-jitsu • Making Leno’s job easy • Abortion is only one of its manifestations.
January 26, 2006	•	Bigot-Baiting Bombs • The Impeachment Remedy • Lincoln and the Press When old tricks backfire • It should haunt every president. • The difference bewteen Lincoln and Jefferson
January 19, 2006	•	The Alito Interrogation • A Special Providence? Satisfying the political base • Who’s abandoning whom?
January 12, 2006	•	The Thought-Crimes of Judge Alito • Rumors of War • Tragedy under the Earth Calling for independent thinking, while pillorying anyone outside the “mainstream” • The neocons’ record • Mistaking good fortune for desert
January 5, 2006	•	Farewell to Mayberry • The Triumph of the Darwiniacs The story’s exciting; the premise is ridiculous. • “Let’s compromise my way.”