A Time of Clarity

March 8, 1983
Address to the National Association of Evangelicals in Orlando, Florida



A particularly salient quote:

It was C.S. Lewis who, in his unforgettable "Screwtape Letters," wrote: "The greatest evil is not done now in those sordid 'dens of crime' that Dickens loved to paint. It is not even done in concentration camps and labor camps. In those we see its final result. But it is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried and minuted) in clear, carpeted, warmed, and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voice."

Well, because these "quiet men" do not "raise their voices," because they sometimes speak in soothing tones of brotherhood and peace, because, like other dictators before them, they're always making "their final territorial demand," some would have us accept them at their word and accommodate ourselves to their aggressive impulses. But if history teaches anything, it teaches that simple-minded appeasement or wishful thinking about our adversaries is folly. It means the betrayal of our past, the squandering of our freedom.

Perhaps due to the fact I'm working through Advise and Consent that this passage stands out, but I couldn't help but call it to your attention.

Video from the Reagan Foundation's Youtube channel.

Text from The University of Virginia's Miller Center for Public Affairs.

An Exaltation of Jay

From Jay Nordlinger's latest Impromptu:

I grinned at this letter, and maybe even some liberals will, too?

Mr. Nordlinger,

A friend and I have been discussing “collectives” — collective nouns — such as a “murder of crows,” a “pod of whales,” and a “bevy of swans.” We have been trying to come up with a collective for liberals. We considered a “cacophony of liberals,” an “arrogance of liberals,” and a “piety of liberals.” Then we thought to keep things simple: What about a “collective of liberals”? What do you think?

I like it, much! By the way, here are a few of my favorite collective nouns: a “passel of hogs”; a “mob of kangaroos”; an “exaltation of larks” (many people’s favorite); a “parliament of owls”; a “conspiracy of ravens”; and a “party of jays.”

After the Tyrant

Michael Totten has an excellent essay on the modern Romania, twenty years after the fall of Ceausescu.

It's a fascinating read.

A sample:

A few blocks from the old city is Romania's parliament—the second largest building in the world after the Pentagon.

When it was still under construction before he died, Ceausescu called it the "Palace of the People," though ordinary people would never have been allowed to set foot in it. The apartments lining the main boulevard in front belonged to high-level officers of the repressive Securitate. Even today that boulevard looks like an intimidating Champs-Elysees of a totalitarian state, and it's so monstrous in scale that it can only really be photographed from the air...

..."What do you think of this building?" Olivia asked me. She seemed to think I loved it since I took so many pictures. It was certainly more pleasant to look at on the inside than on the outside.

"It's impressive in some ways," I said, "but it's also—well, it's big."

"We hate it," she said. "So much of the city was destroyed to make room for it. And it constantly reminds us of him."

Highway 20 Ride

Zac Brown Band