Westboro Baptist Church Finally Gets Its Comeuppance

Westboro Baptist Church, known for its motto "God Hates Fags," its statements that Katrina, 9-11, and other disasters are God's punishments for American tolerance of homosexuality, and its protests at military funerals, was found liable for invasion of privacy and intent to inflict emotional distress in an $11 million suit.

Annual Alcohol Policy Notification

We all received this in our inboxes. Let's discuss it.

Bureaucracy a UVa

How can all this needless bureaucracy be eliminated at UVa?

The Shenanigans of the Purple Shadows

Why is the Society of the Purple Shadows still respected?

Intellectual Property

Are the laws on intellectual property acting as protectors of property, like all other laws, or are they functioning as a sort of corporate welfare?

FEMA's Fake Press Conference

FEMA has been accused of staging a phony press conference on Thursday about their efforts in Southern California. Apparently they used agency staffers as fake reporters, then later called their actions an "error in judgment."

Funding Priorities

Bush asks for more war funds - $187 billion. Apparently this is enough to save New Orleans, all the babies, and all the kids in the US....... AND fund Hillarycare with what's left over.

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN2246733720071022

The case for open immigration

Let the borders be opened.

McCain and Brownback

John McCain broke, relies on his 95 year old mother to help him out of his self-made mess.

Also, Brownback drops out.

Misplaced Nukes

I got this story off CNN. Apparently about a month and a half ago, the US Air Force flew some cruise missiles from a site in North Dakota to Louisiana; however, they forgot to remove the nuclear warheads from the cruise missiles beforehand. Needless to say, this was a major screw up. After a six week investigation, several people have lost their jobs and others have been demoted. But how did this happen in the first place? What does it say about the efficacy of Homeland Security if we can't even keep track of our own nukes? How should the government react to such a slip-up, and how should we properly oversee dangerous weapons in the military?

Crisis brewing in Turkey

Turkey has been concerned about militant Kurdish separatists operating on their border with Iraq. The United States would prefer that Turkey not invade Iraq, but has very few levers to use against Turkey. A recent resolution passed by a House committe would condemn the World War 1 Turkish killings of Armenians as genocide - and as evidence of how seriously Turkey takes this, their constitution forbids anyone from referring to any sort of "genocide" in World War 1. How should the US congress react?

Mugabe denies responsibility

Mugabe says that his people are starving to death due to Western sabotage, while still having accepted foreign aid from the West.

Justice for the Jena Six! and the Cavalier spirit.

ok Seth here are some posts:
1. There was a piece in the Cavalier Daily a week ago on the 180-degree turn in morality that follows a 180-degree in politics (aristocracy to democracy -- morality as political prejudice or side-effect):
http://www.cavalierdaily.com/CVArticle.asp?ID=31059&pid=1626

Who is this guy? Whoever he is, he's incredibly smart and deep -- probably extremely good-looking too.

2. Current events: a racially-inflammatory piece demanding justice for the Jena Six.
http://www.cavalierdaily.com/CVArticle.asp?ID=31108&pid=1628
(The original title was "Justice for the Jena Six," but irony and light humor usually don't survive the rigorous CD editing process.)

No Meeting Today

Due to Fall Break, the Classical Liberal Roundtable will not convene today. Continue to post to the blog, however, because we will address two weeks worth of posts at the next meeting on Sunday, October 14.

The collapse of the conservative coalition?

Two articles, one in the Wall Street Journal and another in the New York Times discuss the evolution of the GOP from different perspectives. David Brooks of the NYT examines the issue philosophically, while the WSJ examines the numbers behind the issue

From the NYT:

Over the past few decades, the Republican Party has championed a series of reforms designed to devolve power to the individual, through tax cuts, private pensions and medical accounts. The temperamental conservative does not see a nation composed of individuals who should be given maximum liberty to make choices. Instead, the individual is a part of a social organism and thrives only within the attachments to family, community and nation that precede choice.

Therefore, the temperamental conservative values social cohesion alongside
individual freedom and worries that too much individualism, too much
segmentation, too much tension between races and groups will tear the underlying
unity on which all else depends. Without unity, the police are regarded as alien
powers, the country will fracture under the strain of war and the economy will
be undermined by lack of social trust.To put it bluntly, over the past several years, the G.O.P. has made ideological choices that offend conservatism’s Burkean roots. This may seem like an airy-fairy thing that does nothing more than provoke a few dissenting columns from William F. Buckley, George F. Will and Andrew Sullivan. But suburban, Midwestern and many business voters are dispositional conservatives more than creedal conservatives. They care about order, prudence and balanced budgets more than transformational
leadership and perpetual tax cuts. It is among these groups that G.O.P. support
is collapsing.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/05/opinion/05brooks.html?ex=1349323200&en=18d87f2dabf769af&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

From the WSJ:

Some of the most compelling evidence suggesting a redefinition of the
Republican Party comes from prominent Republican pollster Tony Fabrizio. Earlier
this year, he surveyed 2,000 Republican voters, updating his similarly
exhaustive poll of 10 years ago. In 1997, about half of Republicans said they
were motivated mainly by economic issues, and about half by social and moral
issues. This year, the culturally conservative wing was roughly the same size,
but economic conservatives accounted for just one in six Republicans. In the
wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the ranks of Republicans whose main concern
is defense have grown after subsiding with the end of the Cold War.

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB119127620102645595.html

Imaginary War Drums

Letter to the Editor on Iran in CavDaily

Liberals Take Aim at Conservative Media

Rush Limbaugh phony soldiers incident
Bill O'Reilly racist comments? Juan Williams=happy negro