Neo Con Game: The Bookie of Virtue

[arisbe]

William J. Bennett has made millions lecturing people on morality--and blown it on gambling, according to The Washington Monthly Online.

Those who supported Mr. Morality for the NEH job two decades ago were still attacking the memory of Mel Bradford, the man he beat out for it, as the split between Neocons and Paleos came into the public debate over the opening campaign of the Neocons' World War Four.

Ideas do have consequences, don't they?

Comments

[daisydumont.livejournal.com]

that shocks me about bennett. it's easy to be blind to our own pet sins, isn't it? (i say that knowing i'm blind to some of my own.)

Gambling

[arisbe.livejournal.com]

Is about as close to a victimless crime as you can get, if you are rich.

There may be some inner compulsion to throw away wealth you suspect you didn't quite earn.

Re: Gambling

[supergee.livejournal.com]

I tend to forgive people for that sort of thing, but I'll make an exception in his case. That's one of the meanings of "Judge not that ye be not judged."

Re: Gambling

[bete-noire.livejournal.com]

There may be some inner compulsion to throw away wealth you suspect you didn't quite earn.

Fraudian Self-analysis on his part.
:}

You flatter me --

[arisbe.livejournal.com]

I don't have it to throw away.

Yet.

And I may find some more interesting way of doing it! Any ideas?

good precedent

[seraphimsigrist.livejournal.com]

One could say Dostoevsky was the same
sort of phoney I suppose blowing the family
money at casinos in Germany.
With paleocons and neocons does it always come down to
attacking personalities?

Re: good precedent

[arisbe.livejournal.com]

Not always.

Besides, I think this attack on Bennett comes from the Left, and Landress' defense of Bradford lays off Bennett, though he is hard on Frum, who pretty much asked for it.

In the absence of a rigorous political philosophy, one has nothing to claim but one's own virtue. This was once a specialty of the liberals, but now, alas, the conservatives have gone mainstream.

I admit to enjoy the spectacle of Alan Bloom chainsmoking his way through a diatribe on the necessity for classical selfrestraint.

Did Dostoevsky claim to be a good man? Or only to have known evil closely enough to feel the need for the Grace of God?

pretensions

[seraphimsigrist.livejournal.com]

I do not think Dostoevsky was
without pretensions, or Bennet or
Bloom or any others for whom the
paleocons feel contempt, without
humanity.

Re: pretensions

[arisbe.livejournal.com]

I have a great deal of fondness for Bloom, at least, and I like to think he would join in the laughter at his own foibles.

Over Dostoevsky one would not laugh but weep along with him.

I like to think Paleos are not so contemptuous. They just shake their heads sadly and pour another Bookers, half hoping the world will come to its senses before they do, while listening, as I am, to the goyische Kettzmer of a Romanian Gypsy brass band.

Virtues

[keith418.livejournal.com]

I think the neos are the ones usually on a personal attack.

Kletzmer, I mean

[arisbe.livejournal.com]

The band, by the way, is called Fanfare Ciocarlia, with an odd sort of accent over the first "a" in the last word.

a plan

[seraphimsigrist.livejournal.com]

well I suppose as some people say
all the time "that's a plan" and as good
a one as any or most...
I think with these things the importance
of certain finally obscure figures and their
conflicts reminds me of the parochial
nature of the world of the church hierarchy
in my limited expereince of it...
and perhaps the changable changed of
many human endeavors which become
just sometimes and just a little closed in
on themselves....

*snorts at pun*

[baranoouji.livejournal.com]

"If you can't handle it, don't do it."

The only reason he can handle it is that he can soak it up with excess money.

If he has excess money, perhaps he can tithe a little higher or find some other constructive use of his money. I have no problem with games of chances -- my fiance enjoys a hand of penny poker with our friends, and I enjoy a good cardgame myself. However, coming from a family with a history of gambling problems and other addictions...

Mr. Bennett is going against moderation here. By justifying his habits by the fact that he finds them affordable, he is setting up a new sliding scale of sins and virtues: one defined by tax brackets.

For shame!

I am linking to this now, if you don't mind.

- Regards,
E.