Dear Reader (particularly all you folks on the mainland),

I'm writing this on a plane to San Francisco (actually, I started it in my car, but that's a different story). By the time you read this, I will hopefully be over the Pacific en route to Hawaii to spend Christmas with my wife's side of the family.

Hawaii is great. But if you've ever tried to get there from the East Coast, you know it's a pretty brutal trip. Look at it on the map. It's just farther away from everything than everything else is from everything. But you probably also know that this is a very high-order First World Problem. I'm very lucky to be doing this.

Luck All the Way Down

Of course, we're all very lucky, in the broadest sense of the term. As Olivia Newton John might say if she went to grad school, let's get metaphysical. The late philosopher John Rawls had a thought experiment called "the original position." The basic idea is to imagine that you are a disembodied soul waiting outside this world in a kind of placeless, meaningless limbo — sort of like a Delaware rest stop. He then asks you to think about what kind of society you would want ...

December 22 2017

VISIT NATIONALREVIEW.COM

America and the 'Original Position' Jonah Goldberg Dear Reader (particularly all you folks on the mainland), I'm writing this on a plane to San Francisco (actually, I started it in my car, but that's a different story). By the time you read this, I will hopefully be over the Pacific en route to Hawaii to spend Christmas with my wife's side of the family. Hawaii is great. But if you've ever tried to get there from the East Coast, you know it's a pretty brutal trip. Look at it on the map. It's just farther away from everything than everything else is from everything. But you probably also know that this is a very high-order First World Problem. I'm very lucky to be doing this. Luck All the Way Down Of course, we're all very lucky, in the broadest sense of the term. As Olivia Newton John might say if she went to grad school, let's get metaphysical. The late philosopher John Rawls had a thought experiment called "the original position." The basic idea is to imagine that you are a disembodied soul waiting outside this world in a kind of placeless, meaningless limbo — sort of like a Delaware rest stop. He then asks you to think about what kind of society you would want ... READ MORE Bright Is a Christmas Blockbuster — on Netflix Kyle Smith 'I'm gonna finish my coffee and go kill the fairy," Will Smith says at the outset of the new movie Bright, and you know you're in for something a little different when the jaded LAPD officer he... At Year's End, Conservatives Are Winning the GOP Civil War David French At Year's End, Conservatives Are Winning the GOP Civil War ADVERTISEMENT Apparently, Snapchat Filters Are 'Problematic' Katherine Timpf According to a column on PopSugar, the fact that some Snapchat filters can make you look more attractive is "problematic." In the piece, entitled "Why Snapchat Filters Are More Problematic... Democrats Are Fooling Themselves about Tax Reform's Unpopularity David Harsanyi According to political analysts, Democrats in 2018 will use the just-passed tax reform as a way to argue that the Republican party is the party of the plutocracy, which is another way of saying... Will Republicans Fix 1970s Budget Rules Next? Michael Barone The Republicans have passed their tax bill, without a single Democratic vote, despite low to dismal poll ratings. It's reminiscent of the passage by Democrats, without a single Republican vote,... The GOP's Tax-Reform Parlay Is a Long Shot Jonah Goldberg The Republicans are betting big on a parlay. In gambling, a parlay is a combination bet that pays off only when every part of the wager wins. So if I bet that the Patriots, Cowboys, and... ADVERTISEMENT America the Ingenious: How a Nation of Dreamers, Immigrants, and Tinkerers Changed the World Kevin Baker Among the many rewards of . . . Kevin Baker's survey of Yankee know-how, is stumbling on its buried nuggets. . . . Readers will unearth one or two such treasures on nearly every page as Baker examines a wide range of the achievements that have made, and still make, America great again—and again.' - The Wall Street Journal LEARN MORE Photos of the Week Winter is Coming ADVERTISEMENT Follow Us & Share 19 West 44th Street, Suite 1701, New York, NY, 10036, USA Your Preferences | Unsubscribe | Privacy View this e-mail in your browser.