Mailvox: Pat and Mini-Pat

BM squeezes out the following:


I’ve read several of your articles. You seem to be a young clone of Pat Buchanan, basically repeating his lines. I don’t intend the comparison to be an insult or a compliment, just an observation by one of your new readers. I agree with you and Mr. Buchanan on some issues, mainly your conservative social positions, however, I disagree with you on the Iraq war, the USA’s strong support of Israel and other neoconservative goals. You claim to be a libertarian; do you have any original ideas of your own, or at least a different position on some issues than the paleocon establishment?

Let’s see, I don’t support government financial aid to Israel or anyone else, I am against the Iraqi occupation but supported the concept of declaring war on the global jihad. This makes me a paleoconservative, when I’m against government recognition of marriage, against the use of government to enforce cultural and social mores and pro-drug legalization?

I don’t think he’s read too many of my columns.

UPDATE: To his credit, BM wrote back thusly: “Thank you very much for taking the time to clarify your positions with a new reader. From a personal perspective, I appreciate your support of Israel and I respect your libertarian goals. I also agree that Mr. PB does not share many of your libertarian positions and I stand corrected on my assertion that you are a PB clone. I look forward to reading your future essays.”

And to be fair, his instincts were not completely amiss. I am a clone, but one of George Will that went horribly wrong and escaped from the laboratory in company with an experimental Norwegian supernanny.