Am I a Jonah?

I don't know if I like this or not. But more and more, no sooner do I put out an edgy, somewhat speculative, ranting post, then one of the "establishment conservative" commentators comes along and says almost the exact same thing. It's enough to make me feel like I'm selling out! Surely my ideas are far too unconventional and contrarian to be considered valid by one of the anointed wise men of the press. But have a look -- I do a blog, on Friday, February 20, on the outrageous racial comments by Attorney General Eric Holder:

http://zarathustrasoldman.blogspot.com/2009/02/here-we-go-again.html

The very next day, Jonah Goldberg comes out with a column called "Holder: All 'talk', no sense." In it he points out, just as I did, that "America talks about race incessantly, in classrooms, lecture halls, movies, op-ed pages, books, magazines, talk shows, (and) just about every third PBS documentary." He asks how much good even more talk would do. And he describes the essence of "a national coversation on race" as follows: "People who disagree with me need to be instructed on why they are wrong." Kind of reminds me of "ecumenism" -- you know, that process of "dialogue" between Cathlolics and Protestants that is designed to make the Catholics give up all the terrority and apologize for everything that has ever happened. Goldberg also points out that "so many of us are terrified of being called racist the moment we step out of line with liberal orthodoxy". All too true. He suspects that an "honest conversation" about race is the very last thing that Holder, or the Obama administration, or anyone else (I would include the media and the academy) wants.

Well, I'm glad he agrees with me. And I'm glad my post preceded his column, because otherwise someone might accuse me of "me too-ism".