Leslie Carbone

King's Arms Tavern

2009-11-14T11:54:00.007-05:00

The pewter salt cellar feels cool and slightly gritty to the touch; it sounds a soft clap when replaced on the wooden table. The reproduction Chippendale and Queen Anne furniture, and the maps and other prints on the painted wooden walls of the King's Arms Tavern's tightly packed eleven rooms, represent styles favored by the well-off planters and other ladies and gentlemen in the very stratified society of colonial Virginia.

The King's Arms opened in 1772, although during the War for Independence its name was changed to Mrs. Vobe's, after its owner, and later to Eagle Tavern. Today it operates under its original name, and offers a comforting continuity in Colonial Williamsburg, where other eating establishments change format frustratingly frequently.

Taverns like the King's Arms, as well as coffeehouses, figured prominently in the birth of the American republic. Mrs. Vobe's provided food, drink, and lodging to American soldiers. George Washington sometimes dined there when visiting Virginia's capital.

They also provided venues for men catch up on the news and debate events of the day. In the 21st century, sporadically pleasant servers in period costume bring baskets of bread lined with reproductions of the Virginia Gazette.

The Tavern offers 18th-century menu choices including peanut soupe, fried chicken, and game pye, which features venison, rabbit, and duck. They have a daily pasta dish, and call it macaroni. The meaty fare smells hearty, and it is--soft, salty comfort food whose flavor comes from its main ingredients rather than blends of spices and herbs.

Sadly, like most everything at Colonial Williamsburg, it is overpriced. Baron von Steuben once ran up a bill of 300 Spanish dollars for food, drink, and lodging there, and it's not hard to imagine how. A couple today could easily spend above $100 in today's American currency on a single soupe-to-syllabub dinner with drinks, and, frankly, the food isn't worth it. But like Mrs. Vobe's clientele, today's visitors are paying for the atmosphere and the location near the Capitol. And travellers who truly want to include a tavern experience in their Williamsburg visit may well find it worth planning for a meal at the King's Arms Tavern.

Thank You, Sen. Webb!

2009-11-14T08:08:00.001-05:00

Never thought you'd see those words on this blog, huh? Well, neither did I.

But yesterday, Senator Jim Webb, who rarely does anything of which I approve, stood up to President Barack Obama and the national-security nincompoops in his Administration who have decided to try 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and his band of thugs as criminals in New York. "Those who have committed acts of international terrorism are enemy combatants," said Sen. Webb, a former Marine, former Secretary of the Navy, and (like me) former Republican. "They do not belong in our country[;] they do not belong in our courts, and they do not belong in our prisons."

After the disgusting display of last fall, it's refreshing to see a prominent Virginia politician standing up to a president of his own party on a matter of grave importance to America's well-being. From time to time, I ask you to call Sen. Webb and ask him to vote a certain way on some legislation. Now I'm asking you to do something a little different. If you are a Virginian outraged by the decision to treat terrorists like regular criminals, please call Sen. Webb's office at (202) 224-4024 and thank him for standing up to President Obama.

Bush: "I went against my free-market instincts."

2009-11-13T09:56:00.001-05:00

Former President George Bush XLIII delivered a speech yesterday in which he warned against the kind of government meddling that he perpetrated last fall.

This 55-second clip reveals a wealth of mushy thinking, and shows that the former President still doesn't grasp how deeply he harmed this country:

"I believe the role of government is ... to create the conditions that allow entrepreneurs and innovators to thrive."

No, it isn't, and it's arrogant and misguided for politicians to presume that government can "create the conditions" that foster prosperity. Freedom fosters prosperity, and freedom is natural; it needs no government to create it. Limited government is needed to protect the rights of those entrepreneurs and innovators and others so that they can create wealth. When government robs Peter to pay Paul, in other words, when it robs small-business owners and middle-class families to bail out big corporations, it undermines the very freedom on which prosperity depends.

"I went against my free-market instincts and approved a temporary [??] government intervention to unfreeze the credit markets so that we could avoid a major global depression."

Economic freedom is not a matter of "instinct". It is a matter of principle and common sense, backed by the lessons of history. If the former president had a stronger foundation in the philosophy of freedom, he could have understood at the time how the bail-out Band-Aid was really a poison pill.

"As the world recovers, we're gonna face a temptation to replace the risk-and-reward model of fr-- the private sector with the blunt instruments of government spending and control."

We've been failing in the face of that temptation for the last century, and we're paying a high price for it. Former President Bush XLIII was simply continuing the 20th-century trend of arrogant politicians presuming that they can somehow sponsor prosperity.

"History shows that the greater threat to prosperity is not too little government involvement but too much."

And history will record President Bush XLIII as having greatly increased that threat.

It would be nice simply to say, well, gee, it's too bad that he still doesn't get it. But he's far from being alone. Too many of the politicians still in power, and too many of the voters who keep them there, have the same mushy understanding of the role and capabilities of government. Our country desperately needs a renaissance of the philosophy of freedom, a reawakened, well-considered understanding that freedom nurtures prosperity, and that government will always be a threat to both.

Thursday on WTJS

2009-11-11T22:12:00.000-05:00

My SamSphere friend Ken Marrero is slotted to sub for Mike Slater on WTJS in Jackson, Tennessee, on Thursday, and he's scheduled me to chat about Slaying Leviathan at 6:30 am. I hope you'll tune in!

Happy Birthday, U.S. Marine Corps!

2009-11-10T11:53:00.001-05:00

Thanks for standing on the wall!

"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

2009-11-09T08:36:00.001-05:00

Obama/Pelosi-"Care" Passes

2009-11-07T23:16:00.000-05:00

The health-care power grab has passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 220-215.

Please call your Senators and ask them to vote against Obama-"care". If you live in Virginia, your Senators are:

Jim Webb
(202) 224-4024

and

Mark Warner
(202) 224-2023

If you do not live in Virginia and do not know how to contact your Senators, please click here.

Obama/Pelosi-"Care" Vote Likely Today

2009-11-07T13:43:00.001-05:00

In the wake of President George Bush XLIII's bail-out, more than 100 banks failed. In the wake of President Barack Obama's "stimulus" package, unemployment has climbed above 10 percent. And in response to fumbling overreaches like these, Americans on Tuesday capped off a year of tea parties, town halls, and rallies by voting against big government.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is having none of it. She is trying to push a vote on the bill to cede massive power over the health care system to our big, bloated, bumbling federal government today.

My fellow Americans, if you don't want your family's health care in big government's clumsy hands, those hands that have so strangled prosperity, please contact your Representatives and urge them to vote against Obama/Pelosi-"care".

Conservatism Wins!

2009-11-03T20:06:00.000-05:00

Today's has been my favorite election since 1984, because conservatism had won even before the day had dawned.

When the GOP's anointed liberal dropped out of the special election in New York's 23rd "safe Republican" congressional district on Saturday, after badly trailing Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman, it was a clear victory for conservatism over the Party of Bush.

Here in Virginia, conservatism is winning its most important victory as Ken Cuccinelli defeats Steve Shannon in the race for Attorney General. The re-election of Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling is also good news.

Conservatism also played a role in the weirdest gubernatorial campaign in my memory. Creigh Deeds had won the Democratic nomination by positioning himself as the moderate-conservative alternative to two liberals. Then, bizarrely, in the general election campaign, he painted Bob McDonnell as a conservative, building much of his campaign on an effort to manufacture the former Attorney General's 20-year-old graduate thesis into some kind of Handmaid's Tale, while showing himself to be no opponent of government intrusiveness, refusing to reject the Obama-"care" public "option" and touting an endorsement from The Washington Post, a withering rag whose editors are so blinded by big-government ideology that they haven't grasped the fact that "new taxes" are not words that normal people like to read, especially in a grim economy. Is it any wonder that Governor-elect McDonnell is trouncing him?

The Republican top-ticket sweep in Virginia is, of course, very bad news for the Democrats. Indeed, as the Deeds campaign began to tank, Democrats became so desperate that they sent both President Barack Obama and DNC Chairman Tim Kaine to Virginia to campaign for him.

But combined with the much-merited slap across the face that New York conservatives delivered to the Republican Party, it's clear that the election of 2009 is much more than another swing of the pendulum.

This is not a Republican renaissance. This is a conservative renaissance. Americans are fed up with intrusive government and its arrogant, dangerous view of itself as their benefactor. And they are fed up with Republicans and Democrats alike who subscribe to the misguided notion that government is somehow the sponsor of prosperity. This disgust has been building for some time. It showed up in the reaction to the disastrously decided case of Kelo v. New London. It was clear in the "thumpin'" of 2006. And it exploded in the popular outrage at President George Bush XLIII's bank bail-out, his auto bail-out, President Obama's "stimulus" plan, and his health-"care" power grab--fueling unprecedented citizen backlash at tea parties, town-hall meetings, and the enormous 9/12 rally.

Big government, its pandering power-mongers, and their Mrs.-Danvers enablers in both parties are the big losers in the election of 2009.

Cry Witch!

2009-10-31T16:42:00.000-04:00

The polished wood gleams in the glow of flickering candles. It's nighttime, and little moonlight breaks through the circular window panes in their cream-colored frames.

Several dozen visitors have gathered in the courtroom of Colonial Williamsburg's dull-red brick Capitol building to serve as the jury in a recreated trial of Grace Sherwood, the "Virginia witch". In the dimness, their 21st-century garb is slightly shrouded, and the atmosphere seems at least a little like 1706.

A midwife who sometimes sported pants, Mrs. Sherwood did not remarry after her husband's death in 1701. She was tried several times on charges like bewitching her neighbors' crops. Then in 1706, a local farmer named Luke Hill accused the 46-year-old of practicing witchcraft and thus causing his wife to miscarry. On July 10 of that year, Mrs. Sherwood's hands were tied, and she was thrown from a boat into the Lynnhaven River. Able to swim, Mrs. Sherwood untied her hands and rose to the surface--thus proving that she was a witch. (Drowning would have established her innocence.) Court records indicate that she spent seven or eight years in gaol as punishment.

Colonial Williamsburg's mock murder trial takes place after this water test. Because she's charged with a capital crime, the trial takes place in the Capitol, presided over by the Royal Governor. Her water test failure is presented as evidence of her guilt, as is the statement that her devil's marks (birthmarks) did not bleed when punctured and testimony that she never takes Communion. Mr. Hill testifies that, after Mrs. Sherwood visited his farm, his "pigs began to act peculiar-like and die".

Unfortunately for Mrs. Sherwood, defendants cannot be sworn, and anything she says in her own defense cannot be counted as evidence. On the other hand, there is no protection from self-incrimination. There is neither the presumption of innocence nor the recognition of the (derived) right to face one's accuser. When the prosecutor declares that Mrs. Hill, appearing as a witness, is "afraid to be in the same room as the witch", the Governor-judge directs Mrs. Sherwood not to look at Mrs. Hill and assures the witness that God will protect her.

Despite the fact that this trial mocked fundamental principles of modern Western justice, science, and common sense, Mrs. Sherwood was convicted 44-13 by the jury and sentenced to hang. (Your humble blogger was among the 13.) According to a CW guide, juries convict Mrs. Sherwood in about 80 percent of the mock trials. She is, however, entitled to appeal to the Governor.

In real life, history suggests that Mrs. Sherwood returned to her farm after serving her time in gaol and lived there until her death c. 1740. England's last law against witchcraft was repealed in 1951. On July 10, 2006, Governor Tim Kaine informally pardoned Mrs. Sherwood.

BREAKING: Scozzafava Out!

2009-10-31T10:41:00.002-04:00

My friend Stacy McCain is reporting that Dede Scozzafava, the GOP's anointed liberal in the special election in New York's 23rd congressional district, has dropped out of the race! Poll after poll has recently shown Ms. Scozzafava badly trailing Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman. This is a stunning--and much-deserved--rebuke to the Party of Bush and a bright light in the conservative renaissance. Way to go, New York conservatives!!

"Take AIM" Today

2009-10-29T08:06:00.003-04:00

In the wake of my speech to Accuracy In Academia's conservative university earlier this month, I'm slotted to chat about Slaying Leviathan on "Take AIM", the blogtalkradio program of AIA's parent organization, Accuracy In Media, this morning at 11:30 (EST). Please tune in!

Robert Reich: "We're Gonna Let You Die"

2009-10-28T22:00:00.001-04:00

Blogs United Registration Open

2009-10-27T08:40:00.003-04:00

Virginia's next Blogs United conference is scheduled for November 21 at Christopher Newport University in Hampton Roads. The last Blogs United conference, in 2007, was lots of fun, and this November's promises more of the same. You can register here for $15.00.

This Week on WGGRN

2009-10-26T08:59:00.001-04:00

My friend Chad Everson, whom I met at last year's fabulous SamSphere Chicago, has started WGGRN, a new conservative talk radio network. I had the pleasure of appearing on his BlogTalkRadio show last year during the bail-out fight, and I'm happy to write that he's planning to air an interview with me about Slaying Leviathan this week on Monday (today!) at 11 a.m. CST, Wednesday at 10 a.m. CST, and Friday at 9 a.m. CST on the new WGGRN. Please tune in. The best thing about SamSphere is the way that it has brought liberty-loving bloggers together, so if our interview sounds more like a chat between friends, that's because it is!

War in the West

2009-10-24T12:11:00.001-04:00

America is a nation built on the foundation of great ideas. But great ideas can be difficult to live out. This is true today, as we move further and further from the time when ideas like individual liberty and limited government were debated and developed from Congresses to coffeehouses. But it was also true then. As the Revolutionary War raged on, the ideals which justified our break with Britain continued to undergo an awkward refining process, as subjects-turned-citizens strove to live them in practical ways.

One of the things that Colonial Williamsburg does exceptionally well is to explore the tension between ideas and practices. In the Revolutionary City skit "War in the West", Henry Hamilton, the royal governor of Detroit, has been captured and is being held in the Williamsburg Gaol. Though he was rumored to have offerred bounties to his Indian allies for the scalps of Americans, the charges against the hated "Hair Buyer" are vague, and he has not been allowed access to any evidence against himself. On June 18, 1779, he points out ways that the Virginians' treatment of him violate the very ideals according to which they justify their war for independence.

Government v. Prosperity

2009-10-22T12:13:00.001-04:00

Accuracy In Academia has posted last week's talk about my book. I hope you find it valuable.

Cuccinelli "Money Bomb"

2009-10-20T08:40:00.001-04:00

My disgust with the Party of Bush is no secret. But in a political party overrun with misguided opportunists, there remain a few principled conservative politicians. State Senator Ken Cuccinelli, the Republican nominee for Attorney General of Virginia, is one such conservative. Sen. Cuccinelli has been an effective force in protecting the natural right to property, and seems bright and thoughtful enough to understand its philosophical foundations, making him a refreshing rarity in today's GOP.

Today, Sen. Cuccinelli's campaign is holding a "money bomb", a one-day online fundraiser. If you can, please click here to contribute today and help return both the Republican Party and the Commonwealth of Virginia to their conservative roots. Thank you.

"Slaying Leviathan" Events on Thursday

2009-10-14T09:23:00.001-04:00

Thursday promises to be a good day for Slaying Leviathan.

I start the day with a 6 a.m. (PST) appearance on KVI 570 AM's Kirby Wilbur Show in Seattle. If you're not in Washington state, you can listen online here.

Then at 6 p.m. (EST), my fabulous former employer, Accuracy In Academia, is hosting an "Author's Night" for me at Armand's Pizza on Capitol Hill. If you're in the area, I hope you can come.

With government foolishly trying to plunder America's way back to prosperity, I'm thankful for these opportunities to contribute to our national discussion about the moral hazards of wealth redistribution.

Defending the American Dream

2009-10-05T12:33:00.001-04:00

A year has passed since former President George Bush XLIII, former treasury czar Hank Paulson, and their band of plunderers in Congress foisted the unConstitutional bank bail-out on an unwilling American public. And it has been the most encouraging year I can remember since Ronald Reagan restored economic prosperity, brought Soviet tyranny to its knees, and renewed American optimism. Despite our wanna-be overlords' naked pandering to consumerism, the American people vehemently and vociferously opposed the effort to reward irresponsible banks and borrowers on the backs of hard-working tax-payers. But that was only the beginning. We booted many of the bums out of Congress. We've held tea parties across the country, and the astonishingly large 9/12 rally at the Capitol, and we've fought Big Brother at town hall meetings. And the tide is turning: Six months ago, Obama-"care" looked like an inevitability, but now opposition is high and getting higher, and the Keystone Kourtiers in the White House (reeling from the greatest Olympic humiliation since 1980) don't know what hit them.

In this hopeful environment, about 2,000 free-market activists gathered here in Virginia at Americans for Prosperity's annual Defending the American Dream Summit, hard-working tax-payers who gave up a weekend to come from around the country at their own expense to protest federal molly-coddling, learn new strategies for defeating it, and simply encourage one another in the long and glorious battle for economic freedom.

One special highlight for me was seeing my SamSphere friend Bob Weeks receive AFP's Blogger of the Year award; he follows Maggie Thurber, also of SamSphere, who won the award last year. SamSphere also came through for me personally, yet again, when Steve Eggleston suggested that Ed Morrissey interview me about Slaying Leviathan for Hot Air. And of course, it was great just to catch up with so many other SamSphere friends, including Emily Zanotti, Virginia's own Krystle Weeks, Bill Smith (and his charming wife Lois), and AFP's Erik Telford. Y'all are good friends and great patriots, and it's a privilege to fight this battle with you.

WSPD in Toledo

2009-09-24T13:25:00.002-04:00

SamSphere comes through again! I'm planning to chat about Slaying Leviathan on WSPD in Toledo today at 3:30 pm EST with blogger extraordinaire Maggie Thurber, whom I met at last year's fabulous SamSphere Chicago. Please tune in.

Health Czar, Interrupted

2009-09-11T10:13:00.001-04:00

Obama's Health Care "Reform" Could Cost $4,176 per Virginian

2009-09-09T14:20:00.001-04:00

Yesterday, I enjoyed the privilege of talking about Slaying Leviathan with the Tuesday Morning Group, a monthly gathering of freedom-loving Virginians, sponsored by Tertium Quids. It was great to talk with them about my book, and especially to catch up with Jeffersoniad friends like Rick Sincere and Norm Leahy.

After I spoke, Donna Arduin of Arduin, Laffer & Moore Econometrics and Randy Forbes, conservative Congressman from Virginia, addressed a news conference announcing The Prognosis for National Health Insurance: A Virginia Perspective, a new policy study released by the Virginia Institute for Public Policy.

According to the report, rising government expenditures are the main factors driving the growth of the health care wedge--the economic separation between providers and consumers and a primary driver of rising health care costs. The report finds, "President Barack Obama's principles to drastically alter U.S. health care policy--a public health insurance exchange, mandated minimum coverage, mandated coverage of preexisting conditions, required purchase of health insurance--do not address the growing wedge and its role as the fundamental driver of health care costs. In fact, they will further increase the wedge, and can thus be expected to increase medical price inflation."

The bottom line for Virginians? President Obama's health-care "reform" priorities would cost $4,176 (net present value) for every person in our Commonwealth, according to the report.

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Conservatism

2009-09-03T19:35:00.000-04:00

I'm scheduled to chat about Slaying Leviathan tonight at 9:10 (EST) with Ann Babe Huggett and my SamSphere colleague Warner Todd Huston on their Blog Talk Radio show Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Conservatism. Please tune in!

MTNP Radio Saturday

2009-08-29T07:50:00.002-04:00

I'm going back on Meet The New Press Radio this morning at 10:05 (EST) to talk about Slaying Leviathan and the Dean/Moran Town Hall with my fellow SamSphere bloggers Skip Murphy and Doug Lambert. Please tune in here.