…is that he doesn’t make pronouncements. His entire sensibility as a writer — ironic, contemplative — is anti-pronouncement. The only time you get a categorical statement from Irving Kristol is when he tells you with absolute authority that something is stupid. And he’s usually right. That’s as opposed to the man with whom he is often confused — i.e., my father. My father will make a pronouncement about anything. He’s usually right too, except about British mystery shows on television, all of which he loves and will defend even though the fact that he loves all of them indicates an indiscriminate nature at odds with the usually absolutist nature of his pronouncements.

As for the entirety of this debate, Derb should learn when he’s licked and apologize for the vulgarity and crudity of his illiterate criticisms of Gertrude Himmelfarb — lest he be accused of unintelligent design.