Finished: Krauthammer's book

Charles Krauthammer is my favorite columnist and talking head. I don't agree with him on everything (I've yet to meet that person) but he makes a lot of sense even on the things I don't agree.

He's not a fire-breathing sloganeer. He presents his opinions in a well-thought-out manner and with a healthy dose of dry humor.

His book, Things That Matter: Three Decades of Passions, Pastimes and Politics, is a collection of his columns and essays and is awesome. It's part history, politics, current events and baseball. It should be mandatory reading in high schools throughout this country.

People often call him a conservative, but I wouldn't. Frankly, he only gets that title from George W. Bush haters because Krauthammer was pro-Iraq war, pro-surge. He's also pro-abortion, an intelligent-design critic and is anti-capital punishment, hardly conservative ideals. I find him to be about as true of an independent as you can find, unlike those who claim to be moderate or independent because they just want people to think they are deep thinkers or want to avoid taking a side on anything. He actually is independent.

Even Goodreads tabs him conservative, but what do they know:

Readers will find here not only the country’s leading conservative thinker offering a pas­sionate defense of limited government, but also a highly independent mind whose views—on feminism, evolution and the death penalty, for example—defy ideological convention. Things That Matter also features several of Krautham­mer’s major path-breaking essays—on bioeth­ics, on Jewish destiny and on America’s role as the world’s superpower—that have pro­foundly influenced the nation’s thoughts and policies. And finally, the collection presents a trove of always penetrating, often bemused re­flections on everything from border collies to Halley’s Comet, from Woody Allen to Win­ston Churchill, from the punishing pleasures of speed chess to the elegance of the perfectly thrown outfield assist.

Krauthammer is also disabled and in a wheelchair, which many people don't realize mostly because he doesn't write much about it, complain about it or play the victim.

I find him to be quite an amazing, well-rounded, very-intelligent, temperate individual -- something people from all political persuasions should strive to be.