There is more than one kind of authority, and we can all learn.

The problem is that the demands of conservatives are out of control. They utterly reject the power of the mind to reason to a plausible understanding of moral values and their application to complex circumstances. Conservatives only use reason to extend by remorseless logic the demands of their primal moral feelings. They do not see that their views, when pushed to their logical limits, are incoherent.

The Newtown murders are a perfect demonstration of that incoherence.

Newt Gingrich’s symphony of resentment at the media last night for daring to bring up the question of his marital infidelity was utterly predictable. And yet, mostly because of CNN debate moderator John King’s inability to follow up in any way, it was wildly successful at neutralizing the issue, and will propel Gingrich to victory in South Carolina on Saturday.

That sounds like something which Newt might want to avoid, since loss of moral foundation is at the center of the question: “Which hideous adulterous divorce from which wife who was being treated for a which life-changing or -altering disease?”