Keith Ellison doesn’t like tobacco smoke.  One day last week, a member of his staff smelled “a very strong odor” coming from a nearby office in their building.  In typical liberal fashion, he didn’t track down the vile offender and ask him if he might, out of deference to Mr. Ellison, extinguish his cigar.  Instead, he called the cops. It turns … [Read More]

The idea that gay people are an oppressed minority would be laughable if so many otherwise intelligent people didn’t take it so seriously. Just look at what happened to Tim Hardaway, when, during an interview, he said “I hate gay people.” The iron fist of political correctness wasn’t long in coming down, full force, on his head. The former Miami Heat … [Read More]

Here’s a quickie on the Oscars. No, I am not going to complain about The Departed because Martin Scorsese is an acquaintance of mine—my wife is the godmother of his little girl—and his wife, Helen Morris, a very good friend. What I will complain about is the past. Scorsese should have won with Raging Bull in 1980 and with GoodFellas in … [Read More]

St Moritz—The lack of snow drove me to the Engadine valley and the queen of ski resorts, St Moritz. Mind you, the queen is no longer what she once was. In the beginning of the last century, St Moritz was the indisputable numero uno winter spot.  European aristocracy flocked there for amusement and sport. Downhill skiing had not as yet been … [Read More]

“How do you do, Mr Podhoretz?” “Quite well, Mr. Frum and you?” “And where might you be going, sir?” “I’m looking for a war, how ‘bout you?” “Well, let me help you find it, for I’m looking for one too.” Together: I’ve never seen a war I didn’t like, the bombs, the guns, the tanks and all the planes, and soldiers … [Read More]

Quest is a quaint little glossy magazine of regulated circulation (50,000)  and the greatest demographics in the world—the upper east side of Manhattan. It is a lifestyle monthly, a Vanity Fair for superannuated WASPs on the social register. It was started 25 years ago by a nutty English woman, Heather Cohane, and is now owned by Chris Meigher III, an ex … [Read More]

If you’ve read A. Millar’s excellent piece on the assault on British nationhood being conducted by its ruling elites, who use ethnic minorities as a wedge to “divide and rule” the populace through bureaucratic diktats, you’ll know why I was so moved by “Roots,” a song by the British folk/rock band Show of Hands. It’s about time that Englishmen were permitted … [Read More]

Last October, a Syrian Orthodox priest, Fr. Boulos Iskander, went shopping for auto parts in the Iraqi city of Mosul. He was never seen alive again. A Muslim group kidnapped him and initially demanded $350,000 in ransom; they eventually lowered this to $40,000, but added a new demand: Fr. Boulos’ parish had to denounce the remarks made the previous month by … [Read More]

For men to choose to kill the innocent as a means to their ends is always murder, and murder is one of the worst of human actions.  So the prohibition on deliberately killing prisoners of war or the civilian population is not like the Queensbury Rules: its force does not depend on its promulgation as part of positive law, written down, … [Read More]

It’s pretty darned frosty here in New York City, at last. It took so long for cold weather to kick in that I became even more paranoid about global warming than I already have been. (And no, I’m not reassured by the four or five scientists whom the coal industry has rounded up to reassure us “Keep moving, folks, nothing to … [Read More]