We all know that picture of the late Warren Gamaliel Harding Calvin Coolidge bedecked in a Sioux war bonnet.  In my own youth, in late May thirty seven years ago, a rather less honorable man crowned himself with a construction helmet bearing the title Commander in Chief, a consolation prize for the honorary doctorate my Alma Mater withdrew at the last … [Read More]

George Mitchell, the former senator in charge of Major League Baseball’s investigation into the use of steroids by ballplayers, has reportedly found that while the stars of certain teams been using performance-enhancing drugs, another team has tested positive for off-label use of an older, performance-detracting drug. Members of the floundering, last-place team the Washington Neocons—assembled by former Texas Rangers owner George … [Read More]

Ahmet Ertegun was the greatest Turk since Kemal Ataturk, but unlike Mustapha Kemal, he never killed anyone, especially a Greek. In brief, Ertegun was the supreme record man ever, the signer of the most important rhythm & blues, jazz, pop and rock artists of all time, the founder and builder of Atlantic   Records, a company he began with the ten … [Read More]

Having forced myself to watch the most recent display of Republican presidential intelligence in Columbia, South Carolina on May 15, I came away with impressions that clearly jar with those of the authorized FOX commentators. Unlike Hannity and Colmes, who after the debate rushed to assure us that the “Mayor” had performed brilliantly, I cringed with disgust at Hizzoner’s verbal ineptness. … [Read More]

By W. James Antle III Debating in Ronald Reagan’s shadow in Simi Valley, there were plenty of Republican presidential hopefuls willing to deviate on social issues like embryo-destructive stem-cell research, but only one dissenter on the Iraq War—ten-term Congressman Ron Paul of Texas. It’s a role Paul reprised this week in South Carolina and, with any luck, will throughout the 2008 … [Read More]

When I wrote a tongue-in-cheek column about the Puerto Rican parade ten years ago in the London Spectator, all hell broke loose. The politically correct busybodies had a field day, so much so that Rudy Giuliani declared that he would try and deport me and have me fired from the Spectator. There were only two problems: First, I am an American … [Read More]

Shots Fired: Sam Francis on America’s Culture War By Samuel Francis / Edited by Peter B. Gemma Published by FGF Books (Vienna, Virginia), 2006; 361 pages with index To those of us who knew and respected for years the journalism of Samuel Francis (1947-2005), it remains hard to believe that he is gone. The outlets that regularly published him – Chronicles, … [Read More]

Who knows what to believe about the bloody catastrophe that is Iraq? Faced with the serial deceptions of Richard Cheney and George W. Bush, layer upon layer, we tend to become inured. We do know now that what we were told back then by the White House was hogwash. Yes, I am referring, once more, to the run-up, to the origins, … [Read More]

On May 15, the Church marks the feast of a saint who is at once somewhat obscure and extremely significant. At first blush, St. Dymphna’s story is quite a sad one. According to her widely popular legend, this early medieval girl was the daughter of a petty, pagan Irish king. Like her mother—whom she very much resembled—she was a Christian. When … [Read More]

During the German occupation of my homeland in the Second World War there were nightly shouts of “Vasta Rommel” by certain Greeks. “Vasta” in Greek means “Hold on.” In other words, Greeks were praying for the great Erwin Rommel to hold against Montgomery’s 8th army. The German officers who were billeted in our house were immensely flattered. Until, that is, Fraulein, … [Read More]