Remember when the L.A. riots spun out of control, and engulfed the whole United States? The key moment was no doubt when police and Army commanders took fright and changed sides, throwing their support to the Committee for Public Safety led by Tom Hayden, along with Noam Chomsky, Barbara Boxer, Michael Moore, and Edward Said. After Hayden’s fall and execution, his … [Read More]

Is Matt Yglesias the conscience of the Right? In a piece published in response to Brink Lindsay’s “The Libertarian Center,” Yglesias agrees with Lindsay’s thesis that the past fifty years have seen an increase in human freedom and that we’re all so much better off, especially when it comes to our more “enlightened” attitude toward social issues, but wonders aloud if … [Read More]

A great piece by Joey Kurtzman over at Jewcy.com, “Fire Foxman,” which is really the definitive takedown of the man who turned spurious accusations of anti-Semitism into a major industry. Starting off with how Abe denied the Armenian holocaust in a sickeningly amoral deal with the Turkish lobby, Kurtzman’s indictment details the over-hyped hysterics over Mel Gibson’s “Passion,” the dogmatic insistence … [Read More]

Sadly, it takes a liberal—Matt Yglesias, one of the most consistently interesting lefty-liberal bloggers, over at The Atlantic now—to diagnose the repulsive symptoms of a sold-out GOP in its death-throes: “Marc Ambinder’s report on how John McCain hopes to revive his dying presidential campaign by giving a speech in which he ‘will steel his audience to prepare for a ‘Long War’’ … [Read More]

Rome—They changed the name of the most famous city in the world, and renamed the place Valentino, or so it seemed last week in the Eternal City.  What can I say?  I know nothing about fashion, except that I know a beautiful dress when I see one, but I do know a lot about parties, and this one took the cake, … [Read More]

Neocon Matthew Continetti, an associate editor of The Weakly Standard, is asked if he’s capable of holding a gun. I say he isn’t. I’m not the first one to notice that the War Party’s intellectual Myrmidons are not exactly Conan-esque type figures, but this little twinkie takes the cake: His arguments —that we have a volunteer military, after all, and his … [Read More]

As interesting as I find the back and forth among Messrs. Weyrich, Gottfried, and others, I think we’re missing the forest fire for the trees: Recently imposed FCC regulations, which take effect this month, will cripple thousands of independent Internet radio stations—the most important alternative media apart from blogs—by imposing on them disproportionately high royalties for music (much higher than are … [Read More]

There is a nasty situation in croquet, the six-wicket American version, in which you can find yourself 3-ball dead. When this happens, your opponent has a big advantage. He is the beneficiary of your mistakes. He did not put you there; you did it to yourself. The ball which is 3-ball dead is completely ineffective, and the other side can shoot … [Read More]

A debate in the French weekly Courrier International (December 21, 2006) held between Polish political scientist Marek Cichocki and Claus Leggewie, a widely respected German professor at the University of Giessen, points to two diverging paths into the European future. Both commentators explain how their views about the end of the Second World War have affected their visions of Europe. For … [Read More]

I like the title of the new anti-Giuliani website put up by the International Union of Fire-fighters: Rudy Giuliani, Urban Legend. Here is Rudy going around the country, posturing as “America’s Mayor” and milking the 9/11 terrorist attacks for all they’re worth—and now we have the New York City fire-fighters puncturing his hot-air balloon with facts: facts, for one, about how … [Read More]