I’ll bet some of you read my blog post criticizing (gasp!) Ron Paul for this ad: My critique of the ad is limited to the very last segment, which specifically mentions the student visa issue in the context of the “terrorist nations” concept. There are two problems with it: first, it imposes collective punishment on an entire class of individuals on … [Read More]

Over at Salon.com, the heroic Glenn Greenwald has the goods on the Bloomberg-for-President hot air balloon, which is now being pumped up by all kinds of “centrist” (i.e. unprincipled) politicians and the bloviating David Broder. Aside from detailing and documenting Bloomie’s pro-war pronouncements, Greenwald has this to say: “Clearly, this is just exactly what our country desperately needs, what it is … [Read More]

A frequent respondent of mine, Adriana, wrote as a comment on my most recent blog that Democrats can afford to publicize their “platform.” Republicans, by contrast, cannot do so because the masses no longer accept their real views. But this judgment is only partly true. Popular opinion on most social issues has indeed veered sharply leftward in the last forty years, … [Read More]

New Year’s Eve parties cannot be described in lyrical terms, recalling perhaps the elegance of poetry by, say, Beaudelaire, Oscar Wilde’s decadence being more like it.  I am not among those who hate New Year’s parties, in fact to the contrary.  Let’s start with the bad news.  The worse New Year’s ever was December 31, 1984, in Pentonville. Now that was … [Read More]

It’s good to see that there’s at least one candidate seeking the Republican nomination who believes in a sensible immigration policy: Yet another reason (as if we needed one) to be excited about the candidacy of Ron Paul.  An immigration policy that treats the external threat posed by the applicant’s country of origin as reason to deny entry to the United … [Read More]

In a piece entitled “5 Moments That Changed the GOP Race,” Reid Wilson, of realclearpolitics.com, describes number 5: “Ron Paul raises $4 million and $6 million in individual days. The important thing to remember: Ron Paul will not win the Republican presidential nomination. His campaign does not have the organizational strength, and his message is simply not suited for a Republican … [Read More]

Rudy Giuliani’s poll numbers have been plunging ever since David “The Commissar” Frum and a platoon of neocons joined his campaign as top advisors—is this a case of cause and effect? Just asking ....  [Read More]

As the executive editor of Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture, it is my honor to welcome our latest monthly columnist, a man who is already familiar to the readers of Taki’s Top Drawer: Taki Theodoracopulos.  Starting with the January 2008 issue, which should be on newsstands by now and arriving in the mailboxes of subscribers, Taki will pen a hard-hitting … [Read More]

A Republic, Not an Empire is a splendid work by Mr. Pat Buchanan bemoaning the “Imperial” tendencies of recent administrations. It boasts a well argued thesis, but is dependent upon two givens: that Empires are inherently bad, and that the “Old Republic” was inherently good. It seems to me that neither of these are actually proved; so what I would like … [Read More]

Check out the collapse of the latest attempt to smear the principled, honorable, and honest Ron Paul—the only conservative in the presidential race. Kudos to Justin Raimondo and Lew Rockwell and the thousands of “pesky” Ron Paul supporters who Fisked Virginia Heffernan’s sophomoric blog smear (which now runs complete with retraction). For fun, read the torrent of finely written comments in … [Read More]