Jonah Goldberg’s critique of the Paul campaign – published in the dead-tree version of National Review—is surprisingly respectful, but, alas, he gets several things wrong: heck, he gets just about everything wrong. But then, if he didn’t, he’d be in the Paul camp, and probably wouldn’t be Jonah Goldberg. At any rate, whereas Paul’s leftist critics concentrate primarily although not exclusively … [Read More]

There’s nothing more delightful than going to the home of a friend or family member who has really pulled out all the stops to provide an old-fashioned Christmas feast. Roast turkey or (better) goose with fresh cranberry sauce, roasted potatoes, festive veggies and plum pudding—all presented on the very best china, with the scent of spiced candles, real pine boughs and … [Read More]

Last year, I noted that National Review had pretended not to notice Pat Buchanan’s bestselling book State of Emergency. Back then, National Review was at least pretending to support immigration restriction, so they might have been forced to say some good things about the book—which is no doubt why they ignored it. Buchanan’s latest blockbuster, Day of Reckoning: How Hubris, Ideology, … [Read More]

My distant ancestor Aesop (just kidding, folks) was fond of fables, so let me follow in his footsteps. This is the story of the Gadfly and the Pervert. Norman Finklestein was a Maoist revolutionary when young, which he claims bedeviled his academic career. It took him 13 years to get his doctorate from Princeton but it wasn’t his Maoism that kept … [Read More]

It seems fitting that Hollywood has chosen to observe Christmas in the year Christopher Hitchens’ atheist manifesto became a best-seller by releasing The Golden Compass, a movie based on the first volume of a fantasy trilogy His Dark Materials by another angry British atheist, Philip Pullman. Lest there be any doubt what Pullman’s objective is, he told the Washington Post in … [Read More]

It must have been via one of Charles Bukowski’s many interviews that I got a lead to Robinson Jeffers of Carmel-Big Sur, California. Jeffers was not a figure I had encountered at prep school or at college. I am delighted to bring him up now, prompted by Justin Raimondo’s informative article in the December 17th print edition of The American Conservative, … [Read More]

Did Mike Huckabee know what he was doing when he asked an interviewer, “Don’t Mormons believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers?”  If not, then perhaps the Huckster was right when he claimed earlier this month that his rise in the polls was at least partly the result of “divine providence,” because he was certainly quite lucky to stir up … [Read More]

Loyalty to self, by most accounts, supersedes one’s duty to the state. The exception to this is perhaps when the community’s interest is more ethical or noble than that of the individual. Of course some form of law and order is needed to avoid outright anarchy. But, according to Plato, cities will not be free of evil until political power and … [Read More]

Look who’s leading in Alaska! The state’s caucus is held in early February. Perhaps by then the Huckabee bubble—or is that boil?—should have burst. [Read More]

The highlight of the Iowa GOP debate: when Keyes ranted about “hot air” coming out of the mouths of politicians, and Paul quipped “Doctor, heal thyself.”  [Read More]