In 1880, the myopic captain of one of America’s first polo teams was almost killed galloping headlong into his opposite number at the kamekazi start of a match in Dedham, Massachusetts. Given a telescope to gaze through as a convalescent pastime,  recent Harvard graduate Percival Lowell soon thought that he saw not just canals on Mars but greenery. His enthusiasm grew … [Read More]

A busy week here in Rome. In one week, I’ve been privileged to venerate: the bones of St. Agnes, relics of the Passion (the True Cross, the scourging post, nails and Crown of Thorns), the Sacred Steps from the palace of Pontius Pilate, and the remains of St. Paul the Apostle. All this, while writing freelance policy papers on immigration, meeting … [Read More]

Sanford Levinson, Our Undemocratic Constitution: Where the Constitution Goes Wrong (And How We the People Can Correct It). Oxford University Press, 2006.   Sanford Levinson is very upset. As he sees it, the United States Constitution fails to uphold the principles of the American nation, and something needs to be done about it. Our Undemocratic Constitution is his case for a … [Read More]

When Ron Paul, in effect, announced the suspension of his presidential campaign after Super-Tuesday, many of his supporters—myself among them—were about as deflated as real estate prices, if not more so. Now that Republican discontent with John McCain is cresting, and there may be hints of a major McCainiac scandal in the making, we get this from Paul HQ, as noted … [Read More]

Once again I feel impelled to respond to my critics, and particularly to those who criticize me as a “Zionist,” and as someone who worships at the altar of America the “superpower,” and endorses “unconstitutional wars,” being carried out against the will of the American people. If my respondent means by “Zionist” that I have kind feelings toward the Israelis … [Read More]

Given the rather grim prospects for antiwar voters this election, it is understandable why many look to Obama and think that they have found someone they can trust. But this is a mistake. It isn’t that Obama is wrong on Iraq, but that he has happened to be right about it basically in spite of his own foreign policy views.  In … [Read More]

Here is good news. For any of you out there nostalgic for the lovable extra terrestrial, NASA is beaming out songs into deep space trying to lure anything that might be out there to our shores. The bad news is that scientists warn that transmitting songs could put the earth at risk of an alien attack. They voiced fears that advertising … [Read More]

What is the use of raising “dead” historical issues such as the rights or wrongs of World War I, or the virtues of Habsburg Austria as opposed to Woodrow Wilson’s America? That question has come up more than once in responses on this site to previous blogs of mine, and I think it’s an interesting one.  Is it mere self-indulgence to … [Read More]

I see that John McCain has taken Grover Norquist‘s “no new taxes” pledge (that’s Grover in the photo on the left), but, as Ezra Klein points out in the—decidedly liberal, pro-tax—American Prospect: “The centerpiece of the health care plan he’s pushing is apparently an end to the employer health care deduction, which would suddenly transform about $1 trillion in currently untaxed … [Read More]

I am pleased to announce that a new edition of my 1993 book, Reclaiming the American Right: The Lost Legacy of the Conservative Movement, is due out in May from the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. This edition features an Introduction by Prof. George W. Carey, plus analytical essays by the wondrous Scott Richert and that well-known polymath David Gordon. I have to … [Read More]