Ron Paul’s recently published book, The Revolution, is number one on Amazon and will debut on the New York Times bestseller list at number seven—good news, eh? Not to the fake “libertarians” over at Reason magazine, no sirreee! David Weigel posts this snarky little rant, digging up the Ron Paul newsletter scandal—which I debunked here—but Weigel doesn’t have to answer any … [Read More]

In the latest issue of the periodical formerly known as The Times Higher Education Supplement (it now calls itself simply “Times Higher Education”), the philosopher Simon Blackburn takes a stab at what he sees as the top ten “modern myths”. For those blessed enough to be ignorant of Mr. Blackburn, he is an atheist academic at the University of Cambridge and … [Read More]

As the Lincoln-basher in residence, I suppose I should say a few things about Grant Havers’ article on the subject.  Mr. Havers states at the beginning of his article: In the conservative house divided, almost everyone agrees that the president was the prophet of democratic imperialism and that his war with the South was a mere dress rehearsal for global crusades … [Read More]

With the visit of Pope Benedict to the U.S., American Catholics are faced with a grave confrontation between Church and State, a conflict between their supernatural faith and their patriotic duty, unparalleled in the English-speaking world since Pope Pius V deposed Queen Elizabeth I—and encouraged Catholics in her realm to topple her from power. Right? That’s what you’d think, from reading … [Read More]

Having just fished in troubled waters, by jumping into Marcus Epstein’s debate with his critics over Planned Parenthood and its agendas, I feel obliged to state my views in a more nuanced way than I did yesterday as an addendum to Marcus’s commentary. First of all, I should make clear that I’m no fan of the would-be social engineer Margaret … [Read More]

Though not conservatives, libertarians nonetheless rely on selective portrayals of the past to support their fantasies about drug legalization.  They are particularly fond of painting a scary picture of the drug war replete with thuggish cops, draconian sentences, and a scary authoritarian picture of the new America.  They contrast this picture with the recent past, a time without SWAT teams and … [Read More]

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright was out and about this weekend and dropped a few more bombshells. It was a dream come true for the official conservative media, and they didn’t miss a chance to pile on, do a little more shilling for McCain, and express their outrage. What I found most interesting was that all the conservatives were jockeying to see … [Read More]

Almost two weeks, Dr. Gottfried wrote a helpful clarification of his earlier article about paleoconservatism, elaborating on some of the points I and others had challenged.  After reading the more recent item, I agree that there is greater detachment from the GOP among the “post-paleos,” though the nostalgia for the old days of Reagan or earlier decades is today not terribly … [Read More]

Speaking of Romantics, Richard’s rejection of the definitions of “the West” offered by Robert Spencer and Jim Pinkerton reminds me of one of the great original Romantics, Friedrich von Hardenberg (Novalis), and his essay that was one of the more important 19th century exercises in idealizing medieval Europe.  Never published in his lifetime, partly because its overt religiosity and medievalism embarrassed … [Read More]

It is a truth universally acknowledged that the two main reasons for anti-Semitism in America are Alan Dershowitz and Abe Foxman. No sooner had an American, Ben-Ami Kadish, been charged with providing military secrets to Israel while he was serving in the United States army 23 years ago, Foxman expresses surprise that Uncle Sam would go after a spy and traitor. … [Read More]