This essay is the final installment in a three-part symposium on the problem of sovereignty. Earlier contributions were made by Thomas E. Woods Jr and John Zmirak. Unlike at least some of my readers, I find nothing intrinsically offensive about the idea of state sovereignty. That is because I don’t see individualism or anarchy as the preferred perspective for understanding political … [Read More]

Every so often, someone in the Bush Administration actually makes a sensible point, though often not in the manner they intend.  Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, before jetting off to the Caucasus (an area that makes the Balkans look friendly), stated that the Administration’s “message is that Russia has perhaps not accepted that it is time to move on from the … [Read More]

Perhaps I’m missing something big in the “movement conservative’ accounts about what we should be doing to the Russians for their invasion of Georgia. But so far all I’ve encountered is more of the usual neocon blather. For informational purposes: this military action took place after the Georgians had tried to keep their pro-Russian province of South Ossetia from seceding. Although … [Read More]

I resigned my membership in The Philadelphia Society, the prestigious fraternity of movement conservatives, a couple years ago, but as I continue to pay my wife’s dues, I still read the Society’s communications from time to time.  Evidently, the topic of TPS’s upcoming national conference is “How to Transmit the Legacy of the Great Conservative Thinkers of the 20th Century”—a topic … [Read More]

Just after the Berlin wall came down, I flew to Berlin with my German-Austrian wife and traveled around the city and its eastern parts. On visiting the Olympic stadium I told the taxi driver that my uncle, a hurdler, was the first athlete the Führer’s gaze fell upon as the parade of the 1936 games began, because we Greeks always go … [Read More]

For fans of multiculturalism and unrestricted immigration, Gypsies are a hard test case. They are exceptionally antisocial, and cultivate high levels of skill in the small-criminal arts — pickpocketing, burglary, fast confidence tricks, and so on. They seem also to be striving to keep alive their ancient reputation for baby-snatching. Italy is having particular problems with Gypsies right now, as indicated … [Read More]

For many years Alexander Solzhenitsyn was a familiar presence in Hanover, New Hampshire. He had been arrested in 1945 and sentenced to eight years in prison after criticizing Stalin in a letter he wrote from the front where he was fighting in the Red Army. In 1962 he suddenly became famous in the Soviet Union with the publication of One Day … [Read More]

In the Pennsylvania primary, Barack Obama rolled up more than 90 percent of the African-American vote. Among Catholics, he lost by 40 points. The cool liberal Harvard Law grad was not a good fit for the socially conservative ethnics of Altoona, Aliquippa, and Johnstown. But if Barack had a problem with Catholics then, he has a far higher hurdle to surmount … [Read More]

Near Astor Place, you can actually sit in a Starbucks, enjoy a venti latte, and look out across the street onto—another Starbucks. I’m sure there are many other places where such a thing is possible. During the big Starbucks expansion in the late ’90s and early ’00s, it seem that one might not be able to escape the green logo of … [Read More]

In response to the movement of Russian troops into Georgia this morning, State Department spokesperson Amanda Harper announced to the German press: “We support Georgia’s territorial integrity and we call for an immediate ceasefire.” Senator McCain was even more forceful, demanding, “Russia should immediately and unconditionally cease its military operations and withdraw all forces from sovereign Georgian territory.” Both statements are … [Read More]