Last week, October 9th, the Assemblée nationale, the French Parliament, hosted a conference advocating the teaching of Arabic language and civilization in French schools. The attendees, among them ambassadors from Arab countries and French academics, businessmen and politicians, listened to a message from French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who called Arabic the “language of the future, of science and of modernity.” He … [Read More]

A lot of cyber-ink has been spilled over a post by Ross Douthat arguing that grassroots populists need elites.  At one level, of course, Douthat is perfectly correct:  every political movement needs a leadership class.  But when he suggests that, to be successful, a figure like Sarah Palin needs someone like David Brooks, Douthat is wrong.  The reason right-wing populism has … [Read More]

Was race a factor in the decision of Colin Powell to repudiate his party’s nominee and friend of 25 years, Sen. John McCain, two weeks before Election Day, and to endorse Barack Obama? Gen. Powell does not deny it, contending only that race was not the only or decisive factor. “If I had only that fact in mind,” he told Tom … [Read More]

Douglas A. Jeffrey and Claremont Review both deserve to be congratulated for violating the imperial ban that the neoconservative mafia has imposed on my book Conservatism in America: Making Sense of the American Right. Unlike National Review, The Weekly Standard, the Washington Times, and other bona-fide members of the neocon agitprop empire, Jeffrey and his publication have dared to speak … [Read More]

One of my favorite things to learn about Sarah Palin was her ties to the Alaskan Independence Party, a group that wants their state to secede from the United States. Said the group’s late founder Joe Vogler “The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government.” Pretty radical stuff, right? Perhaps. But no more radical … [Read More]

Since you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I am going to spit you out of my mouth. You say, “I am rich. I have become wealthy. I don’t need anything.” Yet you don’t realize that you are miserable, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. (Revelation 3:16-17) While 44 per cent of Americans attend a place of worship once a week—and … [Read More]

Under consideration: Michael Pollan, The Omnivor’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, Penguin (2006), 464 pages; and In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, Penguin (2008), 256 pages.  A few weeks ago I attended a meeting of Kansas secessionists. The participants were rowdy, complaining of economic gigantism squashing them flat and bureaucratic thugs hounding their every move. They were all … [Read More]

As Americans render what Catholics call temporal judgment on George Bush, are they aware of the radical course correction they are about to make? This center-right country is about to vastly strengthen a liberal Congress whose approval rating is 10 percent and implant in Washington a regime further to the left than any in U.S. history. Consider. As of today, Speaker … [Read More]

It’s funny to see John McCain realize, so late in the game, that he really does want to be president—even more than he wants the editors of Washington monthlies to admire him. For most of this campaign, he has behaved like the kind of insufferable goody-two-shoes who in student council elections would talk about “civic duty,” and refuse to vote for … [Read More]

On a number of literally life and death issues, American conservatives and Catholics stand in a firm alliance. On other subjects, these groups pull in different directions—and this tension causes suspicion, irritation, even hostility on both sides. I’ve noticed among a number of immigration reformers a bubbling up of old, anti-Catholic sentiments—although this is nothing to match the easy scorn some … [Read More]