The crushing defeat and subsequent victory of the $700 billion economic bailout bill last week left both parties pointing fingers, claiming both the failure of conservatism and the triumph of liberalism depending on one’s party or politics. But the Republicans and Democrats doing the most pointing had it completely backwards, as what we saw was the triumph, and then defeat, of … [Read More]

The Two Minutes of Hate began in Ballston before the movie even began, when the previews of Oliver Stone’s W. hit the screen.  My brief speculation as to the political leanings of the crowd dissipated, as the Republican faithful screamed in rage at Stone’s biopic. “Judas,” “Traitor,” and the ultimate insult from any National Review conservative, “Fascist,” echoed through the theater.  … [Read More]

It’s beginning to look a lot like 2000. A prominent conservative bolts the GOP and wins the presidential nomination of an established third party. Early on, the poll numbers are encouraging and the media coverage respectful. Soon, however, his insurgent campaign is lost in the shuffle of a competitive two-party race. There is even competition for the dissident Right’s support, as … [Read More]

It has long been known that the Nobel Prizes in Peace and Literature are sometimes awarded to questionable characters such as Le Duc Tho, Yasser Arafat, and Dario Fo.  But even Nobel laureates in the hard sciences can make stupid pronouncements when they step outside their disciplines, as Chemistry laureate Harry Kroto recently proved in a broadside against religion published in … [Read More]

Okay, I tried to watch it. Tried really, really hard. I made a phone date with my long-distance love to view the debate “together.” I arranged my schedule around it. I even—and let me emphasize this—passed up a free circus ticket.   Around 8:45, I went down to the room where two months and 14 pounds ago I set up an … [Read More]

John McCain may have just let slip his last best chance to be president of the United States. When he flew back to Washington to address the banking crisis, McCain could have seized the hottest issue in America by taking the side of his countrymen who were enraged by the Paulson Plan to bail out a power elite whose greed … [Read More]

The tale is told by M. F. Barnes, in her 1931 study Renaissance Vistas (and it has often been depicted by great painters, notably Botticelli and Carpaccio), of Saint Augustine, wandering along the seashore. Lost in cogitation upon the Holy Trinity, the saint meets a small boy who busies himself filling a hole in the sand with teaspoonfuls of water from … [Read More]

When I read that actor Robert Wagner had had a four-year-long affair with Barbara Stanwyck back in 1952, my first reaction was that of envy and more envy. Wagner is 77 this year and Babs would have been 101, so when they were canoodling together he was 22 and she was 47. Excellent. Perfect. Young men need older women for sex … [Read More]

Conservative radio talk-show host, Chris Plante, a mainstay of 630 WMAL in Washington, D.C., recently interviewed Senator John S. McCain.  During the course of their interlocution, Plante, expressing a burgeoning sentiment among right-leaning media watchers, asked McCain if he was surprised by the virulence of the attacks being heaped on his VP pick, Governor Sarah Palin. Eschewing any pretense of chivalry, … [Read More]

Takimag contributors have recently batted around some thoughts on the “conservative canon” and its continuing usefulness. The net result of the discussion, I think, is that the conservative canon isn’t really a canon. It’s more a suggested reading list. If you think political modernity is a problem, it makes sense to read those who have thought the same, even though they … [Read More]