About the appointment by Gov. Rod Blagojevich of Roland Burris to the U.S. Senate, somebody big is lying, big-time. It is either the governor or Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Last week, Reid declared that he would not permit Burris, the African-American elder statesman of Illinois politics, to fill Obama’s seat, or even to enter the Senate chamber, though no one … [Read More]

As a congressman and now governor, South Carolina’s Mark Sanford has had one primary guiding principle his entire political career—limited government. Not just limited government rhetoric, the sort of lip service paid by milk-toast Republicans to pacify their Right-leaning base, but genuine, strict, fiscal conservatism with the guts to back it up. If you ever need a good illustration of just … [Read More]

Salvation was in the air. Repeal, also, was in the air. Two weeks before, the lame-duck Congress had turned a somersault and voted the amendment to the Constitution ending Prohibition. The wets were making merry with applejack, bathtub gin and prohibition hooch. “Beer by Easter,” they cried. Forty-one legislatures were in session for the chance to approve the wet amendment and … [Read More]

Having already received several frantic notes about Taki’s comments concerning Israel’s campaign against armed Hamas members and other targets in the Gaza region, perhaps I should go public before these mounting inquiries get out of hand. In the case of Taki’s sworn enemy Larry Auster, there may be nothing that I could possibly say to placate his Achilles-like wrath. Larry scolds … [Read More]

Editor Richard Spencer has asked me—and indeed all the Takimag gang—to record our predictions for the coming year, but I have to say that I take this to mean he wants us to get our fingers moving and write something–because all punditry is prediction, in an important sense. Every time one advocates a particular policy, or descries another, the author is … [Read More]

On the eve of the New Year, Gov. Rod Blagojevich, charged with conspiring to sell the Senate seat of Barack Obama, put the ball back squarely in the court of a Democratic Party that had disowned him. Blago named Roland Burris, former attorney general of Illinois and first African-American ever to win statewide office, to fill the vacated seat. National Democrats … [Read More]

After a year as bad as 2008, trying to imagine what God’s permissive will—or incipient wrath—has in store for us this year seems almost churlish, or masochistic. Should I lay out a series of catastrophic events in our nation’s politics, economy and culture, I might seem like I’m challenging God: “I bet You can’t top this. Go ahead, make my day.” … [Read More]