Call me slow, but I think have finally understood one of the most puzzling claims of terror warriors, namely, that the crucial difference between them and their liberal opponents is that the latter believe that hunger and poverty cause terrorism. As Norman Podhoretz writes, “standard academic and intellectual discourse” holds that terrorism is “a product of economic factors,” namely, “hunger and … [Read More]

Wait a second—might the terrorists in Mumbai have had actual political objectives? Are you suggesting that they don’t just hate freedom and wealth? Who has ever heard of such a thing?  [Read More]

The Supreme Court has provided another nail in the coffin of executive war powers in its recent opinion on the rights of Guantanamo Bay detainees.  Earlier decisions by the court in Hamdan and Rasul ignored statutory enactment after statutory enactment that deprived these detainees of access the courts.  This is certainly not an issue of the Court trying to divine legislative … [Read More]

On Wednesday, November 28, Derrick Shareef pled guilty in U.S. District Court in Chicago on federal charges of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction.  I’ve discussed the Shareef case before on this website, most notably here, here, and here. In the past, I’ve suggested the Shareef case was only the tip of the iceberg, and that those who thought … [Read More]

Steven LaTulippe’s article today, “Let’s Sit Out World War IV,” has much to recommend it, and I doubt that anyone associated with Taki’s Top Drawer is likely to disagree with LaTulippe’s call for the United States to take advantage of the fact that we are “not forced by geography into a conflict with Dar-al Islam.”  Yes, withdrawing from the Middle East … [Read More]

The Empire State Building was once the world’s tallest, until the World Trade Center came along.  While other buildings elsewhere eventually topped it, the Empire State Building remained the second-tallest building in New York City—until September 11, 2001, when the will of Allah made it the city’s tallest once again. Which makes the irony of this Breitbart report almost unbearable: New … [Read More]

Bill Sammon, the author of The Evangelical President: George Bush’s Struggle to Spread a Moral Democracy Throughout the World, cannot be labeled a critic of President Bush.  As both the senior White House correspondent for the Washington Examiner and a reporter for the Washington Times, he’s had greater access to the President than any other journalist.  And his book has been … [Read More]

President Bush’s nominee to replace Alberto Gonzales as attorney general is making waves because of who he is (the first Orthodox Jew to be nominated for the position) as well as for what is not (a known quantity on issues that matter to social conservatives, such as abortion and the relationship between Church and state).  A former federal judge, nominated by … [Read More]

“All things have their season, and in their times all things pass under heaven.A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted.A time to kill, and a time to heal. A time to destroy, and a time to build.A time to weep, and a time to … [Read More]

Well, no, not really.  Babar Ahmad is a British Muslim who ran jihadist websites that raised money for radical Muslims fighting in Chechnya and Afghanistan.  He’s currently being held in England, awaiting extradition to the United States.  His case is of interest to me, because it was Ahmad to whom former U.S. Navy signalman Hassan Abujihaad passed classified information on the … [Read More]