This James Kirchick character who smears Taki in TNR has quite a rep in the blogosphere, best summed up by liberal blogger Matt Yglesias: “Kirchick has a promising future in conservative journalism, having mastered the time-honored techniques of rising through the ranks without any demonstrated ability in fields other than arguing with straw men and making things up about his opponents.” … [Read More]

We’re told that Israel, unlike the Arab states that surround it, is a “free” country, a “democracy” just like us: indeed, the Israelis are trying to push their way into NATO partly on this basis. But the reality, as is often the case when it comes to the Israelis, is quite different, as the case of Mordechai Vanunu makes all too … [Read More]

My friend Scott Richert is right: there is a problem. But excluding all “adherents of Islam” from the US isn’t the solution. To begin with, a real terrorist isn’t going to proclaim his (or her) adherence to Islam upon entering the US. How hard would it be to lie about it? Secondly, what about all those Muslims already living in the … [Read More]

For all those career criminals out there, oppressed by a legal system stacked against them, who hope against hope that the justice of their cause will some day be recognized, the President’s commutation of Scooter Libby’s sentence is a historic victory. Poor Scooter, who suffered discrimination at the hands of jurors just because he happens to belong to a minority group—a … [Read More]

A pipe bomb explodes in a trash can outside of Disney World in Florida, and it makes international headlines. The hysteria builds—and it’s easily translatable into war hysteria. Addendum: A Disney employee has been arrested “after bragging about putting a pipe bomb at Downtown Disney.”  [Read More]

”So incompetent as to be almost laughable”—That’s how former Scotland Yard investigator John O’Connor characterized the incredibly botched London bombings, in which 5 hapless “jihadists” were arrested (so far). Is this “Al Qaeda”? I think not. Yet to look at the amount of hysteria this incident has generated—at the offices of National Review alone—you’d think we’re on the brink of another … [Read More]

If you haven’t read Victor Gold’s Invasion of the Party Snatchers: How the Holy Rollers and the Neocons Destroyed the GOP, then you’re in for a treat. Irascible as Taki, and full of bile against the neocon pod-people who have taken over the party of Goldwater and Taft, here’s a clip from his interview with Bill Moyers: “The only two candidates … [Read More]

Every once in a while the political spectrum changes polarities, and the traditional concepts of “Left” and “Right” undergo a radical transformation: wars have this effect, quite often, and, in the present case, the political landscape is shifting before our eyes.   How do I know this? Well, suddenly I find myself agreeing with all kinds of people I would … [Read More]

Is it me, or were the 15 British sailors and marines held by the Iranians just a little too gabby? Now that they’re home, the former hostages are repudiating their statements saying that they had intruded into Iranian waters, and they’re telling us that their profuse apologies – eagerly televised by the Iranians – were “coerced.” Yet they hardly seemed all … [Read More]

Rudy Giuliani’s closet is filled to overflowing, and its contents are dropping out all over just as he ratchets up his presidential bid. And there’s a lot more than bones in those dark recesses: go here for the full (450 pages!) story, but I’ll give you the short (and spicy) version: It’s all about the “weirdness factor,” as a secret study … [Read More]