Back when Treasury Secretary “Hank” Paulson was informing us all that the U.S. economy was “fundamentally healthy,” and the global economy A-okay, Peter Schiff was saying something quite different, indeed—and was being scoffed at and even denounced as unpatriotic (where have we heard that before?) by the analysts of BubbleVision. Well, Peter was right, and a video a highlight reel of … [Read More]

I’m always glad to see the proliferation of websites and blogs of the “Alternative Right” (broadly defined), and I was thus delighted to learn of the launching of “Front-Porch Republic.” My initial sense was that it might capture some of the spirit of the “front-porch anarchists” Bill Kauffman (who’s a contributing editor) went searching for in Look Homeward, America. The editors … [Read More]

So cheer up! Austin’s essay on the distinction between “tragic” and “comic” libertarianism was sparked, I gather, from some email conversations between the two of us in which I’ve been waxing tragic (if not always displaying my devotion to liberty.) I remember nudging Austin to invest in some gold bullion in order to protect his family’s wealth from Ben Bernanke’s money … [Read More]

The webzine Culture11 officially closed up shop last week, ending a four month run as the web’s alternative conservative destination.  Late last summer, I first heard rumors that there was a new well-funded conservative webzine in the works, which at the time was billed as “LibertyWire—the conservative answer to Slate”! The name soon morphed into “The Culture,” settling eventually on the … [Read More]

I guess I’m supposed to be shocked and dismayed by the clips, released this weekend, of Prince Harry using some rather mild racial language and generally acting like a buffoon while his First Mechanized Brigade’s tours Iraq. But for some reason I wasn’t much offended at all.  Sure, it’s best not to call a member of your own brigade “our little … [Read More]

Why Israel Loses Asymmetric Wars I’ve been reluctant to write about Israel’s bombardment and invasion of Gaza this past two weeks for the simple reason that the ordeal has struck me as, to borrow a phrase from Bismarck, “some damn foolish thing” in the Hold Land—and one which, I hope, doesn’t precipitate a worldwide disaster like the original “damn foolish thing” … [Read More]

The following address was given to the H.L. Mencken Club’s Annual Meeting; November 21-23, 2008. Before William F. Buckley settled on writing God and Man at Yale in 1951, the 25 year-old had something quite different in mind as a debut volume. Buckley planned, and may have begun drafting, a book caustically entitled Revolt Against the Masses, his full-frontal assault on … [Read More]

The majority of the American people oppose bailing out the Bit Three automakers at a clip of 61 to 36, and it was thus perfectly sensible for Senate Republicans to reject the $14 billion “rescue” bill that was presented to them on Friday. The idea that the GOP should have attempted to buy the votes of Ohioans by giving their employers … [Read More]

The Beltway Right is still venting its collective spleen over Bill Kristol’s latest Times op-ed in which he argues, rather elliptically, that the conservative movement and GOP should get rid of its “small government,” “rugged individualism” talk, which scares people, and instead spend their years in exile developing a governing philosophy for the modern welfare state—not too big, not too small, … [Read More]

This weekend I attended an engrossing production of The Seagull on Broadway—and I was lucky enough to be accompanied by the intelligent and beautiful great granddaughter of Manfred von Richthofen, the German ace of the Great War. And though I was much affected by the bourgeois tragedy unfolding on stage, my thoughts tended towards the Red Baron and his lovely scion. … [Read More]