July 16, 2009 marks the fortieth anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11, which led four days later to perhaps the signature American accomplishment of the twentieth century, the landing at the Sea of Tranquility by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin and Armstrong’s famous “one small step for [a] man, one giant leap of mankind,” a mere eight years after John … [Read More]

Kevin Gutzman, citing leftist historian Louis Hartz’ The Liberal Tradition in America, first informed Takimag readers that liberalism is the only political tradition in the United States, and that this was a “good thing.” Gutzman then restated his thesis over Chris Kopff’s objections, even noting that he was a student of Mel Bradford as he argued again that America’s sole political … [Read More]

Notre Dame taught a clear lesson today, in its decision to have President Obama as a commencement speaker and to award him an honorary degree. That lesson is this:  American politicians can freely embrace abortion and face no negative consequences at all. Any pro-abortion politician who climbs to the top of Benjamin Disraeli’s “greasy pole” will get nothing but applause and … [Read More]

Since the fall, auto sales have collapsed. This collapse has affected foreign manufacturers as well as American ones, and many countries are providing government loans and other assistance to their manufacturers. According to an Associated Press story from March, the European Investment Bank is going to give $4.9 billion in loans to European carmakers, and the EU is reviewing proposed aid … [Read More]

When one reads the new atheists, one gets the impression that the influence of Christianity has been entirely baleful, that Christianity’s contribution to morality has been entirely negative, and that the United States, far from being a Christian country historically, is really the finest flower of the anti-religious Enlightenment, and that we therefore ought to stamp out all public manifestations of … [Read More]

In his homily at his inaugural Mass as Pope, Benedict XVI asked Catholics to “Pray for me, that I may not flee for fear of the wolves.”  The media firestorm over Benedict’s decision to lift the excommunication of the four bishops consecrated without papal approval in 1988 by the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre provides a perfect illustration of how modern wolves … [Read More]

If I had to live in the Middle East, I would want to live in Israel, a modern, democratic country with a productive economy, including a burgeoning high-tech sector, and a rich cultural and intellectual life.  There is much to admire in Israel, a dynamic and prosperous nation created in part by survivors of the Holocaust. If I were an Israeli, … [Read More]

When my wife suggested that we go see Doubt, John Patrick Shanley’s film adaptation of his Tony-award winning play, I was skeptical. I never saw the play, but I knew that it was about a priest suspected by a nun of molesting a teenage boy at the parochial school she ran, and I didn’t want to waste two hours on the … [Read More]

When I was young, there was much talk of “the Christmas spirit,” and I’ve always been fortunate enough to begin experiencing the joy appropriate for this time of year sometime before the big day.  This year, that happened this past Sunday.  Going to church in the morning helped put me in the mood, as I knew that the next hymn I … [Read More]

Back in the 1950s, when Americans knew from recent experience just how important it was to have a dominant manufacturing sector, Ike’s Defense Secretary, “Engine Charlie” Wilson, formerly of General Motors, famously declared, “What’s good for America is good for General Motors, and what’s good for General Motors is good for America.”  Charlie Wilson, whose former company had turned out the … [Read More]