I’ve already briefly mentioned my recent trip to West Point for the funeral of Timothy J. Vogel, one of America’s greatest warriors. Tim meant a lot to me, so please forgive me if I repeat myself a little. Before I go on, however, a brief and nostalgic look at the soldiers of another war and their representations in celluloid. The film … [Read More]

Ahmet Ertegun was the greatest Turk since Kemal Ataturk, but unlike Mustapha Kemal, he never killed anyone, especially a Greek. In brief, Ertegun was the supreme record man ever, the signer of the most important rhythm & blues, jazz, pop and rock artists of all time, the founder and builder of Atlantic   Records, a company he began with the ten … [Read More]

When I wrote a tongue-in-cheek column about the Puerto Rican parade ten years ago in the London Spectator, all hell broke loose. The politically correct busybodies had a field day, so much so that Rudy Giuliani declared that he would try and deport me and have me fired from the Spectator. There were only two problems: First, I am an American … [Read More]

During the German occupation of my homeland in the Second World War there were nightly shouts of “Vasta Rommel” by certain Greeks. “Vasta” in Greek means “Hold on.” In other words, Greeks were praying for the great Erwin Rommel to hold against Montgomery’s 8th army. The German officers who were billeted in our house were immensely flattered. Until, that is, Fraulein, … [Read More]

How about a change of pace? Iraq, the neocons, Iran, Hillary, Turkey in the EU…it’s all bad news for the foreseeable future. As far as I can tell, the only two things that haven’t changed are Wall Street greed and English snobbery. I am not an expert on the former, but when you think that 25 years ago the Dow stood … [Read More]

The immigration protest march this week gave me some food for thought. There are 800,000 British passport holders who can at any time come to the United States without a visa or subject to any controls. These Brits are all either Pakistani born and naturalized British subjects, or their sons or grandsons. Pakistani Britons travel to their ancestral land of Pakistan … [Read More]

Justin Raimondo has written a very important article for The American Conservative. It is about the upcoming trial of two AIPAC agents who were indicted along with Pentagon analyst Larry Franklin and charged with espionage for Israel. Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman are former officials of the Israeli Lobby and as the trial nears it seems the Lobby is pulling out … [Read More]

Bragging goes hand in hand with failure. I’ve met a lot of stars in my life—sport and literary ones, and not a small amount of film stars, too—and I’ve yet to come across a successful one who boasted. Sure, there was Mohammed Ali, but his was a jig, a publicity stunt to make up for the years of white man forced … [Read More]

The first time I met Pat Buckley was in 1964 and the circumstances were rather strange.  It was at the Palace hotel in Gstaad, and a few friends and I were drinking around the large piano in the grill while the pianist was playing a spirited version of Mussolini’s favorite tune, “Giovinezza.” Our singing the ode to youth and fascism apparently … [Read More]

One of the least gratifying pictures I have had the bad luck to view on television this week for the portly figure of Richard Perle expounding his vile views in The Case for War. Even worse, it was on public television, which as everyone knows is paid for by our tax dollars. The heavy-lidded Perle is hardly photogenic, although unlike most … [Read More]