[Editor’s note: see also rounds 1-4 of Takimag’s increasingly acrimonious debate on originalism, interpretation, and whether the Constitution actually means anything at all. Austin Bramwell, “Original Sins”; Kevin R. C. Gutzman, “The Genuine Article”; Bramwell, “Best of Intentions”; Gutzman, “They Really Meant It”] There isn’t much to say in response to Kevin Gutzman’s latest.  He’s had two chances already but still … [Read More]

I’m sorry, but Kevin Gutzman is still totally wrong about the Constitution. His response to my article sends up a flurry of errors and misconceptions but leaves my critique of his work not only undisturbed but unaddressed. I am glad to set him straight point by point. 1. “[P]roducts of law school miseducation like Bramwell,” are “subjected to reading in ‘constitutional … [Read More]

I’m sorry, but Kevin Gutzman is totally wrong about the Constitution. In his books and many online articles, Gutzman argues that the Constitution grants the Federal government a handful of limited powers, but leaves the states free to govern as they like. Hence, almost the entire apparatus of the Federal government is unconstitutional. What’s more, says Gutzman, with no little vehemence, … [Read More]

I have a simple argument against white racism—not mine, actually, but H.L. Mencken’s. Suppose the Anglo-Americans really were wiped off their ice field. Well, then, nothing would actually be lost that is worth preserving in the first place. Mencken gives the reasons in his book Prejudices, which I excerpt here and adulterate with my own commentary. No other known man . … [Read More]

Has Franz Rosenzweig’s time come? Beats me. Let’s start with: who the hell was Franz Rosenzweig? Like many, I would never have heard of him had it not been for sometime Takimag contributor David P. Goldman, who for the past decade has been putting events in world-historic perspective under the pseudonym “Spengler” at the Asia Times Online. (Goldman recently revealed some … [Read More]

On Wednesday, Taki’s Magazine ran a series of articles from “National Disgrace Online,” a satirical counterpart to National Review Online. An amusing conceit—but the critique underlying the satire falls short.  Take the mock letter to President Obama by “Jonah Goldberg.” The letter—which is consistent with Paul Gottfried’s theories of mainstream movement perfidy—ridicules NR for things that either are not ridiculous or … [Read More]

Well, Ross Douthat got to the top of the greasy pole about as briskly as if it were a step ladder. Just eight years ago, I met him in his college dormroom, where he ran a weekly symposium for campus right-wingers. Now 29 years old, he’s a New York Times columnist.  We all behold with envious eyes / Our equals raised … [Read More]

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]

I grew up accustomed to bull markets and rising prosperity. Now I’d like to know whether they will ever resume. It would be nice if libertarianism—a family of ideologies with which I have a great tell of sympathy—could tell us the answer.  Unfortunately, the answers it gives are inconcsistent.  Libertarianism has two faces, which I call the comic and the tragic. … [Read More]

President Bush recently had perhaps his last sit-down as president with friendly movement conservative journalists (see accounts here and here) Nothing said then or in reaction since will change anyone’s mind about the man (my own included).  Nonetheless, the session is remarkable, for a number of reasons. First, Bush admits that he called the meeting in order to start building a … [Read More]