http://www.takimag.com/blogs/Gottfried.xml The Online Magazine for Independent Conservatives, edited by Taki Theodoracopulos en test5@me.com Copyright 2008 2008-05-13T14:39:00-05:00 http://www.takimag.com/blogs/article/no_mans_land/ http://www.takimag.com/blogs/article/no_mans_land/#When:14:39:00Z A longer version of this article went into the Lancaster Newspapers, for which I’m a regular columnist and through which I’m now reaching about half a million readers. Despite the local popularity of my columns, I’ve not been syndicated; nor have I been invited on to Republican talk radio nor asked to appear with prepubescent bloggers on the O’Reilly Hour. The observation I make about McCain’s total inability to appeal to the right has been confirmed since the article appeared by the fact that his poll numbers relative to either Democratic opponent have been steadily falling throughout the last week. Not … Politics 2008-05-13T14:39:00-05:00 http://www.takimag.com/sniperstower/article/correcting_richard/ http://www.takimag.com/sniperstower/article/correcting_richard/#When:21:45:00Z In his response to an article on the supposed, mystifying limits of spreading democracy by Lawrence Kaplan in The New Republic, Richard Spencer seems bothered by Kaplan’s examples that “all peoples are capable of democracy.” When Kaplan mentions the Germans, Japanese, and Catholics of South America as those who managed to practice democracy, contrary to onetime misconceptions, Richard offers what is intended as a refutation of the misrepresentation of the Germans. He notes that Germans had a constitutional monarchy in the nineteenth century. Moreover, German cities and towns are dotted with Rathäuser, where presumably since the Middle Ages local councils … 2008-05-08T21:45:00-05:00 http://www.takimag.com/sniperstower/article/supporting_a_disaster/ http://www.takimag.com/sniperstower/article/supporting_a_disaster/#When:19:43:00Z Richard Spencer’s guarded statement of preference for Obama over Baldwin got me to thinking why there may be some merit in his counsels. Although I don’t think the media would be any more likely to notice our vote in the fall than it was to report the 16 % of the Pennsylvania Republican primary vote that went to Ron Paul, there is still a compelling reason to vote for Obama, and particularly if we can assist in the defeat of Bob Dole II. The last thing we should want out of this fall’s presidential election is a neocon mouthpiece pushing his … 2008-05-08T19:43:00-05:00 http://www.takimag.com/blogs/article/a_response_to_dan_larison/ http://www.takimag.com/blogs/article/a_response_to_dan_larison/#When:13:17:00Z Although I am second to none in my respect for Dan Larison as a political commentator, his remarks about nationalism and nation states are for the most part historically inaccurate. The Serb blogger who noted that a Serb national consciousness had existed for centuries before a Serb nation state came into existence is absolutely correct about Serbia and about European nation states in general. The Protestant Reformation, the nineteenth-century wars of national unification and national liberation in Europe, and the ominous confrontation precipitating World War One all reflected the force of already existing national sentiments. Without those sentiments and the friend/enemy … 2008-05-04T13:17:00-05:00 http://www.takimag.com/sniperstower/article/good_for_marcus/ http://www.takimag.com/sniperstower/article/good_for_marcus/#When:15:38:01Z Human Events‘s falsification of Martin Luther King’s record on abortion, which Marcus exposes in his latest blog, struck me as the kind of willful, stupid lie that the current conservative movement perpetrates with remarkable regularity. From the pretense that the “move against Saddam Hussein” that William Kristol and Rich Lowry called for in 2002 in their Project for a New American Century (God save us from such a century!), was necessary for the “defense of Israel,” (there is no evidence that most Israelis thought this was the case) to the wholesale reconstruction of MLK as a classical Christian theologian and “conservative” … 2008-05-03T15:38:01-05:00 http://www.takimag.com/sniperstower/article/lincoln_havers_and_larison/ http://www.takimag.com/sniperstower/article/lincoln_havers_and_larison/#When:23:58:01Z Since the debate about Lincoln seems to be winding on and on, I’m adding this comment concerning the material I inserted yesterday as a blog. As far as I can recall, no paleo I’ve known had a particularly favorable view of Lincoln as a statesman, although by no means all of them shared the demonic picture M.E.Bradford drew of him in his occasional writings. Surprisingly, Bradford’s mentor Richard Weaver had expressed a more positive view of Lincoln as an orator from the one associated with Mel.  The picture of Lincoln that emerges from Jaffa, DiLorenzo, and all neocon scribblers is mostly … 2008-04-30T23:58:01-05:00 http://www.takimag.com/blogs/article/sanger_once_again/ http://www.takimag.com/blogs/article/sanger_once_again/#When:15:28:00Z Having just fished in troubled waters, by jumping into Marcus Epstein’s debate with his critics over Planned Parenthood and its agendas, I feel obliged to state my views in a more nuanced way than I did yesterday as an addendum to Marcus’s commentary. First of all, I should make clear that I’m no fan of the would-be social engineer Margaret Sanger, and there is ample evidence that Sanger hoped to limit the reproductive possibilities of the white working class, made up but not exclusively of ethnic Catholics. (As far as I can determine, Sanger would have been just as happy … 2008-04-29T15:28:00-05:00 http://www.takimag.com/sniperstower/article/a_response_to_matthew_roberts/ http://www.takimag.com/sniperstower/article/a_response_to_matthew_roberts/#When:14:42:00Z Matthew Roberts may be correct that Chuck Baldwin and his Constitution Party represent the Right in a paradigmatic sense, but what is less demonstrable is whether it would pay for readers of this website to vote for Baldwin as a presidential candidate. The point to be stressed is that our side will not be able to elect a candidate this year, which is being politically dominated by the neocon and liberal Left. The best we can reasonably hope to do is make a statement that the media will have to notice. This would only be possible if we could get behind … 2008-04-27T14:42:00-05:00 http://www.takimag.com/blogs/article/waiting_for_agitprop/ http://www.takimag.com/blogs/article/waiting_for_agitprop/#When:13:46:01Z When the story broke a few weeks ago about the polygamous Fundamentalist Mormon “compound” in Eldorado, Texas, from whence 416 children had been taken, I observed to my wife that a neocon pronouncement would soon follow, explaining why the forced separation of the children from their mothers was “good for liberal democracy.” Mary’s comment at the time was “it won’t make any difference. As soon as the media starts talking about a ‘compound,’ you can be sure things will get uncomfortable for those inside.” Unlike the incident at Waco, however, this time the state did nothing more destructive than abduct a … 2008-04-25T13:46:01-05:00 http://www.takimag.com/sniperstower/article/a_noteworthy_review/ http://www.takimag.com/sniperstower/article/a_noteworthy_review/#When:15:57:00Z The latest issue of The American Conservative (April 21, 2008) contains a noteworthy review by Tom Piatak of Sidney Blumenthal’s The Strange Death of Republican America, a screed produced from a partisan Democratic and socially leftist perspective which would not be worth mentioning , save for Tom’s incisive observations. Tom notes the fact that Blumenthal’s invectives against the neocons involve linking them to social traditionalists. Clearly Sid Poison and his buddies are not waiting to jump over to our side in a grand alliance against saber-rattling neocon. The neocons and the liberal Left share common ground; and this situation is not … 2008-04-22T15:57:00-05:00