When it comes to right and wrong, let’s throw out the labels “conservative” and “liberal”. These terms have been denuded of meaning. Thanks to those pushy “neoconservatives” and their prominence in recent years, the average person is understandably confused as to what a genuine conservative is. The average person is apt to think that clowns such as Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly, and talking heads such as Fred Barnes and Bill Kristol, and their ilk, are conservatives, whereas they are simply opportunists, profiteers, and professional propagandists, using the conservative label as a flag of convenience. This is a curse of the … 
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I wonder how many of our readers saw last night’s discussion with Republican pollster Frank Luntz, a commentary that was absorbing enough so that I was able to watch FOX for more than thirty seconds. The Republicans who had come to the debate in Iowa were thrilled by the thumping, warlike rhetoric of Rudy and his clones but from all accounts were outraged by Ron Paul’s defeatism. The party loyalists who were interviewed seemed to revere W, and several of them expressed the hope that the next Republican presidential candidate would also talk about “values” and prescription drugs. I came away … 
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Alright, alright, enough already with the Hamburger Question, let’s get down the Really Important Things, i.e. mentions of me on the Internets. This is the Writer’s Vice of the cybernetic age: self-Googling, which is exactly what it sounds like. LOL. Anyway, whilst indulging this exercise in narcissism, I came upon this little biography of British neocon David Aaronovitch: “David Aaronovitch is a former president of the NUS, a former BBC executive, a former writer on the Independent and now writes for the Guardian and the Observer. His popular stance on the war on Iraq has attracted comment from figures as ideologically … 
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Justin confesses that he is “perplexed by this paleocon jihad against McDonald’s, Walmart, and other commercial venues.”  He shouldn’t be.  He admits that he prefers Johnny Rocket’s (a good choice) to McDonald’s.  And if the market is all about freedom of choice, shouldn’t we paleocons be free not only to choose not to patronize Wal-Mart, McDonald’s, and Microsoft, but also to convince others to do likewise?  Or is freedom of speech a lesser freedom than that of a multinational corporation to make a quick buck selling an inferior product? Justin’s lucky—even if the “paleocon [sic!] Board of Stupidvisors” in San Francisco … 
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Scott is half-right—I suffer from a Syndrome having to do with restlessness, but it has nothing to do with my legs .... Moving right along, however: I am perplexed by this paleocon jihad against McDonald’s, Walmart, and other commercial venues. Of course, I’ve never actually been in one of these establishments—in San Francisco, where our paleocon Board of Stupidvisors reigns supreme, I have been deprived of the possibility of making that choice—and I doubt that I would, even if given the chance (I prefer Johnny Rocket’s). But what I don’t get is this: is McDonald’s really the Major Menace our paleocons, … 
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My friend Justin Raimondo is the best of the paleolibertarians, but he occasionally suffers from Restless Leg Syndrome.  At least, I assume that’s what’s responsible for the knee-jerk reaction to my previous post. Justin writes: “Is Senor Richert proposing to nationalize the fast food business, in order to get the government to inject ‘meaning’ into McDonald’s hamburgers?”  Of course, I had already ruled out such an absurd idea: “I can hear the cries now: ‘What do you want—government to intervene?’ Of course not.” Since Justin apparently didn’t get that far, let me repeat the very next lines: “But such studies should … 
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I have a solution to Scott Richert’s McDonald’s conundrum: if you don’t like McDonald’s, then don’t patronize them. I know that’s terribly complicated, but there you have it. Is Senor Richert proposing to nationalize the fast food business, in order to get the government to inject “meaning” into McDonald’s hamburgers? Richert says “of course” he doesn’t want the government to intervene—but, then, what does he want? If you want religion, go to church. If you want a hamburger, go to McDonald’s. Or, maybe, he just wants to make sure that the ingredients are “100% American.” And, of course, we can’t have … 
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It occurred to me recently that thirty years have elapsed since I first began earning money as a church organist. Perhaps in those thirty years, I may have learnt a few things of some general interest, worth passing on to others. I’ve played in many Catholic churches, and in quite a few Anglican [Episcopalian] churches. But I don’t know the first thing about playing the organ in Presbyterian churches, or Lutheran churches, or any other churches. So what goes on there might be different from what I’ve undergone. I can only talk about what I myself have seen and heard. My … 
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Left undistorted by government, our libertarian friends tell us, the market will always work out to the advantage of all.  Those of us who express doubts are routinely derided as “statists” or “protectionists” or “authoritarians.” And we may even be called something worse if we dare to proclaim, with the social teaching of the Church, that the market is made for man, not man for the market—and, hence, accept the proposition that moral considerations are more important than the workings of the invisible hand. Even the most die-hard defender of unfettered economic liberty, however, might pause for a moment after reading … 
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Two days ago my frenzied attempt to “make sense of the American Right” came out as a book with Palgrave-Macmillan. My readers are urged to get hold of this slim volume, which Peter Brimelow describes as a “must read” for sudents of the American Right. Copies are available through Amazon.Com. Although it has not been my practice to use my blog in order to sell my wares, I did not have a blog to abuse until quite recently. I doubt that anyone who frequents this site will be disappointed by my treatment of the American conserative movement. The book is almost … 
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