Here‘s David Weigel, speculating about Ron Paul running as a third-party candidate: “According to Paul, every time he’s been asked, the answer is no. But it’s the question among libertarians in DC right now. Some want him to fight on assuming he loses the GOP primary, letting his House seat go and becoming probably the most successful independent libertarian candidate in histroy. Some want him to stay in the House, imbued with new fame, fans and clout. Downsides to scenario one: If, as would seem likely, Republicans lose the White House and the Democratic candidate doesn’t break 50 percent, many will … 
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From the publisher’s blurb on Amazon.com for the new book by Jacob Heillbrun, They Knew They Were Right: The Rise of the Neocons: “Far from being chastened by the Iraq debacle, the neocons continue to guide foreign policy. They are advisors to each of the major GOP presidential candidates. Repeatedly declared dead in the past, like Old Testament prophets they thrive on adversity. This book shows where they came from—and why they remain a potent and permanent force in American politics.” So now we have another addition to the list of incurable diseases. Will science ever find a cure? I propose … 
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The Giuliani campaign reminds me of the Japanese Empire towards the middle of 1945: One disaster after another.  Let’s see. The Tokyo fire bombing took out 150,000 civilians and burnt most of the city; then came the loss of Okinawa, Hiroshima, Nagasaki—and to top all that off the Soviet Union declared war on the emperor. It might be stretching it a bit, but just look at Rudy’s situation. He has Norman Podhoretz, a Genghis Khan-like warrior (as long as his son, Four Pizzas John, does not have to do any of the fighting) as his main foreign policy advisor. Daniel Pipes, … 
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Over at the Goldberg Review, they’re revving up the motors to convince “conservatives” that Rudy the Reckless is The One. We should have known this, and, indeed, Paul Gottfried was clued in early. Now Newsweek has homed in on the news: Giuliani is the neocon candidate to beat. Here’s the plainly dispirited Rich Lowry, signaling that he’s on board, albeit with a distinct lack of enthusiasm: “Pound for pound, Giuliani might be the most talented political horseflesh in the field, an excellent debater and proven leader. He’ll need all that talent — and probably more — to overcome positions on cultural … 
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The Empire State Building was once the world’s tallest, until the World Trade Center came along.  While other buildings elsewhere eventually topped it, the Empire State Building remained the second-tallest building in New York City—until September 11, 2001, when the will of Allah made it the city’s tallest once again. Which makes the irony of this Breitbart report almost unbearable: New York’s iconic Empire State Building is to be lit up green from Friday in honor of the Muslim holiday of Eid, the biggest festival in the Muslim calendar marking the end of Ramadan, officials said. “This is the first time … 
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As the Bush administration, with the full-throat support of our unhinged media, whips up the public for a looming war with Iran, a sober citizen’s thoughts run naturally to the Apocalypse. One’s next thought, inevitably, is of absinthe. Absinthe was invented as a medicinal tonic in the ancient world. It was recommended by Hippocrates the physician as a cure for rheumatism, Pythagoras the mystic as anesthesia for childbirth, and by Pliny the elder as mouthwash. In its modern form, spiked with alcohol, absinthe is said to be the concoction of Dr. Pierre Ordinaire—a refugee from the Reign of Terror who apparently … 
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I like my Apple products as much as the next guy (OK—better than the next guy, because judging from the groans and angry rumbling, he’s apparently running Windows Vista on a Dell laptop and “squirting” songs from his lovely brown Microsoft Zune), but there’s something wrong with this picture: “iPod being used by Army as Arabic translator in Iraq.”  Yes, I’m sure some pro-war faux libertarian could wax rhapsodic about how “the glories of the free market are injecting peace and democracy into the heart of the Islamofascist world,” but my concerns are more mundane. These aren’t soldiers using these iPods—or, … 
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Although I am second to none in my admiration for Marcus Epstein as a critic of the Left and of the continuing neocon nuisance, I feel constrained as a Europeanist to point out a few of his misleading statements about the backgrounds of the Flemish separatists. To my knowledge, the Flemish people did not show any special affinity for Nazi Germany, although some of their young men foolishly agreed to be sent as “anti-Communist’ volunteers to fight on the Eastern Front. The most important Nazi collaborationist organization in wartime Belgium, the Rexists, was composed mostly of Walloons and spoke French. It … 
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If Faustus was willing to sell his soul to the Devil for sex, wealth and power, Eliot Spitzer, governor of New York, has settled for power— sensing full well that the other two follow naturally. Mind you, money doesn’t enter into it.  His father is a real estate shark billionaire who, in order to develop homes, has put out more orphans and widows than I’ve had hot meals or drunken nights.  As far as sex is concerned, Spitzer gets a pass. He looks as if he were conceived by a man with a dose of the clap, but then I’m only … 
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On September 11, a number of Flemish politicians from the Vlaams Belang [Flemish Interest] party were arrested for attending a banned rally protesting “The Islamization of Europe.” As pictures and videos that showed peaceful men in business suits being manhandled by the black cladded riot police, the protesters garnered a great deal of sympathy from American conservatives. Mark Steyn, Diana West, Pat Buchanan, Michelle Malkin, the Washington Times editorial page, and David Horowitz’s Jihad Watch all came to the defense of the Vlaams Belang. This is a stark contrast to the arrest and nearly two year prosecution of British National Party … 
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