SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS—It’s good to be in Texas. To a European like me, Texas is why we came to America. It’s a huge state, but more important, it’s a state of mind. It is a fount of freedom and imagination. For most of the inhabitants of America’s two coasts, Texas is worse than flyover country. Texas represents everything they hate about America: Texas is big, loud, white, Republican, Christian; it produces fossil fuel, its citizens drive big cars that use up a lot of fuel, they eat a lot—starchy, fatty foods—they carry guns. The so-called elites in the Bagel, inside the … 
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Apparently not in the twin capitals of liberalism, D.C. and New York. In a ranking of 50 states and D.C. by how much each spent per pupil in public schools in 2005, New York ranked first; D.C. third. The state spent $14,100, and New York City just a tad less. And the bountiful fruits of this massive transfer of taxpayers’ wealth? In D.C., nearly half of all black and Latino students drop out. Of those who graduate, nearly half are reading and doing math at seventh-, eighth- and ninth-grade levels. D.C. academic achievement ranks 51st, last in the U.S. Yet last … 
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No one can accuse Mandolyna Theodoracopulos of not being provocative, and I read her recent post “Jon and Kate Plus Hate” with interest.  I entirely agree with her criticisms of in vitro fertilization, and indeed would go well beyond them: Just because science allows us to do something does not mean that we should, and one does not have to accept (as I do) the Catholic Church’s teaching on sexual morality to recognize that there are sound reasons for believing that procreation should not be separated from the sexual act itself. Of course, we should note that, unlike the “Octomom” whom … 
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Last Sunday evening, while I was watching the final minutes of the now famous Indianapolis Colts - New England Patriots football game, I experienced a moment of middle-aged serenity. I realized that I didn’t actually need to have an opinion on perhaps the leading topic of office water cooler debate in this decade: Which quarterback is better—the Colt’s Peyton Manning or the Patriot’s Tom Brady? I could just sit back and enjoy the show. You can, too, with these highlights.  The everlasting Brady-Manning controversy reminded me of an epistemological insight that Harvard cognitive scientist Steven Pinker suggested when I interviewed him … 
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Another of the media’s enforcers of Acceptable Opinion was unleashed the other day, this one at the Huffington Post. There Sam Stein exposed the terrible extremists—including Tom Woods, Charles Goyette, and Thomas Naylor, the three I focus on here—who have been featured on the Glenn Beck television program.  I’m not a big fan of Beck myself, but the people HuffPo chooses to single out for its Two Minutes Hate tell us all we need to know about approved (and disapproved) opinion in America.  First, Stein introduces us to Thomas Naylor, a man of the Left who learns that even leftists are … 
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One easily forgets how innocent those pretty young things really are… They are so good at having us believe they are experienced. Most men manage to resist the temptation of going after a ingénue, of course, but others, like the decadent and indecent Humbert Humbert and Roman Polanski, simply can’t. An Education,  Lynn Barber’s memoir about growing up in 1960s London, is a classic story of innocence lost. A coquettish girl. A broken man. A lesson for all young women and would-be second-handers. Part of the journalist’s memoir was adapted for the screen by the illustrious Nick Hornby, and the BBC … 
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Are we at war—or not? For if we are at war, why is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed headed for trial in federal court in the Southern District of New York? Why is he entitled to a presumption of innocence and all of the constitutional protections of a U.S. citizen? Is it possible we have done an injustice to this man by keeping him locked up all these years without trial? For that is what this trial implies—that he may not be guilty. And if we must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that KSM was complicit in mass murder, by what right do … 
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When alleged killer Nidal Malik Hasan went on a murderous rampage at Fort Hood Texas last week, the Muslim Army psychiatrist reportedly shouted “Allahu Akbar,” which means “god is great” as he shot his victims. Speaking about the shootings on ABC’s “This Week” Sunday, Gen. George Casey said “What happened at Fort Hood was a tragedy, but I believe it would be an even-greater tragedy if our diversity becomes a casualty here.” Casey is not only wrong, but the Fort Hood tragedy was a direct result of our egregious commitment to the concept of diversity. The United States has many bizarre … 
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NEW YORK—At an outdoor luncheon party in Sussex celebrating Willy Shawcross’s birthday some years ago, I asked his then 95-year-old father whom did he find the most interesting man at Nuremberg. “Goring,” was the monosyllabic reply. “I mean from both sides,” I said. “Goring,” said Lord Shawcross. He later told me how the Nazi would catch the American prosecutor Jackson in some howler, correct him, then smile at Shawcross who had trouble not smiling back. I saw a lot of William last week here in the Bagel, as he is over for his book on the Queen Mother, an undertaking that … 
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As America debates whether to send tens of thousands more troops to Afghanistan, in the ninth year of a war for ends we cannot discern, a riveting new history recalls times when Americans fought for vital national interests. A Country of Vast Designs: James K. Polk, the Mexican War and the Conquest of the American Continent is Robert Merry’s brilliant biography and history of that time. Merry goes far toward righting the injustice done by historians who have denied this great man his place in the pantheon of presidents, because they believe “Jimmy Polk’s War” to have been a war of … 
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