Article Archive
Articles are sorted in descending order by date. To find articles based on keywords, use the search function above.
Andy and Me
Andy Warhol was a unique American phenomenon. When his infamous diaries came out - the first best-seller purposely without an index, so fame groupies could not read about themselves in the bookstore and then not buy the opus - I was surprised to find myself mentioned almost as many times as some minor celebrities. Warhol knew more about what was going on in nightclubs than we knew about ourselves because he didn't drink or take drugs. He also did not look for sex. [Read More]
Riyadh on the Potomac
Americans do not have to fear the imposition of Islamic law in the United States—not because Muslims here have no interest in establishing sharia but because, when sharia comes to the United States, it will come democratically. The Constitution, Dr. Khalid Siddiqui explained, is a "pure Islamic document," and he detailed how Muslim doctors such as himself would be able to frame the debate over, say, a nationwide ban on the sale and consumption of alcohol purely in terms of health. Ditto with tobacco, and with pork. [Read More]
Querying the Homintern
Anti-discrimination ordinances attempting to legislate “tolerance” for homosexuals are about as effective as the 1964 Civil Rights Act was in eliminating racism – i.e. not at all. This whole “gay marriage” business is a conspiracy to make homosexuality just as boring as the most conventional vision of heterosexuality: the husband/boyfriend, the jointly-owned San Francisco Victorian, the matched set of poodles, and – inevitably – the sordid little affairs and one-night stands, artfully concealed. [Read More]
We’ve Never Seen a War We Didn’t Like
No, we've never seen a war we didn't like, the torture and the raping and the dead. But don't ask us to be in it, 'cause we'll be gone in just a minute, and no one will know exactly where we've fled. [Read More]
Skiing in Lederhosen
When an Italian finishes making love he looks at the mirror, flexes his muscles and tells himself, Magnifico! When a Frenchman is through, he tells the lady that she may have captured his body but not his soul. When an Englishman finally manages it he asks, "Was it good for you too, George?" [Read More]
Taki’s List
Poetry is in trouble. It is garbage being written by modernists—stuff that doesn’t rhyme and makes no sense but is considered art. Let’s stick to the past. Dante, the all time numero uno, Homer, Pushkin, Keats, Byron, Coleridge, Shelley, that’s what I call poetry. Instead of attacking Iraq, Bush should have started a war against modernism. Shoot all poets who don’t write in iambic pentameter. [Read More]
The Vanishing Christians of Iraq
All over the Middle East, safe havens for Christians are dwindling rapidly. Even in Lebanon, traditionally the Middle East’s sole Christian land, Christians suffer persecution, which leads to declining numbers and declining influence--and that in turn encourages more persecution. Christian communities that date back to the dawn of Christianity have been steadily decreasing in numbers; now the faith is on the verge of disappearing from the area altogether. In Iraq, half of the nation’s prewar 700,000 Christians have now fled the country since the fall of Saddam Hussein. Iraqi Christians today are streaming into Syria or, if they can, out of the Middle East altogether. [Read More]
Mutual Assured Damnation
Throughout the war in Iraq, we have heard rumors of the possible use of “tactical nuclear strikes.” As the Bush administration (without even the pretense of congressional approval) prepares to expand the war into Iran, ostensibly to prevent Iran from developing her own nuclear weapons, officials refuse to take the “nuclear option” off of the table. [Read More]
God, Science, and Telepathic Pets
Do your pets have telepathy? Mine don’t, and I’m a little disappointed. Because many pets do—close to half of dogs and 1/3 of cats, according to iconoclast British scientist Rupert Sheldrake, author of Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home, and several other daring works in scientific theory. [Read More]
Our Very Own War Criminals
The United States has no right to use nuclear weapons except in response to a nuclear attack. Nuking a nation that does not possess them, and has not attacked us, is in fact a war crime—the kind of crime for which we rightly hanged the Nazis at Nuremberg. (What a pity that we couldn’t have swung the Russians, too—and perhaps the Brits and Americans who ordered bombings like Dresden). [Read More]