One of my favorite living essayists (let’s face it, few of them really measure up to the dead) is Thomas Sowell—who once or twice a year lets himself off the hook and instead of composing a column, pens a series of aphorisms designed at once to goad the reader into thinking, and to let the columnist spend a final summer weekend … [Read More]

Before 85,00 adoring fans, the man of “Hope” and “Change” finally got down to specifics and told us who he really is and what he really plans to do as president. Well, sort of… Energy Independence in 10 years (a timeline politicians typically reserve for impossible tasks) was joined by a pretty conventional grab bag of federal goodies: public school teachers … [Read More]

DENVER—After the phony roll call vote was taken here to formally nominate Barack Obama--a roll call that did not remotely reflect the true delegate strength of Hillary--the media exploded in an orgy of celebration about the historic character of the moment to which they had just been privileged to be witness. “The first black presidential nominee ever of a major party … [Read More]

Not that I need one, but the release of Diane English’s remake of The Women is a good excuse to revisit the George Cukor original.  It dates from 1939, that year when someone—maybe the Communists, although it doesn’t really sound like them—put soluble genius in Southern California’s drinking water and ended up giving us Gone with the Wind, The Wizard of … [Read More]

Austin Bramwell and Gerald Russello have taken different sides on whether American conservatives need a “canon of great books” to guide them. While Bramwell has disputed the value of this project, Russello aided by Dan McCarthy has argued on its behalf. Despite my forty-year involvement as a scholar dealing with the American Right and, more recently, the faux Right, I find … [Read More]

Editor’s note: This is the first installment in a new section at Takimag, Taki TV. Here we’ll feature original videos, by the Southern Avenger and others, as well as interviews and coverage of some the events Taki’s Magazine will be hosting around town in the near future. And, yes, our publisher will make an appearance or two.  [Read More]

As Tom Woods and I demonstrate in our new book, Who Killed the Constitution?  The Fate of American Liberty from World War I to George W. Bush, there is a bipartisan consensus in all three branches of the federal government that the U.S. Government can do whatever it wants. Joe Biden is one of the chief proponents of this view. It … [Read More]

A year after taking power, in June 1934, Adolf Hitler made his first visit abroad—to his idol Benito Mussolini in Venice. Babbling on incessantly about Mein Kampf and the Negroid strain in Mediterranean peoples, the Führer made a dismal impression. “What a clown this Hitler is,” Mussolini told an aide. Two weeks later, Hitler executed the Roehm purge and murdered scores … [Read More]

I grew up in the age of the party convention as “everything’s already been decided” made-for-TV special, and thus I have a certain vicarious nostalgia for the days when these get-togethers were rowdy, contested, dramatic affairs—when, say, Bill Rusher was calling out orders to delegates on the floor via walky-talky while organizing the unlikely nomination of Barry Goldwater in ’64. Something … [Read More]