The American Con

I’ll admit this up front: On the subject of Pat Buchanan, I’m not an objective observer. Since 1992, when he launched his creative dissent from the faltering conservative movement, my admiration for him has grown and deepened. My first job in journalism"€”obtained through an Operation ...

Nicotine and Me

Tomorrow I take my first driving lesson: New Hampshire be warned! I did once drive, in Baton Rouge between 1994 and 1996, having almost achieved my lifelong goal of getting a Ph.D. before I got a license"€”which has long since expired. But I haven’t controlled an internal combustion vehicle ...

Defund the Humanities

I’ve written elsewhere about the gut-wrenching smugness of Stanley Fish, who after having spent a career destroying the study of the humanities at major American universities (especially Duke), has now established himself as an avuncular observer of the education scene at the New York Times. ...

Can Beagles Cause Blindness?

I know this is supposed to be a lifestyle column, but each week I seem to find out that one or more of the habits which makes my life liveable could also possibly kill me. Last week it was eating and drinking. I responded by cutting my booze consumption by 5/7ths (e.g. I only get tipsy on ...

Tenderness Leads to the Gas Chamber

Why are liberals so desperately attached to egalitarianism, of an extreme and entirely this-worldly variety? Why has it become an article of faith to which they cling against all evidence—to the point where they resist the use of epidemiological data that breaks down heart disease rates, for ...

Racism, Ron Paul & Porn

The Ron Paul campaign, which crossed many ideological lines to draw together an inspiring coalition, was a great moment of hope for American politics. If all it did was to make a best-seller of a book that touts real conservative principles, the whole adventure might well have been worth it. ...

Sobering Thoughts

There's nothing to put a damper on your columns about food and wine like a grumpy old doctor who tells you have to lose 50 pounds. A dour World War II Navy veteran, he was the only Cigna doctor with an open appointment, and I had some symptoms that needed checking out. "€œI had a man in here ...

The World Without Roe v. Wade

As someone who originally got engaged in politics because of the Life issue, it might sound strange that I am desperately eager for the issue to be rendered moot. Or at least non-partisan. I am always happy, for instance, when pro-life Democrats win"€”as a good one did recently in my beloved 2nd ...

When Johnny Comes Lurching Home

Perhaps the greatest compensation for trading cramped digs in Rome for a spacious house in the U.S. is that I have my beagles back. Susie and Franz-Josef are out back now, sniffing the trails of long-scampered squirrels, and howling merrily for blood. One advantage of living in New Hampshire ...

Sometimes a Racist, Always a Slut

Should pro-lifers keep citing Margaret Sanger's scathingly racist statements, and her program of eugenics"€”which directly influenced Hitler, and led to laws in a dozen or so American states forcibly sterilizing or even castrating thousands of the "€œunfit"€ who flunked primitive I.Q. tests? ...