I"ve been reluctant to write about Israel's bombardment and invasion of Gaza this past two weeks for the simple reason that the ordeal has struck me as, to borrow a phrase from Bismarck, "some damned foolish thing" in the Hold Land"and one which, I hope, doesn"t precipitate a ...
The great American journalist H.L. Mencken made of his whole career a kind of one-man "revolt against the masses" kamikaze mission. In the Menckenian imagination, the "superior man" (a category of person in which Mencken, no doubt, included himself) was beset on all sides"if it ...
The majority of the American people oppose bailing out the Bit Three automakers at a clip of 61 to 36, and it was thus perfectly sensible for Senate Republicans to reject the $14 billion "rescue" bill that was presented to them on Friday. The idea that the GOP should have attempted to buy ...
The Beltway Right is still venting its collective spleen over Bill Kristol's latest Times op-ed in which he argues, rather elliptically, that the conservative movement and GOP should get rid of its "small government," "rugged individualism" talk, which scares people, and instead ...
This weekend I attended an engrossing production of The Seagull on Broadway"and I was lucky enough to be accompanied by the intelligent and beautiful great granddaughter of Manfred von Richthofen, the German ace of the Great War. And though I was much affected by the bourgeois tragedy unfolding ...
David Frum has been purged off into the sunset at NR... He’s leaving his NRO blogging gig at the end of the year and plans to start up a new website called “NewMajority.com” We could, of course, indulge in a little Schadenfreude with Frumy"the man who tried to purge the ...
The classic interpretation of Ian Fleming's James Bond character is that he stands as a kind of fantasy of Britishness the British people, and especially the elite, could indulge in during the rather grim 1950s"when the Sceptred Isle lost its empire, was usurped as a Great Power and banker to ...
Over at Chronicles, Scott Richert comes to the defense of Tom Piatak and, referring to my last blog, accuses me of "individualism" and of not properly understanding economics. Unfortunately, in his justification of the proposed 25-50 billion dollar bailout of Chrysler, Ford, and GM, Scott ...
The case for rubbing it ...
This past weekend, I was in Alabama at a Mises Institute conference and got to hear Ron Paul speak on his "dealings with Fed Chairmen." All the familiar Paulian themes were sounded and constant throughout was the congressman's unflagging earnestness and good cheer"according to Paul, ...
