Short reviews of The Military Condition by Alfred de Vigny, and Doctor Thorne by Anthony Trollope.
Year: 2024
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Books in Brief: September 2024
A World Safe for Commerce: American Foreign Policy from the Revolution to the Rise of China, by Dale C. Copeland (Princeton University Press; 504 pp., $31.30). Woodrow Wilson’s April 1917 plea to Congress to “make the world safe for democracy” launched America on a futile messianic crusade that plagues us even today. Nowadays, “safe” includes...
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Restless Work, Energetic Play
The family home is a last flickering outpost of liberty, though it is besieged from without by the school and the workplace and vitiated from within by mass entertainment.
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The ‘Marxism’ Narrative Has Gone Too Far
Conservatives who fixate on Communism misunderstand the dynamic driving today’s left and bringing it to power. They are defending a Maginot Line around which the left has already made an end run.
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Longlegs and the Unkillable Conservatism of Horror Films
Horror films are filled with conservative themes: Good versus evil, the importance of natural law, the reality of sin. 'Longlegs' is fine example.
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A Fighting Chance for Normalcy
In a normal country during a normal time, the Trump-Vance ticket would be cruising to victory. Alas, present-day America is far from normal.
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The Laboratory of the Apocalypse
America’s “collective West” is plagued with serious neuroses. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán recently provided a compelling summary.
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The Tides of Chaos
The near assassination of President Trump failed to unite Americans. Rather, America is more divided and chaotic than ever.
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In the Name of ‘Democracy’
The American Revolution made democracy the preferred government for the modern age. The only trouble with American democracy is the constant redefinition of the word.
Issue
September 2024
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When Kammi Met Jussie
Recalling the time when the Democrats’ presidential candidate fell for the fake noose.
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Harley-Davidson Remains Woke
Social media skirmishes are never going to be enough to win the war on woke.
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Jack Smith, Democrat-Lawfare Complex Hit Man
By now any reasonable prosecutor—or so-called prosecutor—would have conceded defeat and dropped the lawfare madness.
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Democrats Fear RFK, Jr.
Anti-Kennedy lawfare from the Democrats may propel Harris into the White House.
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Who Is that Masked Woman?
The Democrats, as the ideological heirs of leftist totalitarians, understand the utility of political masks and have deployed a number of them on behalf of Kamala Harris.
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Exploding the Left’s ‘Language Virus’ with William S. Burroughs
Inoculating yourself against the language virus of the left requires regular doses of cold, hard truth and, perhaps, the kind of madmen who are not afraid to offer it up on the regular.
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A Tale of Two Assassination Attempts
Reagan had many Democratic detractors but the hatred for Donald Trump is on a different level.
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Germany Encapsulates the West’s Totalitarian Drift
The recent totalitarian drift in Germany shows what happens when Western people cannot suppress the nagging doubt that they are not morally responsible actors but unquestioning consumers of predigested choices.
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Impractical Separation
An interesting debate on the right concerning the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution neglects to consider that the founder’s Constitution may no longer be our framework of government.
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Elon Musk Leads Parade of Tech Titans Boosting Trump as the True ‘Freedom Candidate’
You don’t need AI to figure that Harris and the Democrats are bad for technology and innovation.
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The ‘Most Moral’ Military on Earth?
In the midst of the ongoing brutal war in Gaza, there is something disturbingly dishonest and self-abasing about Americans claiming Israel’s military is “the most moral on Earth.”
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Democrats: Jobs for Illegals, Welfare for Blacks
By now it ought to be a well-established fact that part of the Democratic “fundamental transformation” of America is keeping inner-city blacks on welfare by giving their jobs to illegal aliens.
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Donald Trump Is Reagan’s Heir
The future of all Reagan secured for the country now hinges on what happens in this election.
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The Russian Lit Plot Twist of Today’s American Politics
Given the way things have been going in American politics, one almost needs the assistance of Russian literature for descriptors.
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Does America Deserve to Be ‘Great Again?’
It will take more than an economic revival to make America great again. We’re going to need a moral revival, too.
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Tim Walz: Joker Clown
The Democratic nominee for vice president has a record of lies, exaggeration, and disgrace to match his bizarre mannerisms and behavior.
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Debunking the ‘Plunging Border Crossings’ Narrative
The supposed miraculous deathbed conversion of the Biden administration on illegal immigration at the border is just more of the same shell game.
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No One Is Buying It
The lies on display at the Democratic National Convention are too bold to believe.
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Crime Could Be the Election’s Decisive Issue
Trump’s campaign should take a page from the successful 1988 campaign of George H.W. Bush and make the facts on crime stick to Harris and Walz.
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Where are Today’s Athlete Journalists?
The golden age of American journalism featured men of great athletic ability. That they are missing today speaks volumes about why our journalism is so boring.
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The Chicago DNC Theme Was ‘Hope’—What About Chicagoans?
In a city where many kids cannot read and in a year when inflation is hitting poor urban families harder than almost anyone else, Democrats have the gall to talk about hope.
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Michelle Obama’s Trauma
The former First Lady’s DNC speech lamenting the ways of America’s racist, sexist red staters confirmed that she is just a champagne socialist with no chance at or interest in being elected to higher office.
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The Dating Crisis Is Really a Maturity Crisis
Excessive insecurity and widespread aversion to commitment are driving our country’s toxic dating culture off a cliff.
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DNC Roundup: What Did I Just Watch?
Democratic conventions are usually filled with soaring rhetoric disguising the party’s extremism. This year’s trainwreck is what happens when a party has no idea what they are or why they’re here.
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Reforming Bankruptcy Laws to Protect Workers
Any serious attempt to address societal income inequality must give compensation to employees absolute priority in bankruptcy over the claims of other creditors.
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Putting Policies Before Personalities
A candidate’s character matters, of course, but what matters most at this moment in history is which candidate proposes policies that will build a better America.
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Will Voters Settle for Joe Biden’s Understudy?
Harris is a more viable candidate than Biden was in his final weeks, but she isn’t prepared to be a better president—and Democrats know it.
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The Kamala Harris Hoax
The Harris honeymoon, like all the frauds perpetrated against Trump in the past, will be exposed sooner or later. The only question is whether that happens before the election.
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A Killing in Canton Points to the Dysfunction of Law Enforcement
What kind of system allows a single unproductive member of society to tyrannize an entire neighborhood?
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Rebuilding: New Tech, Old Principles
After draining the swamp, we need to ensure emerging tech serves the republic’s founding principles, rather than the interests of the centralized administrative state.
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Republicans Should Focus on Harris Rather Than Walz
It is obvious why so many in the GOP are reluctant to attack Harris and, instead, focus their sites on Walz. They deeply fear being labeled racist and sexist for attacking a “woman of color.”
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Family Feud: The Biden Crime Family Edition
Now that Biden is out of the 2024 presidential race, is Congress just going to pretend this is a game show and ignore the impeachment investigation they voted to advance?
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Republicans Must Make a Laser-Focused, Issues-Based Case to the People
If Republicans can successfully frame the 2024 election as boiling down to the actual issues—and above all, the economy, inflation, immigration and crime—then they stand a strong chance of prevailing.
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The Greatest Psy-Op in the History of American Electoral Politics
The ultimate battle between corporate and social media has been a long time coming. The outcome will decide much more than the 2024 election.
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Kamala Harris—In Her Own Words
The lowlights of Kamala Harris’s political rhetoric are quite remarkable.
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J.D. Vance is Both Right and Wrong about Kids and Cat Ladies
We should all be for the proposition that Americans ought to have more children, but the truth is that we may have our hands full with trying to improve the quality of the population we’ve got.
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How to Respond to Tradwife Envy
It won’t do to obsess with condemning the unreality of celebrity tradwives living the dream. Their popularity points to something fundamental about the human condition and it deserves a serious answer.
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Failure to Communicate
Recent weeks have exposed the American government’s relationship to its citizens as one devoid of trust or good will. In response, Americans must demand transparency.
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Donald Trump Has to Run Like It’s 2016 Again
Social media didn’t elect Trump in 2016, showing up in the flesh did. The contours of the election have shifted and that’s what Trump needs to do again to win in 2024.
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Prisoner Swap Exposes Biden’s Weakness and Puts Americans at Risk
For as long as weak administrations govern in the White House, we should expect more Americans to be taken, with ever higher prices for their freedom imposed.