Author: Clyde Wilson (Clyde Wilson)

President George W. Bush addresses the American people on September 13, 2001 My fellow Americans, As the whole world is now aware, we have suffered the most devastating attack on civilians to take place on our soil since General Sherman destroyed Atlanta and Columbia in the later stages of the War Between ...

Does it matter whether Obama is a Muslim or not? Would it make any difference? Is there any evidence that he has any religion at all? (Of course, that can be said about most major American politicians, whose only real faith is the religion of ME.) George ...

Does it really make much difference whether Barack Hussein Obama (or anybody else) was actually born in the United States or not? Is the conquest and permanent occupation of Iraq justified under international law and the U.S. Constitution? Is the conquest and permanent occupation of Iraq an appropriate response ...

Things I miss: Boys who carried paper routes and mowed lawns. Women and girls in actual dresses. When you seldom had to call up a corporation, but when you did you reached friendly, helpful Americans instead of recorded messages, Procrustean menus, and Hindu sing-song. Men who walked in a congenial, alert ...

Charity. Old version:  Open-handedness toward our neighbour in need. New version:  Getting the government to spend other people’s money on politically favoured groups, at home and abroad. All Men are Created Equal OV:  We are all made in the image of God and deserve respect.  (Besides, an Englishman over here is just ...

The Dutch Fork of South Carolina Our small but proud State can't seem to stay out of the political spotlight. We had barely recovered from the exposure of our present Governor's exotic extra-marital affair when we made the headlines again as a result of the ...

But I don't understand: How  all those “experts” who are always mouthing off in the media and who are not really experts manage to get on the air. Why people can’t tell the difference between speculation and investment. Why sports are not as much fun as they used to be and seem ...

But I don’t understand: Why the government spends billions on welfare but people keep saying hunger is a big problem. Why the government spends billions on education and the population gets dumber and dumber. Why the government spends billions on “intelligence” and defense but could not prevent September 11. Why pointless filthy language ...

The awful Obama is pushing terrible things on our country like socialised medicine, big spending, corporate bailouts, affirmative action, and amnesty for illegal aliens.  He must be defeated so the Republicans can get in and push socialised medicine, big spending, corporate bailouts, affirmative action, and amnesty for illegal aliens. Obama ...

In a previous contribution to Chronicles' Filmlog,

World War II has provided a vast amount of material for cinema in Europe, America, and Japan.  Some if this is superb.  Much of it is hokey entertainment and propaganda.  We perhaps did not realise how hokey until the horrors of D-Day were portrayed in Saving Private Ryan.   That useful ...

Your republic will be as fearfully plundered and laid waste by barbarians in the twentieth century as the Roman Empire was in the fifth; with this difference; that the Huns and Vandals who ravaged the Roman Empire came from without and your Huns and Vandals will have been engendered ...

All things at Rome are for sale. —Juvenal Thomas Jefferson has left us an account of a supper-table conversation in the very earliest days of the U.S. government.  Vice President John Adams (who was intended by nature for a preacher) declaimed at length about the virtues of the British government, which, he ...

It Can’t Be Repeated Too Often (Until It Sinks In), Again by Clyde N. Wilson • March 12, 2009 • Printer-friendly “To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle.”  —Orwell (Things that are known but which Americans do not acknowledge or discuss.) Ruby Ridge.  Your President George H.W. Bush sent...

A few of us now decrepit pre-Reagan “conservatives” can remember the brief flicker of hope of saving the republic that we had around 1980.  Around about that time we were heartened by the founding of the Washington Times, which, it was thought, might become an effective foe of the mainstream ...

“O wad some Pow’r the giftie gie us To see oursels as others see us!” —Robert Burns A few years ago, a well-known conservative historian lamented that the American public was not morally engaged to undergo sacrifice after the September 11 attacks, unlike it was in its heroic response to Fort ...

The American educational system at every level is an immensely expensive obstacle to culture and learning. America is not a Christian county.  It is a post-Christian country. Ex-President Bush is guilty of great crimes and has done his country irreparable damage.  (Although only an insignificant handful of people have noticed.) By launching ...

The purpose of Political Correctness is to suppress true ideas.  Its proponents have no interest in suppressing falsehood. You cannot have a First World economy and military with a Third World population. The Republican Party is not and never has been a conservative party.  (For most of American history, until less than ...

An American president can wreck his country and blow up the world, but he cannot recreate either of them. —Chilton Williamson A recent book on the George W. Bush presidency is called A Tragic Legacy. But tragedy suggests the fall of something high and noble. There never ...

Call me simple, but I just can’t understand why I have to pay the banks’ losses but I don’t get a share of their profits. I know that the music business is very profitable, but I am still cautious about investing in CDs. I am sorry to admit it, but I may have been wrong. ...

The collective knowledge gained over time includes an awareness of mankind’s tendency to miscalculate.  —Wiley Sword History tells us where we have been.  Our minds define where we are going.  —Wiley Sword In every economic boom and bust there are winners and losers.  —Gary North What goes up must come down.  —Proverbial I’d like someone...

I find that local radio gives me a good view of the state of American consciousness, or unconsciousness. Just today I learned that the government is studying how to help “ailing mortgages.”  Defaulters, it seems, have been struck by an unfortunate epidemic.  Anyone can get sick, and sick people have to be helped.  I also...

“In the name of God, whom we all revere, in the name of liberty we hold so dear, in the name of decency, which we all cherish—what is happening in America?” —Gov. Orval Faubus, broadcast to the people fifty years ago as the city of Little Rock was occupied by bayonet-wielding paratroopers and swarms of...

Earnest readers want to know what the difference is between the two major political parties. I have tried to provide some helpful guidance. Democrat. Someone who believes that when people who have enjoyed a wealthy life but behaved badly get into trouble they should be rescued by non-wealthy people who have worked hard and played...

When it comes to be once understood that politics is a game; that those who are engaged in it but act a part; that they make this or that profession, not from honest conviction or intent to fulfill it, but as the means of deluding the people, and through that delusion to acquire power  ....

It looks like the economy is in for hard times and that we plain folks are facing a decline in our standard of living.  But you can  be sure that the politicians and financiers who ...

Are you enjoying your New American Century? You may as well enjoy it.  It is all you are getting instead of your “peace dividend.” Justice Ginsberg has recently invoked the laws of some foreign states in justification of her Supreme Court decisions.  The Founding Fathers and subsequent generations would have found this impeachable and treasonous. ...

Evil rulers then are a sign that God is wroth and angry with us.   —William Tyndale Though there is little personal likeness, the President that Junior Bush most resembles in actions and conduct in office is Grant—incompetent, corrupt, clueless, easily led, elected under a false impression, misusing the military.  However, Grant, unlike Junior,  was articulate...

Me seemes the world is runne quite out of sqaureFrom the first point of his appointed sourse,And being once amisse, growes daily wourse and wourse.—Spenser, The Faerie Queene It looks like the economy is going bad, but don’t worry. Congress will make sure the bankers and speculators don’t suffer. Could military failure in Iraq have...

Plastic grocery bags guaranteed to spill or break. Mass telephoning of recorded sales messages (at suppertime). A minority group endowed with large, unprecedented privileges by law, that continues to complain of oppression by the “privileged” majority. Advertising and government spending on welfare defined as contributions to the Gross National Product. Professors of humanities who have...

The Book of Moroni. Replacing the White Man’s Burden with the Multicultural Gender-Neutral Burden. The Lincoln cult. Politicians and journalists guaranteed to have integrity—they tell you so themselves. Deification of “education.”  Along with the belief that all students are, or can be, above average. Disguising professional athletes as “students.” The infomercial.  (Actually, a commenter on...

Decaffeinated coffee.  (What’s the point?) The hula hoop. Political nominating conventions. Criminal athletes. The Celebrity, a meritless and insignificant person famous for being famous. The Celebrity as a political force. Purposeless voting. Patriotic balloons. Carnival tent religion. Mass-produced food and patented food crops. Mothers in combat. Euphemisms for war: Preserving the Union, War to End...

“You can’t make a republic without republicans.” —Stendhal Just asking— What happens to a “service economy” when people no longer have the money to pay for service? What happens when “precision” bombs and missiles are not really as precise as they are supposed to be? What happens to a country where judges make up the...

Persuading a libertarian that a negotiation between one worker and a huge corporation is not a simple free market transaction. Persuading a libertarian that the Lord gave us the earth for our use, not for our maximum exploitation. Persuading a Republican that tariffs were NOT responsible for America’s past prosperity. (Tariff “protection” did not create...

“A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid.” —Matthew 5:14 How many Americans are aware that Abraham Lincoln was well known for telling dirty stories, engaged in antics (like playing with his feet) when he did not want to answer questions, and was flippant when his attention was called to Union soldiers’...

If you were a patriotic “American” of Mideast origin, wouldn’t you willingly cooperate with “ethnic profiling” since it would help to save the lives of your “fellow” citizens? Want to know how many traffic deaths in my State last year were caused by aliens, mostly drunk illegals? 807. How many Americans are aware that Osama...

What an orgy of Churchill and Britain bashing we have had of late! One would almost begin to think that the Brits bear most of the blame for World War II and all its attendant horrors. (Actually there is nothing new here. The interpretations that have recently appeared were all debated vigorously in the immediate...

“Politics is too serious a matter to be left to politicians.” —De Gaulle Some things are, as they say, harder to find than a hen’s tooth: An American college without a commercial sports program. A Republican politician who really believes in “family values.” A federal judge who actually follows the law. A federal judge who...

“American culture is an infinite regression to moronic vulgarity.” —Thomas Fleming Napoleon famously called the English “a nation of shopkeepers.” Can we say that Americans are a non-nation of shoppers? Are you ready for our first Luo-American president? Are you ready for C-H-A-A-A-N-G-E!? Are you ready for a President who got his start in politics...

Revolutions turn into institutions; revolts that renew the youth of old societies in their turn grow old; and the past, which was full of new things, of splits and innovations and insurrections, seems to us a single texture of tradition. . . . . ...

If Obama is not elected will there be riots? If Obama is elected, will there be riots? Are Americans capable of recognising and electing good leaders? (We can't know because it has been so long since they have seen one.) What would happen if a ...

The great events of the world take place in the brain. —Oscar Wilde A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.  —G.B. Shaw . . . a brave nation fights only because it must; a cowardly nation fights because it can.  —Ilana Mercer War is a racket....

Truth does not reside in a collection of facts; truth is shown by the form of their presentation, once their significance has been seized on. In the record, little of all this is given. Telling the truth, then, requires sagacity and style, ...

“And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie . . .” —2 Thessalonians 2:11 American public life thrives on delusions treated as facts: *That you can have a First World economy and military with a Third World population. *That the U.S. government, which has almost unlimited access...

A strongly shared sense of right and wrong has maintained a working peace and harmony within many societies over long periods. This is probably what saw the class-ridden British through an empire and two world wars. It is what kept the South ...

American Views: The North The Lord made use of my Pen to write many Books for the advancement of His Kingdome; Yea, and had strangely encouraged and fortified my Serviceableness, by such Marks of Respect from other Parts of the World, as no Person in America has ever yett received before me. —Cotton Mather, first...

In a previous column I expressed irritation at those numerous folks who confess to having voted for George W. Bush in 2000 (and even 2004) because they were deceived into believing he was a “conservative.” For anyone believing that Bush was a “conservative” in 2000 the only deception going on was self-deception. Here is a...

What is History? What do historians claim to be doing? What is it that historians are actually doing? What is it that historians should be doing? My desire is rather to provoke discussion than to lay down the law. —Sir Walter Greg Bow down thine ear, and hear the words of the wise, and apply...