Author: The Archive (The Archive)

I cannot see the least possibility of recreating either an elite republican class (if, by “elite,” one means an untitled aristocracy) or the American Republic itself.  The notion of a republic is a product of classical political thinking, which is now virtually dead in the Western world, and never appeared elsewhere.  Not only has the classical...

“All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States . . . ”  Thus run the first words of Article I, Section 1, of the U.S. Constitution, clearly laying out the Framers’ understanding of the nature and the role of Congress.  Everything else enumerated in Article I—the various powers...

PERSPECTIVE Free Men of a Republicby Thomas Fleming ROUND TABLE Can the Republic Be Restored? “A Limited Presidency” by Clyde Wilson“Adams’ Federalism” by John Willson“Just One More Thing” by William J. Quirk“Is America a Republic?” by Donald Livingston“Reviewing Judicial Review” by Stephen B. Presser“The Classless Republic” by Chilton Williamson, Jr.“The United States, In Congress Assembled”...

A review of Watchmen (produced and distributed by Warner Bros. and Paramount Pictures; directed by Zack Snyder; screenplay by David Hayter
and Alex Tse) and Duplicity (produced and distributed
by Universal Pictures; directed and written by Tony Gilroy) The title of Alan Moore’s 1986 comic-book series Watchmen alludes to the Roman satirist Juvenal, who asked, “Who watches...

You really can’t have “gay marriage,” you know, irrespective of what a court or a legislature may say. You can have something some people call gay marriage because to them the idea sounds worthy and necessary, but to say a thing is other than it is, is to stand reality on its head, hoping to...

Paul Theroux laments that the world is aging badly, that the world he knew as a young man has nearly vanished, that the decline and decay of precious things is everywhere apparent.  Theroux should know; he travels more than I do.  Also my own ventures at home and abroad depressingly confirm his impressions.  Except when...

Many of the prominent characteristics of our culture—venal politicians, callous and stupid bureaucrats and police, promiscuous and perverted clergymen, debased currency—were inherited from the Old World, where they have a long history. However, we Americans are proverbially an inventive people and we have made many innovative cultural contributions of our own to the world. Like...

Just as the New York Times was front-paging a supposed upsurge in atheism (God? What God?) came complementary tidings from the Pew Research Center. To wit, it’s not church spats over “gay marriage” or pedophilia that seem to be driving explicit Christians out the door. A complex of concerns causes their switch to another religion...

Even the dullest consumer has got the point that no matter how he casts his vote for president or for Congress, his interests will never be represented because the oligarchy serves only itself. . . . They are happier with the way things are, with half the electorate permanently turned off and the other half...

What held National Review together during its heyday was anticommunism. The kiddies who post at NRO either don’t know this, or are embarrassed by it. Yesterday, Mario Loyola, commenting on the prospect of the Obama administration potentially prosecuting members of the Bush administration for encouraging torture, ruefully notes that there is historical precdent for this....

It’s bad enough that yesterday was Earth Day.  Over at NRO, Andrew Stuttaford reminded us that yesterday was also the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII’s becoming the King of England.  Except that Stuttaford, an English atheist who left England for New York, sees this anniversary as an occasion for celebration, and Henry as a “Liberator”...

Reading the newspapers, I wonder which straw will break the camel’s back when it comes to illegal immigration.  What will finally cause Americans to rise up and take back their country?  The tenth family killed by an illegal-alien drunk driver?  The 100th housewife butchered by an illegal-alien murderer?  Or the next lawsuit that awards damages...

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) just reported that U.S. banks lost money at a $100 billion annualized rate during the fourth quarter of 2008.  Sounds grim, but it only describes the visible part of the iceberg our financial Titanic has hit.  AIG, a giant insurance company, alone has been covered by the Federal Reserve...

For 50 minutes, Obama sat mute, as a Marxist thug from Nicaragua delivered his diatribe, charging America with a century of terrorist aggression in Central America. After Daniel Ortega finished spitting in our face, accusing us of inhumanity toward Fidel Castro’s Cuba, Obama was asked his thoughts. “I thought it was 50 minutes long. That’s...

At least half of my favourite films are French.  For my money they are the best film-makers. The Brits, Italians, and Russians are not bad.  The Germans, Spanish, and Scandinavians are horrid (except the Norwegians).  The civilised French perspective that marks their best movies is what I would call realism with a heart.  Something like...

Anyone who has been around for a while and who pays any attention to the news sees many disturbing changes.  Recently, I read a report that two children, ages seven and eight, had an altercation at school during recess.  They were carted off in handcuffs by the police.  The teachers or principal had dealt with...

Rulers who neither see, nor feel, nor know,But leech-like to their fainting country cling—Shelley I have finally reconciled myself to the sad truth that I will probably never get to sleep in the Lincoln Bedroom.  I’ll probably never get to sit next to Ruth Bader Ginsburg at dinner, shake hands with Rush Limbaugh, or tour...

We know the stereotype, do we not?  Eyes like marbles, jaw clinched tight as a bear trap; icy baritone voice; accusatory finger slashing the air.  Yea, brothers and sisters, hear the word of the Lord, Who condemns . . . For some wacko reason, popular culture (you know what I mean—talk shows, movies, plain old...

On December 9, 2008, as I read through the federal criminal complaint against the latest Illinois governor to be indicted for the merest portion of his crimes, I could not help but feel uneasy.  Sure, it was great fun to imagine Governor Hot Rod sweating it out in his holding cell, awaiting arraignment later in...

Dr. Fleming wrote in the comments section of his article on Budd Boetticher’s Decision at Sundown that Netflix has 90% of titles a film lover can reasonably expect to find.  I would only disagree that, for anyone who loves classic films, a subscription to Turner Classic Movies is also indispensable (no matter how reprehensible Turner...

There are two kinds of people in this world: those who give to other people and those who spend all their lives taking, or planning to take.  Either by bulling around on one end of the economic scale or whining on the other.  —Ferrol Sams I’ve learned that when all is said and done, more...

For the financial crisis that has wiped out trillions in wealth, many have felt the lash of public outrage. Fannie and Freddie. The idiot-bankers. The AIG bonus babies. The Bush Republicans and Barney Frank Democrats who bullied banks into making mortgages to minorities who could not afford the houses they were moving into. But the...

As the former governor of Illinois crisscrossed the country on his farewell tour, I kept imagining him lying back in his seat, scalp being massaged by his personal hairstylist (it takes work to keep that Serbian gangster hairdo in pristine shape), while an old Mac Davis song played on an endless loop on his iPod:...

A review of Valkyrie (produced and distributed
by United Artists; directed by Bryan Singer; screenplay by Christopher McQuarrie) and Slumdog Millionaire (produced by Celador Films; directed by Danny Boyle; screenplay by Simon Beaufoy; from Vikas Swarup’s novel; distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures) In Valkyrie, screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie and director Bryan Singer tell the story of Col....

PERSPECTIVE Dead Romans and Live Americans by Thomas Fleming VIEWS

“Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon . . .
terrible as an army with banners?”—Song of Songs 6:10 “Si direbbe che persino la luna si è affrettata stasera—osservatelo in alto—a guardare a questo spettacolo.” (“One might almost think that the moon—just look at him up there—hurried up tonight to...

In 1877, Lord Salisbury, commenting on Great Britain’s policy on the Eastern Question, noted that ‘the commonest error in politics is sticking to the carcass of dead policies.’ Salisbury was bemoaning the fact that many influential members of the British ruling class could not recognize that history had moved on; they continued to cling to...

At his March 24 press conference, President Obama demonstrated that he is capable of understanding issues as presented to him by his advisers and able to pass on the explanations to the press. The question is whether Obama’s advisers understand the issues. Obama’s advisers are focused on rescuing banks and the insurance company AIG. They...

Since America is in its worst economic mess in 70 years and since President Obama’s designated Mr. Fixit is Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, you’d think the Obama presidency is in desperate shape. The reason? Mr. Fixit is surely the most derided man running the U.S. Treasury since Andrew Mellon cut spending and raised taxes amid...

Shine on, O perishing Republic.  —Robinson Jeffers If Western man in the future should recover his analytical ability, our times will be known as the age in which trivia replaced culture and bureaucracy replaced life. Economic stimulus: On the face of it, the proposition that we can borrow and spend ourselves into prosperity is lunacy....

On March 19, the New York Times reported: “The Fed said it would purchase an additional $750 billion worth of government-guaranteed mortgage-backed securities, on top of the $500 billion that it is currently in the process of buying. In addition, the Fed said it would buy up to $300 billion worth of longer-term Treasury securities...

A Morsel of Genuine History, a Thing so Rare as to be Always Valuable. —Jefferson Fate can smirk as well as smile. —Ferrol Sams At times along life’s way there arises an occasion when the appearance of innocence is greatly to be preferred over innocence itself. —Ferrol Sams It is interesting—albeit not pleasant—to watch the...

The new government stimulus legislation will help unemployed Americans by providing 300,000 jobs for illegal aliens.  Your Congresspersons voted down a provision requiring a simple check to identify illegal workers. As a patriotic veterans’ organisation recently pointed out, illegal immigration is not a victimless crime. U.S. Marines have been declared not to be tough enough...

I forced myself recently to watch Oliver Stone’s movie takedown of George W. Bush called W.  I have a morbid curiosity about cataloging trends among the pseudo-intelligentsia.  This film, like previous productions of the same auteur, is doubtless providing multiple thrills for the type in America and Europe. As readers here are well aware, I...

I do not believe the National Intelligence Council could function effectively while its chair was under constant attack by unscrupulous people with a passionate attachment to the views of a political faction in a foreign country. The tactics of the Israel Lobby plumb the depths of dishonor and indecency and include character assassination, selective misquotation,...

Ronald Cotton spent 11 years in prison because Jennifer Thompson provided eyewitness testimony that he was the person who raped her. On March 9, National Public Radio revisited the story. It turned out that Thompson was completely wrong. DNA evidence indicated that it was not Cotton but another man who had bragged about the rape....

Heeding the advice of Gen. David Petraeus, Barack Obama has committed 17,000 more troops to Afghanistan and will keep 50,000 in Iraq after U.S. combat operations end in August 2010. But are U.S. vital interests more threatened by what happens in Anbar or Helmand than in the war raging along our southern border? Prediction: After...

Over at NRO, the online home of David Frum until January of this year, Frum’s former colleagues are expressing shock and dismay at his attacks on Rush Limbaugh, most prominently in a cover story for Newsweek.  Today, Andy McCarthy noted that Frum had insinuated to Chris Matthews on television that Limbaugh might be racist.  McCarthy...

On August 9, 2001, during a speech from his ranch in Crawford, Texas, President George W. Bush put an end to several months of debate surrounding government funding of research on stem cells derived from human embryos. After discussing his administration’s research into the matter and declaring his own “deeply held beliefs” in science and...

And death is in the phial and the end of noble work,But Don John of Austria has fired upon the Turk—G.K. Chesterton The North is full of tangled things. . . .  —Chesterton Whiskey and blood run together.  —Ferrol Sams If you’ve got two worms in one apple, sooner or later they’ll meet.   —Ferrol Sams...

The following is part one of a two-part essay. President Obama has presented the most irresponsible budget in U.S. history. His fiscal year 2010 budget projects federal spending of $3.5 trillion and a federal deficit of $1.75 trillion. In other words, 50 percent of the government’s budget consists of red ink. And Americans are angry...

It’s amazing how many crises you can live through unscathed if you just don’t follow the news. We all develop silly pointless habits from time to time.  Some chew gum.  Some collect string.  Some vote and write their Congressman. I don’t think voting is actually sinful.  It is more a state of cluelessness, like chewing...