On September 13, 2004, a piece by David Frum called “Correcting Pat Buchanan” appeared at National Review Online. In it, Frum charged that Buchanan had opposed America’s war against the Taliban and had “repeatedly predicted doom and disaster.” Frum spoke of Buchanan’s “past opposition to military action against Osama bin Laden” and said “I cannot...
Author: Tom Piatak (Tom Piatak)
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August 1, 2004June 21, 2022Vital Signs
The Triumph of Tradition
“When violence breaks out, Mel Gibson will have a much higher authority than professors and bishops to answer to.” So predicted Boston University’s Paula Fredriksen in one of the opening salvos in the year-long campaign to kill Mel Gibson’s film masterpiece, The Passion of the Christ—a campaign that was, in equal measure, hysterical, disingenuous, ignorant,...
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August 1, 2004June 21, 2022Cultural Revolutions
Disenchanting Prospects
Michael Peroutka may provide an alternative for conservatives who are disenchanted with the prospect of choosing between George W. Bush and John Kerry this fall. Bush has focused most of his energies on an unnecessary and calamitous war and has warmly embraced every tenet of neoconservatism, from expanding the size and scope of the federal...
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May 1, 2004June 22, 2022American Proscenium
Outsourcing Our Future
Earlier this year, Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina defended her company’s decision to send American jobs to Asia by declaring, “There is no job that is America’s God-given right anymore.” She probably did not mean to include CEO’s of Fortune 500 corporations in this statement—Hyderabad does not offer all the amenities she is used to, after...
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March 1, 2004June 22, 2022Cultural Revolutions
Gibson’s Passion
Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ opens in theaters on Ash Wednesday (February 25). It is too early to tell whether Gibson has achieved his aim of creating an artistically compelling account of the last 12 hours of Christ’s life that is also faithful to the Gospels, although those who have previewed the film...
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March 1, 2004June 22, 2022News
Mel and His Critics
Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ opens in theaters on Ash Wednesday (February 25). It is too early to tell whether Gibson has achieved his aim of creating an artistically compelling account of the last 12 hours of Christ’s life that is also faithful to the Gospels, although those who have previewed the film...
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November 1, 2003June 22, 2022Vital Signs
Gibson and His Enemies
For years, conservatives have wondered if there was any movie Hollywood would balk at showing. Blasphemy, incessant profanity, graphic sex, obscene violence—none of these has proved an obstacle to Hollywood, and numerous films containing some or all of these elements have enjoyed widespread critical acclaim. We have finally found out what sort of movie will...
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November 1, 2003June 22, 2022Cultural Revolutions
Recall Election
A three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals surprised most conservatives and even a few liberals when it ruled that California’s recall election could not go forward on October 7 as scheduled, overruling a district judge and effectively overruling the California courts, which had rebuffed all legal challenges to the recall, and California...
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June 1, 2003June 22, 2022Vital Signs
Try a Little (Less) Tenderness
In February, a remarkable article appeared in the New York Times Magazine. It was an account by Harriet McBryde Johnson of her debate with Princeton philosophy professor Peter Singer, whom Johnson noted is “often called—and not just by his book publicist—the most influential philosopher of our time.” The subject of the debate was whether parents...
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March 1, 2003June 22, 2022Vital Signs
News From the Christmas Front
It has been over a year since Chronicles published my piece “Happy Holidays? Bah! Humbug!” (Vital Signs, December 2001) and Vdare.com used it to announce its 2001 War Against Christmas Competition. I am still receiving mail on the essay, and I thought I would give Chronicles readers an idea of how the War Against Christmas...
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March 1, 2002June 22, 2022Cultural Revolutions
A Christmas History
Before Christmas, Peter Brimelow used my article “Happy Holidays? Bah! Humbug!” (Vital Signs, December 2001) to kick off VDare.com’s annual War Against Christmas competition. Since then, I have received a steady stream of correspondence—some of it sharply critical, but most of it extremely favorable. Of course, not everyone liked the essay. I learned that my...
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December 1, 2001June 23, 2022Vital Signs
Happy Holidays? Bah! Humbug!
In 1938, Whittaker Chambers broke with the Communist Party. In Witness, Chambers describes his Christmas that year as one of great joy, in which he first told his children the Christmas story, shared with them the Christmas ornaments that had decorated his childhood Christmas trees, and enjoyed the Christmas carols his daughter was then learning....
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February 1, 2001April 21, 2022Cultural Revolutions
Exit to Political Oblivion
Al Gore’s exit to political oblivion has no doubt delighted many conservatives. But there is nothing for conservatives to cheer about in the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Bush v. Gore, the instrument of Gore’s demise. The unsigned majority opinion concluded that Florida’s recount procedures violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, because...