The Dial of Destiny is a genial meditation on the mortality of its hero, the demise of Europe, and, unfortunately, the mortal decline of its lead actor, Mr. Ford.
Category: Columns
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Konstantin Chernenko Lives Here
The last thing Middle America needs is an American Chernenko. America cannot afford a dying leader at this time.
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The Hobbes Horror
Life within late-stage American Empire is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.
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California Dreaming
Pedro Gonzalez reflects on the rapid decline and potential comeback of his home state—California.
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I’ve Become Anti-American
If I sound like Jane Fonda circa 1968 when talking about America these days, it's because our media and politicians have turned Uncle Sam into a monster.
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The New Middle East Strategic Landscape
Without U.S. engagement the Middle East is assuming peace and stability as a new balance of power quickly develops.
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Crime’s Black Adhesive
Sterling Hayden was as an actor and soldier, he had the resolution to make his participation in his films and his career more than well-earned.
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California’s Own Reparations
California is at the forefront of the plan to grant reparations to blacks for slavery and discrimination. The state's published plan to pay up to $800 billion makes no sense, especially since California entered the Union as a free state.
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The New Lingua Franca
The inability to speak well was once upon a time a great hurdle to overcome. But in today’s schools, pupils are taught that speaking properly is elitist, snobby, and not with the times.
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Kissinger in China
Henry Kissinger’s fears and misgivings about the future of U.S.-Chinese relations may prove just as prophetic as George Kennan's warnings about Russia and NATO expansion.
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Vivek Ramaswamy and Conservative Victimhood
Vivek Ramaswamy once condemned conservative victimhood, especially Trump's Jan. 6 narrative. Now he's indulging it, in order to cultivate Trump supporters.
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Black Lives Matter’s Billions
The flames that swept through our cities in 2020 may have subsided, but the individuals and the institutions that fanned them haven’t gone away.
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The Russian Conundrum
It is in the American interest to avoid the risk of direct intervention in Ukraine regardless of the course of the war because neither the security nor the prosperity of the United States depends upon its outcome.
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Sailing Ships and Troubled Waters
The ship captain as Nietzschean superman, in the 1941 film adaptation of Jack London's The Sea Wolf
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Silicon Valley God Complex
Elite freaks have a tendency to try to set themselves up as the Almighty.
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The Voice of God No More
The invasion of Dodger Stadium may mark the peak of public tolerance for all things LGBTQ+. Reaching this low point was the inevitable result of Americans discarding all guiding principles other than unfettered personal autonomy and absolute equality.
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The Wheel and War
We may long for the romantic and heroic days when acts of military derring-do were performed by Medal of Honor recipients, but it looks like the future belongs to the ugly, impersonal, and utilitarian.
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Blinken, the Posthuman Diplomat
Antony Blinken is an inherently corrupt Washington insider: he is an ideologue who seeks permanent cultural revolution at home and the imposition of its fruits abroad.
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The Voice That Won’t Be Silenced
Tucker Carlson's voice is too important to silence because he speaks for so many people.
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Curing Cultural Amnesia
Wokeism has spread widely, but wokeism’s triumph is not irreversible. Indeed, the necessary first step of subverting wokeism may well be the sufficient final step as well.
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The Shameless Son
Jared Kushner should be ashamed of himself for his blatant, unfathomable, and utterly unacceptable profiteering from his father-in-law’s presidency. But shame is a word unknown to the 45th president’s son-in-law.
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The Trans Specter in the C-Suite
The enemies of conservatives are in America’s boardrooms, where executives form the driving force of progressive causes in the United States today and have been doing so for some time.
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Russia Blues
The Ukrainian campaign is not just the fight to retain strategic depth along Russia’s vulnerable southwestern flank; it is also the struggle to retain its status as a great power. The Biden administration is now more than ready for reckless escalation, a deadly game of chicken with nuclear stakes. The future is dark.
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A Troublesome Trio
Reviews of films "Sharper," "The Whale," and a revisit of 1969's "The Reckoning." Despite some deficiencies, each has something to recommend itself.
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Exploits of the Noble Savage
Modern grievances are, at heart, about competition for resources, prestige, and power. All that has changed are the myths used to mask the claims and obscure reality.
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The Swiss Dream
Swiss people are sovereign in a way the people of France, Britain, Germany and the United States are not.
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Ireland’s Forgotten Genocide
Despite much handwringing about British colonial misdeeds in Africa and the Caribbean, the systematic, purposeful extermination of more than a million Irish during the potato famine of the 19th century gets little attention.
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Europe Diminished
The foreign policy consensus between Europe and the U.S. leads only to unnecessary new wars abroad and to the suicide pact of multiculturalism at home.
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Familiarity Breeds Contempt
Creating a sense of moral obligation to outsiders is one of Christianity’s singular achievements. But the full genius of historical Christianity was shown by its ability to do this without falling into a suicidal universalism.
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Auf Wiedersehen, America
The America of today gives the impression she is resigned to her decline and weary of her values—not least of which is too much freedom for criminals to enjoy equal rights with the rest of us.
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Uncertain Endgame in Ukraine
The war in Ukraine was started by Russia, but it was willed, engineered and choreographed by the U.S.-led West. It is both a mistake and a crime, a minus-sum game for the declining European remnant.
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Dining With Danger
Along with death, crap is the great equalizer. And traditionally, satirists make a point of not being fastidious.
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Modi and the Art of Realpolitik
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi is an unabashed realist who has been using the crisis between Russia and the collective West to increase his country’s global clout.
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Fake Indians
Promoting oneself as an American Indian, even when it's not true, can be a career enhancer ... until the lie is exposed.
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Trumpism: The Myth, the Man, and the Mandate
Trump and the movement he started have suffered from inconsistent objectives and dubious accomplishments. It is increasingly hard to believe that his comeback campaign can succeed.
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The Allure of the Lurid
Reviews of Blonde, adapted from the Joyce Carol Oates biographical novel of the same title, and the 1951 film, The Enforcer.
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The Real American Dilemma
This remarkable editorial by Chronicles’ longest-serving editor offered one of the first and best analyses of America’s immigration problem.
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White Anxiety and the GOP
White anxiety is the single greatest driver of right-wing politics in the United States, and it is as understandable as the fear one feels while trying to avoid death by drowning.
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Emperor Xi of the CCP
China's 20th National Congress of the CCP brought two novelties: a new emphasis on military strength and the complete consolidation of power into the hands of President Xi Jinping.
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The Pygmies Squeak … Again
Neocon intellectual midgets continue to smear Sam Francis long after his death because his writings represent an effective opposition to the ruling class.
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Villainous Women
Film reviews featuring femmes fatales Aubrey Plaza in Emily the Criminal, Florence Pugh in Don't Worry Darling, and Lizabeth Scott in Too Late for Tears.
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Of Demons and Ghosts
The 2022 film Prey is a predictable woke prequel to the 1987 film Predator. A better choice for adventure is the 1935 classic, The Ghost Goes West, starring Robert Donat.
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‘Compact’ Makes an Impact
Michael Lind was a good fit for Compact magazine’s first event in New York City. Neither Lind nor the magazine has shied away from confrontation and challenging the managerial state.
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Good Writers, Complicated Lives
Quality of writing is no longer the standard for literature, as the busybodies of the left go about canceling all our best authors for their various sins of political incorrectness.
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Labor Left in the Lurch
It became clear on Labor Day 2022 that the American left has no use for Americans who make a living with their hands, particularly if those hands are white and masculine.