Category: News

In January, this column will celebrate its fifth anniversary. When Tom Fleming and I originally conceived of the idea back in 1998 (as an occasional “Letter From Rockford” to be written by various local activists), we were capitalizing on the fact that ...

PERSPECTIVE Agrarianism From Hesiod to Bradford by Thomas Fleming Life in community. VIEWS The Old South, the New South, and the Real South by Tom Landess Taking off the Yankee spectacles. Reattacking Leviathan by Mark Royden Winchell Starving the beast. The Case for American Secession by Kirkpatrick Sale Still a good idea. The Writer as Farmer by James Everett Kibler Under Heaven. NEWS Solving U.S. Problems in ...

PERSPECTIVE Christians Against Terrorismby Thomas Fleming Counterterrorism is hell. VIEWS Promoting Militant Islam Abroadby Ronald L. HatchettU.S. policy blunders. Learning From Canada’s Mistakesby James BissettTerror along the border. Welcoming Muhammadby Scott P. RichertAbandoning that which is our own. NEWS Rivers of Bloodby Richard CummingsImmigration and terror in a time of chaos. The Dishonest Pursuit of...

PERSPECTIVE It Takes an Autodidact by Thomas Fleming Adventures in life-long learning. VIEWS The Communion of Saints by Michael McMahon Journeying together. The Autodidact at Work and Play by Chilton Williamson, Jr. Reflections on the writerly life. I'm Just a Travelin' Man by Derek Turner Education through wanderlust. Confessions of an Autodidact by David Gordon A place to start. American Historians and Their History by Clyde Wilson Scratching the ...

PERSPECTIVE The Republic We Betrayedby Thomas Fleming Enslaving ourselves. VIEWS Republicanism, Monarchy, and the Human Scale of Politicsby Donald W. LivingstonOur kingless monarchy. Powers, Principalities, Spiritual Forcesby Harold O.J. BrownCharging toward the Dies Irae. Please Tread on Meby Clyde WilsonThus always to presidents. NEWS The Republican Party’s Welfare Queensby Doug BandowMay a thousand Enrons bloom....

Every definition of masculinity into which our Lord Jesus Christ does not fit belongs in the rubbish heap. Indeed, there could be no greater example of a man than He. Contrary to modern portrayals, Jesus was neither a sensitive metrosexual nor a macho-macho man. The tenderness that He displayed toward those whom He loved (including...

PERSPECTIVE Heroes in the Age of the Antiheroby Thomas Fleming Unbreaking glass. VIEWS Guys of the Golden Westby Chilton Williamson, Jr.A glorious sunset. A Place to Standby Wayne AllensworthTexas and the making of men and heroes. Cowboy Heroesby Roger D. McGrathLearning the Code of the West. Effeminate Gospel, Effeminate Christiansby Aaron D. WolfFrom authority to...

PERSPECTIVE The Suicide Strategy of the Westby Thomas Fleming Turkish bizarre. VIEWS The Emerging American Empireby Douglas WilsonMammon versus Allah. The Rise of Chinaby William R. HawkinsSeeing is believing. Transforming the Middle Eastby Ted Galen CarpenterWashington’s high-stakes gamble. Getting Europe Straightby Srdja TrifkovicSlouching toward Eurabia. NEWS Why Russia Does Not Fear an Iranian Bombby Wayne...

PERSPECTIVE Synthesizing Tyrannyby Samuel Francis The last word. VIEWS The Real Fight Is Here at Homeby Roger D. McGrathFallujah, California. Global Anarcho-Tyrannyby Srdja TrifkovicA game of chess. Samuel T. Francis, R.I.P.Clyde Wilson and Thomas Fleming remembertheir fellow Tarheel conspirator. NEWS Final Solutionby B.K. EakmanThe hostile takeover of America’s schools. REVIEWS My Favorite Justiceby Stephen B....

PERSPECTIVE Peace in the Land of Sojournby Thomas Fleming Gods and promises. VIEWS A Brief History of Quagmireby Doug BandowSix decades of passionate attachment. A Tale of Two Citiesby Leon T. HadarDifferent visions of Israel’s future. Israel and Americaby Ivan ElandParallel lives, similar mistakes. The Christian Zionist Threat to Peaceby Aaron D. WolfSpend your vacation...

PERSPECTIVE Love the One You’re Withby Thomas Fleming Life in occupied America. VIEWS Education and Authorityby Michael McMahonRespect in the marketplace. Honor to Whom Honorby Harold O.J. BrownBelow reproach. America’s Unthinking Militaryby Robert D. HicksonServants of the imperium. Government: Good or Bad? Big or Little?by Thomas StorckReframing the debate. NEWS First Prize, Second Hand, Third...

PERSPECTIVE Human, Not-Quite Humanby Thomas Fleming Abolishing God. VIEWS The Abolition of Learningby Michael McMahonSchools in the rubbish heap. Music, Technology, and Psychological Warfareby E. Michael JonesFrom Muzak to MTV. Man and Everymanby Joseph PearceAssembling the fragments. No Graven Imagesby Harold O.J. BrownServing capitalism. NEWS Dealing With a Nuclear Iranby Ted Galen CarpenterAcceptance and deterrence....

PERSPECTIVE Selling Muhammad the Ropeby Thomas Fleming Cutting off our nose . . . VIEWS War on the Home Frontby Wayne AllensworthReal homeland security. Is There a Khilafah in Your Future?by James George JatrasThe coming Islamic revolution. NEWS The Saudi Presence in the United Statesby Robert SpencerThe most lethal terror front of all? Islam: Africa’s...

In early December, Tom Piatak sent me an e-mail to inform me of the “papal challenge” that Peter Robinson had issued over in the Corner on National Review Online. Robinson claimed, as almost all neoconservative Catholics have claimed, that Pope John Paul II never unequivocally opposed the war. Tom asked me to reply, and sadly,...

PERSPECTIVE The Plight of the Homelessby Thomas Fleming Life in the Unreal City. VIEWS Finding Edenby Hugh Barbour, O.Praem.The paradise of fools and its King. At Home in the Cosmosby John Francis NietoDante versus the modern imagination. NEWS Taxation for Economic Survivalby David A. HartmanThe Business Transfer Tax. FICTION The Wand of Youthby Anthony BukoskiA...

The severity of the ongoing decline of U.S. manufacturing has placed our prosperity and national security in jeopardy. A principal cause of this crisis is the federal tax code, which currently imposes multiple layers of progressive taxation on U.S. goods. The result, as many economists acknowledge, is crippling: a double taxation of savings for investment...

In one of Douglas Adams’ very silly books, Zaphod Beeblebrox, the egocentric two-headed president of the universe, is condemned to undergo the ordeal of the Total Perspective Vortex.  It is an excruciating form of torture that exposes the criminal to a sense of the infinite size of the universe and his own small place in...

I went into the 2000 presidential campaign an enthusiastic supporter of Pat Buchanan’s bid for the White House as a third-party candidate.  I emerged more convinced than ever that Buchanan would have made an outstanding president but skeptical that a serious right-wing party will be able to emerge, at least in the short run. I...

The recent U.S. recession, if judged by its effect on total employment, was the shortest and mildest of the post-World War II period. In the six months from the peak of July 1998 to the low of January 1999, employment declined by only 1.43 million workers, and, by May 2004, 7.5 million additional workers were...

PERSPECTIVE Where’s Joe McCarthy When You Need Him?by Thomas Fleming The misadventures of Douglas Feith. VIEWS A Third Way?by Tom PiatakWhen stupid and evil are the same. Toward Real Conservatismby Edward A. OlsenJust say no to the neocons. NEWS Walking the Neocon Plankby Timothy P. CarneyTotal victory. The Rise and Fall of the Texas Republican...

Many Americans are so disappointed with the Bush administration that they are tempted to vote for John Kerry.  Some Democrats who spent the past 80 years waiting for the Revolution to blow over may think theirs is still the party of “Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion,” as it was dubbed in 1884, but, by the 1960’s,...

After several weeks of fulminating about John Kerry’s war record and the medals he presumably awarded himself, at least some veterans of the Stupid Party eventually got down to the real point about the man who wants to replace ...

PERSPECTIVE The Call of Bloodby Thomas Fleming Old Europe versus the New World Order. VIEWS There Once Was a New Englandby John WillsonTimothy Dwight’s New England catechism. Tocqueville’s America and America Todayby Claude PolinLiberty, Equality, Materialism. NEWS H.R. 3313 and the Imperial Judiciaryby William J. QuirkA welcome constitutional crisis. What? Are You Crazy?by B.K. EakmanThe...

Alan Keyes, like the proverbial white knight, has ridden across the country from his castle in Maryland to save the Republican Party of Illinois from itself—at least, that’s the way his supporters would like to portray Keyes’ run for junior U.S. senator from Illinois.  More likely, this ridiculous whirlwind campaign—the result of the convergence of...

The Olympics have come and gone, having returned to Athens for the 28th installment of the modern games.  Besides being an occasion for the inglorious introduction of women’s wrestling, the defiant proclamation of Soviet superiority by a defeated Russian gymnast, and the (welcome) assurance that the overpaid NBA players will no longer be referred to...

Ric Flair: To Be the Manby Ric FlairNew York: Pocket Books;
332 pp., $26.00American Evita: Hillary
Clinton’s Path to Powerby Christopher AndersenNew York: William Morrow;
292 pp., $29.95 Rewriting Historyby Dick Morris with Eileen McGannNew York: ReganBooks;
304 pp., $24.95 My Lifeby Bill ClintonNew York: Alfred A. Knopf;
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We Americans pride ourselves on being a nation of rootless individuals, cut off from the history that chained Old Europe to a cycle of wars and revolutions and bound to one another not by ties of blood and soil but only by the bloodless abstraction of self-evident truths.  Rooted in no one place, our corporate...

Not long before the collapse of the Soviet Union, when Mikhail Gorbachev was still in power and I was an editorial writer at the Washington Times, a bunch of Soviet “journalists” came to lunch at the newspaper.  At that time, I was still sufficiently in good graces with the paper’s management to be invited and...

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...

The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (the 9-11 Commission) released its report to much media fanfare in late July.  Although the commissioners labored mightily, they have given birth to a mouse.  The report is safe, cautious, and eminently bipartisan.  In other words, it largely avoids discussing the most serious issues surrounding...

The Morality of Everyday Life:
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It has been ten years since the death, at his home in the village of Mecosta, Michigan, of Russell Kirk, author of The Conservative Mind and one of the main spokesmen for organized American conservatism as it was known throughout his life.  While there were other architects of conservatism who were Kirk’s contemporaries, almost all...

PERSPECTIVE Fighting Among the Hedgerowsby Thomas Fleming Reracination. VIEWS Blindsided By Education’s Leftistsby B.K. EakmanRepublicans assure their own marginalization. There’s No Place Like Homeby Michael McMahonSimon says, “Go to school.” NEWS Many Children Left Behindby William LutzReexamining the Texas success story. The Untold Story Behind The Passion of the Christ by Alberto CarosaIn defense of...

As a young college student, I accepted implicitly all the goals of the Civil Rights revolution.  I believed firmly that schools should be integrated, even though the nearest thing to integration I had ever experienced was going to school with a part-Ojibwe in Superior, Wisconsin, a lily-white town in which black people were not allowed...

According to a recent front-page story in the New York Times, the latest innovation of a particularly ambitious segment of the upwardly mobile American middle class is the replacement of the old-fashioned summer camp with getting-into-college camp.  In proportion as the Times is ignorant of One Big Thing, its editors are highly knowledgeable about many...

Norman Podhoretz, Doris Day, and Arnold Palmer were among the recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom on June 23, and it is by no means easy to say who deserves the award the most—or, for that matter, the ...

PERSPECTIVE Doing Death by Thomas Fleming Be not proud. VIEWS Afghanistan: Opium Market to the World by Doug Bandow No end in sight. The Global Pharmacy by Kevin Michael Grace A reason for Americans to love Canada. NEWS Anything That Ails You by B.K. Eakman Women on tranqs in a self-serve society. The Bush Clan at the “Oligarchs’ Ball” by Wayne Allensworth Helping out ...

“What I like best about the Order of the Garter,” Lord Melbourne is reported to have remarked, “is that there is no damned merit about it.”  Had the Philadelphia Society existed in Melbourne’s day, he would have found damned little merit in it either, though the society is not on quite the same level of...

When my mother died, the doctors pumped my father so full of tranquilizers and mood elevators that he lumbered through the funeral like a representative of the living dead.  He had awakened one morning to discover his wife dead beside him, and, since he was a heart patient, the doctors were afraid that he could...

PERSPECTIVE Hatemongers by Thomas Fleming Stopping our ears. VIEWS CAIR and the ADL: Partnership for Hate by Srdja Trifkovic What becomes of the race opportunists? What Kind of Freedom? by Doug Bandow Picking and choosing liberties to defend. The Myth of an Antiglobalist Left by William R. Hawkins Marx, waiting in the wings. NEWS Strictly From Hunger by Kevin Michael Grace The Morris Dees ...

Just how high did authorization go for the Abu Ghraib “abuses,” as the deliberate torture and sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners by American troops are demurely called?  Was it really, as President Bush claimed in his flatulent “address to the nation” in May, a mere case of “disgraceful conduct by a few American troops who...

By no means the least of Ronald Reagan’s achievements as man and president was that he may well have been the first chief executive since Herbert Hoover who did not deserve a prison term for his crimes.  He also managed to hold the presidency twice, hand his office over to a designated successor, and remain...

What do you call a man who loves his country but is not so enthusiastic about the government that confiscates half of his income?  Who takes care of his own family but is not sure why, through tax policies and affirmative action, he is also supposed to take care of the children of other people...

Over on the LewRockwell.com Blog, Stephen Kinsella has, in response to an e-mail exchange I had with him, retracted his earlier statement that Thomas Storck, Thomas Fleming, and I have claimed papal infallibility for encyclicals on social thought. Even so, he qualifies his retraction by ...

Our old friend Tom Woods has painted himself into a corner. Portraying himself as an uncompromising ultratraditionalist who will have no truck either with the Novus Ordo or with anyone who does not condemn the Orthodox to Hell, he nonetheless takes it upon himself to contradict the Church’s fundamental teachings on morality and society. Woods’s...

Actually, to say that Woods replies is a bit of an overstatement; he cranked out 2,078 words overnight (a feat for which Lew Rockwell praises him), but very few of those words address the arguments that Storck raised. In fact, he includes only one quotation from Storck, which he uses to set up a straw...

Movies come and movies go, but probably never in the history of American film has more controversy greeted any movie than that which met Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ before and after its debut on Ash Wednesday.  We all know what the controversy was about.  It had nothing to do with the qualities...

Why are the phrases “honest journalist” and “free press” so often greeted with a snicker?  Of course, everyone exempts his own columnist or talking head from the general condemnation, but most Americans also exempt their own congressman from the universal condemnation of Congress as a body made up of toadies and swindlers.  To see the...

PERSPECTIVE Honest Journalistby Thomas Fleming A modest proposal. VIEWS Independent Media Tribesby Jesse WalkerBypassing the old gatekeepers. Reality TV Newsby Justin RaimondoScripted by the Bush administration. NEWS The Fall of Lord Blackadder and Lady Manolo (of Blahnik)by Kevin Michael GraceConrad Black (and blue). The Fourth Choiceby William J. QuirkEnding the reign of activist judges. REVIEWS...

Mark Steyn once told me a revealing story about Conrad Black’s “conservative” Canadian national newspaper, the National Post. It seems star columnist David Frum had ventured this evaluation: “The Post has a problem. It was started to save Canada, but Canada isn’t worth saving.” Ah, the authentic voice of the Canadian neoconservative! Or, as English...