Category: Polemics & Exchanges

In Scott P. Richert’s otherwise fine article “Polka Can’t Die” (The Rockford Files, November 2004), I was somewhat pained by his only slightly veiled disdain for the accordion.  Polka without accordion?  As soulless as Bach on a Moog synthesizer! His aversion does place him in some traditional company.  A Daumier cartoon has a character whose...

My thanks to Stephen B. Presser for his review (“Sacred Texts ’98,” October) of my book Reclaiming the American Revolution.  I certainly appreciate such a distinguished legal historian finding the work to merit his attention.  One issue raised in Professor Presser’s review is the constitutionality of the Sedition Act (which made criticism of the national...

Derek Turner, in “The New White Moors” (Correspondence, September), is right to warn of the advance of Islam and the decline of the West.  He would, however, benefit from reading Christopher Dawson’s The Making of Europe. The West is dying because it has lost faith in itself, which is inexorably linked to Christianity.  Mr. Turner...

It seems the only thing needed to complete Scott P. Richert’s 12th-century piece (“One Moment in Time,” Rockford Files, September), in which he states that, “Deprived of Baptism, the souls of these children may never find true rest,” would be “unless you give an indulgence.”  Can Mr. Richert please give a scriptural reference to back...

Alberto Carosa’s article on “The Untold Story Behind The Passion of the Christ” (News, September) tells us less about Mel Gibson and his film than about the Tridentine Latin Mass and Mr. Gibson’s dedication to it.  Why is The Passion important?  Why did it stir up a cacophony of denunciations as antisemitic, consequently (and presumably...

B.K. Eakman (“Anything That Ails You,” Views, August) laments the use of psychotropic medications; as is so often the case, however, she is not the one who deals with the suffering patient.  Though the patient might have erroneously bought into the notion that she can and should be happy, this is irrelevant: The patient still...

Samuel Francis is to be congratulated for having written one of the best essays on the American conservative establishment (“Queen of the Damned,” Principalities & Powers, August) that I have seen.  Dr. Francis correctly notes that the appointment of Midge Decter as president of the Philadelphia Society, a once stimulating conservative debating club, points to...

My name is Anne Bowie, and I am a 15-year-old freshman in high school.  I am the sports editor of my school newspaper, the Hawk Eye, but I also enjoy writing movie reviews from time to time.  As a descendant of Jim Bowie, who died at the Alamo, I am deeply interested in this portion...

Since Laurence M. Vance used his review (“Why Johnny Shouldn’t Vouch,” July) of two new books on parental choice in education to repeat his stale objections to school vouchers, I wish to correct his mistakes and bring readers up to date on the voucher debate. Vance conveys three reservations he has about vouchers, which will...

The glory of our greatest strength, “diversity,” loses its luster as you drive from Nogales, Arizona, up to the scenic Northland.  Traveling north, you notice fewer bars on the windows of businesses and homes, as well as a general reduction in the Australopithecine recycling practices so aptly described by Chilton Williamson, Jr., in his book...

I appreciated very much Scott P. Richert’s comments on what passes nowadays for American identity and how we wound up with rootless, abstract notions of “Americanism” (“Last Ride,” The Rockford Files, May).  Referring to the Americanization campaigns of the past, Mr. Richert pointed out that “It is relatively easy, in a modern, affluent, industrial society...

Kevin Michael Grace begins his profile of Conrad Black (“The Fall of Lord Blackadder and Lady Manolo (of Blahnik),” News, June) with a piece of hearsay—an observation that “Canada isn’t worth saving,” supposedly uttered by David Frum to me and by me to Mr. Grace. David has never said such a thing to me, and...

Kudos for your April 2004 issue on taxation (“Just Say No!”).  Thomas Fleming’s “Tax Slavery” (Perspective) and David Hartman’s “Revolting Taxation” (Views) were right on the mark.  I recently retired after 31 years and 8 months as a bottom-feeding, leg-breaking parasite (IRS revenue officer) for Godzilla, née Leviathan.  The main thing I learned over all...

It should go without saying in a magazine such as Chronicles, but apparently it does not: Contrary to Srdja Trifkovic’s “Europe and America” (Views, May), Mother Teresa deserves better than to be grouped alongside murderers and charlatans such as Mao, Che, Ho, and Mandela; and, if Dr. Trifkovic believes service in the Third World renders...

I read Roger McGrath’s engaging memoir, “Boys Will Be Boys” (Views, March), with real pleasure but found the skeptic in me thoroughly awakened afterward.  McGrath offers a surprisingly romanticized vision of schoolboy fighting, which he regards as a healthy expression of boys’ natural competitiveness and, indeed, as a key institution, a defining ritual in an...

Thanks for Stephen B. Presser’s “The Unbearable Illegitimacy of American Law” (Reviews, March), an incisive analysis of America’s legal amnesia. Judge Posner’s assessment that pragmatic “commercial values” have discouraged “reflection and abstract thought” invites a more radical probe.  The thought required for wise, long-term administration of ordered freedoms (achieved by the Founding Fathers, who were,...

My friend (and onetime fellow Episcopalian) David Mills speaks dryly, slyly, of the Episcopal Church’s “usual irrelevance” in “Pulling the Trigger” (Vital Signs, March).  Well, you know, the question is: “relevant” to what?  In this present case, to the received Christian Faith?  Ha and double-ha. Stand Christian morality on its head, as did the Episcopal...

Your March 2004 issue (“Straight Eye for the Queer Guy”) was valuable in many ways, not least because the cascading phenomenon of enthusiasm for “gay marriage” or “civil unions” both reveals and contributes mightily to our society’s increasingly rapid slide into what Pitirim Sorokin called the “social sewer.”  Stephen B. Presser puts his finger on...

In “George Soros, Postmodern Villain” (Views, February), Srdja Trifkovic certainly offered an extensive, if somewhat random, account of activities undertaken by organizations affiliated with Soros.  However, with all of the facts laid out, I cannot decide whether they amount to Soros’ attempts “to destroy the remaining bastions of the family, sovereign nationhood, and Christian Faith”...

I am pleased that Stephen Moore’s Club for Growth Advocacy fought valiantly on the House floor last November against the abomination that was President Bush’s Medicare prescription-drug bill—which has now become law, adding another $395 billion to the mushrooming federal debt.  (See “Night Moves,” Vital Signs, February.)  Likewise, Mr. Moore should be commended by all...

There is no current American commentator from whom I would rather receive praise—and rebukes—than Philip Jenkins.  I am therefore very glad that, in his review (“A Week of Thursdays,” February) he found readable my book The Unsleeping Eye, which, of course, was written well before I (or anyone else) could benefit from his own book...

Having read Aaron D. Wolf’s piece on the late Carl F.H. Henry (Cultural Revolutions, February), I wonder: Isn’t it self-evident that, if a Christian remains separated amidst an increasingly depraved culture, he eventually becomes “extremely separated”?  You call it fundamentalism; I call it biblical.  When Paul reasoned with the philosophers in Athens, he did not...

Joseph E. Fallon’s article “The American Myth of World War I” (Vital Signs, January) contained a statement suggesting that the United States, in displacing Spain as an imperial power, had taken on some of Spain’s characteristics. In one respect, there is a striking similarity between Spain’s century of imperialism (the 16th) and America’s (the 20th). ...

In his piece on the tragedy of the U.S.S. Liberty (Cultural Revolutions, January), Matthew Rarey engaged in the type of blatant distortion and misrepresentation that is only too common in the mainstream media.  I am sad to see it appear in Chronicles. Mr. Rarey suggests the possibility that Israel intentionally attacked the Liberty during the...

I just read Scott P. Richert’s “Always Dead Downtowns.  Always” (The Rockford Files, December 2003).  This is the bicentennial year for Clearfield County, Pennsylvania.  Our history is tied to natural resources: timber (pine spars for the tall ships); clay and coal (firebrick and coke for the burgeoning steel industry in Pittsburgh); and coal after World...

While I entirely agree with Roger McGrath’s contention in his essay in defense of gun rights (“A God-Given Natural Right,” Views, October 2003) that “an armed citizenry is essential to the preservation of freedom and democracy,” I do not agree that “the Second Amendment, like the First, recognizes a God-given, natural right of the people”...

I am sure that Scott P. Richert, in his review of Bill Kauffman’s Dispatches From the Muckdog Gazette (“Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere,” Reviews, November 2003), did not intend to single out my hometown as the standard for the corporate homogenization of America; since he did, however, let me say that I also like Cleveland.  This is...

Derek Turner’s review of Andrew Roberts’ Hitler & Churchill (“Style in History,” Reviews, September) is flawed. He writes that Roberts “is a conservative and a patriot” and that “All his books are informed by these identities . . . ”  And, according to Turner, Roberts writes “to counterattack various revisionist views of Hitler and Churchill...

Stephen B. Presser correctly complains about the unconstitutional decisions of the central government’s Supreme Court in his article “Supreme Court Chaos” (American Proscenium, October).  However, he fails to place the blame where it belongs, which is on the current Republican Congress.  The Constitution, in Article III, Section 2, clearly gives Congress the authority to limit...

The article by former Michigan state representative Greg Kaza concerning the effect of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in the University of Michigan race-preference cases (“Michigan’s Race Factor,” Vital Signs, October) is dreadfully misleading.  Kaza would have us believe that an important victory in the struggle against race-based preferences had been won. Quite the opposite...

I enjoyed Thomas Fleming’s article in praise of Aristotle (“Back to Reality,” Perspective, September).  The best way to introduce our children to philosophy is to teach them Aristotle’s proof for the existence of God and his proof for human immortality, with some embellishment and clarification from the works of St. Thomas Aquinas, then to bring...

As a long-time reader and supporter of Chronicles, I am a little puzzled by your persistent efforts to debunk the “myth” that Thomas Jefferson took his quadroon chambermaid Sally Hemings as a concubine.  While I agree with Samuel Francis, Egon Tausch, and now Matthew Rarey (Cultural Revolutions, September) that the legacy of Thomas Jefferson is...

In his essay “What Would Jefferson Do?” (Views, August), Stephen B. Presser implies that Thomas Jefferson would support efforts to silence the critics of the war in Iraq.  While it is true that, during his second term, Jefferson supported some illiberal measures (the embargo episode being a prime example), Dr. Presser ignores Jefferson’s Kentucky Resolution...

It is a good thing that our nation’s Founding Fathers did not believe as Thomas Fleming does about dissent (“Loyal Opposition,” Perspective, August), or we would never have achieved our independence.  Freedom of speech is the first guarantee listed in our Bill of Rights.  And though, like Dr. Fleming, I do not look to the...

Thank you for Don Livingston’s essay, “The Ancestry and Legacy of the Philosophes” (Views, July).  Rarely have I read anything that shed so much light on such a large subject in such a short space.  I have some disagreements with the essay, but they amount, I hope, to a friendly amendment. As Livingston sees it,...

Sean Scallon’s analysis of Quebec sovereignty (Cultural Revolutions, June) misses the point.  In Reference on certain Questions concerning the Secession of Quebec from Canada (1998), the Supreme Court of Canada held that the people of Quebec have a constitutional right to press for independence by all means allowed in parliamentary democracy; that the people of...

My reading of the Views by Aaron D. Wolf (“Hating Babies, Hating God”) and Judie Brown (“Rending the Seamless Garment”) in the June issue of Chronicles is that contraception is condemned almost to the same degree as abortion.  Surely there is a great distinction between abortifacients and the prevention of conception. It seems clear from...

Dr. Baughman’s implied argument (in “Making a Killing,”?Vital Signs, June, cowritten by B.K. Eakman) that, if there is no objective means of diagnosing a disease, then there is no need for medical treatment, is akin to throwing the baby out with the bathwater.  Up until relatively recently, medicine relied on clinical criteria (the combination of...

Philip Jenkins’ essay about McCarthyism (“Goodbye, Senator McCarthy,” Breaking Glass, May) was an exercise in retailing received opinions about the Wisconsin senator and his countersubversion efforts. Without offering specific illustrations, Professor Jenkins execrated Senator McCarthy as “a liar and a jerk of the first order” who conducted a “campaign of name-calling, accusations, and smears ....

A college friend of mine once said that, when she walked out of her last American-history final, she thought she would never again have to wonder what all the fuss was about Marbury v. Madison.  So when I saw Marshall DeRosa’s piece “Marbury v. Madison: The Beginning of Sorrows” (Views, May), I thought I would...

Stephen B. Presser’s “The Rights of Aliens” (Views) was right on the mark.  Yes, the powers that be want to equalize the rights of citizens and aliens—and eliminate American citizenship as a meaningful concept.  This effort flows from two sources: the notion of universal human rights and America as a “proposition nation.” If all humans...

Aaron D. Wolf’s ranting and caustic assault on premillenarians and dispensational premillenarians (“Apocalypse Now,” Views, April) is making some of us wonder what kind of an agenda Chronicles has.  These are issues over which Christians have a variety of viewpoints, and a modicum of civility might be helpful.  The fact is that most of the...

I have one small addition to Roger D. McGrath’s excellent piece, “You Have to Commit” (Views, April). The kibei (American-born Japanese educated in Japan before World War II) and other Japanese-Americans involved in the Hokoku Seinen Dan not only regularly demonstrated at the Tule Lake Segregation Center in support of the emperor and the empire...

Samuel Francis’s new book America Extinguished and Joe Scotchie’s review of it (“While America Sleeps,” March) deal with the problems resulting from unlimited mass immigration—people from foreign countries bringing a different culture and values to America.  Neither one, however, deals with the fact that the United States has experienced and still faces similar and equally...

I had to chuckle when I read Scott P. Richert’s “This Is Your Hometown” (The Rockford Files, March).  Did it never occur to him that manufacturers in his own hometown might be hurt by a higher steel tariff?  The trouble is that some conservatives have ceased being conservatives and have become ideologues on the issue...

As a first-time attendee of the Summer School (“The American Midwest,” The Rockford Institute’s Fourth Annual Summer School, 2001), I can sincerely say that I had one of the best times of my life—intellectually, spiritually, and socially.  Having strong family roots in the Midwest, my regional pride and knowledge of this beautiful section of the...

I enjoyed reading Paul Gottfried’s review of my book The Slaughter of Cities: Urban Renewal as Ethnic Cleansing (“The Rest of the Story,” January), but I was puzzled by what he calls “the obvious counterarguments” to my position.  The most obvious, he claims, is that “Catholic Democrats . . . were instrumental in bringing about...

I was very disappointed to see William Grigg’s “Frontier Taliban” (Reviews, December 2002) in Chronicles.  Mr. Grigg either is laughably ignorant of the history of the Mountain Meadows Massacre or is content to promote Will Bagley’s agenda, put forth in his book, Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Mountain Meadows Massacre.  Mr. Bagley...

Don’t you guys ever give up?  Sean Scallon (“Letter From Canada: A Pocket Full of Sovereigns,” Correspondence, November 2002) writes that, “From reading [the Macleans] account, you might guess that the sovereignty question in Quebec has been solved . . . that is what Canada’s establishment, from Macleans on down, would like to believe.” What...

David A. Hartman’s “Wall Street’s Turn” (Vital Signs, December 2002) accurately outlined several factors that drove the U.S. stock market to extreme valuations in the late 1990’s, and, as an equity portfolio manager, I found his insight to be both refreshing and a welcome respite from the utter nonsense of the mountebanks at the brokerage...