November 22, 2012

Orwell's Struggle May Be Over

By his own admission George Orwell was a committed socialist. About a year before his death in 1950 Orwell responded to the leftist charge that his recently published novel 1984 represented a direct attack on both socialism and the British Labour Par...

October 7, 2012

Madison Is Definitely Rising

When was the last time a member of a rock-and-roll band claimed that the defining issue that separates conservatives from liberals today is the virtue of gratitude? Putting a finger squarely on America's political and cultural pulse is a talent that ...

September 28, 2012

Did Romney Read Gandhi?

Mitt Romney has hit a nerve.  The mainstream media are indignant and downright apoplectic over Romney's "47 percent" comment.  But as Eric Hoffer once observed, "we are least open to precise knowledge concerning the things we are most vehem...

September 25, 2012

Greg Buckley's Agony

On August 10 this year Lance Cpl. Greg Buckley Jr. was murdered by an Afghan police officer "trainee" in the Helmand Province of southern Afghanistan.  The 21 year old Buckley was working out in a gym when the Afghan officer walked in with an AK...

June 3, 2012

When Democrats Confuse Statism with Community

American Spectator senior editor Quin Hillyer has called Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne a once "thoughtful" political commentator who has nevertheless devolved into "the realm of a flagrantly dishonest left-wing hit man." Moving from "thoughtf...

May 22, 2012

Complications From His Father (and Mother)

Doug Ross at Director Blue has clearly revealed the dubious maneuvers over at Obama's literary agency by noting that sometime between April 3rd and April 21st of 2007 someone at the agency was told to change presidential candidate Barack Obama's birt...

April 9, 2012

Textbooks Behaving Badly

Are academic textbooks important in deciding the fate of nations?  Three of the last century's most celebrated intellectuals answered that question strongly in the affirmative.  In 1944, for example, C.S. Lewis penned his most profound lite...

April 8, 2012

Two Cheers for the Hoodie

I remember reading some years ago that despite the claims of Western feminists, many women in the Muslim world prefer to wear the burka for several reasons, especially at work and in public.  One of the arguments is straightforward and simple: w...

November 10, 2011

Obama's Socialism in God's Name

Jeremiah Wright's longtime congregant Barack Obama wants to tell you what God desires for America.   At a recent speech in Washington, the president proclaimed that "God wants to see us help ourselves by putting people back to work."  ...

November 9, 2011

OWS: Plato Bets on Tyranny

It might be worth everyone's while in these troubled times to set aside an evening in order to carefully read Book VIII of Plato's Republic.  The dialogue is nothing less than chilling in its illustration of what happens in a popular government ...

October 10, 2011

Why America Needs Herman Cain

Niccolò Machiavelli once said that "the man who adapts his course of action to the nature of the times will succeed, and likewise, the man who sets his course of action out of tune with the times will come to grief." What I'd like to argue in this ...

August 2, 2011

Joe Biden's Tea Party 'Terrorists'

Politico is reporting that Vice President Joe Biden recently lashed out at Tea Party conservatives for "acting like terrorists" during the recent budget battle in Congress.  Sources who were present at a closed-door, Democrat Caucus meeting on M...

July 4, 2011

The Education of a Compassionate Conservative

"Uncompassionate" Conservatives  National Review editor Rich Lowry doesn't seem to care much for Texas Governor Rick Perry.  In a recent essay entitled "The Rise of Uncompassionate Conservatism" Lowry admonishes Gov. Perry for "stomping all...

June 19, 2011

The Knowledge That Could Have Saved Congressman Weiner

News of Rep. Anthony Weiner's resignation, of his wife Huma's pregnancy, and of yet more examples of his sordid behavior adds another extraordinary dimension to the New York congressman's self-inflicted inferno.  And as Father's Day approaches o...

June 11, 2011

Obama's Lip Service to Adam Smith

When addressing the British Parliament a few weeks ago President Obama decided to venture into the realm of economic theory.  Rather than outlining to his audience the virtues of Keynesian philosophy, however, Mr. Obama chose to highlight that g...

June 7, 2011

Rep. Weiner and the Failure of Anger

According to Anthony Weiner's official congressional website, "Protecting Children on the Internet" has been one of the New York congressman's signature interests.  In 2007 for example Weiner collaborated with several others in Congress to pas...

June 6, 2011

Losing Dorothy Rabinowitz

Eric Hoffer once wrote that the "1960s were decisive" in generating the subsequent feeling that "our economic system and our civilization are nearing their end."  Hoffer argued that the "murder weapon was forged in the radical-chic salons of Man...

April 13, 2011

The Radically Confused Harry Reid

Commenting on the budget impasse recently, Senate leader Harry Reid decided to offer unsteady Republican leaders the benefit of his political wisdom.  Reid repeatedly warned Republicans that -- for America's sake -- they can no longer be dragged...

November 28, 2010

Richard Cohen and the Invisible Power

For Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen, there's a certain sweetness in highlighting ingratitude during a time when most Americans are giving thanks. Cohen opened Thanksgiving week with an essay defending Michelle Obama's claim that prior to her ...

November 18, 2010

Obama, the Inattentive Student of Gandhi

On his recent trip to India, President Obama was lavish in his praise for Mahatma Gandhi. Obama maintained that Gandhi's message of being "the change we seek in the world" was instrumental in inspiring his own journey from community organiz...

April 5, 2010

Undermining Our Faith

"What is it then that drives some intellectuals in free countries to hate their native land and wish for its annihilation?" - Eric HofferI left the campus library at the University of Colorado, Boulder some time after noon. Outside in ...

March 30, 2010

Listen to the Panther

"[The] left became so ideologically attached to anti-Americanism and pro-communism and Third Worldism that I believe we have a problem on our hands" - Eldridge CleaverA Washington Post columnist by the name of Colbert King recently compared...

March 21, 2010

Aristotle's Warning

"We know that the moment of greatest danger to a society is when it comes near realizing its most cherished dreams." - Eric HofferFrom its origins in Athens some 2,500 years ago, it has been obvious to some astute observers that democracy, ...

March 18, 2010

Obama: Vote on Healthcare, Then Evaluate the Bill

In Wednesday evening’s Fox News interview with Bret Baird, Barack Obama struggled to maintain the image of a cool, cerebral, reassuring and trustworthy Chief Executive laboring tirelessly on behalf of the general welfare.  The President...

March 15, 2010

Pelosi and Marx on 'Freedom'

Nancy Pelosi wants to give birth to a new kind of freedom in America -- the freedom from being "job-locked."In an interview with Rachel Maddow Thursday evening, Pelosi asked Americans to "think" about a bright, new, liberating kin...

September 7, 2009

On Bullying, Costco Disconnects from Reality

Millions of Americans who shop at Costco receive the retail giant’s monthly magazine The Costco Connection.  I have to confess however that my copy of the publication usually never makes it past the garage.  Not so the recent August ...

May 7, 2009

The Pity of Obama's Judicial Doctrine

Supreme Court Justice David Souter's impending retirement has triggered another tired debate over whether Barack Obama, in the President's replacement choice, will finally reveal his essentially moderate, pragmatic, and bipartisan proclivities. ...

May 2, 2009

Obama's Litmus Test

Back in 2005, then Senator Barack Obama voted against the nomination of John Roberts to the Supreme Court.  Obama’s negative vote came with a concern: does Roberts fully understand the Supreme Court’s responsibility to check the ...

April 21, 2009

Those Who Secede

Texas Governor Rick Perry's recent defense of the 10th Amendment has unleashed a flood of liberal outrage.  To our friends on the left, those who mention the word secession and federal government in the same breath are about as sophisticated as ...

April 19, 2009

The Worrisome Educator

Penn State University's "Department of Counseling and Psychological Services" has a video presentation that should leave any decent American shocked, saddened, and yes, even enraged.  Credit David French of National Review Online for p...

March 21, 2009

Educating Michelle

On a warm, breezy August afternoon back in the mid 1980s a French couple dropped me off near Colleville-sur-mer, in Normandy.  I had been hitch hiking through Europe for several weeks during a college break and I had decided to spend some time a...

March 1, 2009

A compelling conservative

Those searching for brilliant, passionate, and compelling messengers to lead the conservative movement into the future might want to consider the Lebanese born and multilingual dynamo Brigitte Gabriel.Gabriel is a worldly, fearless former Middle East...

February 25, 2009

Eric Holder's Tragic Prison

Some years ago at a major university out west I was hired to teach minority students courses in expository writing.  Most of my students were African-American.  They were part of a "bridge program" at the university that allowed ...

February 16, 2009

How Democracies Become Tyrannies

Back in 1959 the philosopher Eric Hoffer had this to say about Americans and America:For those who want to be left alone to realize their capacities and talents this is an ideal country.  That was then. This is now. Flash forward fifty years to ...

February 6, 2009

Obama's Leninism

Vladimir Lenin coined the term “Democratic Centralism” in order to describe what he considered to be Bolshevik “bipartisanship.”  In his famous book What Is To Be Done? Lenin worried that left to themselves, the proletari...

January 30, 2009

Hypocrisy 201

The AP is reporting that Barack Obama has leveled a blistering attack on Wall Street corporate greed.  According to Obama, the $18 billion in bonuses distributed to corporate executives last year during the taxpayer bailout was “the heigh...

January 23, 2009

Obama to Reinstate American Funded Abortions Worldwide

This morning the announcement came from officials in Washington that Obama plans to sign an executive order that terminates the ban on American taxpayer funded abortions worldwide.The ban, known as the "Mexico City Policy," was established ...

December 7, 2008

When elites eschew defense: The case of India

"Everybody's got a plan until they get hit."  So said Mike Tyson some years ago in the most brilliant statement of political realism since Thucydides.  Bharat Mata, or "Mother India," the birthplace of the glorious Upani...

November 22, 2008

The Testosterone Crisis

The sweeping Democratic electoral victory has left many conservative Americans concerned about their children's future.  With the federal government, educational establishment, entertainment industry and media thoroughly in the hands of the left...

November 10, 2008

Bittersweet Victory

When the warm tears of jubilation over Obama's victory slow to a bare trickle, many of his supporters will return home to confront a rather icy reality: in the blink of an election the white Republican everyman oppressor will have disappeared.  ...

November 3, 2008

A Tale of Two Activists

Thanks to Stanley Kurtz, most of us are aware now that, as chair of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge (CAC), Barack Obama had little interest in the educational success of young Chicago area schoolchildren.  Funds intended for school reform effort...

November 1, 2008

Obama's Adam Smith Problem

German scholars in the nineteenth-century exercised a good amount of frustration over something they dubbed "das Adam Smith Problem." To the consistency-minded Germans the brilliant yet humble Scottish economist and "father of capitali...

October 12, 2008

Hypocrisy 101

Rep. John Lewis, Georgia Democrat, has unleashed the vicious attack on John McCain and Sarah Palin that we have been anticipating of late.  After noting that McCain and Palin were "sowing the seeds of hatred and division" Lewis turns t...

October 4, 2008

American Gothic Redux

Frank, Jona. Right: Portraits from the Evangelical Ivy League(San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2008)Photographer Jona Frank recently attempted to capture life at the Evangelical Christian Patrick Henry College (PHC). But the resulting book is not, as ...

September 20, 2008

Obama campaign stoking racial hatred

What follows is definitive proof that much of America is poised to elect a divisive, juvenile, and deceitful candidate for president.  In the Friday, Sept. 19 edition of the Wall Street Journal Rush Limbaugh exposes a frightening example of the ...

April 5, 2008

Doublethink and the Liberal Mind

Recent polls are showing that by a good 60% margin, Barack Obama is seen as a candidate who can "unify" the nation.  This may be the most brilliant example of what George Orwell called "doublethink" in the recent history of t...

March 20, 2008

Obama's Anger

"The anger is real. It is powerful, and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races."  - Barack ObamaBack in the late 1980s I w...

November 24, 2007

Natural Law and Child Abuse

A recent AP news report has concluded, after compiling the results of numerous studies over the years, that there is a strong and disturbing link between severe child abuse and non-traditional family environments. In the article' words...

July 15, 2007

Private Morality and Public Servants

Add  Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to the list of politicians who have claimed that their private affairs have no bearing on their public performance.  Villaraigosa recently admitted that he was having an affair with a local news a...