April 21, 2024

AI and the Erosion of Human Worth

The release of Google’s Gemini A.I. image-generator a few weeks ago raised quite a bit of both amusement and disgust.  Among other things, in obedience to its woke creators, it dutifully remade Western history as the creation of non-w...

December 14, 2023

The Collapse of Credible Authority

I grew up in a world in which most authorities could be trusted most of the time.  True, it was already a cliché that Washington, D.C. was full of liars.  And yes, everyone knew about medical malpractice.  Even pe...

October 28, 2022

After the Elections

I remember talking to a childhood friend a little before the 2016 election.  What he said to me sticks in my memory verbatim because it was so stunning. "If Trump wins this election, it will be the end of democracy." He said...

May 4, 2021

Soviet Tyranny Warmed Over Is Still Tyranny

A colleague recommended I read Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago, a long and deep look into the abyss of Soviet communist oppression in the first half of the 20th century.  In her opinion, "everyone should read this book."...

February 21, 2021

Fake News Wannabes

We had a pretty good snowstorm the other day. I switched on the local news when I got up, naively imagining that they would give me a little useful information in between their usual dire warnings not to leave my home. For the first time that I can r...

January 24, 2021

Why Post-Inauguration Reminds Me of Post-9-11

I have been struggling at this keyboard since the "election."  I start an article — and the news cycle runs it over like a steamroller.  I don't think anyone wants to hear anything very subtle or, if you'll...

November 14, 2020

We Are All Southerners Now

When I was growing up in Ohio, the South began at the banks of the Ohio river.  Below that muddy line, everyone knew, there lived a different breed of backward and uneducated people with lazy minds and even lazier language skills. ...

October 29, 2020

The Modern World's Never-Ending War on Faith

Over the past couple of generations, belief in God has lost stature among the people who have governed this country.  It has gone from being a foundational norm to being something of a historical embarrassment.  Most politicians, ...

September 23, 2020

The Battle of November 3rd Is Coming

Most Americans have lived their lives watching politics as though it were a bad TV show.  They have found it boring and distasteful.  They've preferred to think it doesn't matter.  For thirty or forty years, the ...

August 23, 2020

Dem Convention Offered a Terrifying Re-run

I watched an hour or so of the DNC convention wanting to see, in all honesty, Joe Biden go sprawling in pile over his own misshapen words. I suppose this is a little like going to an auto race in the hope that you will get to see a wreck. But not qui...

June 21, 2020

Who Owns the Streets?

The early 20th-century sociologist Max Weber starkly observed that a monopoly on the legitimate use of violence is what defines a state.  In other words, only a county's own acknowledged government has the ultimate right to use force ag...

June 13, 2020

Three Species of Protesters

I have participated in numerous public protests in my life – on both sides of the ideological fence.  Regarding the litany of naïve causes I once championed, I will humbly take the Fifth.  While it’s always a risk...

May 2, 2020

A nation suspended

In an average year, in round figures, the United States of America loses about 2.8 million of its citizens to death by all causes.  If we were to reach the 100,000 deaths projected for COVID-19 a little earlier this year, it would not amoun...

February 26, 2020

Sorry, Democrats: Party's Over

There is something deeply satisfying about watching the ironically named Democratic Party consume itself at every turn. I have tried to summon up some human pity for the carnage -- but frankly I just can’t. If Joe Biden weren’t a corru...

November 15, 2019

Liberals and the Moral Compass

Can a modern liberal have a moral compass?  The answer is both "yes" and "no."  It depends on what you think a moral compass is. Let's start by talking about what a moral compass is in the eyes of social...

October 10, 2019

Progressing toward Extinction

I was born at the tail end of the baby boom. I remember going to schools from which children poured out like an enthusiastic tide. It was an oddity for a couple not to have children then – and even a minor source of embarrassment. It was also a...

August 31, 2019

Don't tell me your pronouns — I can guess!

A leftist shtick that been going on for some time in universities, government offices, and other haunts of the chronically offended is the idea of choosing one's own personal pronouns — and expecting the world to actually use them. ...

August 13, 2019

What Is Racism?

I think it's fair to say that everyone in America who isn't either "of color" or irredeemably brainwashed by our educational system is sick of being called a racist.  While most people have been busy getting on with other ...

July 19, 2019

Slavery without the Muss

A couple of years ago, I took a business trip to Coronado, California — a wealthy suburb of San Diego isolated on the far side of the bay.  I'd never been to California.  Coronado was not covered in heroin needles and hu...

June 15, 2019

Reality is Not an Option

Recently, my local morning news channel aired a story about a body discovered in a city park. Sadly, that’s not especially unusual. I was still a little bleary from having just gotten out of bed, so I don’t recall many details. I think th...

April 6, 2019

The Never-Ending Threat of Civil War

We and the Left are now two nations within one country.  This is undeniable.  We are now so different that we cannot even agree on what a country is, or on the merits of a country having a border.  The number of people w...

March 1, 2019

The Dream that We Are All the Same

I grew up across the street from a miniaturized rendition of a ghetto, scaled to fit a medium-sized Midwestern town.  It amounted to an oversized block of single-story apartments, barracks-like buildings scattered at odd angles, built to ho...

January 19, 2019

Holes in the Map

When I was a boy, sometimes my parents would load the family into our old green Rambler and we’d just go for a drive. I don’t know anybody who “goes for drives” anymore, but it was not uncommon in the 1970s. Blame us for globa...

October 29, 2018

The Sad, Sad Culture of Progressivism

If you’ve ever read anything written by any progressive over the age of forty, chances are pretty good that you’ve been exposed to a certain weary, self-indulgent, spiritually-agonized tone. It is very recognizable, like the smell of deca...

July 19, 2018

Distinguishing Civil War from Social Anarchy

The antics of the left since the 2016 election have proven beyond any doubt that leftists are not going to give up their agenda quietly.  Their street activists have shown themselves more than willing to engage in violence – creating ...

July 1, 2018

The Zombie Media

Isn't it amazing that the left-wing media continue to compare Donald Trump to Hitler, fling accusations of racism at half the country, and beat the dead horse of the Russian collusion conspiracy well beyond the hope of any serious public traction...

May 12, 2018

Fake neutrality in politics

Pulling up American Thinker on my phone the other day, Google offered the search suggestion: "American Thinker Conservative."  I clicked.  Why not – what harm could Google do me?  What I was tre...

May 6, 2018

An Embarrassment of Miracles

In 1820, Thomas Jefferson created an abridged version of the New Testament, literally with a razor and glue, which he titled "The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth."  In essence, he stripped the New Testament of supernatural ev...

April 12, 2018

The Fatal Weaknesses of Humanism

The leftist is fundamentally a humanist.  Those on the left believe that humanity can solve its own problems, that history is the story of slow but inevitable improvement, and that God is an antiquated, retrograde illusion.  Conse...

April 1, 2018

The Anti-Christian Movement

I used to be an atheist.  My understanding of "atheism" was simply that it is the belief that there is no God.  I was an empiricist: I believed in what could be seen – the material world and nothing more....

February 25, 2018

Churches for People Who Dislike God

I have friends and family members who attend liberal churches.  I know a little about these institutions and have even attended their services once or twice.  Strictly speaking, I don't think they can be accurately called ...

January 24, 2018

California's de facto secession

The state of California has been flouting U.S. federal laws for some time.  First it legalized marijuana, a controlled substance under federal statutes.  Then it tolerated, and encouraged, sanctuary cities within the state –...

January 4, 2018

Deconstructing Marxist Critical Theory

For those of you who haven't been formally introduced to the sociological doomsday weapon of the 20th century, critical theory is an approach to analyzing society not for the purpose of understanding it, but for the purpose of transform...

December 20, 2017

What Might Civil War Be Like?

The thought of Civil War has been in the minds of many people lately, on both sides of the political and cultural divide. This is not a thing to be wished for, though no one should kid themselves into believing it’s impossible either. Let us ta...

December 6, 2017

The Impending Death of Multiculturalism

We are all familiar with the Democratic Party gambit of packing the electorate with poor, third-world immigrants, all but guaranteed to vote for the party who offers them a living on the taxpayers’ largesse. While progressives still roll their ...

November 14, 2017

The Leftist Herd

The fundamental difference between ourselves and the left isn’t that we believe in smaller government and they don’t. Nor is it that we believe in the practical necessity of borders and they don’t. It is that we believe in a life wi...

September 2, 2017

Deleting History

One of my wittier friends told me today “I’m starting a movement to ban Dixie cups.” If I’d have been less startled by his gallows humor I’d have replied – “Just wait a week. They’ll probably drop the ...

August 8, 2017

What Is 'Freedom of Religion'?

The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” This is a plain enough statement, if you take it for what it ac...

July 16, 2017

Impersonators of God

As the liberal media is pushed onto the defensive, its talking heads get more and more desperate to prop up their illusions. They are like magicians whose tricks are exposed, or ventriloquists who can no longer keep their mouths shut. It is easy to s...

June 25, 2017

Why Finsbury Park and London Bridge Are Not Alike

A few days ago a native of the British Isles, Darren Osborne, drove his truck into a crowd of Muslims near what was once a notoriously radical mosque in the north London suburb of Finsbury Park. The modus operandi of the attack was little different f...

June 7, 2017

A Cause for War?

For a republic to be worthy of the name, it must have certain features. Most obviously, political power must, in some meaningful sense, reside with the people and be expressed through their elected officials. Even at this most basic level, our countr...

December 22, 2016

Conservatism and Progressivism: Two Irreconcilable Worldviews

Contemporary conservatism and progressivism are not just two points along some abstract right-left continuum, but are utterly different and irreconcilable worldviews. It is possible to illustrate this point by examining each side’s understandin...

November 22, 2016

Watching the Snowflakes Melt

Any honest conservative will have to admit that the post-election spectacle of weeping Clinton staffers, progressive pundits at a momentary loss for lies, and SJWs tweeting as frantically as canaries in a room full of hungry cats was the icing on Tru...

October 21, 2016

The Elites and Open Borders

No one wants to leave his or her own family unprotected. There is no such thing as a true proponent of open borders. It is only a question of what the borders look like -- and whom they are designed to protect. When almost everyone believed in nat...

August 5, 2016

Hate Is Love

This year’s Democratic National Convention was all abloom with signs proclaiming “Love trumps hate.” Attorney General Loretta Lynch said recently that the “most effective response to terror is compassion, unity, and love....

July 19, 2016

A Religion for the Moment

Two predictable things happen after every terrorist attack in North America and Europe. Okay, actually all sorts of predictable things happen, but I’m not talking about the usual call for more gun control or the frantic effort to point the fing...

June 4, 2016

On Arguing with Young Regressives

1) -- Abandon all hope. If you decide to argue with a millennial about the merits of his or her cause, you should approach the task with either the patience of a saint, confident that your rewards are already waiting for you in heaven -- or with t...

February 6, 2016

Who killed Bat Boy?

For those of you who are very young, or who have spent your days so glued to your cellphones that you haven’t noticed the trashy newspapers in supermarket checkout lanes, Bat Boy was a monster – half boy and half bat – and the creat...

January 21, 2016

The Academic War on Facts

When I was in college back in the 1980s, a couple of new degree programs, Women’s Studies and Afro-American Studies, were starting to gain in popularity. The purpose of these programs, everyone knew perfectly well, was to advance the cause of p...

December 30, 2015

It Has Come to This

The United States of America that we grew up in, and in some cases fought for, no longer exists. I would like to write something stirring in defense of our Constitution, but it isn’t under attack. It is simply ignored. Some have proposed that w...

September 17, 2015

Indecency by Administrative Decree

Once upon a time, in a small town in Ohio, there was a little girl who was very confused. She decided she was a boy one day, and later she used the boy’s bathroom in her local public school. You must forgive me for the fairytale beginning, but ...

July 18, 2015

The Logic of Elitism

The things that ordinary citizens do politically tend to revolve around the idea of winning elections. In real terms, we vote, assist in campaigns, and donate money to get people who will represent our will into office. When we seek to educate other ...

March 1, 2015

Who the hell is Chelsea Manning?

Recently, a friend sent me an article he was furious about.  The title was: Hormone treatment approved for Chelsea Manning.  The innocent question that popped into my head was: “Who the hell is Chelsea Manning?”  Chelsea, i...

December 30, 2014

Bread, Circuses, and the Appearance of Good Will

The greatest threat to individual freedom is not the machinations of political parties –- noxious though those machinations may be -- but the attitude toward authority which pervades the populace itself.  When people no longer feel threate...