September 25, 2023

On Merrick Garland's Performance Art

I have never aspired to serve in the US Congress, except in those moments when engaging in insider trading seemed financially rewarding; illegal for us ordinary Americans (ask Martha Stewart), but not for Congress. After watching the latest clown sho...

July 5, 2022

Watergate and the Corruption of the DC Judiciary

It has been fifty years since that momentous break-in at the Watergate office complex, and it seems a good time to revisit that episode, especially in light of the current abuses of power that seem so ubiquitous. Geoff Shepard's book, T...

September 20, 2020

How many name changes are required?

White racism against American minorities must be in terribly short supply, with demand for evidence of white racism must far exceeding supply.  How else to explain recent charges that the name, “Cleveland Indians” is racist? The char...

September 1, 2020

No escape from TDS at the NYT

You can't escape Trump hatred anywhere in the New York Times. I had mentioned to a friend of mine that I am working my way through the works of William Faulkner.  He sent me a book review published August 25, 2020 in the...

May 27, 2010

Environmentalists with Oil on Their Hands

When evaluating in an honest way all factors that contributed to the current pollution of the Gulf, we must ask why BP was drilling in 5,000 feet of ocean when there are so many other accessible and safe alternatives. There are large deposits of oil ...

December 17, 2009

The Obama Doctrine: Govern by Decree

As you exhale while reading this article, you are contributing to the coming world catastrophe caused by global warming. So says the Environmental Protection Agency in its recent decree that carbon dioxide is an air pollutant among those gases that ...

October 9, 2009

Enduring bumper sticker sermons

Preaching once was an art largely confined to the pulpits in the churches of this country.  Now, some sermons have been reduced to sound-bite size and mounted on the rear bumpers and hatches of automobiles.Just yesterday I pulled up behind a Vol...

July 29, 2009

Colin Powell, Republican Strategist?

Colin Powell appeared on CNN's Larry King Show on Tuesday evening.  In the wake of his endorsement of Barack Obama, some conservatives have suggested that he leave the Republican Party.  Powell's response to King was defiant, "I decide...

February 17, 2009

When Your Wife Deploys to Iraq

I never quite understood those pictures of young men standing in line on December 8, 1941 to volunteer for what we now know were roughly four years of carnage and depravation.  It seemed so counter to my basic survival instincts.  Thanks to...

November 7, 2008

Barack Obama: The Kingfish Reborn

John McCain once referred to Barack Obama's upcoming presidency as the second term of Jimmy Carter.  Obama has provided plenty of support for this observation.  However, as this seemingly endless campaign progressed, and as domestic issues ...

August 17, 2008

Too Fat to Execute? Ohio's Capital Punishment Dilemma

An adage has it that one can never be too thin or too rich, and this adage is now being tested.  Richard Cooey, a convicted double murderer, currently on Ohio's Death Row, seeks to prove that there are times when one cannot be too fat.  Coo...

May 17, 2008

Mumia Abu-Jamal: Still Guilty!

The engines of the "Free Mumia Abu-Jamel" movement continue to drone on.  The Framing of Mumia Abu-Jamel by J. Patrick O'Connor is the latest installment of the movement's efforts to free the convicted murderer of Philadelphia police o...

April 20, 2008

Redefining 'Swiftboating' and Rewriting History

If the words "swift" and "boat" must be combined and turned into a verb, then let us insist on its proper use.  The word as a verb originates from the campaign undertaken in 2004 by the Swift Boat Veterans in response to the ...

December 23, 2007

Counting Out Keith Olbermann

I watched MSNBC's Countdown With Keith Olbermann one night last week.  Mimicking university hiring committees, MSNBC added a voice from the far left to its existing television lineup, already heavily burdened by the left.  My evening of vie...

November 17, 2007

Up from Kelo: Ohio and Property Rights

One cheer for the State of Ohio for its recent attempt to protect private property rights, battered by the Supreme Court's  Kelo Decision.  Private property rights of citizens are no less important to the protection of citizens from in...

August 23, 2007

Shooting Michael Moore

In a variant of the Golden Rule, Kevin Leffler has recently done to Michael Moore what Michael Moore has done to so many others.  In Shooting Michael Moore Mr. Leffler produces a commendable documentary that shows Michael Moore to be something o...

July 4, 2007

The Demise Of Antioch College (Continued)

The death of Antioch College is one of those quiet events that may one day be viewed as the marker of a passing of an era. On June 14, 2007 American Thinker published my obituary for Antioch College, the substance of which no one will confuse with ...

June 14, 2007

Antioch College, R.I.P.

According to a statement released on June 12, 2007 by the Antioch College Board of Trustees, the College in Yellow Springs, Ohio will suspend operations on July 1, 2008.  The Trustees announced that the "College's resources are inadequate...

June 9, 2007

Education at Its Finest

In a bygone era, a child sent to study the humanities was expected to drink deeply from the collected wisdom of the finest writers and artists, emerging with a heightened sense of mankind's potential for greatness as well the flaws inherent in human ...

March 21, 2007

Progressive?

It is time to drop from our political vocabulary the once useful word "progressive."  When not deceptive, it is meaningless.  It is a word that pretends to be descriptive and informative when it is more often an impediment to thou...

February 24, 2007

America's Neo-Copperheads

The Iraq War has produced a new crop of defeatists as demonstrated by the recent "peace" rallies and the grandstanding of the new Democratic Congress. By defeatists I do not mean those in 2003 who could offer reasonable proposals for contro...

January 3, 2007

Europe's End: Not with Bang but a Whimper

Mark Steyn's recent best seller, America Alone is a gloomy book on Europe's future.  By Europe, Mr. Steyn means primarily what Donald Rumsfeld once referred to contemptuously as "Old Europe."  In a variation of the prime clich...

October 9, 2006

Adult Supervision for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals

On this year's Supreme Court docket, waiting for a disposition to be revealed, perhaps soon, is a case in which the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the most—reversed of the federal appeals courts, is once again in effect on trial. Imagine...

September 30, 2006

Charles Manson's Path to Freedom

[satire] Memorandum to: Charles Manson  From: Your Counsel  Date: October, 2006 Charlie, We are roughly three quarters of the way through 2006 and your next parole hearing is in 2007.  I despise useless, futile gestures, and actions th...

August 11, 2006

A Bright Future for Cynthia McKinney

Don't worry about Cynthia McKinney's future. She's got it made. Despite her defeat by almost a 60—40 margin in the August 8, 2006 Democratic primary for Georgia's 4th Congressional District seat, her future is secure.� In Congress, which is a...

July 10, 2006

Justice Breyer's Active Liberty and bin Laden's Chauffeur

In a five—to—three decision the United States Supreme Court struck down the current use of military commissions to try al Qaeda detainees (Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, Case No. 05—184, 2006 US LEXIS 5185).  This case arose from a challe...

July 2, 2006

Peddling PC to the Alumni

Publications sent by colleges and universities to their alumni are meant to be soothing. We are treated to profiles of accomplished alumni, hard—working and reasonable professors, and those students whose futures are so bright we gotta wear sha...