August 16, 2017

I've changed my mind about the statues

I used not to care whether the Confederate memorials remained or were removed.  In Mann's Chinese Theater in Los Angeles, where the footprints of stars are embedded in concrete, those of forgotten stars of yesteryear are sometimes removed to...

March 31, 2017

Liberal Fantasylands

I knew of a woman who was a member of a Trotskyite splinter group.  She was a communist, but not of the Moscow variety.  She shared that distinction with a select few, who themselves were later divided and then splintered into factions, in ...

June 3, 2015

We Don't Expect Politicians to be Honest

When we read about the accumulated wealth of our leaders most of us simply shrug. Accumulated wealth after a lifetime spent in public service is now taken as a given. I think of the Hasterts, the Pelosis ($34 million or so), Harry Reid ($10 mill...

June 3, 2015

We don't expect our politicians to be honest

When we read about the accumulated wealth of our leaders most of us simply shrug.  Accumulated wealth after a lifetime spent in public service is now taken as a given. I think of the Hasterts, the Pelosis ($34 million or so) ); Ted Stevens,...

December 31, 2014

Guilty until Proven Guilty

Ancient Israel had a Day of Atonement, in which the sins of the nation were transferred to the scapegoat: "And they made  a ramp for it [the scapegoat] on account of [the pilgrims] because these used to yank at its hair, and cry out to...

December 14, 2014

Apology needed in UVa rape hoax scandal

The first thing President Teresa Sullivan of the University of Virginia needs to do in the wake of what now appears to be a faux rape scandal is to apologize to the victims – that is, to the members of Phi Kappa Psi, who have been vilified, for...

December 9, 2014

What's Wrong With Our University Presidents?

Teresa Sullivan, president of the University of Virginia, said all the right things when fraternity members at her school were accused of gang rape: she followed the PC playbook and nobody could fault her for missing her lines. She automatically assu...

November 21, 2014

Scottsboro, Ferguson, and Judge Horton

In 1931 nine Black young men were charged with raping two white women, on a train which eventually stopped in Scottsboro, Alabama. The opinion of Southern white society was that the guilt of the nine men was palpable. Whites . . .  co...

February 24, 2014

When Black Americans Become Good Germans

African-Americans were the richest people ever to come to these shores. They were billionaires -- in the realm of the soul. Ever since then we have sung the harmonies forged by slaves in the crucible of their experience.  We remember an...

November 5, 2013

Live Not By Lies

Words kill. They don't kill just people, they kill ideas, and replace them with other ideas. The media today has been effectively wiping clean the slate of our national heritage, and creating a new narrative in its place. This is the culture by which...

October 11, 2013

Duke Lacrosse Case Reveals the Judicial System's Flaws

The Supreme Court this week refused to hear an appeal from the Duke lacrosse players stemming from the false accusations of rape in Durham in 2006. Effectively, that ends their civil rights lawsuit, and precludes their ever having a day in court in w...

July 28, 2013

The Diversity Shield

In Stalin's Russia some Orthodox monks were imprisoned and ordered to wear prisoners' numbers. They refused. "A child of God does not allow himself to be reduced to a number. Each one is a jewel apart." They were punished, but they would not bend to ...

July 14, 2013

The Apostasy of the Black Church

Let me tell you the story of three churches. In China, the church exists under persecution. ChinaAid's report for 2012 tallied an increase in the "number of arrest(s), sentencing to labor camps, short term detentions, rape and torture in police custo...

December 23, 2012

What does Newsweek Know About Jesus?

For its Dec. 10, 2012 edition, Newsweek featured a story, "What Do We Really Know About Jesus?" A better title might have been, "What does Newsweek know about Jesus?" The gist of the article is that the gospels are full of historical errors; yet neve...

May 4, 2012

The Supreme Court Again Upholds Your Right to Be Framed

"A prosecutor ... may receive absolute immunity from suit for acts violating the Constitution in order to advance important societal values." -Elena Kagan, Solicitor General, 2009 After the Civil War, Congress passed several civil rights laws, i...

March 7, 2012

Those 'Rogue' Prosecutors

Tracey Cline was removed from the position of district attorney for Durham County this week.  She thus follows in the path of her predecessor, Michael Nifong, who was similarly forced out.  But neither was removed before a great deal of dam...

February 27, 2012

So Now It's the Lacrosse Murder

The American public loves stories. It loves stories better than explicated truth, because stories entertain better. Ask Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Ask the Hofstra lads.  And when the media gets something wrong, don't expect apologies or hand-wringi...

November 27, 2011

Role playing 'America'

OK, here are the rules. Some of you have forgotten or never read them in the first place, and some of you need a refresher. So here they are again:Certain Judaeo-Christian concepts and limitations apply.* * (You are not called upon to believe these c...

November 12, 2011

Higher Education's Transparency Problem

Nobody knows at present exactly what happened at Penn State -- but it would come as no surprise if a major university, when informed that it had the makings of a scandal affecting its campus, decided to cover the matter up rather than report eve...

November 6, 2011

Noble Injustice

Something strange happened along the road to Utopia: we ditched the supremacy of individual rights in favor of "the greatest good for the greatest number." One manifestation of this was affirmative action.  In Regents of the University of Califo...

January 8, 2011

Our Flawed Justice System

Most of you probably remember the Duke lacrosse case from a few years back.  For those of you who do not, or whose memories are unclear, let me bring you up to speed.Here we had a case in which there was no crime, but a DA could manufacture...