Mark Steyn Live

Mark Steyn at Orchestra Hall. Photo credit: Clark Griffith

Mark Steyn at Orchestra Hall. Photo credit: Clark Griffith

Last night, Scott and I, along with around 900 others, had the great pleasure of hearing Mark Steyn at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis. The occasion was the Center of the American Experiment’s Fall Briefing. I had expected Mark to talk (among other things) about his Michael Mann lawsuit–if you’ve just returned from an extended trip to Albania, Mann is trying to shut up Mark, National Review and others by suing them–but it never came up. His topics were broader.

I would say the main themes were 1) the extent to which America, compared to other developed countries, has already squandered its tradition of limited government, 2) the manner in which government gets dumber as it gets bigger, and 3) the fact that the real battles that will define our future are being fought not in election campaigns, but in the culture. On all of these fronts, the facts are grim, but they were delivered with Mark’s trademark humor, which in my view is little short of genius. Most of the time, you weren’t sure whether to laugh or cry, but generally wound up laughing.

Mark was as funny, as perceptive and as fact-filled as always, but in addition he struck me as more impassioned than I have ever seen him. Maybe it was my imagination, but I attribute the passion to the fact that the hour is getting late. In any event, any time you have an opportunity to see Mark Steyn in action, you should run, not walk, to buy a ticket.

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