The sick left
July 8, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Anticipating the 50th anniversary of what the French euphemistically call “the events” of ’68, Professor Daniel Mahoney provided a retrospective assessment based on the work of Raymond Aron, Roger Scruton, and Pierre Manent in the Law & Liberty essay “France’s psychodrama of 1968.” Steve revisited the subject with Professor Mahoney last week in the podcast posted here. Rereading Professor Mahoney’s 2018 essay, I was most struck by this paragraph toward
»
July 3, 2020 — Steven Hayward
So here are some of the news items of the day, starting with the crazy left protesting at Mount Rushmore: BREAKING: Protesters have slashed the tires on vans and are blocking the road leading to Mt. Rushmore where President Trump is scheduled to speak tonight in honor of the 4th of July pic.twitter.com/gI4WyxQm59 — Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) July 3, 2020 Protestors otherwise known as “the Ad Hoc Committee to Re-Elect
»
June 19, 2020 — Steven Hayward
I’m actually pretty busy at the moment, even though school is over for the summer, so I’m having trouble keeping up with the tsunami of craziness washing over the land. But I’ll try to continue this chronicle of the most egregious and significant events. • Who would have thought that sense and resolve against statue-toppling repudiation would come from the president of France, Emmanuel Macron. The Daily Wire reports: “We
»
June 15, 2020 — Scott Johnson
The Minneapolis City Council has 13 members. Of the 13, 12 are leftist DFL loons. The 13th is a leftist Green Party loon. They are missing only a local member of the Legal Marijuana Now Party for the trifecta. Minneapolis sits within the congressional district represented by Ilhan Omar in Congress. Perhaps she makes the trifecta. The Minneapolis City Council made big news when 9 of its 13 members pledged
»
June 13, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Tyler O’Neil draws attention to Tom Cotton’s resistance to the mass hysteria of the past few weeks in “Tom Cotton EVISCERATES Cancel Culture in ‘Obelisk of Wokeness’ Speech” (conclusion in video below). Speaking on the Senate floor, Senator Cotton let the fur fly. The leftist twits have labored to mock his speech, but the evidence he cited speaks for itself and supports his conclusion. The greatest defense against against tyranny,
»
June 11, 2020 — Steven Hayward
I may have made a big mistake starting this particular series, because now that I am trying to keep a running inventory of the absurd capitulations taking place every day I’m finding a deluge. What is going on right now is not simply an angry reaction to the death of George Floyd, or a contagion of opportunistic (or organized) rioting. The late Roger Scruton offered the best phrase to describe
»
May 28, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
Last week, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse tweeted this about Judge Neomi Rao: Where you see Neomi Rao, you can expect a lot of Trumpy dirt to follow. She’s a cartoon of a fake judge. Watch this space. I’m fine with politicians criticizing judges, but this tweet isn’t criticism, it’s just name-calling. If President Trump said this, liberals would rip him for it, with Whitehouse probably leading the charge. Whitehouse’s outburst was
»
May 9, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
Max Baucus is the former U.S. Senator from Montana. For some reason, the people of that great state repeatedly elected him to the Senate. Less surprisingly, President Obama selected Baucus to be his ambassador to China. He served in this position for almost three clueless years. This week, Baucus told CNN that President Trump’s “over the top rhetoric” and “red baiting” of China reminds him of Joe McCarthy. Baucus also
»
May 9, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
The Justice Department’s decision to dismiss the prosecution of Gen. Flynn caused left liberal heads to explode. None exploded more loudly than that of Norman Ornstein. He tweeted, “Bill Barr is a fascist.” No serious analyst would make such a claim, even in the heat of the moment. It’s certainly not fascist to call for review of a case in which a public servant may have been set up for
»
September 29, 2019 — Scott Johnson
I recently drew the attention of Power Line readers to Professor Gary Saul Morson’s essay “How the great truth dawned.” It leads off the September issue of The New Criterion. Beginning and ending with Solzhenitsyn, it takes up the Gulag, Communism, mass murder, Russian literature, the turn to God and much more. It is a great essay. The New Criterion invited Professor Morson back to deliver its inaugural Circle Lecture
»
August 20, 2019 — Scott Johnson
We continue our preview of the new (Summer) issue of the Claremont Review of Books hot off the press. It went into the mail on Monday and is accessible online to subscribers now. Buy an annual subscription including immediate online access here for the modest price of $19.95. If you love trustworthy essays on, and reviews of books about, politics, history, literature and culture, the CRB may be for you.
»
July 16, 2019 — Scott Johnson
Rep. Ayanna Pressley is the least known of the four horsewomen of the Democrat apocalypse, but tune into her teaching. She has condensed the doctrine of identity politics that they promote into a totalitarian catechism (video below). Here we have identity politics for dummies — the Democrat variation of the Know Nothing movement. As Lincoln put it: Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a
»
July 3, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Steve has heaped deserved ridicule on the left’s hysterical reaction to President Trump’s decision to roll out tanks and other weaponry for a Fourth of July parade in Washington, D.C. As Steve noted, Larry Tribe sees a “chilling resemblance to the days before the Tiananmen Square massacre. Joy Reed thinks Trump is threatening his critics with tanks. But the inspiration for Trump’s parade isn’t China or any other dictatorship. The
»
May 25, 2019 — Scott Johnson
Roger Kimball is a man of many parts. He is the author of more than a dozen outstanding books on art, politics, and intellectual history. He is the editor and publisher of The New Criterion. He is the publisher of Encounter Books. He is an eloquent columnist and regular commentator on current events in the Notes & Comments section of the New Criterion as well as other outlets including PJ
»
April 18, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
After Attorney General Barr issued his summary of the Mueller report, rabid anti-Trumpers accused him of misstating what Mueller said. It was an odd accusation inasmuch as the critics hadn’t seen the Mueller report. Perhaps some of the anti-Trumpers on Mueller’s team told their friends that Barr didn’t accurately report the special counsel’s conclusion. The allegation was always highly implausible. No one even half as intelligent as Barr would lie
»
March 16, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Yesterday, Chelsea Clinton attended a vigil at NYU for those killed in the massacre at a mosque in New Zealand. NYU turned out not to be a “safe space” for Ms. Clinton, who is pregnant. Muslim students berated Clinton, blaming her for the killings. Their theory? They cited a statement she made condemning anti-Semitic remarks following the utterance of such remarks by Rep. Ilhan Omar. In response to someone else’s
»
March 9, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Wayne Rooney, arguably the best English soccer player of his generation, now plies his trade in Washington D.C. for DC United. Barron Trump, the president’s youngest son, is a rabid soccer fan (of Arsenal, but we forgive him) who, reportedly, has played for DC United’s youth team. Thus, it came to pass that, at Barron’s urging, Rooney was invited to attend last year’s White House Christmas party. Rooney did attend,
»
