2,416 words
I came across David Cronenberg’s Videodrome relatively late in my arc of movie-viewing enthusiasm. It went well past the high school-aged fascination with low-brow horror (the original Friday the 13th or Nightmare on Elm Street) or college-years serial killer obsession (American Psycho or any movie derived from Ed Gein mayhem). (more…)
1,550 words
America left Afghanistan in the most humiliating fashion possible. The government and military it spent trillions of dollars building collapsed almost immediately in the face of a Taliban offensive, proving even the most pessimistic predictions of the experts wrong. (more…)
5125 كلمة
بو ألبريشت
English original here
في عام 1982، ظهر تقرير حكومي للسياسة الخارجية في مجلة إسرائيلية ربع سنوية غامضة إلى حد ما، والتي أصبحت تُعرف بشكل غير رسمي باسم خطة عوديد ينون. لم يكن هذا القدر من الأهمية بمكان، باستثناء أن المؤلف بالتأكيد لم يكن ميالاً للسياسة. شغل عوديد ينون منصباً رفيعاً في وزارة الخارجية الإسرائيلية، ويبدو أيضاً أنه كان مقرباً من أرييل شارون. والأهم من ذلك، أن أجندته بعيدة المدى تحمل تشابهاً ملحوظاً مع مستقبل الشرق الأوسط، وعلى وجه الخصوص، العقدين الأخيرين من العبث الدقيق للولايات المتحدة هناك. يبدو أن بعض الأشخاص المؤثرين جداً أحبوا أفكاره، أو أنه عراف أفضل من نوستراداموس. (more…)
5,125 words
Arabic version here
In 1982, a foreign policy white paper appeared in a fairly obscure Israeli quarterly, which informally became known as the Oded Yinon Plan. That much wouldn’t have been too momentous, except that the author certainly wasn’t a run-of-the-mill policy wonk. Oded Yinon held a high post in the Israeli foreign ministry, and also seems to have been close to Ariel Sharon. More to the point, his far-flung agenda bore a remarkable resemblance to the future of the Middle East, and in particular, the last two decades of the USA’s fine messes therein. (more…)
1,450 words
I took a rare day off on Memorial Day, but it had nothing to do with mourning dead American soldiers. Naturally, this didn’t stop me from being bombarded by the endlessly treacly and corny “conservative” online finger-wagging about how I need to honor all the dead soldiers who ostensibly shed their blood to protect my freedoms. (more…)
2,650 words
Beautiful Losers is a collection of essays by the late Samuel Francis, who influenced not only my work, but much of the Right in America today. The omnibus opens with an introduction and brief history of the post-World War II conservative movement in America up to 1993, when Beautiful Losers was published. (more…)
2,219 words
Czech version here
Samuel Francis
Leviathan and Its Enemies: Mass Organization and Managerial Power in Twentieth-Century America
Arlington: Washington Summit Publishers
Leviathan and Its Enemies has the subtitle Mass Organization and Managerial Power in Twentieth-Century America, which seems curious, given that it was first published in 2016. (more…)
3,518 words
Barack Obama
A Promised Land
New York: Random House, 2020
There were stacks and stacks of Barack Obama’s new memoir at the brick-and-mortar bookstore I went to on Black Friday, 2020. I hadn’t been to a brick-and-mortar store for some time. If possible, I go to the library.
5,456 words
Paul Gottfried, editor
The Vanishing Tradition: Perspectives on American Conservatism
DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2020
The Vanishing Tradition is an anthology edited by Paul Gottfried, and owing to its structure, a proper review is not really possible. Rather, I will individually summarize and comment on each contribution to the anthology. (more…)
1,067 words
Much has been said in recent months about the cult of radical Leftism donning a veil of religious zealotry over the George Floyd death and Black Lives Matter protests. In truth, America’s excessively libertine, egalitarian idealism has always been a twisted morality play that relentlessly seeks to destroy the strong and healthy in favor of the (more…)
1,417 words
Utah Senator Mitt Romney marched with Black Lives Matter protesters in Washington, D.C. over the weekend, becoming the first national Republican to explicitly endorse the racial grievance movement.
“We need a voice against racism. We need many voices against racism and against brutality,” (more…)