Probably just about everyone agrees that you can’t shoot soldiers for cowardice anymore. The last time the U.S. Army did so, the victim, Private Eddie Slovik, became a hero and a martyr to subsequent generations, the subject of books, movies and a recasting of Stravinsky’s Histoire du Soldat by Kurt Vonnegut. Poor old Eddie was…
The confusion of fact and opinion, newish to politics, is old hat to pop culture — From The American Spectator of November, 2012
What is scandal? It’s easier to say what it is not, and the main thing it is not is partisan. If, that is, Democrats think something a Republican president has done should be seen as scandalous, it means nothing unless at least a quorum of Republicans think so too. And vice versa. What may be…
When author and film-maker Dinesh D’Souza was caught checking into a motel with a woman he described as his fiancée, even though he was still married to someone else, he wrote (according to The New York Times) this: “I had no idea that it is considered wrong in Christian circles to be engaged prior to being…
Jim Geraghty at NRO today makes my point of a month ago in this space about the effect of extremely low response rates on opinion poll results, and he cites the “Shy Tory Factor” in Britain as a comparison. If British Tories are shy about stating their voting intentions to pollsters, I don’t know that it necessarily follows…
What ever happened to the great tradition of moralism in English fiction? — From The American Spectator of October, 2012
Lies, damned lies and the damnedest accusations of lying — From The New Criterion of October, 2012
America’s path towards bankruptcy and ultimate Third World status never seems clearer ahead of us than when the Dear Leader takes his cult of personality onto the late-night talk shows, as he did again last night. Even Bill Clinton, as president, had enough respect for the dignity of the office not to play the celebrity…
A remarkably compassionate and non-ideological portrayal of moral and social breakdown
