Author: Dennis

I’m not a religious man, but there must be some kind of higher power at work here, tipping this tower of babble toward the re-emerging Red-threat. Get in your bomb shelters, kiddies, ’cause the Commies are coming. I jest, but lately I can’t escape the prevailing silence and revisionism surrounding communism and particularly Stalinism, and…

Yesterday on NPR I heard an interview with the co-author (Dana Lindaman) of a book about textbooks called History Lessons. They’ve excerpted passages from history textbooks around the world that treat of America and Americans in some ::ahem:: interesting ways. Entertaining was the portion from North Korea which called Americans “the bastards” who crossed the…

By now it’s old news, but Pennsylvania has legalized slot machines. Governor (and former DNC chairman) Rendell was on the radio yesterday sounding like a proud father who just landed a little more bacon, letting the kids know just how much better their lives would be. His example was far from convincing: If you make…

If y’all recall my rant on a certain bumper sticker, you can now see it for yourself, with many other brilliant gems besides: Bumper sticker wisdom has, I fear, proliferated, now appearing on t-shirts as well. On the 4th I saw one the read FREADOM. And it made me think of this: LIBELTY. Which may…

Nat Hentoff, with his usual perspicacity, once again slays the UN for it’s (non-)reaction to Sudan, and closes with this bit on one American’s response: On May 4, American ambassador Sichan Siv, walking out of the U.N. Human Rights Commission in disgust after it had re-elected Sudan to membership, said to The New York Sun,…

I don’t know why I had William Carlos Williams in my head, but I did and I stumbled across this bit of nonsensical criticism: “It is interesting that Williams himself never quite understood the workings of his own prosody. Thus when, in an interview of 1950, John W. Gerber asked the poet what it is…

There’s been a spate of statue smashings in Venice and despite published reports, I hardly think a vandal is on the loose. Officials credit “an isolated lunatic,” and the case of course brought to the reporter’s mind Laszlo “I am Jesus Christ!” Toth. What it brought to my mind was something others apparently see as…

Returning from lunch today I saw a bumper sticker that read, “WAR Doesn’t Decide Who’s Right – Only Who’s Left.” I couldn’t help but think that the world is better left without the likes of Hitler. Beyond that though there’s something very naive in the logic. It presupposes that support for a given war effort…

The Supreme Court’s ruling on the seizure and detention of suspected terrorists is in. The ruling reportedly is that “both U.S. citizens and foreign nationals seized as potential terrorists can challenge their treatment in U.S. courts.” There are a number of tricky angles on this thing. I certainly wouldn’t want to be locked away on…

A friend has pointed out this piece by one of my favorite writers, Christopher Hitchens. It should be required reading for anyone who comes away convinced by Farenheit 9/11 (such as Howard Stern, who I’m pretty sure spent a sizeable portion of yesterday’s show tongue-kissing Michael Moore). Here’s an excerpt, and not even the most…

From the ‘old news is good news so long as it’s ridiculous’ department … Those who know better than you are gaining ground the world over. Following Canada’s customarily laughable lead, Australia will now require cigarette manufacturers to display images of cancerous and diseased limbs and organs, a step the EU had agreed to take…

That was refeshing. I’m just back from lunch where I caught bits of a conversation on everyone’s favorite subject: American policy. On a college campus you come to expect superficial radicalism. (And I say superficial because it’s little more than name-dropping obscure or cred-setting bands at a party–Dennis Kucinich is worth a Ben Gibbard, Chomsky…

Eric pointed me toward a link posted at Instapundit yesterday, and I thought it was pretty great. It reminded of something I did in high school that never went as far, and was never as serious, but still it makes me smile. The vegans had posters throughout the halls advertising for the Great American Meat…

I know how much Eric enjoys Howard Stern, and I’m no stranger to the show (it’s how I wake up in the morning, and I’ve been listening for the better part of my life). But that cat (H., not E.) has fallen prey to the kind of illogic that fills Rock the Vote! tents at…