Category: Access

4

Wednesday’s Child: White Rays Ascendant

Hammered as he is by the new Stalinism of “critical race theory” upon the anvil of the old Stalinism of “political correctness,” a denizen of the West may be tempted to lament that his days as a free man and a free thinker are over.  He may even compare his position as an individual in society to that of a dissident under an authoritarian regime, if not Stalin’s Russia then at least its modern reincarnation, and conclude that the fat lady has sung and the opera’s over.

3

Resisting Evil, Part I

An entire nation that adopted a policy of pacifism would soon become a nation of slaves.  Since the Christian religion has not yet become the exclusive preserve of fools, cowards, and idiots, it is strange how many people believe that Christ requires believers never to resist evil by force.

6

Wednesday’s Child: The Lion King

Even the dialectically materialist children’s books of my Soviet youth nurtured the idea of an “animal kingdom,” the realm where the lion was tsar.  Presumably this autocrat ruled in consultation with his ministers, other imposing mammals like the elephant and the buffalo, and of course the principal temptation for a youthful intellect was to arrange the whole planetary zoo on the lines of the Table of Ranks introduced in 1722 by Peter the Great, whereby every citizen held a civilian rank corresponding to its military equivalent. 

3

Limiting Roe After 48 Years in Hell

America is supposed to be a republic with democratic elements. The republic part, such as the electoral college, the Senate and Supreme Court, limits the excesses of democracy. The democratic element is that, if the people really want something over a reasonable period of time, they’re supposed to get it.

11

Wednesday’s Child: The End of a Romance

Life is rife with disappointments, none more bewildering, perhaps, than the crash of adolescent illusions.  Ever since the distant days of youth I have had a soft spot for the nostalgia of the Russian gypsy song, those early twentieth-century laments that, rather like a gypsy fortune teller, seemed to foretell the impending loss of our homeland and of our liberty.

10

Fire All the Generals

Long ago when Trump first took office, I advised him on Fleming Foundation to fire all his generals. Including the admirals. Instead, he packed them into his administration: Gen. Mattis, Gen. Kelly, Gen. McMaster. The only good one, Gen. Flynn, got railroaded by Trump’s own “Justice” Department, then later exonerated.

8

Bulldog and the Meaning of Life

When I selected the first Bulldog Drummond for our ongoing discussion of books, it was partly because it is the kind of old-fashioned adventure that people like to read in the summer, and partly the author’s understand of certain fundamental things of life might remind readers of the “world we have lost.”