Category: Fleming
What is Paleoconservatism, Part V: The Fatal Attraction of Politics
In striking out on our own, we did not intend to surrender the wisdom painfully acquired by earlier generations of classical liberals, libertarians, and small-government conservatives. If government interference in private life was a major source of social and moral dissolution, then it made no sense to call upon governments to save the family, restore community, or promote great art.
Humpty Dumpty: Prolific Lies
Not a day goes by that I do not see the word “prolific” being misused. Today, for example, an online USA Today headline reads: “Convicted killer Samuel Little, who claims 93 murders, is ‘most prolific serial killer’ in US history, FBI says.” Similar offenses appeared in headlines for Inside Edition, the LA Times, and newspapers and television stations around the country.
Impeachment 01: What Is It?
100 million Americans are calling on Congress to impeach the President, but not one in ten has the slightest idea of what impeachment is. Listen to the first installment to our primer on the process.
What Is Paleoconservatism? Part IV: From Ideological Patchwork to a Philosophy of Human Nature
As it took shape, “paleoconservatism”—like all ideologies—was a piece of bric à brac, cobbled together with pieces from 1950’s liberalism that flew the false flag of conservatism, from which it took hostility to big government, public indecency, and abortion rights; from the misnamed ‘old right,’ from which it borrowed opposition to imperial wars; from the Libertarians, who strongly influenced—most obviously—our anti-imperialism, as well as the emphasis on individual liberty and non-governmental solutions to social problems, and from the populist traditions a suspicion of the ruling elite and a respect for the opinions of ordinary people whose brains had not been...
Mean Old Gambling Polka Dot Blues
A podcast on the casino mania that afflicts the dying cities of the American South and Rustbelt–with apologies to Jimmie Rodgers.
Pope Imitating Swift Imitating Horace
Horace’s satire was a sly commentary on his life among the great, as close friend to Maecenas, the wealthy advisor to Augustus. In the first part of this imitation, Pope imagines his friend Dean Swift, a confidant of the Tory ministers, going over the same complaints about fame and influence. Then, when he comes to Horace’s famous fable of the two mice, he makes a stab at pretending it is composed by his friend Matthew Prior–also an important political advisor and diplomat, who wrote more homely verse. Rather than make a detailed commentary on the poem, I’ll be happy to...
Chris Cuomo and Sean Hannity v. the Little People
Chris Cuomo has finally succeeded in attracting public attention. Cuomo was with his family in a bar on Shelter Island, New York, when a Dittohead stranger approached him and made the mistake of calling him “Fredo”—a not very imaginative nickname coined, apparently, by Rush Limbaugh. Cuomo exploded
Total Recall
Jerry Nadler says Trump’s rhetoric reminds him of Germany in the 1930’s. I didn’t know he was that old.
Globalism Begins at Home, Conclusion
There is no secret plot or conspiracy to undermine our national sovereignty, unless by conspiracy we mean the collective will of the political class. The Bushes and the Clintons would be rightly outraged if they heard rumors of such suspicions. Opposing globalization today is like criticizing affirmative action, challenging women’s rights, or pointing out that homosexuals are a serious drain on our finite medical resources.
