A singular movie among John Ford’s work, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance showcases the American West and questions narratives about heroes, politics, and America itself.Homework for next episode will be to watch Howard Hawks’ El Dorado.
This podcast on the importance of humane studies was recorded during the Fleming Foundation’s 2023 Summer School on The Wrong of Rights. In a week or so, the lectures will be on sale.
I knew this early on and watched, as every decade went by, people—not just Americans—growing duller and dumber, ruder and more indifferent to all the little customs and courtesies that had separated us from savages.
TJF: What do you think of arming teachers? What qualifications would you impose? What other approaches might be taken, apart from saving the family and destroying consolidated schools. Finally, what went wrong with the sheriff’s deputies? Should Sheriff Israel be forced to resign? It’s unfortunate that it has come to arming teachers, but I suppose that before we can remake our society I think that certain qualified personnel on school grounds be permitted concealed carry. Probably most of the faculty, administrators, and staff wouldn’t want to do so, and that’s fine because if only a few were armed, rigorously trained, and...
TJF: In the wake of the recent school shooting in Florida, the Soros-funded campaign to disarm Americans and make them incapable of defending themselves from criminals and predators has fixated on demands for banning assault weapons, automatics, and semi-automatics. Could you help us understand what these terms mean? Roger McGrath: I asked the same question of the city council of a town here locally when they proposed a ban on “assault rifles” about 30 years ago. They all sat there with stupid looks on their faces. One of them turned to the city attorney, and he started reading to...
Thomas Fleming was recently interviewed (10 November) by Nikolaos Hidiroglou for the Greek newspaper Ελεύθερη Ώρα (Eleftheri Ora). Is Donald Trump the man for the job in the White House for the Republicans? The “Grand Old Party” has been fielding impossible presidential candidates that have made Republicans a political joke: Bob Dole, John McCain, Mitt Romney. Perhaps the worst was George W. Bush, who won two elections, squandered money and lives on a pointless and fruitless war in Iraq, and bankrupted his country. How could Trump do any worse? Trump’s great strength is his candor: He openly talks of...
The Bigger Picture 8. Why is this happening. Is this a case of historical accident? Do you agree with American and European who say it is all the fault of President Assad or does US support for the rebels—only the “moderate and democratic” rebels, of course—play a part? The roots of this problem spread deep into neoconservative (neotrotskyite) schemes and are behind the agenda of “democratizing” the Muslim world. It started with Afghanistan and reaches a climax with Arab Spring. There is now massive instability all around MENA (the Middle East and North Africa): the slaughter of Christians, outbursts of...
Part II: The European Context 5. The Germans seem to be talking out of both sides of their mouth, with Merkel saying early on that this had to be treated as a humanitarian crisis but later blaming Hungary and Croatia for letting so many migrants into the EU. What do you think she and other EU leaders have in mind? I just published a book called The Illusion of European Union. One big chapter deala with immigration politics in the EU. It is a mess, that basically comes down to a strong internal fight between ordinary people–which includes even statesmen...
An Interview with Misa Djurkovic, a writer and political analyst with the Institute of European Studies, Belgrade. Part I: Τhe Immigration Crisis and Serbia 1. How has the Inundation of Islamic refugees affected Serbia? How many have actually crossed into Serbia? Do many stay or are they just passing through on the way to Hungary. For the time being more than 200, 000 of immigrants, mostly from Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq have entered Serbia. Not all of them should be regarded as refugees or asylum seekers. Huge number of them are economic immigrants. At this point, all of them...
PC Do you believe the neoconservative dominance of mainstream discourse of US foreign policy is slowly coming to an end or we simply seeing a generational shift? Also, have the neoconservatives in your judgement played a role in instigating the current crisis in Ukraine? TJF The neoconservatives in themselves are of little or no importance. They do not formuulate policy, they merely repeat the slogans of the Cold War Democratic Party and put a slight conservative spin. Their great success was in making an alliance with American Evangelical Zionists, who have been taught to see the world...
