(This story was originally published by Chronicles on December 7, 2010.) Over 2,400 American sailors, soldiers and airmen were killed in Pearl Harbor 69 years ago today. Had we had an equivalent of WikiLeaks back in 1941, however, the course of history could have been very different. FDR would have found it much more difficult...
When the COVID-19 pandemic began in March, most people never imagined the government-imposed restrictions would be as harsh and arbitrary as they have been, nor that the entire affair would drag on into the new year. Yet glimpses of hope are arriving this week, small pieces of good news we can joyfully carry throughout Advent...
The Supreme Court granted injunctive relief to houses of worship previously closed under New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s restrictions on public gatherings. Justice Neil Gorsuch chided the governor for his “color-coded executive edicts that reopen liquor stores and bike shops but shutter churches, synagogues and mosques.” This is a tremendous step toward the restoration of order...
Many families took one look at their school district’s remote or hybrid learning offerings this fall and said “no, thank you.” That’s the message gleaned from national and state-specific data on the surging number of homeschooled students this academic year. Prior to the pandemic and related school closures last spring, there were just under two...
In early August 1990, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein invaded and occupied Kuwait and declared it to be his nation’s lost 19th province. Said George H. W. Bush, “This will not stand!” Translation: Get out of Kuwait, Saddam, or we will come over there and throw you out. Six months later, after a five-week air assault...
Former President Barack Obama took a bold step the other day when he suggested that calls to defund the police might alienate a number of voters. “You lost a big audience the minute you say it,” Obama noted in a Snapchat interview, “which makes it a lot less likely that you’re actually going to get the changes...
Though some students have found learning at home relieves them of school’s social stresses, many others miss their teachers, classmates, and the routine of the school day. Some of the little ones have become more defiant and have reverted to bed-wetting, while many older students suffer from depression. In “The Children of Quarantine: What does...
Convinced that President Donald Trump lost his bid for reelection, the media suddenly became less hysterical. Just like that, the media, at least to some degree, rediscovered concepts such as fairness and perspective, AWOL the last four years. Two weeks after the election, New York Times Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Nicholas Kristof haltingly, grudgingly, and reluctantly,...
Walter Williams loved teaching. Unlike too many other teachers today, he made it a point never to impose his opinions on his students. Those who read his syndicated newspaper columns know that he expressed his opinions boldly and unequivocally there. But not in the classroom. Walter once said he hoped...
With widened eyes, pursed lips, and a quick intake of breath the woman muttered in whispered tones through clenched teeth, “He is such a TYRANT!” Many of us have likely seen similar displays in recent weeks… or have performed them ourselves. The fact is there have been many actions by our leaders, both elected and...
On February 18, the Oxford Mail published an article headlined “Scientists working on a coronavirus vaccine in Oxford.” The article explained that Sarah Gilbert, a British vaccinologist and professor at the University of Oxford, was leading a team of scientists at Oxford’s Jenner Institute in rapid development of a vaccine. The article was short (less than 200 words), featured...
The five-week offensive by Azerbaijan against the Armenian-inhabited enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh—the Azeris’ internationally recognized territory—has ended in a clear victory for the attacker. Tens of thousands of Armenians have fled their homes in the land they call Artsakh, which they had inhabited continuously for over two millennia. This is yet another defeat of embattled Christendom...
That technology giants pull the strings in the 21st century is a fact that is becoming increasingly clear. It’s hard to imagine a world without social media and online shopping, and the billionaires made rich by these enterprises likely don’t want us to do so, either. Yet the consequences of this arrangement are becoming more visible....
“Teaching,” said the former nun in blue jeans, as if she were instructing a room full of halfwits about something very important, “is a political act.” It was early December 1991 at Providence College, the school where I taught for 27 years, the school that I grew to love deeply, though that love, it seems, was...
From Sen. Elizabeth Warren to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, some of the most prominent progressive politicians in the country are pushing hard for widespread student debt cancelation. So, it’s fascinating to see a new study show that forcing taxpayers to pay down the roughly $1.5 trillion in government-held student debt is not a “progressive” policy by any stretch....
The Devil All the Time Directed by Antonio Campos ◆ Written by Paulo Campos ◆ Produced by Nine Stories Productions and Bronx Moving Co. ◆ Distributed by Netflix 1BR Directed and written by David Marmor ◆ Produced by Malevolent Films ◆ Distributed by Dark Sky Films The Prowler (1951) Directed by Joseph Losey ◆...
For 124 years, the statue of John C. Calhoun, from high upon his perch in Marion Square, kept vigil over the city of Charleston. In life as in death Calhoun was indeed a monumental figure. Even in the flesh he seemed carved out of granite. He was, without question, the finest mind and the most dedicated...
The past months have been strange for everyone, for New Yorkers most of all. What happens when the city that never sleeps locks down? When commuters stay home, subways are deserted, and shops, restaurants, theaters, museums, libraries, schools, playgrounds, public gardens, sports arenas, churches, and concert halls are all locked? Or for that matter, what happens...
In the 1976 film Network, a newscaster driven to the brink of insanity by his rage exhorts his viewers to throw open the windows of their apartments and homes, and shout “I’m mad as h—, and I’m not going to take it anymore.” Within minutes, thousands of people are roaring these words into the night. In...
Ours is an age of politicization. No matter the problem, real or imagined, proposed solutions are always couched in the language of politics. No subject can be discussed without constant reference to its political ramifications. Whatever position a political leader may adopt with respect to a current “issue,” it must be judged not by its relevance...
If Israel, as is universally believed and has not been denied, was behind the assassination of Iran’s leading nuclear scientist, questions arise: Why would the Israelis kill him? And why would they do it now? The scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, it is conceded, was a leader in Iran’s nuclear bomb program, but that program was disbanded...
If America’s contested election ends in Joe Biden’s inauguration, the world will be less safe. Biden is an instinctive interventionist who has supported bad policies for decades. He was an outspoken advocate of Bill Clinton’s military interventions in the Balkans in the 1990s, and in the early 2000s he supported both the War in Afghanistan and...
Lying is the new normal as far as our governing elite are concerned. Of course, I’m talking about the news organizations, Big Tech, “woke” billionaires, and the celebrity class of illiterate know-nothings on social media. I smelled a rat way back in 2015 when I read the opening remarks of Hillary Clinton’s address to the Women...
If Donald Trump’s legion of enemies had the same grace they decry him for lacking, they would have had to admit that his re-election campaign was a bravura performance. Facing the combined opposition of the media, academy, entertainment industry, permanent bureaucracy, tech monopolists, and big money generally, Donald Trump crisscrossed the country in the final few...
I am sorry, but I have to raise an alarm, the more so as I have been a subscriber to Chronicles since 1985 and know full well what to expect and require from the magazine. Bluntly put, what the heck has made you publish an unbearably long piece on an obscure and mediocre person who had been commander-in-chief...
I recently wrote about one of my favorite movies – “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” – noting that its message seems more relevant to our times than when it was first released. After penning that article, I pulled the movie out for a re-watch and found that yes, “Mr. Smith” rings even more true for our time...
Most of us wouldn’t list 2020 as our best year. But you know who would? Amazon, Wal-Mart, Google, Apple, and a whole host of other big corporations who’ve seen their sales and stock prices soar amidst the pandemic. Small businesses have been pummeled by excessive and insane governmental lockdowns of the economy. Experts warn that one third...
First published in 1936 as the nation was still reeling from the Great Depression, Who Owns America? A New Declaration of Independence remains a classic of American political thought and rhetoric. A collection of 21 essays, edited by the Fugitive-Agrarian Allen Tate and historian Herbert Agar, it was intended in part as a sequel to the better-known I’ll Take My...
In the first two decades of the century, President-elect Joe Biden’s choice for secretary of state supported U.S. wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Yemen. He was an ever-reliable liberal interventionist. This same Antony Blinken could spend the first years of a Biden presidency helping extricate our country from the misbegotten wars he championed....
Not everyone has a Hallmark Christmas. WebMD’s article “Holiday Depression and Stress” reminds readers that while for most people the holiday season is “a fun time of the year filled with parties, celebrations, and social gatherings with family and friends,” for others the holidays can bring “sadness, self-reflection, loneliness, and anxiety.” ...
Colorado officials last week announced that several counties had moved into the “red level”—the second-highest measurement on its COVID-19 dial—and would be forced to implement new regulations on restaurants, gyms, and other parts of the economy to combat the virus. Then something remarkable happened. Weld County, a county in the northern part of the state...
Islam is a religion and not a political movement, according to a new “charter of republican values” released on Nov. 18 by French President Emmanuel Macron. Macron unveiled plans to require Muslim leaders to sign the charter as part of a broader clampdown on radical Islam, authorizing the French Council of the Muslim Faith to monitor...
Some of the confusion in thinking about matters of race stems from the ambiguity in the terms that we use. I am going to take a stab at suggesting operational definitions for a couple terms in our discussion of race. Good analytical thinking requires that we do not confuse one behavioral phenomenon with another. ...
We seem to hear little this year about the arrival of the Pilgrims in Massachusetts in November 1620. Perhaps the coronavirus is the cause, or maybe the ugly mess and turmoil of our presidential election has overshadowed its remembrance. Or maybe political correctness has claimed another victim. Whatever the case, the 400th anniversary...
Participants in Pfizer and Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials can’t stop blabbing. The media is overflowing with testimonials explaining “Why I Volunteered” or “What It Was Like To Participate In The Clinical Trial For Moderna’s COVID-19 Vaccine.” Loudmouth liberal writer Molly Jong-Fast publicly begged for beatification: “Call Me the Joan of Arc of Coronavirus Vaccine...
Dismissing President Donald Trump’s claim that the 2020 election remains undecided, Joe Biden has begun to name his national security team. Right now, it looks Democratic establishment all the way. Antony Blinken, a longtime foreign policy aide, is Biden’s choice for secretary of state. Jake Sullivan, one of Hillary Clinton’s closest aides, is said to...
While the results of the 2020 election aren’t yet certain, Joe Biden is proceeding with his transition and putting climate change and energy policy at the top of his agenda. Biden assured voters during the debates that he does not support Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal plan, which envisions drastically cutting fossil fuel production to reduce...
The Politics may be the most influential study of political theory and political practice ever written. Aristotle put the book together while investigating different regimes in the Greek world and elsewhere. The philosopher denies the existence of an ideal government applicable to all societies; instead, he looks at various governments that are appropriate for different peoples in...
The gray, gloomy days of November have set in, and this year it seems harder than ever to banish them. I was feeling the oppression of these gray days when a note from a friend landed in my inbox. He made some joke in relation to election voter fraud and suddenly I found myself giggling....
There are public protests against lockdowns in Denmark, Italy, France, and all over Europe. They are growing in numbers and fury. Why not the U.S.? Scott Atlas suggested in passing that Michigan residents “rise up” against new lockdowns in Michigan, and major media collectively fainted in shock. Preposterously, he was forced to clarify that he didn’t mean...
With the Pentagon’s announcement that U.S. forces in Afghanistan will be cut in half—to 2,500—by inauguration day, after 19 years, it appears the end to America’s longest war may be in sight. The Pentagon also announced a reduction of U.S. troop levels in Iraq to 2,500 by mid-January. In 2003, we invaded and occupied Iraq...
In 1917, wearied and angered by the slaughter on the Western Front, French soldiers marched toward the battlefield past the general staff bleating like sheep, protesting what they correctly surmised would be another blood bath. Later they would openly mutiny against these attacks, willing to defend the front but unwilling to continue charging across No Man’s Land...
Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, recently published an article in Foreign Affairs which encapsulated the agenda of the globalist elite for the incoming Biden administration, should the former vice president be sworn in on Jan. 20. “When he first enters the Oval Office,” Haass writes, “President-elect Joe Biden will be greeted by an inbox...
Those suffering from endless COVID shutdowns may find a spark of hope in the words of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito. While the governors of Minnesota, Michigan, Oregon, and other states were preparing new restrictions during the pandemic, Alito gave a speech to The Federalist Society, calling such lockdowns “previously unimaginable restrictions on individual liberty.” I’m now going to say...
It seems a newer virus is now infecting American citizens. It can be deadly, killing off joy, compassion, reason, and objectivity. It renders its victims deaf to argument and blind to facts, creating in some of them so fevered a passion that they wind up in cloud cuckoo land. This virus goes under the name...
Boomer parents are frustrated by their lack of grandchildren. Meanwhile, millennials complain about the lack of romantic partners. Never fear, technology has provided a solution! No longer must millennials date to find the love of their life, marry, and have children. Now they can shop online to find the perfect person to breed with before...
For hypothetical purposes, let’s say Joe Biden had spent the last four years in the White House and Donald Trump was the challenger. What if Biden was the one being dumped from office, despite evidence that Trump supporters engaged in questionable electioneering? What if election workers in heavily Republican areas had mistreated poll watchers in...
“Truly striking.” “Tremendous.” “Extraordinary.” “Miraculous.” “A great day for science and humanity.” Those are just a few of the hyperbolic responses from government health officials and Big Pharma cheerleaders to preliminary COVID vaccine trial data released by Pfizer and Moderna this past week. If it all sounds too good to be...
Because of Donald Trump, Vice President Joe Biden thundered during the campaign, the U.S. “is more isolated in the world than we’ve ever been … America First has made America alone.” Biden promised to repair relations with America’s allies. And he appears to have gone some distance to do so in the congratulatory phone call...
Where’d everybody go? Whatever happened to the Jeffrey Epstein case? Traces of the Durham Report, which was investigating those who manufactured the story of Russian interference in the 2016 election, seem to have also disappeared from view. Or what about Hunter Biden? His laptop full of secrets and the possible corrupt practices of his father,...