Ain’t That America
James Carville said on talk radio that most Americans describe themselves as “socially liberal and economically conservative.” If that’s true, why isn’t the Libertarian Party …
Manufacturing Dissent
After returning from Paris, where I spent the weekend of November 4-6, I was frequently asked about the suburban “riots” there. In truth, I knew …
Selective Backlisting
Selective blacklisting – Having more than once objected in these pages to complaints about Hollywood (and other professional) blacklisting that regarded only sometime Communists as …
Dada’s on Its Way
Of all the great movements in modern art, none was more essentially libertarian than Dada, most of whose founders were young men escaping from conscription …
The Anti-Semitism of My Youth
Born in 1940, I can remember only four episodes. The first occurred around 1956 when I was disinvited from some trivial affair at the Scarsdale …
It’s Only Lying if you get Caught
Republicans probably realize by now that complaining so long and loud about Bill Clinton’s fibbing under oath about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky opened a …
Celebrity Intellectuals
While some are skeptical of writers who are awesomely prolific, I’m more inclined to observe this principle: the more a writer publishes, the more likely …
Odd Kid Out
Like other John Stossel fans, I await each new ABC program eagerly, always surprised by his choice of an unusual subject and impressed by the …
Don’t Write, Don’t Call
A while back, the Kenyon Review warned prospective contributors that it “does not read unsolicited manuscripts during the months of April, May, June, July, August, …
Academic Freedom from Information
Recently I tried to discover information about a former colleague, now a full professor at a state university, who had been accused of plagiarism a …