Fighting for Free Speech
FIRE’s guide to defending student rights on campuses by Bruce S. Thornton Private Papers If you have a child in college the most important book you both should read is available free of charge.
The Disenchanted American
Are we growing world-weary? by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online There is a new strange mood of acceptance among Americans about the world beyond our shores. Of course, we are not becoming naïve isolationists of 1930s vintage, who believe that we are safe by ourselves inside fortress America — not after September 11.
This is Your Wake-up Call
Jared Diamond can’t find the key to superior civilization. by Bruce S. Thornton Private Papers UCLA professor Jared Diamond’s journey into academic superstardom was jump-started when President Clinton held up Diamond’s 1999 Guns Germs and Steel before the news cameras, after which bestseller status and numerous prizes, including the Pulitzer, followed.
Into the Tar Pits: Dinosaurs Either Evolve or Die
by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online There was a time when the political lines about foreign policy were well drawn. Those on the Left felt that American democracy and global capitalism did not necessarily offer the rest of the world a much better alternative than either Soviet-sponsored Communism or third-world thuggery.
Our Challenges in the Year Ahead
What we learned from three years of war. by Victor Davis Hanson Private Papers A shorter version of this essay recently appeared in the Australian Financial Review.
From Gulag to Israel
Will freedom necessarily conquer fear societies? by Bruce S. Thornton Private Papers The Case for Democracy. The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror by Natan Sharansky, with Rom Dermer (Public Affairs, 2004) 303 pp.
Leave Rumsfeld Be
He is not to blame for our difficulties by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online The Washington Post recently warned that doctors are urging interested parties of all types to get their flu shots before the “scarce” vaccine is thrown out. But how is such a surfeit possible when our national media scared us to death just […]
The Modern World’s Greatest Delusion
How enlightened are modern myths of sexuality? by Bruce S. Thornton Private Papers If you want a good guide to the pathologies of the liberal mind, look no farther than Frank Rich’s weekly column in the Sunday New York Times.
Gay Old Times?
Oliver Stone perpetuates a classical myth by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Magazine The consensus about Oliver Stone’s Alexander is that the film’s splashy gay motifs could not overcome the stilted dialogue, ludicrous Irish-brogue and Count Dracula accents, and excruciating minutes of dead screen time devoted to model-like poses, secretive eye contact, and soap-opera double entendres.
Cracked Icons: Why the Left has Lost Credibility
by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online There is much talk of post-election reorganization and rethinking among demoralized liberals, especially in matters of foreign policy. They could start by accepting that the demise of many of their cherished beliefs and institutions was not the fault of others.
Process but No Peace
by Victor Davis Hanson Policy Review Dennis Ross. The Missing Peace. The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace by Dennis Ross. (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2004) 840 pages.
The Ents of Europe
Strange rumblings on the continent. by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online One of the many wondrous peoples that poured forth from the rich imagination of the late J. R. R. Tolkien were the Ents.
A Secretary for Farmland Security
by Victor Davis Hanson The New York Times President Bush’s selection of a new secretary of agriculture, Gov. Mike Johanns of Nebraska, comes as American agriculture is at a dangerous crossroads. Despite government subsidies and technological advancements, the United States could soon become a net importer of food for the first time in about 50 […]
The Faith of our Fathers
There is another fundamentalism to worry about. by Bruce S. Thornton Private Papers For those Democrats still licking their electoral wounds, a soothing narrative has emerged among the liberal commentariat.
So Much Lost and Little Gained
Stone’s leftist agenda robs Alexander of authenticity. by Bruce S. Thornton Private Papers A movie as bad as Oliver Stone’s Alexander usually would not be worth notice, but Stone has indulged several cinematic and political pathologies that are illuminating.
How Far We’ve Come
Let’s not forget. by Victor Davis Hanson Private Papers The harrowing World War II movie Twelve O’Clock High begins with a postwar bald and bespectacled Dean Jagger (Colonel Harvey Stovall) riding his bicycle out to an old airfield in Archbury, England, that years earlier had been home to the 918th B-17 Bombing Group of the 8th Air […]
Rumsfeld: A Personal Portrait
by Victor Davis Hanson Commentary Vol. 116, Iss. 5 A Lost Breed Rumsfeld: A Personal Portrait by Midge Decter (Regan Books/HarperCollins. 220pp.)
Culling From Among Mediocre in Hollywood
A short review of Oliver Stone’s Alexander the Great by Victor Davis Hanson Private Papers Well, I thought it was simply terrible. The film goes on for nearly three hours, but we hear nothing of what either supporters or detractors of Alexander, both ancient and modern, have agreed were the central issues of his life.
Misplaced Metaphors
The conventional wisdom reveals more about us than about Iraq. by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online One of the more curious aspects of the commentary on this war has not been the bias of the mainstream media but the cynical punditry that somehow ends up as the conventional wisdom among our New York and […]
Arafat’s Death Changes Nothing
Do we really believe Arafat’s rejectionism died with him? by Bruce S. Thornton Private Papers The post-Arafat age has begun, and the conventional wisdom about what might or should happen in the Israeli-Arab conflict is quickly hardening into a soothing mantra.