Back in the days when people believed in witches, there were folks who made a pretty good living by setting themselves up as professional "witch hunters." They claimed to know all about what witches looked like and how to ferret them out -- for a hefty fee, of course. The witch hunters of old were... Read More

Ancient Greek mythology explained the origins of the great Trojan War by claiming that the goddess of jealousy incited a quarrel among other goddesses over the question of which one was the most beautiful. Probably not even the Greeks themselves ever really believed this, but perhaps it makes more sense than most democratic political theory... Read More

No sooner had America fluttered into the political twilight zone to which last Tuesday's election delivered it, that the sages who miscalled the Florida vote began to jabber about how we've just got to abolish the Electoral College. By the end of the week, the demand for transforming the country into one big happy land... Read More

A tip of the hat to George W. Bush, who -- for all the press's preaching about the "sharp disagreements" that supposedly have emerged between him and Vice President Gore -- has managed to obfuscate whatever such differences exist and to advance, as his principal claim to being elected president, that he really doesn't disagree... Read More

One of the distinguishing characteristics of a totalitarian system is that not only does the state impose an official ideology throughout society but so do other institutions, as well. The "totality" at which the regime aims means that every sector of the society -- the economy, social and cultural institutions, as well as government --... Read More

After two full years of beating drums, blowing trumpets and waving torches in support of the inevitable presidential triumph of George W. Bush, it has suddenly begun to dawn on many in the American conservative community that Al Gore might very well be on the eve of kicking Bush's butt. What we can learn from... Read More

The most recent crusades for gun control seem to have fizzled, and that's just as well, not only for the sake of the freedom and safety of most Americans, but also for the public reputations of those who push the banning of firearms. There is an ever-increasing amount of evidence that gun control is a... Read More

"This is a conservative man," George W. Bush says he said to himself as he reviewed the voting record of his prospective running mate, Richard Cheney. And so Cheney is. With a 90 percent rating from the American Conservative Union for his votes in Congress between 1979 and 1988, Cheney enjoys a title as a... Read More

If there was ever any doubt, it's now beyond question that the American Civil War settled nothing and never even ended. Not only is the NAACP still waging war against the Confederate flag but now the Clinton administration is also waddling into the breach to make sure the nation's Civil War battlefields teach the right... Read More

Just because no federal buildings have been blown up in the last five years doesn't mean that extremists aren't still out there. A recent issue of the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin carried an article on how to recognize them. It's too bad the Bulletin isn't on your coffee table, because, according to the article, you're... Read More

By an amazing coincidence, Mel Gibson's epic about the American Revolution, "The Patriot," just happened to open in theaters on Independence Day weekend. And cynics complain that Americans don't take national holidays seriously anymore! Most viewers may regard the film as one more wallow in fantasy and stale popcorn, but among the nation's literati it's... Read More

The Republican National Convention hasn't even convened yet, and already the party's leaders are licking their chops over selling out the GOP's conservative base and most of its principles. That, however, is not the big news. The big news is that the party's conservatives are licking their own chops over being sold out. The Washington... Read More

In the current crusade against the death penalty, one bad argument seems to be just as good as another. Having convinced various conservatives to doubt or actually oppose capital punishment because DNA testing shows some convicts to be innocent, the crusaders are now trying to work on the liberals with the argument that the death... Read More

All things considered, it's probably a good thing that police inform the people they arrest of their rights before questioning them. If I were arrested, I'd want to know my rights -- insofar as I have any left -- before spilling my guts to the cops. But just because it's a good idea doesn't mean... Read More

Last week, the U.S. Senate voted to spend some $1 billion on behalf of the nation of Colombia, to help it fight drug dealers. The money will go to train Colombian police and military and equip them with helicopters and other fancy stuff. Meanwhile, as the senators spout and sputter over poor little Colombia and... Read More

Can it be only a coincidence that the mob attacks on women during the Puerto Rican Day Parade in New York City took place only a week or so after the controversy about the National Rifle Association's plan to open a cafe in Times Square? It's definitely not a coincidence that virtually no one has... Read More

The case for capital punishment used to be pretty much a no-brainer, at least for conservatives who believe in right and wrong, law and order, and the authority to reward and punish. But today, with conservative gurus like Pat Robertson, George Will and William F. Buckley Jr. casting doubt on the death penalty and a... Read More

In case you're alarmed at the xenophobic trend in this country that prevents us from accepting more than a mere million legal immigrants per year, a new coalition has been formed that you might want to look up. Last week, the New York Times unveiled the plans of two washed-up politicos and a variety of... Read More

What is there to say about several hundred thousand women who supposedly are mothers, who choose to spend Mother's Day far from home and family yelling about an issue about which most of them seemed to be perfectly ignorant? Perhaps the first thing to say is to express sorrow at the sad fate of the... Read More

One of the cliches of American politics holds that a political party out of power tends to move to the extreme of the ideological spectrum. Thus, the Republicans moved toward Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan during the Kennedy-Johnson presidencies and the Carter administration, while the Democrats moved toward George McGovern when Richard Nixon was president.... Read More

One of the sneakier tactics of the anti-death penalty lobby, led by the American Civil Liberties Union and similar groups, is to claim that capital punishment ought to be abolished because blacks are sentenced to death more often than whites or because poor people get the hot juice more frequently than rich people. Because everybody... Read More

If there's any good reason to vote for one major party candidate over the other this year, it's probably the appointments to the Supreme Court he's likely to make. The court is the staple reason the Republicans have invoked for the last eight years to argue why conservatives should vote for them instead of a... Read More

The Demon of the Week is Bob Jones University, a relatively obscure Baptist educational institution in South Carolina that has suddenly become the political equivalent of the hanta virus. New Jersey's liberal Democratic Sen. Bob Torricelli plans to introduce a resolution condemning the school, and after the unpleasantness attending Texas Gov. George W. Bush's recent... Read More

For the last decade or so, the United Nations has enjoyed throwing its weight around the world, trying to set itself up as the world's peacemaker as well as a global lawmaker. Last month, it got some of its own weight thrown back in its face when North Carolina's Sen. Jesse Helms became the first... Read More

If there is any columnist in the country that conservative Southerners should pay no attention to, it's George Will, whose Big Government, Union First political philosophy of "statecraft as soulcraft" is the exact opposite of everything Thomas Jefferson, John C. Calhoun and Jefferson Davis fought for. Nevertheless, Mr. Will evidently expects to be attended to... Read More