[John Derbyshire is ill this week, which gives us an opportunity to post this talk, delivered to the H.L. Mencken Club Conference, November 1, 2014. The audio of the original is here—slight adaptations have been made for print purposes.] I was told that I was to be on a panel discussion, but I never quite... Read More

An occasional point of discussion among us commentators on the dissident right is the degree to which our stuff is read by respectable pundits seeking inspiration. Steve Sailer, for example, is convinced that David Brooks is a regular reader of Steve’s blog. Others among us are dubious. I used to be with the dubious. As... Read More

I am just recovering from a splendid weekend in Seattle, a conference organized by my good friend Guy Wolf, editor of an alternative-right blog. (You never know how people will react to having their names publicized in this context. To be on the very safe side, I have substituted pseudonyms of my own devising for... Read More

British comedienne Catherine Tate did a very funny sketch with Daniel Craig, the latest James Bond actor. In the sketch she is a dimwitted, over-the-hill 36-year old who has hooked up with Craig through an internet dating service. The main joke is that Craig is besotted with her, and has moved in with her, while... Read More

Back in October last year I wrote a column titled "Will Obama Kill Science?" arguing that an Obama administration, stuffed as it surely would be with postmodern leftists, would do what they could to kill off some key branches of the human sciences, for fear of what they might turn up. I concluded with: That... Read More

That is Steve Sailer in his recent book America's Half-Blood Prince: Barack Obama's "Story of Race and Inheritance". Probably most TakiMag readers have heard of Steve. Most, I'd guess, have read a couple of his pieces. Who is the guy? How did he come to write a book about Obama? Will citizenism catch on? To... Read More

My study at home in Long Island has bookshelves on all four walls. When I originally stocked those shelves, I worked out a system for doing so. The shelves on the north wall, directly behind me as I sit at my desk, are all reference books. I am a great fan of reference books, and... Read More

It is a longstanding cliché that human knowledge of the universe advances by a series of dethronements. There was a time when men thought that the whole world was alive with spirits whose main purpose and pleasure was to watch us. Great bonfires were lit to stir the sun from his midwinter torpor; kings were... Read More

————————— I nearly fell out of my Barcalounger Sunday morning, watching The McLaughlin Group. The old Jesuit had Pat Buchanan, Eleanor Clift, Tony Blankley, and Clarence Page (who is black) sitting around. They were talking about Hurricane Katrina, of course. Suddenly McLaughlin turned to Page and said: "Why the correlation between black and poor?" Good... Read More

My colleague Jonah Goldberg, speaking at a recent panel discussion in which we were both participating, remarked that modern democracy is sorely in need of a metaphysic. That put me in mind of one of Aldous Huxley's aphorisms. In his 1937 book Ends and Means, Huxley said this: "It is impossible to live without a... Read More

An e-friend breezed by the other day — a person, I mean, whom I had previously known only through his website and some e-mail exchanges on topics of common interest. He didn't stay long. I was at home with my son. My wife and daughter were out (shopping, ballet practice). My son was in his... Read More

I have been reading the Complete Essays of Aldous Huxley for review in another magazine. By way of background, and for relaxation, I have also been reading — in a couple of cases, re-reading — Huxley's novels and stories. I'll say what I have to say about Huxley in my review. The only reason I... Read More

I am, I have noted before, not much of a regretter or a worrier. I am like the mouse to whom Robert Burns addressed himself: Sometimes, though, scanning my morning news web-sites, I find myself guessing and fearing about the future like poor Robbie (who, let it be noted in the context of what follows,... Read More