The Corner (Free subscription) | yesterday
... to sell them but would love for folks to have them. So, anyone who today purchases a copy of Rick Brookhiser’s Right Time, Right Place, Coming of Age with William F. Buckley Jr. and the Conservative Movement (it costs only $27.95, which includes shipping and handling, and can be ordered here , while the autographed and inscribed copy can be purchased here ), or a copy of Priscilla...
The Corner (Free subscription) | 11/23/2009
Even Luther believed in consubstantiation.
The Corner (Free subscription) | 11/20/2009
Any contribution from Lil Cthuhlu yet?
The Corner (Free subscription) | 11/16/2009
In the crowded field of the founders' revival, the historian I read most often is Joseph Ellis, who combines academic chops and readability. Some old books are still best. Clinton Rossiter's 1787: The Grand Convention is the book I would recommend on the Constitutional Convention; Carl Van Doren's Benjamin Franklin is my favorite biography of Ben. History doesn't get any better than Henry Adams's...
Jihad Watch (Free subscription) | 11/11/2009
"On Islam: A Reply to Rick Brookhiser," by Andrew Bostom at The Corner, November 11 -- a most illuminating exchange. Responding to an e-mail query I posed to him about a Corner post on October 26, Rick Brookhiser (on November 3) claimed: "My correspondent [Bostom] and the Islamists say that...
The Corner (Free subscription) | 11/11/2009
Responding to an e-mail query I posed to him about a Corner post on October 26 , Rick Brookhiser (on November 3 ) claimed: “My correspondent [Bostom] and the Islamists say that Islam is unchanging, because the Koran says so.” First, let me point out that Mr. Brookhiser has equated me with the wrong “Islamists.” Through at least the mid-1950s, dedicated...
The Corner (Free subscription) | 11/09/2009
Maggie, Washington is my favorite founder, but Gouverneur is the one I would call in the following four situations: 1) If I were sick; 2) If I were arrested; 3) If I were broke; 4) If I were giving a dinner party, and someone cancelled at the last minute. He would 1) give thoughtful advice and true sympathy; 2) post bail; 3) loan money; 4) shine at dinner, though I would not seat him next to my wife....
The Corner (Free subscription) | 11/03/2009
It contains the summer home of my favorite peg-legged ladies' man, and author of the Preamable to the Constitution, Gouverneur Morris.
The Corner (Free subscription) | 11/05/2009
A friend writes: The only way we can judge him is the way he performed as US attorney. And in that position, he put away crooks who supposedly were either too powerful, too smart or too, er, politically correct to prosecute. So people like John Lynch and, especially, Sharpe James went off to prison for their crimes of long standing. Christie had the courage and determination to go after them. I can...
The Corner (Free subscription) | 11/05/2009
The biggest surprise to me was Christie in New Jersey. After Menendez beat Kean, I assumed the state was hopeless, but perhaps even the residents of a brothel notice when it catches fire. As for NY-23, is it really true that no one except Charles Schumer called Dede Scozzafava after she pulled out? It recalls the words of Martin Van Buren, not a great man, but certainly a very shrewd one: "There...
The Corner (Free subscription) | 11/03/2009
Nine days ago I gave a talk at the Yale Political Union, mentioning the scandal of the missing Mohammed cartoons in the Yale University Press's The Cartoons That Shook the World . In the course of my talk I referred to the Islamists as "hijackers of a religion." Andrew Bostom e-mailed me: [Do] over a millennium of Islamic Law -- the Sharia itself -- and modern expressions of this jurisprudence...
The Corner (Free subscription) | 10/29/2009
I have been voting in New York state all my adult life, and I campaigned in them even earlier (I sold candy bars for Jim Buckley in 1970). The contest in NY 23 is what the New York Conservative Party was made for. The state's cross-endorsement policy means that the Conservatives (and its left-of-center mirror images) generally function as pressure groups, supporting major party candidates they like...
The Corner (Free subscription) | 10/27/2009
John: I'm a fan of H. P.; my favorite story is the first I ever read, "The Shadow Over Innsmouth." (I wonder how many Lovecraftians like best the first story they ever read. A large number, I suspect, since he wrote one story over and over.) One way to think of Lovecraft is as a demented anticipation of Russell Kirk. Kirk praised the permanent things. The permanent things in Lovecraft are...
The Corner (Free subscription) | 10/26/2009
The Yale Political Union (whose vets range from John Kerry to WFB) celebrated its 75th anniversary over the weekend. Prof. Akhil Amar and I were invited to give remarks at the gala dinner. I made a few jokes, then praised the Union for its commitment to free debate, free thought, and free speech. As an ecumenical gesture to Union liberals, I quoted Thomas Jefferson, who, in his retirement, ordered...
The Corner (Free subscription) | 11/17/2009
Sometimes I just want to turn off the light and close my eyes [Rick Brookhiser]I am on the road, which is when I watch television. Last night I caught George Lopez, a comic who is new to me. He was amusing: refried Jay Leno. But he opened his monologue with Sarah Palin and Going Rogue. He called her a piece of s***, and told gross sexual jokes about her daughter.I would not do that.
