A new book of mine has just been published: Adventures of an Accidental Sociologist: How to Explain the World Without Becoming a Bore (Prometheus Books). The American Interest is kind enough to sponsor a launch of the book in Washington DC on June 29, as previously noted on this blog. I have been told that it […]

As the euro saga unrolls before our eyes, one thing is becoming clearer: the structure surrounding the euro has its weaknesses, but the crisis is not really about the currency at all. We are beginning to understand that this is as much a crisis of EU governance and political mentality, as of the economic policies […]

Can the Obama Presidency still be saved?To some, the question may seem premature or even insulting.  President Obama’s personal popularity remains high and the most recent RealClearPolitics poll average has him at a more than respectable 47.6 percent approval; while the President’s popularity is drifting lower, congressional Republicans have been losing ground to their Democratic […]

I would like to inform the readers of this blog that there will be a lunchtime roundtable on the occasion of the release my new book, Adventures of an Accidental Sociologist: How to Explain the World Without Becoming a Bore, in Washington DC on June 29th. My friends E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post, Tom […]

In its issue of June 2011, Christianity Today, the banner publication of conservative Protestantism, carried a cover story about the latest wrinkle in the Evangelical struggle with the ghost of Darwin. The old fight over evolution is still continuing robustly, with fervent believers in a “young  earth” (a lovely phrase—meaning an earth some six-thousand years […]

The greatest example of anticlimax in the English language, said William F. Buckley, was the final line in the unofficial anthem of his undergraduate college:  “For God, for country, and for Yale.” Buckley’s anticlimax now faces a challenge from an even shorter phrase:  “The Obama Administration” is on the road to becoming the most anticlimactic […]

The United States is the most revolutionary power in the history of the world, but after more than 200 years of a brilliant revolutionary career we are still not very good at understanding or responding to the revolutions our example, our ideas, our economy and our technology do so much to create.The Arab spring is […]

In my last post, I wrote about “Fanniegate“, the scandalous goings on by well connected Democrats that trashed the nation’s financial system.  It was not that Republicans didn’t join the fun or that Republican malefactors of great wealth weren’t abusing the public trust in other ways.  The moral and intellectual meltdown of the American elite […]

The Roman Catholic Church is famous for its hospitality. Its arms are always wide open to receive converts or repentant schismatics, and it is ready to make all sorts of compromises to make them feel welcome. But there are limits to this accommodation. In its issue of May 27, 2011, the National Catholic Reporter published […]

Democrats, watch out.The Republican Party and especially its Tea Party wing have just acquired a new weapon of mass destruction — and it has nothing to do with any of Congressman Wiener’s rogue body parts.  If they deploy this weapon effectively in the next election cycle — a big if — then they have the […]