Month: May 2001

I always knew R. W. Bradford was a sellout, and now his recent screed, “China: The ‘Crisis’ and the Facts,” has confirmed my long-standing suspicion. But before we get to that, some background material might be helpful, starting with the essential question: Who the heck is R. W. Bradford, anyway? GOING MODAL With his bushy … Continue reading “Libertarians and China”

Something’s in the wind. From the rocky shores of the Sea of Japan to the sandy beaches of the Adriatic, a new and benevolent form of nationalism is on the rise: not the dark irredentism that infected prewar Germany and the comic-opera totalitarianism of Mussolini’s Italy, but an international trend on the right that emphasizes … Continue reading “Three Mavericks”

The big news in drug reform circles this week is the Supreme Court’s decision that there is no "medical necessity" exception to federal prohibition of marijuana distribution or manufacture that can be claimed by the Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative. The court did not overturn California’s law allowing patients with a recommendation from a licensed physician … Continue reading “International Aspects of Drug Wars Undercovered”

NATIONAL REVIEW: AN UNCHANGING MONOLITH? I have entitled this piece "A Short History," because a full history of warmongering at National Review magazine would be long indeed. James J. Martin wrote two volumes in the early 1960s on the turn of The New Republic and The Nation from a critical view of US foreign policy … Continue reading “A Short History of Warmongering at the National Review“

I got off of the bus deep in the western Sichuan backwaters and I was met by a hard stare from a toothless, shirtless peasant. He asked where I was from and I said America. He eyed me up and down and then declared, "We aren’t afraid of you." We talked for a little while … Continue reading “An American in China”

America-haters the world over were ecstatic that the US was not reelected to the UN “Human Rights Commission.” That great champion of human rights, Communist China, gleefully pontificated in their state-controlled media that “the U.S. election loss shows that America’s long-standing pursuit of confrontation and hegemonism in international relations has aroused widespread anger. Its double … Continue reading “Why They Hate Us”

Justin has the flu so today we present a classic Raimondo column from last year. October 18, 2000I can write all the columns I want, pointing out this or that outrage committed by the US government in the realm of foreign affairs, railing about the hubris of the empire-builders, proving and re-proving the folly of … Continue reading “Vidal’s Non-Interventionist Manifesto”

“There is no nation on earth powerful enough to accomplish our overthrow. Our destruction, should it ever come at all, will be from another quarter. From the inattention of the people to the concerns of their government, from their carelessness and negligence.” ~ Daniel Webster Our American way of life is under threat. Not from … Continue reading “The Real China Threat”

"In Israel, every human being is a soldier, and every soldier – a human being," went a famous old saying ascribed to David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s founder and first prime minister. In the pre-sound-bite era, when lengthy and complex slogans were tolerated, this was an effective phrasing to obscure the tension between Israel’s democratic self-image and … Continue reading “The State of the Army, Part 1”

An international hate campaign against Italian rightist leader Silvio Berlusconi is now going into high gear. The goal: saving the Euro-communist (“center-left”) government now in power, and derailing Berlusconi’s hopes of becoming Prime Minister in the upcoming [May 13] parliamentary elections. It’s the same sort of drumbeat that greeted the rise of Joerg Haider, the … Continue reading “Viva Berlusconi!”