Futurism, Fukuyama, and Folksong Hermeneutics

GONE ABOUT AS FAR AS THEY CAN GO I begin with the WSJ of January 1, 2000. Mr. Thomas Petzinger tells us that everything’s up-to-date in Cyber City. Well, not exactly, and yet his article is not lacking in truth. It is true that communication costs and transaction costs are being reduced. It is true … Continue reading “Futurism, Fukuyama, and Folksong Hermeneutics”

The Next Balkan War

My blood ran cold when I heard the news, right before the new year, that the tiny republic of Montenegro will hold a referendum on the question of independence from Yugoslavia. The NATO-crats are not through with the Balkans, not by a long shot. Mad Madeleine Albright and her claque of militant “humanitarians” will not … Continue reading “The Next Balkan War”

SHEPHERDSTOWN

The talks between Israel and Syria in the isolated rural college town of Shepherdstown, WV, watched over by U.S. mother-hen facilitators, might one day be seen as the first step toward a lasting peace between the two countries. It is more likely, however, that they represent yet another premature effort by President Clinton to create … Continue reading “SHEPHERDSTOWN”

Fulani, Buchanan and the Smear Machine

The campaign to destroy Patrick J. Buchanan, politically and personally, continues unabated, and is now accelerating as the official presidential campaign season gets underway. The reason for the escalation is because, incredibly, his somewhat quixotic guerrilla campaign to take the White House, as vastly under-funded as it is, has managed to mount a credible challenge … Continue reading “Fulani, Buchanan and the Smear Machine”

Weimar Russia and the Chechen War

Many Western commentators have remarked on the similarity of the post-cold war international landscape to that of 1919, the latest being Norman Podhoretz, who writes in the December 1999 Commentary:”. . . there are two things about which I do feel certain. The first is that we are in a situation resembling the one that … Continue reading “Weimar Russia and the Chechen War”

GIVING PEACE A CHANCE

I checked in a few standard quote books and in Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible and was shocked. There is very little in what is widely viewed as our common cultural heritage that describes and celebrates the benefits of peace. That should be one of our tasks in the New Millennium. (Yes, I know, … Continue reading “GIVING PEACE A CHANCE”

Time, Millennia, Empires, and Everything

POST NO MILLENNIA This whole millennium business is a bit wearing. Leaving aside the open secret that the new millennium begins in 2001, there’s all the Y2K hype and fear-mongering, only some of which comes to us courtesy of caring governments and organs of state security. This has something to do with the “complex of … Continue reading “Time, Millennia, Empires, and Everything”

FEAR AND TREMBLING IN THE IMPERIAL CAMP?

I don’t want to read too much into it, but I think it is just possible that some of the guardians of the Warfare State at the neo-conservative Weekly Standard (but the two articles I’m discussing are not available online; there is, however, a rather good David Gelernter piece on Rembrandt) are a bit worried … Continue reading “FEAR AND TREMBLING IN THE IMPERIAL CAMP?”

Christmas in Kosovo

For the nuns and monks of the Serbian Patriarchate at Pec in Kosovo Christmas 1999 will be a sombre affair. Huddled in their monastery together with a few refugees, only the protection of Italian KFOR troops stands between them and an angry Albanian rabble outside. The beauty of the place contrasts all too sharply with … Continue reading “Christmas in Kosovo”

WORRYING ABOUT THE RUSSIAN ARMY

On Monday night "Nightline” featured a program whose taped intro was fraught with worry about yet another possible overseas enemy. Noting that the Russian government seems intent on wiping out virtually the entire nation-province-territory-whatever of Chechnya whatever anybody in the West might say and that this policy seems to be extremely popular among Russians of … Continue reading “WORRYING ABOUT THE RUSSIAN ARMY”