Who’s Playing the Trump Card?

What makes ‘The Donald’ run? Donald Trump, hotshot real estate developer and the biggest vulgarian in the Western Hemisphere, suddenly discover a heretofore-unsuspected ambition for political office – and not just any political office, but nothing less than the White House? What’s up with that?MEANING AND MOTIVE I’ll tell you what’s up. Or, better yet, … Continue reading “Who’s Playing the Trump Card?”

Cyber-Cops, Watchdogs and the Thought Police

“Bad boyz, Bay boyz, What-cha gonna do? What-cha gonna do when they come for you?” Ah yes, the theme song of my favorite TV program – next to The McLaughlin Group, of course: it could serve as the theme song of the new millennium. Cops – they’re everywhere. Rounding up wild-eyed Algerian “terrorists” as they … Continue reading “Cyber-Cops, Watchdogs and the Thought Police”

Declines, Untergänge, and Other Unpleasant Matters

GLOOM AND DOOM From time to time, writers fret about the decline of the west. Some of them worried about it so prematurely that today they stand dismissed as dreary fellows, who just weren’t up to enjoying the radiant future upon which we have entered. Oswald Spengler, after all, was ponderously Teutonic and pro-Prussian and … Continue reading “Declines, Untergänge, and Other Unpleasant Matters”

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”

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”