My latest at Insidecatholic.com explores the Freudian roots of the attack on the family, in the light of the recent assaults on Pope Benedict XVI, and of D.H. Lawrence, the French Revolution, feminism, and the Simpsons. Among other things…. 
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Under discussion: Watching the Door: Cheating Death in 1970s Belfast, Atlantic Books (2009), 288 pages.  The recent killings in Northern Ireland have everybody over there wondering whether this is a dying sputter of republican terrorism, or the beginning of a new round of “Troubles.” Two British soldiers were killed on the evening of March 7, when they went to the gate of their compound to accept an ordered-in pizza delivery. On March 9, an on-duty policeman was shot dead while answering a call for help from a woman in distress. These were the first killings of police and soldiers since the … 
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It’s been my long-held experience that anything worth having can be found on Craigslist: The brand-new house worth half-a-million dollars that I lived in as a college student. (It was a rough life). The cushy dog-sitting job that earned me an extra $1,000 a month. The gorgeous, neuroscientist boyfriend. The ipod that played the songs that got me through the breakup with the house, dog, and gorgeous, neuroscientist boyfriend. Now, it seems that what I have been telling people for years—that Craigslist is a bastion of the free-market (and awesomeness)—is being publicly recognized. A number of news outlets have reported that … 
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The following text was delivered at a rally in defense of the Tenth Amendment, held at the statehouse in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania on March 16, 2009 and organized by Representative Samuel Rohrer. The rally was well attended and the hundreds of people who crowded the rotunda, and who were shown on TV, carried such signs as “Give Us Back States Rights!” and “Guns and Property.” Never has this author seen such an exuberant outpouring of what has been described as the “Alternative Right.” These were the members of the true conservative movement, who would never be invited on to FOX news or … 
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For many, the Obama era promised to break down the racial barriers and bugaboos of old and herald in a new age of understanding, in which Americans could finally discuss and debate issues based on nothing but honorable intentions. Apparently Congressman Jim Clyburn did not receive the memo. The ridiculous extent to which the word “racist” has been used and abused has now rendered the term completely meaningless. Individual and institutional racism prevalent during slavery and segregation was glaring and obvious. Today, genuine racism is less obvious, yet undoubtedly still exists, and a word to label such instances might be useful. … 
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Sometimes neoconservatives, (or should I say movement conservatives?) say things that are so stupid that one mistakes them for satire. Last week the New York Post republished an opinion piece from the Commentary blog Contentions, which had been produced by Wall Street Journal columnist Max Boot. Presumably Max’s opinion carry enormous weight throughout the Beltway policy community. After all, this crusader for democracy already wears among his awesome titles the honor of a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. Max initiates his discourse by praising an immigrant officer from South Vietnam who commanded the 187th Airborne Infantry Regiment in … 
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Citizenism, Inconvenient Truths, & Examined Life I advocate what I call ‘citizenism’ as a functional, yet idealistic, alternative to the special-interest abuses of multiculturalism. Citizenism calls upon Americans to favor the well-being, even at some cost to ourselves, of our current fellow citizens over that of foreigners and internal factions. Among American citizens, it calls for individuals to be treated equally by the state, no matter what their race. The citizenist sees little need for politically correct racial browbeating. Today’s omnipresent demand to lie about social realities in the name of ‘celebrating diversity’ becomes ethically irrelevant under citizenism, where the duty … 
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It seems David Frum’s “axis-of-evil” has been replaced with a new enemy - the “axis-of-the-expendable,” or populist talk radio, once his greatest media ally but now his greatest embarrassment. The neocons loved when talk radio rallied the masses to support their war – but in true elite fashion, now that they’re no longer needed, neocons are washing their hands of these rabble rousers and their rabble.  
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It was the winter of conservative discontent. Barry Goldwater had gotten only 38 percent of the vote, and his party had suffered its worst thrashing since Alf Landon fell to FDR in 1936. Democrats held 295 House seats, Republicans 140. They held 68 Senate seats to Republicans’ 32, and 33 governors to the GOP’s 17. Democratic registration was twice that of the GOP. The liberal press was gleefully writing the obituary of “The Party That Lost Its Head.” Decades might pass, it was said, before the GOP recovered from its fatal embrace of right-wing radicalism and foolish rejection of the leadership … 
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I never meant for this half-arsed attempt at a blog to be a chronicle of my private life; the world really can do without another navel-gazing self-flagellating self-important repetition of a normal life’s banalities. But I really must make an exception for this one. I was meeting a friend in a bar in Brooklyn, and we were having a pretty interesting conversation about all sorts of different stuff, when a girl sitting next to me decided it would be smart for her to interrupt us and tell me some dumb-ass canned-laughter line about Bernie Madoff and his ponzi scheme.  It was … 
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