"The Da Vinci Code"

From my upcoming review in The American Conservative:

In the not-so-shocking climax to "The Da Vinci Code," we discover that one of the characters is the last living descendent of Jesus and Mary Magdalene.

This "Holy Blood" hooey is superstition of the grossest sort. Consider how genealogy actually works. Go back 80 generations (2000 years), and your family tree has one septillion slots to fill. If Jesus had any living descendents today, He'd have millions of them. Almost the only way there could be just one surviving heir is if the dynasty had relentlessly inbred so incestuously that the latest Magdalenian would have three eyes.

My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer

Has anybody seen Victor Davis Hanson and the War Nerd in the same room together?

And that incident where VDH accused Gary Brecher of setting his vineyard on fire ... didn't that seem a little odd to you? If you were a military historian, and you couldn't resist making money in the market for tripe, wouldn't that build up a certain amount of psychological tension in you that might need to find a release, such as in an alter ego? Greg Cochran is just asking ...

My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer

A genuine conspiracy

While the media is worked up over the ludicrous conspiracy theory in "The Da Vinci Code," Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) has blown the whistle on a real life conspiracy to radically alter America without the public's knowledge. VDARE.com's blog quotes Sessions on the 620 page Senate immigration bill, and its "temporary" worker program that puts just about everybody on the path to permanent legal residence almost immediately:

In fact, if you read the bill, you will discover there has been a studied and carefully carried out plan to conceal how many people will come in under the temporary guest worker programs when, in fact, what they mislabel as a temporary program is in fact a permanent worker program that leads on a direct path to citizenship in fairly short order. …

We have an agreement here struck between the Chamber of Commerce and some political activist groups to move this bill through, and they are not concerned sufficiently about the interests of decent American citizens who may not have the highest skills.

Sessions' entire speech is quite good.

On the other hand, Larry Auster points me to this picture of Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE), co-sponsor of this Hagel-Martinez immigration bill. I'd always assumed that Hagel, who has shown some admirable skepticism about the Iraq Attaq, was a smart man who had sold his soul to the Nebraska slaughterhouse cheap labor lobby. Yet, his insipid expression calls to mind the maxim often attributed to Napoleon: "Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence."

Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation outlines the effects of Hagel's Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act in the NY Post:

THINK the immigration debate boils down to whether the 10 million illegal immigrants already here deserve amnesty? Think again. The leading reform proposal in the Senate is Sens. Chuck Hagel and Mel Martinez's Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act (CIRA). If it becomes law, more than six times that figure will pour in - legally - over the next two decades. The original CIRA would've allowed as many as 100 million people to legally immigrate to the United States over the next 20 years. We're talking about a seismic shift of unprecedented proportions.

Facing criticism, the Senate has amended the bill - which now, if enacted, would "only" allow around 66 million new immigrants. That still more than doubles the rate, from 1 million a year now to 2.5 million per year.

Current law would let 19 million legal immigrants enter the United States over the next 20 years; CIRA would add an extra 47 million.

This flow of new immigrants would dwarf the Great Migration of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In that period, foreign-born persons made up no more than 15 percent of the U.S. population. In 1924, Congress passed a law greatly reducing future immigration. By 1970, foreign-born persons had fallen to 5 percent of the population.

In the last three decades, immigration has increased sharply. The foreign-born now make up about 12 percent of the population. But if CIRA were enacted, and 66 million new immigrants entered over the next 20 years, foreign-born persons would make up 22 percent of the U.S. population, far higher than at any point in U.S. history.

Why such explosive growth? Consider how the new law would work. [More]

My guess would be that a small inner circle of lobbyists and staffers constructed this nightmare bill knowing reasonably well what it entailed. Everybody else went along with it without asking what it would do because, as everybody who is anybody knows, only shallow people think deeply about immigration. An insouciant attitude about radical demographic change shows that you are so high up the social ladder that you don't have to worry about how things like lower wages, increased crime, and crummier public schools will affect you and your family.

My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer

Swedish fury over miscegenation ... among falcons:

Nature and falconry writer Steve Bodio sends me this, which offers an amusing perspective on the "species does not exist" problem:

Here is the text-- from The Gyrfalcon, by Eugene Potapov and Richard Sale-- Sale is mostly a translator.

"There was panic in Sweden in 1999 when an escaped male Gyrfalcon x Peregrine Falcon hybrid from Denmark paired with a native Peregrine female in Bohuslan, the male bird being identified by its leg ring. The pairing made the headlines of Swedish newspapers...Falconry is, in general, prohibited in Finland, Sweden and Norway, and so the public reaction to this event was negative because of the potential for genetic pollution of the native species. The case was termed the 'birds of prey scandal' by the Swedish Ornithological society...Officials from Naturvårdsverket (the Swedish Ministry of the environment) killed the chicks produced by the pair and shot the hybrid. They also wished to kill the female as her willingness to mate with a non-pure bird caused concern that should another escape happen the bird might be equally willing a second time. However the female escaped and remained at large...”

This is also the opinion of the U.S. federal government. Well, not about people, but about red wolves. The red wolf is found in isolated spots in the South. Although the government lists it as an endangered species, it looks like a cross between a wolf and a coyote (which, just to indicate the depths of the confusion here, used to be called separate species, but generally aren't anymore). Indeed, as genetic tests have shown, that is exactly what it is.

In other words, the red wolf is not an endangered species but an endangered race. The main threat to the continued racial existence of red wolves is - miscegenation with the common coyote. So, in some parts of the South, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service is pursuing an aggressive campaign of sterilizing or killing uppity coyotes that can't keep their cotton-pickin' paws off our precious red wolves.

This program of lynching Southern coyotes that don't know their place is pretty amusing in a sick way. But it probably is the only way to preserve the red wolf race. Being of conservative temperament, I tend to favor conserving things, because if we don't, we'll miss them when they're gone.

My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer

Huge opening day for "Da Vinci Code:"

$29.5 million. If that estimate holds up, that's the 12th biggest of all time, and the third biggest ever for a non-sequel.

Why do people like to go to movies in May when you think they'd like to go outside after a long winter? Why do people read my blog in May when they could be outside enjoying the beautiful weather?

My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer

How to Fix Mexico

It's striking how the liberal media pays so little attention to one massive flaw of the Mexican state: not enough taxation of the rich.

A major reason that 65% of the Mexican population has no more than a 9th grade education is that Mexico can't spend enough on public schools. Richard Lynn found that , n general, Latin Americans do the worst on school achievement tests relative to their IQs than any other large group of people. Some of that is cultural -- Mexicans, especially, don't like to read and don't like to go to school, but a lot of it is financial. There's just not enough funds in the treasury to pay to send everybody to public school through, say, the tenth grade.

Similarly, the Mexican state can't pay cops enough in salaries to persuade them not to shakedown people for bribes.

Why not?

Because Mexico's rich cheat like crazy on their taxes.

Here's a study by the CEPR that shows that Mexico's tax revenue as a share of its GDP is less than half of America's. And, even though the top 10% in Mexico get a larger share of the national income than in America (e.g., the world's third richest man, Carlos Slim, is Mexican), a larger percentage of Mexican tax revenue comes from regressive sales taxes.

My impression is that the American media now sees criticism of the Mexican government as being vaguely racist and anti-immigrant, and thus largely off limits.

My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer

Coming to a falafel stand near you:

I hope Iraqi cuisine is tasty, because Iraqi restaurants may be the only thing we'll get out of our Mesopotamian adventure. (Of course, the neocons may eventually wonder why they were so enthusiastic for a war that ended up bringing lots of anti-Semites to the U.S.) The NYT reports:

In the latest indication of the crushing hardships weighing on the lives of Iraqis, increasing portions of the middle class seem to be doing everything they can to leave the country. In the last 10 months, the state has issued new passports to 1.85 million Iraqis, 7 percent of the population and a quarter of the country's estimated middle class.

The school system offers another clue: Since 2004, the Ministry of Education has issued 39,554 letters permitting parents to take their children's academic records abroad. The number of such letters issued in 2005 was double that in 2004, according to the director of the ministry's examination department. Iraqi officials and international organizations put the number of Iraqis in Jordan at close to a million. Syrian cities also have growing Iraqi populations.

A reader writes:

Not if you read this article by Lawrence Kaplan in The New Republic from the 4/3/06 issue:

Some highlights:

While over 40,000 Iraqi Christians have fled their homeland since the invasion, last year the United States permitted fewer than 200 Iraqis to immigrate.

...but "the policy since the war began is, 'We're not granting asylum.' ... There is no processing of refugees from Iraq." The reasons derive from post-September 11 security restrictions and, in the telling of a senior administration official, from the fiction that Iraqis, now liberated, no longer endure systematic persecution.

Sorry to hear that about the Arab Christians, who typically have assimilated well in the U.S., but, overall, that shows more sense than you'd expect from this government. We may still get the big airlift off the roof of the US embassy of American collaborators, although I can't say we've seen all that many enthusiastic collaborators in Iraq compared to South Vietnam.

My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer

The demographics of 2100

The Opinionator offers some rough forecasts of what the make-up of the US and the world will be like in 2100.

I have been musing about cultural change recently. I'm increasingly under the impression that brilliance is in decline, that the high point of genius was roughly 1913, and that our current era, even before the huge demographic changes discussed by the Opinionator fully slam home, is increasingly dominated by pastiche, triviality, and lack of ambition. Perhaps all the talent is just going into things I will never, ever care about, like video games, but that doesn't seem to be a reason not to be curmudgeonly. When I imagine the culture of the future, two words come to mind as what will be the predominant interest of humanity: celebrity gossip.

If we're lucky, perhaps the future will look like the Roman Empire in the 2nd Century AD under the "five good emperors." Gibbon called it the happiest era in human history, but I suspect he would have been bored, and that he himself was much happier living in the 18th Century.

My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer

How to get rich off of being wrong

There are a lot of ways to get rich off of making correct predictions, but if you want to get rich off being wrong about the near future, be a pundit. Nobody ever cares how many times you've been wrong in the past. People just like hearing you make gutsy predictions. They'll never call you to account for them.

For example, NYT op-edster Tom Friedman announced to Chris Matthews on TV on 5/11/06 that in regard to Iraq:

"Well, I think that we're going to find out, Chris, in the next year to six months—probably sooner—whether a decent outcome is possible there, and I think we're going to have to just let this play out."

Sound pretty sensible and persuasive, huh?

The only problem is that Friedman said back in 2003:

"The next six months in Iraq—which will determine the prospects for democracy-building there—are the most important six months in U.S. foreign policy in a long, long time." (New York Times, 11/30/03)

Well, actually, that's not the only problem.

See, Friedman has said basically the same thing about the next six months or so being crucial in Iraq a dozen other times in between these two statements.

Leon Hadar has got the goods on him here.

My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer

Better buzzwords for Tom Wolfe's "fiction-absolute:"

A reader suggests the following potential replacements for Wolfe's important concept that "Each individual adopts a set of values which, if truly absolute in the world--so ordained by some almighty force--would make not that individual but his group . . . the best of all possible groups, the best of all inner circles."

Hopefully one of these buzzwords for "fiction absolute" might pull it off:

Vanity paradigm

Group-hype

egocosmos

hypeomology

This little insight would explain much about why Black-American media culture so adamantly condemns assimilated, by-the-book blacks as "acting white". If a critical mass of blacks decides to abide by the White egocosmos, it will damage the credibility of its black counterpart, and thus compell (eventually) blacks to accept being in second place in the dominant paradigm. Thus where going by the book might be the better individual strategy, the preservation of group vanity requires the instillment of an alternative paradigm reflecting the endowments of African-Americans, where they come in first and whites in second.

Any other suggestions?

Reader comments:

I think that 'egocosmos' takes it. A nice, smooth neologism that emphasizes the rootedness of the social myth in the inner urges, anxieties, and will-to-power of the subjects.

*

Thinking about Wolfe's idea, I like the terms "group primacy," "club primacy," or to come at it differently "The Perfect Circle." It could be given a more scientific note if we Latinzed it "Orbis Superbia."

*

What the heck is "hypeomology?"

*

"Ideal type" I know, Max Weber used it in another sense, but since it has zero recognition in the general culture I say it is open.

How about three-word phrases? This isn't an easy concept to get across, so maybe we should try being a little more expansive.

Tribal narcissism

"Tribal" is very good. "Narcissism" is close, but it sounds too self-contained, too aloof, whereas this phenomenon is more competitive, more relative, more needing to put other groups down to promote your own.

Vanity Paradigm

"Vanity" pays tribute to Wolfe's "Bonfire of the Vanities," although there Wolfe was using "vanity," I would assume, in the sense of Ecclesiastes and/or Savonarola, "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity," rather than in the more contemporary sense of egotistical.

I think Wolfe is drawing an analogy to Kant's philosophically sophisticated version of the Golden Rule, the Categorical Imperative, which says "Act only according to that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it would become a universal law." (Another version: "Act so that the maxim ... may be capable of becoming a universal law for all rational beings.")

Wolfe's "fiction-absolute" is the evil twin of the categorical imperative: "Each individual adopts a set of values which, if truly absolute in the world--so ordained by some almighty force--would make not that individual but his group . . . the best of all possible groups, the best of all inner circles." In other words, "Act so that if the maxim became a universal law for all rational beings, your group must be seen as best."

So, maybe some term calling attention to the contrast with Kant's categorical imperative might help, such as "competitive imperative." I kind of like "tribal competitive imperative."

My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer

Electing a new people

Eunomia on the Senate Bill:

Not only does this wave the white flag on illegal immigration, which we assumed the Senate bill would do, but may as well have a prologue that says, 'We, the United States Senate, have determined to elect a new people.'" [More]

A reader suggests a political cartoon:

Bush is standing before a chart titled “The Xenophobian Mandate” on which are down trending graph lines titled "presidential approval," "spending approval," "Iraq approval," and "immigration approval," an up trending dashed line titled "xenophobia level," and one horizontal line bisecting them all titled "Xenophobian Mandate." Karl Rove: “And this is the beauty of the plan, Mr. President, there is a level of immigration at which you attain a moral mandate to import a new people.”

Meanwhile, PoliPundit writes:

As I’ve said before, The president’s approach to immigration is hard to counter because:

1. It’s bad in so many ways that it’s hard to list all of them

2. It’s deceptive in so many ways that it’s exhausting to point out all of them

My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer

Hey, at least somebody liked it!

"Bush's Immigration Speech Hit All the Right Notes"
By Dick Morris

No mention that Vicente Fox is a client of Dick's.

My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer

The Debacle of the Economists:

The immigration debate is bringing out the worst in many economists: their devotion to assume-we-have-a-can-opener models over reality, their utter lack of interest in vast areas of empirical data, their unthinking allegiance to their political prejudices, and their desire to further their own self-interests without mentioning how their own behavior confirms economists' traditional skepticism about people's motivations.

Exhibit A right now is Marginal Revolution, where NYT columnist and GMU economist Tyler Cowen's desire to Hispanicize America in furtherance of Tyler's own exotic aesthetic tastes has led him to claim that he'll look for "useful" data on Mexican assimilation rates, then today ignore the enormous amount of useful data displayed in his own comments section, apparently on the grounds that it is not "useful" for furthering his policy desires.

Now, Tyler's co-blogger Alex Tabarrok is pushing "an open letter on immigration reflecting the consensus opinion of economists on the major issues," which is a compendium of sentimental clichés worthy of Oprah.

The bad news is that Tyler Cowen and Alex Tabarrok are are among the best of the bunch: smart guys, sensible and open-minded about most things, whom I read them every day. But, clearly, on immigration, as this impressive comment thread demonstrates, they've gone out of their way not to learn the facts and are allowing their emotions, tastes, and self-interests to drive their policy recommendations.

And Tyler and Alex are among the best of the bunch.

My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer

Wall Street Journal: It's Sailer's fault Bush's speech was a relative failure

James Taranto, editor of the Wall Street Journal's OpinionJournal.com website, notes in his "Best of the Web Today" blog on the WSJ site that CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider said, ""But that wasn't the best response he's gotten compared to other speeches, in fact it was lower than any speech we've measured since he took office."

So, who is to blame for Bush's relatively poor reception? According to Taranto:

One reason for that is that the nativist right is as implacable as the Angry Left. "If the purpose of the speech was to shore up the president's standing with conservatives, it failed," declares an editorial in National Review. "The speech . . . is likely further to demoralize conservatives and harden opposition among House Republicans to the Senate amnesty proposal."

Michelle Malkin, who has actually written a book defending Franklin D. Roosevelt's internment of Japanese-Americans, remarks: "The only good thing about watching the speech was getting to watch it in the Fox News green room with Colorado GOP Rep. Tom Tancredo, a stalwart immigration enforcement advocate. It was nice to have someone to shake heads along with as empty platitude after platitude was laid on thick."

Steve Sailer on VDare.com writes: "The Bush Administration has seemed never to notice that Mexico is not the 51st state, but a foreign country--one that is engaged in a slow-motion invasion of America. . . . Why is Bush doing this? I have suggested that his motives are dynastic--that he is selfishly sacrificing the GOP to build a family vehicle, much like Brian Mulroney sacrificed the Canadian Progressive Conservative party in a vain effort to build a personal fief in the French-speaking province of Quebec. Brenda Walker speculates he is a 'MexiChurian Candidate.' What he is not is an American patriot."

The political effect of the president's speech will depend on how influential voices like these turn out to be among congressional Republicans.

Indeed.

My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer

Occam's Butterknife in action

Missing the point: A press release from UCLA trumpets:

"Students Feel Safer in Ethnically Diverse Schools, UCLA, UC Davis Psychologists Report"

Middle school students are more likely to feel safer, less bullied and less lonely in ethnically diverse schools, psychologists from UCLA and UC Davis report in a new study of more than 70 sixth-grade classrooms in 11 Los Angeles public middle schools with predominantly minority and low-income students.

"Bullying happens in every school, and many students are concerned about their safety," said Jaana Juvonen, UCLA professor of psychology, chair of developmental psychology and lead author of the study. "However, our analysis shows students feel safer in ethnically diverse classrooms and schools."

Juvonen and her colleagues studied classrooms with lower and higher diversity among African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans and Caucasians. The researchers classified classrooms as diverse when multiple ethnic groups were represented in relatively similar proportions. The findings of the study held even when classroom differences in academic performance were taken into account.

The researchers were able to examine the effects of diversity on African American and Latino students — the two ethnic groups that were represented across all the classrooms in this sample of public middle school youth in the Los Angels area. However, co-author Adrienne Nishina, an assistant professor of human development at UC Davis, said she expects that students from other ethnic backgrounds would experience similar benefits from ethnically diverse schools.

"Other research at the college level has found that students from all ethnic backgrounds may benefit from ethnically diverse environments," Nishina noted.

Yes, that is what Occam's Butterknife would imply. Occam's Razor, on the other hand, would imply that they've merely proved that the more whites and Asians there are in a classroom (and thus the fewer blacks and Hispanics), the safer students feel.

My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer

Ah, the sweet life in Latin America!

Real life is making the Brazilian gangster cult film "City of God" look like "Sesame Street."

Wave of Violence in Brazil Claims 133

By VIVIAN SEQUERA, AP, May 16, 2006

With guns drawn, plainclothes police in a suburb of South America's largest city stopped and frisked motorists in a hunt for gang members who set off a five-day wave of violence that left at least 133 dead by Tuesday.

The crime spree showed the strength of organized crime in the financial and industrial heart of Brazil, and it sent fear rippling through the metropolis of 18 million...

Using machine guns and grenades, gang members attacked dozens of police installations, burned scores of buses and vandalized 15 bank branches. Inmates took over 73 prisons and held more than 200 guards hostage. The violence finally ebbed Tuesday morning, but Sao Paulo residents said they were still stunned.

"It's a civil war," said Manuela Nascimento, a 24-year-old newsstand worker. "Now I leave my house scared and go to work scared."

I can't wait for the Senate immigration bill to pass so we can start importing more Latin Americans.

My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer

Reactions to the Bush immigration speech

The VDARE.com blog is covering the Senate as it shoots down common-sense amendments to the Hagel-Martinez 103 Million Legal Immigrants act.

Mickey Kaus is on fire.

That John Stuart Mill of the 21st Century, JPod, is concerned about intellectual intolerance over immigration policy: "The Inability to Stomach Dissent." Irony is not JPod's strong suit, as Eunomia points out.

A reader of Manhattan Transfer objects to the word "temporary" in Bush's "Temporary Worker Program."

Economist Tyler Cowen tries to justify his LA Times op-ed counseling insouciance about the effects of low-skilled immigration. He writes:

"David Card and others have plenty of data on how well the second and third generations of Latinos do in assimilating and entering the mainstream of American life. I find the overall portrait a reassuring one. I will look for data on Mexicans per se and let you all know if I find anything useful."

Mean Mr. Mustard points out that letting millions of Muslims into Europe also seemed like a good idea at the time.

Alexander K. McClure on PoliPundit defends the speech and concludes, stirringly:

"If you think that is amnesty, then you are either a moron or a liar. If you ar truly a Republican to begin with, if you are truly a conservative, then you will applaud this speech and support the reforms he has articulated. Otherwise, you are not a Republican. You are not a conservative. You are a LIAR. A LIAR"

Udolpho summarizes Bush's speech (and offers what is, in my completely objective opinion, a practical and idealistic suggestion for how to respond):

"Well I would like to address your concerns. Here is how I will prove to you that you can trust me: by repeatedly saying you can trust me. Would I say it while looking so sincere if it weren't really true? Look, my underlip is quavering."

Dennis Dale responds to the NYT article on the Mexican government's protest to Bush and comments on the NYT article about how Bush has (unlike other conservatives they could mention) always been nice to Mexicans:

"What I love about this quote is how it reveals just how completely subsumed is the ritual of a Caucasian proving his moral worth by engaging his dark-skinned brethren." [More]

Chris Roach at BrainWash is not impressed.

Andrew Sullivan thinks Bush's speech was fine.

Thrasymachus speculates on why Bush so much wants to Mexicanize America:

Maybe a nation where the wealthy elite lord it over a poor peasant class appeals to him. Servants are cheaper and better behaved in Mexico. It's always clear just for whom the laws exist and are enforced in Mexico. Bush looks south and sees a paradise.

Mac Johnson notes in Human Events:

The President’s promise of enforcement as part of a “comprehensive” plan is thus simply unbelievable in light of past performance. But worse yet, it is now just plain irresponsible. Every one of the President’s proposals for increased security could be passed quickly, if they were not tied to a guest worker amnesty. Indeed, all of them could have already been passed and signed into law if they weren’t being used as sugar to coat the bitter pill of legalization for millions of illegal aliens. But the President and Senators John McCain and Teddy Kennedy (as well as others) want the amnesty giveaway so badly that they refuse to allow the Senate to vote on the enforcement measures as a separate bill, as the House of Representatives has done.

PrestoPundit points out that even Hugh Hewitt is expressing skepticism over the President's sincerity.

Pytheas comments on the Senate's rejection Tuesday of Sen. Johnny Isakson's sensible amendment to postpone a guest worker program until the border is secure.

Surfeited with Dainties writes:

So now they are not guests but "temporary workers." I'm sure this poll tested better. So what is temporary about it? Does the program wrap up at some point? When do the workers return to their home country - or rather - who returns them?

No one. It is not a temporary worker program - it is an American replacement program. Bush is obviously tired of us so he's importing as many people who don't read the NY Times as he can find - whether by multiplying the number of legal immigrants by five or by opening up a new stream of immigrants called "temporary workers."

Gideon argues that keeping the border open bails out Vicente Fox, and that that's a good thing.

My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer

The American Conservative issue of May 22, 2006

New American Conservative issue semi-online:

May 22, 2006 Issue



The Weakness of Empire
By Michael Vlahos
The power of an imperial state resides in the person of the emperor—and rises or falls with his political fortunes.



Immorality Play
By Bill English
Duke’s lacrosse scandal gives leftist ideologues a field day.

Looking Out for Numero Uno
By George W. Grayson
Not all jobs south of the border pay poorly. Take a look at the politicians’ salaries.

It’s Not Just the Economy, Stupid
By W. James Antle III
The fundamental question in formulating immigration policy is not who gets jobs but what it means to be an American.

Populist Professor
By Bill Kauffman
Daniel Patrick Moynihan voted with the liberals but provided talking points for conservatives.

Special Relationship
By Uri Avnery
The U.S. uses Israel to dominate the Middle East, and Israel uses the U.S. to dominate the Palestinians.



Mr. Quaid Goes to Washington
By Steve Sailer
Hugh Grant and Dennis Quaid in “American Dreamz”

How Whitey Bulger Bought Boston
By William Norman Grigg
The Brothers Bulger: How They Terrorized and Corrupted Boston for a Quarter Century by Howie Carr

Try 5 FREE Issues of The American Conservative Today

The High Cost of Low Prices
By Marian Kester Coombs
The Wal-Mart Effect: How the World’s Most Powerful Company Really Works—and How It’s Transforming the American Economy by Charles Fishman

It’s A Man’s Man’s World
By Clark Stooksbury
Manliness by Harvey C. Mansfield



Can We Win An Insurgents’ War?
By Patrick J. Buchanan
Defeating ourselves in Iraq

Guilty Until Proven PC
By Taki
Not all Duke news is fit to print. Just ask the New York Times.



Fourteen Days: Howard Dean, Immigration Restrictionist?; Foreign Service Desperately Seeks Dissent; James Baker to the Rescue

Deep Background: Even TSA’s Director Is a Critic; Iran Comes First With Shi’ites; There She Goes, Miss Iraq

My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer