Feb 23
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Who among us has not been flabbergasted by the fact that half the country still supports our infamous president? We scratch our heads in disbelief, thinking, what will it take to bring sobriety to the populace. All the more infuriating as we know that Hussein must be booted out in the next election if the [...]
Feb 16
Barack and Michelle have summoned the brain trust to a three-day retreat at the presidential residence in Martha’s Vineyard. Present are economists, businessmen, politicians, academics, members of the clergy, educators, and more. Numerous issues are on the agenda; issues that will determine the fate of the nation. We join the participants in the dining hall [...]
Feb 9
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Nothing riles a leftist more than the right to keep and bear arms. The slapstick performance of Eric “My People” Holder and his Justice Department in the Fast and Furious scandal amply testifies to this fact. The gun-running fiasco is only the latest in a succession of hysterical initiatives on the part of the Democrats [...]
Feb 2
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What remains of genteel urban life in America is currently being sabotaged by gangs of feral “ghetto youth” on the rampage. This in itself is not spectacular news; similar outbreaks appear with some regularity throughout the world. The difference is in the complicity of certain government agencies and the establishment press. The more widespread the [...]
Jan 26
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Few would deny that key aspects of George Orwell’s 1984 have become reality in the US, Britain, France, Austria, Canada, and other countries of the former West that have taken the suicidal plunge into the abyss of Never-Ending Equality. Orwell’s dystopian masterpiece presents a vision of society after the tentacles of Socialism have locked it [...]
Here are some of the headlines we’ll be seeing in the year 2020 if our civilization continues on its present course:
Jan 12
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Even if control of both Congress and the White House pass to the Republican Party in January 2013—and this outcome is far from certain—it might not be time to pop open the champagne. A number of existential issues face the country, challenges that would be daunting if the nation were united and sober, let alone [...]
Jan 5
The First Couple are seated on the beach adjoining the “winter White House” in Hawaii. It is early evening, just after Christmas. The sky displays the full palette of colors one would expect from a beautiful Hawaiian sunset. Waves crash gently onto the sand. The air, still warm, has only just begun to cool. The [...]
Dec 15
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The race is on to see who will “own” the U.S. military. Our habitual image of a bastion of patriotism and good old American values may have to be modified to fit reality. Rest assured that there are clever people working diligently to ensure that this new reality arrives with all possible speed. The struggle [...]
Dec 7
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A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of viewing the exhibits on display at the Monroe Gallery of photography in Santa Fe, New Mexico. One of the last vestiges of quality in a town packed with art galleries, Monroe specializes in the good old stuff: classic photos by Eisenstaedt, Cartier-Bresson, Doisneau, and others at [...]
Here are some of the headlines we’ll be seeing in the year 2020 if our civilization continues on its present course:
Nov 23
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We join the First Family in the formal dining room of the White House as they begin their Thanksgiving feast. Both Obama daughters, Sasha and Malia, are present. Guests include the former Green Jobs Czar, Van Jones; filmmaker Michael Moore; MSNBC broadcaster Rachel Maddow; and Barack’s half brother, Malik. On the menu are arugula salad [...]
Nov 16
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One of the great challenges involved in the diagnosis of political pathology is the explanation of events. We see a field of misbehavior and dysfunction, and then endeavor to explain the chain of causality. Today, many of the explanations floating through our discourse are false, misdirected, or otherwise flawed. A prime example that passes through [...]
Nov 10
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Remember the craze of YouTube videos a while back, when people were dubbing a scene from a movie showing Hitler and his general staff in the command bunker at the end of the war? Folks from every notch on the political spectrum put words in the mouths of the highest-ranking Nazis in order to mock [...]
Oct 27
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In light of the European financial crisis, it was fortuitous that AWOL Civilization managed to secure an interview of no less a figure than British Prime Minister David Cameron. Our intrepid reporter was snooping around in the vicinity of 10 Downing Street at about two o’clock in the morning, in a light rain, braving the [...]
Oct 20
Here are some of the headlines we’ll be seeing in the year 2020 if our civilization continues on its present course: After laying waste to major retail outlets, Occupy Wall Street burns down mom-and-pop grocery stores; “it’s time to go after the real seat of bourgeois greed and exploitation in this country” explains Van Jones [...]
Oct 12
In the middle of the night, Barack receives a phone call from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey. The General informs the President that his presence is required immediately at the top-security wing of Walter Reed military hospital in Bethesda, Maryland. A helicopter is already waiting on the White House [...]
Oct 6
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Last Sunday, against my better judgment, I turned on the television and tuned into NBC’s Sunday Night Football to see the New York Jets play the Baltimore Ravens. In the space of about fifteen minutes, I saw case studies of some of the worst social diseases that plague America. Allow me to mention that I [...]
Sep 29
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Folks, we have just scored a journalistic coup here at AWOL Civilization, the kind of break that most freelancers and news organizations just dream about. I have completed an exclusive interview with Solyndra CEO Brian Harrison. Brian may have refused to utter a single word to the Congressional committee investigating the $500 million that evaporated [...]
Sep 22
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(WARNING: This is a rather intimate episode of Michelle Knows Best, taking place exclusively in the presidential bed. As such, it may not be suitable for small children. It is, however work-safe—unless, of course, your boss is a die-hard Obamunist, in which case you are taking a risk with any episode of this TV show.) It is [...]
Here are some of the headlines we’ll be seeing in the year 2020 if our civilization continues on its present course:
I really tried to like Ron Paul, I really did. Despite my best efforts, and after much deliberation, the attempt must be declared a failure.
Part of the reason is purely subjective. The man gives me the creeps. The immediacy of it reminds me of my reaction to Obama, who also caused a gut feeling of revulsion the first time I laid eyes upon his likeness. Obama radiates the personality of a thug and a charlatan; Paul, in contrast, resembles a cartoon character, a cross between Casper the Friendly Ghost and Elmer Fudd. Oh, and that voice, that constant whining. It is not endearing. Read the rest of this entry
NASA’s closure of the space shuttle program, along with other changes at the agency, prompted me to speculate as to the character of the Apollo 11 moon landing of 1969, were it to take place today.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is Chris Matthews of MSNBC, broadcasting live from Mission Control in Houston. It’s truly amazing, like wow, incredible, what a thrill, totally awesome to be here in this room with all these unbelievably cool men and women who are making this possible. Read the rest of this entry
I highly recommend delving into the ideas of Australian philosopher David Stove (1927-1994). For me, reading Against the Idols of the Age, an anthology of his work, was a good decision. I received inspiration, not because the book reassured me, as in “don’t worry, everything will work out just fine.” On the contrary, it paints a grim picture of the state of Western intellectual life. Rather, I was inspired because Stove lays bare many of the absurdities—the “idols” of the book’s title—that today pass for sacred, unassailable maxims. He shows that one can unravel the knot of politically correct dogma in which we are entwined, and do it in a clear, commonsense way. Think of it as a housecleaning for the brain, sweeping away cobwebs in various unlikely places. Read the rest of this entry
Here are some of the headlines we’ll be seeing in the year 2020 if our civilization continues on its present course:
One of the more astute contemporary observers of Western decline is the French writer Alain Finkielkraut. In his 1987 book La Défaite de la Pensée (The Defeat of the Mind), he traces the lineage of the multiculturalist disease, which, he argues, has provided much of the impetus for a widespread abandonment of the intellect throughout the Western world. This stance, and subsequent tracts in the same vein, have earned him near-pariah status among most of the “intellectuals” of Western Europe. Read the rest of this entry
Aug 5
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A few days ago, someone asked me whether any of the Republican presidential contenders could lead the country to salvation. My answer was an immediate and unequivocal no. This is not to disparage any of the contenders, who in normal times might very well be capable of steering the ship of state. But we now [...]
[Note: For background information, see the preface to this post.]
We find Michelle and Barack in the Oval Office one evening. Barack is seated at the presidential desk, smoking a cigarette, perusing some documents. Michelle is curled up in a massive red-leather armchair, reading People magazine. She holds up a page so that her husband can see it. Read the rest of this entry
I would like to present to you a secret interview that I conducted with Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve and a key player in the design and implementation of the Obama Administration’s economic policy. His remarks were supposed to be off the record, but I feel that the current debt crisis justifies immediate publication of the transcript.
I met with Mr. Bernanke in the basement of the Fed’s headquarters, where the Chairman was busy inspecting a new printing press. Read the rest of this entry
Here are some of the headlines we’ll be seeing in the year 2020 if our civilization continues on its present course:
[Note: This is the screenplay for an episode of a new TV series, Michelle Knows Best. Join us for the zany adventures of Michelle, Barack, and the girls as the Obamas come rolling into town.
The premise is admittedly far-fetched, but just play along for a moment: Imagine what outrageous farce and knee-slapping comedy would result if one day a neo-Marxist community organizer from the Chicago political machine, of obscure national and religious background, along with his anti-American lawyer wife, woke up one morning and found himself in the White House!!
So sit back and settle in for this post-modern blend of The Jeffersons, The Beverly Hillbillies, and Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Guaranteed to please.] Read the rest of this entry
When it comes to the contemporary study of Western decline, there is hardly a tome that compares with Allan Bloom’s tour de force, The Closing of the American Mind. Writing in the mid 1980s, he skillfully unravels the knot of factors that have contributed to the current malaise. Nothing escapes his scalpel: feminism, narcissism, affirmative action, cultural relativism, and the collapse of academia are all sliced and diced, exposed in their entire historical and ideological depth. Read the rest of this entry
Last week I went to the cinema to see Woody Allen’s new film, Midnight in Paris. I rarely watch a contemporary movie, but I was dragged there by a couple of friends, who baited me with the revelation that the main character was a writer in Paris. Having spent six years in the city, I could hardly pass up the invitation. Read the rest of this entry
An important thinker worthy of our consideration is the French statesman and economist Frederic Bastiat (1801-1850). Perhaps his most important work was The Law. Published in the year of his death, it is a concise formulation of the case for classic liberalism (of the Adam Smith variety), and a stern warning against the dark clouds of socialism that were descending upon Europe, particularly after the great upheavals of 1848. Read the rest of this entry
Here are some of the headlines we’ll be seeing in the year 2020 if our civilization continues on its present course:
Along the underbelly of the Multiculturalist monster is one particularly slimy patch that is a bit embarrassing to us, the advocates of civilization. I am speaking of the fact that Multiculturalism is the progeny of Western culture. The pernicious belief that all art, music, literature, and philosophy have equal value is impossible—nay, unthinkable—outside the context of Western society. Read the rest of this entry
We are all struggling, each in his own way, to make sense of the dire straits in which the nation finds itself. Perhaps, like myself, you are stretching your mind to find answers wherever they may be found.
In this vein, I recall the trip that I took to Washington, DC a while back. One aspect of the city that impressed me was the heavy classical-revival element in the architecture of the older government buildings. The Treasury, for example, would not have looked out of place in the Athens of Plato. Read the rest of this entry
Jun 7
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Greece is teetering on the brink of sovereign default. Also present in the financial-collapse waiting room are Ireland, Spain, and Portugal, with Italy lurking in the wings. The Euro is probably doomed; its abandonment would throw into disarray the grand sociopolitical experiment known as the European Union, of which the currency is a major building [...]
Did you ever wonder what it will be like to shop in a supermarket in the year 2020? How this experience will change if the Nanny State goes completely out of control? Following is my rendition of a typical scene at the cash register. Read the rest of this entry
In my last post, I reviewed a short book edited by Robert Bork that describes the Supreme Court’s attack on the Constitution and the rule of law. Now I would like to expand the discussion and consider a much broader work by the same author: A Time to Speak: Selected Writings and Arguments (2008). Read the rest of this entry
May 27
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Of all the manifold aspects of cultural decay, one of the most difficult to recognize is the corruption of constitutional law. When one thinks of the Supreme Court, or even of the judiciary overall, the image that comes to mind is a procession of old, graying men in black robes, blowing their noses into crusty [...]
[Note: This is the screenplay for an episode of a new TV series, Michelle Knows Best. Join us for the zany adventures of Michelle, Barack, and the girls as the Obamas come rolling into town.
The premise is admittedly far-fetched, but just play along for a moment: Imagine what outrageous farce and knee-slapping comedy would result if one day a neo-Marxist community organizer from the Chicago political machine, of obscure national and religious background, along with his anti-American lawyer wife, woke up one morning and found himself in the White House!!
Read the rest of this entry
May 22
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The current sociopolitical divide in the United States has attained an alarmingly high degree of bipolarity. This stark landscape confronts us in every human contact, every news report, and every visible aspect of the social environment. For any given individual, a simple question suffices: Is he under the spell of the dominant collectivist ideology, or [...]
[Note: This is the screenplay for an episode of a new TV series, Michelle Knows Best. Join us for the zany adventures of Michelle, Barack, and the girls as the Obamas come rolling into town.
The premise is admittedly far-fetched, but just play along for a moment: Imagine what outrageous farce and knee-slapping comedy would result if one day a neo-Marxist community organizer from the Chicago political machine, of obscure national and religious background, along with his anti-American lawyer wife, woke up one morning and found himself in the White House!!
So sit back and settle in for this post-modern blend of The Jeffersons, The Beverly Hillbillies, and Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Guaranteed to please.]
Today we join Barack and Michelle in a secret chamber located in the sub-basement of the White House. This is the chosen venue for a meeting with the noted Muslim cleric, Imam Abdul al-Feisty ibn-Arabiyya of Libya. The Imam is traveling across North America on a fundraising tour for the Libyan rebels. Read the rest of this entry
Here are some of the headlines we’ll be seeing in the year 2020 if our civilization continues on its present course:
The Sage
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