Fencing Bear at Prayer

It is surely one of life's more precious little ironies that the only time (thus far, at least) I have featured in an article over at the National Review was some ten years ago when I was being accused (by Stanley Kurtz , no less) of complicity in the "gutting" of our History of Western Civilization core sequence at the University of Chicago.  Glancing over the article now, I well remember my blood pressure going through the roof when I read how I had been the one caught out in lying about the purpose of our changing the title of the sequence from "Western" to "European" so that I and my colleagues could "teach to [our] personal [specialties]," particularly given that the only reason I was serving as chair of the sequence in the first place was because I believed in teaching the history of Western civilization, not just courses in my field.  Because, you see, and on this I am rock-solid, I believe in Western civilization, and not just as ...

Our current First Lady remembers the time when she first felt proud of her country .  I remember the time when I first felt ashamed. It was my first term as a graduate student, when I was studying abroad in England.  I had made friends with some of the senior graduate students, and we were at their house, putting coals on the fire in the fireplace (I remember this vividly; it was the first time that I had seen a coal fire).  Something came on over the radio about the newly breaking scandal : certain Americans high up in the Reagan administration had been caught selling arms in exchange for hostages in Iran and then sending the money to Nicaragua in aid of the anti-Communist Contras.  My friends erupted in disgust and smug criticism.  One was English, one was Canadian, the third was American, but all were united in their conviction that America was evil and Americans even worse.  The scandal (as they saw it) confirmed all of their worst suspicions about wh...

From the Foreword to her Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right (New York: Three Rivers Press, 2002), by Rush Limbaugh, reviewing the reception of Coulter's book in the liberal media : Over on MSNBC, the soon-to-be-canceled Phil Donahue also displayed the left's terrific sense of humor.  In Slander , Coulter writes, "Even Islamic terrorists don't hate America like liberals do.  If they had that much energy, they'd have indoor plumbing by now."  Donahue incisively summarized Coulter's point for his audience by saying, "If a liberal has indoor plumbing, he's a hypocrite." Donahue's interview took a nasty turn when--in utter seriousness--he asked Coulter to respond to the accusation that she was an anti-Semite. DONAHUE: Let me just tell you.  He accuses you, among other things, of being an anti-Semite. COULTER: Maybe that will help me with the Muslims. DONAHUE:  He says that you left New York because you wanted to get away...

For those of you worried about what outing myself as a conservative means about my politics, let's start with my position on race relations: Republicans passed the Thirteenth Amendment, ending slavery, with 80 percent of Democrats voting against it. Republicans enacted the Fourteenth Amendment, granting freed slaves the rights of citizenship--unanimously supported by Republicans and unanimously opposed by Democrats. Republicans passed the Fifteenth Amendment, giving freedmen the right to vote. Republicans passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866, conferring U.S. citizenship on all African Americans and according them "full and equal benefit of all laws"--unanimously supported by Republicans, who had to override Democrat President Andrew Johnson's veto. Republicans passed the Reconstruction Act of 1867. Republicans sent federal troops to the Democratic South to enforce the constitutional rights of the newly freed slaves. Republicans were the first targets of ...