In a 1993 foreword to his classic, The Spy Who Came In From the Cold (1963), Le Carree, who, in his role as an agent for the Secret Intelligence Service was stationed in Berlin when the Wall went up, declared it a symbol of “an ideology gone mad,” guarded by “brainwashed little thugs.” For those
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When Richard Condon, a former publicist for Walt Disney, sought a theme to unsettle late 50s America, arguably the calmest period of the Cold War, he didn’t resort to nuclear war. Instead, he backtracked to the early 1950s, when every headline showed the exposure of one more Soviet Spy in the halls of power. This
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Even in 1954, it took quite a bit of courage to write a book supporting Senator Joe McCarthy’s investigations into communist infiltration of the American government. Although the common people (later called the “silent majority”) supported him, the intellectual class did not. Dwight MacDonald called him “the most dangerous demogague” in the United States. Former
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An oft-repeated phrase by liberal anticommunists about Joseph McCarthy, that he may as well have been a KGB agent for all the damage he did to the anticommunist cause, inspired Richard Condon to write his Cold War masterpiece, The Manchurian Candidate, a tale of a Soviet sleeper agent directing her brainless headline-grabbing senator husband to
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There has been a great deal of attention during the recently-concluded election cycle about the supposed racism of President-elect Donald Trump. The talk of a southern border wall and making Mexico pay for it, rapists and murderers trickling in from Mexico, and a Muslim ban have been huge contributing stories this cycle. It was for
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The world is a better place now that former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro has died. One more dirty commie has been physically removed from the earth, so to speak. Unfortunately for the world, communism is still lurking and waiting for yet another chance to strike the evil capitalist pigs (such as libertarians) of the world
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People on the Internet have lost all but one of their collective screws this past week. Again. As President-elect Donald Trump met with Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach — a potential pick for the head Department of Homeland Security — the Internet lit up with the leaked contents of their meeting, triggering another round of
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When mentioned today, Whittaker Chambers is known solely for his testimony outing former State Department Official Alger Hiss as a Soviet spy. Because this occurred during, arguably the height of the Cold War, 1948-1950, Chambers seems a dated figure, having little to tell us in an era where the enemy is not situated in one
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When I was a graduate student at a New York university, Thomas Jefferson was detested by the faculty, while his bête noire Alexander Hamilton was not. Given their animus to anything Southern, and their heresy hunts for “racism,” I was not surprised. As expected, his slave-holding was a target. But what really rankled “conservative” professors
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It is said there are no atheists in foxholes. In the case of literary critic and bloodied World War II vet Paul Fussell, the politically correct don’t inhabit the trenches, either. For him, a lifelong skepticism and refusal of sloganeering was born the moment he, a 20 year old infantry soldier, engaged in combat and
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On a mid-80s visit to East Germany via West Germany, conservative humorist P.J O’Rourke was disappointed when he passed through the infamous Checkpoint Charlie for its lack of noir. What he got instead was bored frisking and robotic stares. Walking around East Berlin didn’t fulfill his expectations either. Instead of wind-swept newspapers, dark alleys (where
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When Historian John Patrick Diggins informed his role model, Arthur Schlesinger Jr, that he was undertaking a book on Ronald Reagan, Schlesinger asked him not to make the President “look good.” This quote perfectly encapsulates why the Left and the Right have regarded Schlesinger Jr as a knee-jerk liberal (a “Kennedy suck-up”–more on this later–as
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Anthony Burgess, Cambridge graduate, talks producer at the BBC, MI-6 agent, and a Soviet mole code-named Madchen, has always been considered the prat-falling member of the Cambridge 5 (composed of Diplomat Donald McLean, Head of the anti-Soviet division of British Intelligence Kim Philby, art advisor to the Queen Anthony Blunt and John Cairncross). Unlike the
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The myth of the 1950s as a simpler, sweeter, more stable time as compared to the turbulent 1960s, began during the turbulent 1960s with Nixon’s “Silent Majority.” Such was the appetite from mainstream America for this era’s zeitgeist that television producer Gary Marshall launched Happy Days in 1974, a conflict-free, patriotic comedy series whose sole
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It’s actually happening. The presidential administration of Donald Trump is taking form a week after the controversial businessman shocked the world with his stunning upset. Republican National Committee chair Reince Priebus was hired to be White House Chief of Staff after days of speculation, and then another shock announcement was made. Steve Bannon, the executive
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If we were to compare the Presidency as originally designed at ratification and what has become of the Presidency overtime, there would be two conflicting images presented. In the case of the former, an executive with limited powers was created. The President would be responsible for ensuring the law is executed, being commander-in-chief of the military,
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Freedom is never free. This Veterans Day, I decided to watch Hacksaw Ridge. This movie is about a Seventh Day Adventist who believes that it is not right to kill. His commanding officers at boot camp pulled every trick in the book to try to get him to quit. Even though Doss was faced with
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On January 20, 2017, Donald Trump will be sworn in as the 45th president of the United States. During this campaign, there have been plenty of hurt feelings and bitter resentment over Trump being the Republican nominee. Trump not only had to defeat the Democratic party, but he also had to beat the established ways
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Parents who plan on refinancing their homes in order to send their children off to college should instead consider encouraging them to specialize in a trade. Speaking as a Ph.D. in philosophy who has spent the last 17 years teaching at the college level, I’m perhaps the last person from whom advice of this sort
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“Paul Ryan” are “fightin’ words” to nationalist patriots like myself and others on the Trump Train. Ryan will be DOA should he put his hat in the ring in the 2020 GOP primaries. We nationalist patriots simply are too numerous within the ranks of GOP primary and caucus voters. The globalists (open borders, free trade,
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October 29, 312 – To the victor goes the spoils, but even the victor lives and dies by the ideas he brings with him. Roman General Constantine, then claimant to the imperial throne of Rome and all her glory, paraded into the eternal city at the head of his victorious legions. Constantine, who is known
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Months before President George W. Bush’s speech on September 11, 2002, the New York Times reported at the time, White House officials confirmed the Bush administration had already been “[planning its Iraq strategy] long before President Bush’s vacation in Texas” in August of that same year. The strategy was to persuade the public and Congress
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Kingdom of Kent, Saxon England, 932 – Newly anointed King Arthur tours his realm seeking knights for the round table at Camelot. He bore with him the decree of none other than God Himself, ordained by Heaven to rule the Angles and Saxons. Alas, for yon head-choppy days of yore were dark times for God’s
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October 24, 1945 – The United Nations is founded in San Francisco as a very well-intentioned check against the excesses of failed states and colonial imperialism. The Weimar Republic, left to its own devices, had swept Hitler’s Nazi Party into power with a mere quarter of the popular vote. The fanatical regime of Premier Tojo
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It’s a cliche in our day and age. Whenever a grassroots movement or talking head in the Grand Old Party talks about nominating a presidential candidate to the right of the center, the same thing happens. The high-dollar consultants, State Central Committee chairs, and Capitol Hill staffers pull the ancient reference from their file cabinets,
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October 22, 1836 – Freedom isn’t free, but sometimes it is more costly to live for than to die for. Deep in the hill country of south Texas, Col. William Barret Travis and 181 of his fellow patriots hunkered down in a crumbling adobe church and fended off over a thousand professional soldiers under the
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October 21, 1805 – The social order of the western world hung in the balance. Britannia’s mighty empire hailed its heritage of Magna Carta, Parliamentary rule, and “God and my right” in the face of a revolutionary invader. The war coffers of her far-flung realms were strained to the breaking point by the horrors of
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The 1760’s called, they want their economic policy back. Am I the only one who’s a little tired of both major party platforms scraping the bottom of the barrel for economic theories that’ve been disproven since before we were born? I’m a libertarian. A deep, cynical, state-is-obsolete libertarian who finds his views overlapping heavily with
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I actually look forward to seeing #NeverTrumpers eat crow on Election Night. As you may know, I have had my moments of doubt aboard the Trump Train; and at one weak moment, I even started to leave the First Class Car for the Caboose. I can assure you, by the way, that at that time
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Venezuela’s current political crisis has drawn much attention worldwide. The shortages, increasing violence, skyrocketing inflation, and the increasing militarization of its economy are all fixtures of Venezuela’s current national disaster. Opposition movements have naturally arisen in response to Venezuela’s squalid state, with the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) leading the charge against the current ruling class. Despite the
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229 years, one of the most important documents in world history was enacted. While the Declaration of Independence is what gave birth to this nation, it is the United States Constitution that provided the foundation which enabled this fledgling nation to grow into the world power that we enjoy today. The Declaration of Independence espoused
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