David P. Goldman

Bearing public witness isn’t Jewish custom. We confess our collective sins corporately on the Day of Atonement. But an editorship at First Things is not a seat on a Wall Street trading floor, or a teaching gig at a conservatory of music; it is a position of public trust, and I owed the . . . . Continue Reading »

If the New York Times shuts down, at least I won’t have to respond to mind-numbing items like David Brooks’ April 30 peroration, “Genius: the modern view.” Aldous Huxley’s wife Laura infamously said that her husband looked like a stupid man’s idea of what a clever . . . . Continue Reading »

Rod Dreher over at BeliefNet has a weather eye for religious oddities, and yesterday posted a note about an evangelical missionary to the Amazon jungle who lost his faith after getting to know a tribe that saw the world in a radically different way:[Dan] Everett spent decades living with the Piraha . . . . Continue Reading »

Ali Allawi’s book on the crisis of Islamic civilization received more attention than most recent volumes on the subject, including a brief note in the London Economist April 16. I reviewed it in a “Spengler” essay this morning in Asia Times. It is a very good book, in the sense . . . . Continue Reading »

Jack Kemp passed away this weekend, of cancer at age seventy-three. Former vice-presidential candidate, congressman, and Housing secretary, he was the most improbable and the most important hero of the Reagan Revolution after the Gipper himself. Without Jack’s true-believer’s passion for . . . . Continue Reading »

Over at the Asia Times “Spengler” Forum, a reader posts this gem from today’s Daily Telegraph: The EU’s working age population will peak next year before tipping into decline for half a centuryThis will cause a relentless rise in pension and health costs that risk . . . . Continue Reading »

Samir Khalid Samir, S.J. has devoted half a century to Islamic studies, and the English translation of his 2002 interview book on Islam is a welcome reminder that the subject of Islam can elicit more than shrillness. As an introduction to the subject and as an antidote to anodyne apologies, 111 . . . . Continue Reading »

Washington, April 29 — Sen. Arlen Spector of Pennsylvania today announced that he will change gender, in addition to changing his party affiliation from Democratic to Republican.“Our polls indicate that Democratic voters in Pennsylvania thought they were voting for an ‘Arlene . . . . Continue Reading »

In today’s daily article for the On the Square blog I review the good news and bad news about Israel on the 61st anniversary of its independence.  I also offer an unashamed plug for one of my favorite publications in the world, the quarterly review Azure  from whose next issue I . . . . Continue Reading »

Israel’s Independence Day, the 5th of Iyar according to the Jewish calendar, falls on April 29th this year. This is always an occasion to reflect on Israel’s prospects, and, as always, there is good news and bad news.Earlier this week the head of the Palestinian Authority, Muhammed Abbas, . . . . Continue Reading »