F.A. Hayek opens chapter seven of The Fatal Conceit by quoting Confucius: "When words lose their meaning people will lose their liberty." The chapter's aim, explains the author, is "to expose some of the poison concealed in our language."

Flattered, Hayek notes how socialists--enemies of liberalism, i.e. freedom--have appropriated the name "liberal" for their illiberal purposes. But the weasel word upon which the Austrian fixates is the modifier "social," which in its most extreme uses "wholly destroys the meaning of any word it qualifies." Hayek then presents the reader with a few examples--more than 160 of them, in fact--of what he's referring to: social action, social democracy, social responsibility, social revolution, social justice, etc.

Why is the adjective "social" so pernicious? "First, it tends pervertedly to insinuate a notion that we have seen from previous chapters to be misconceived--namely, that what has been brought about by the impersonal and spontaneous process of the extended order is actually the result of deliberate human creation. Second, following from this, it appeals to men to redesign what they never could have designed at all. And third, it also has acquired the power to empty nouns it qualifies of their meaning."

What are the most Orwellian words in use in political discourse? After reading Hayek's complaints, will you think twice about using "social" in the manner described above? Is it worth arguing over semantics? When we lose words, can we ever get them back?

Irving Kristol could famously muster but "two cheers for capitalism." Russell Kirk praised private property and freedom and condemned economic levelling and state meddlers, but saw socialism and capitalism as "two sides of a coin." But in F.A. Hayek we find a man of the Right who defends capitalism as aggressively as Marx attacks it. "If we ask what men most owe to the moral practices of those who are called capitalists," Hayek asserts in The Fatal Conceit, "the answer is: their very lives." (p. 130)

Rather than damning the poor, the free market, according to Hayek, alleviates the suffering of the poor. The Fatal Conceit holds: "Capitalism created the possibility of employment. It created the conditions wherein people who have not been endowed by their parents with the tools and land needed to maintain themselves and their offspring could be so equipped by others, to their mutual benefit. For the process enabled people to live poorly, and to have children, who otherwise, without the opportunity for productive work, could hardly even have grown to maturity and multiplied: it brought into being and kept millions alive who otherwise would not have lived at all and who, if they had lived for a time, could not have afforded to procreate. In this way the poor benefited more from the process. Karl Marx was thus right to claim that 'capitalism' created the proletariat: it gave and gives them life." (pp. 123-124)

Regarding capitalism, Marx doth protest too much. But does Hayek protest too little? Does the tempered enthusiasm of Kirk and Kristol hit the mark? Or is Hayek's unabashed celebration of capitalism in The Fatal Conceit about right?

The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism by Friedrich Hayek defines "the fatal conceit" as man's mistaken belief that he "is able to shape the world around him according to his wishes." (p. 27) Thus, man seeks to order the affairs of other men to attain certain goals--prosperity, equality, community, dignity, etc. Paradoxically, the more rooted these social engineering schemes become in a society, the further these societies find themselves from the stated aims of the social engineers.

Those suffering from the fatal conceit, Hayek informs, disproportionately people the ranks of the intelligentsia. "The higher we climb up the ladder of intelligence, the more we talk with intellectuals, the more likely we are to encounter socialist convictions. Rationalists tend to be intelligent and intellectual; and intelligent intellectuals tend to be socialists." But why? The Fatal Conceit provides a partial explanation: "One's initial surprise at finding that intelligent people tend to be socialists diminishes when one realises that, of course, intelligent people will tend to overvalue intelligence." (p. 53)

In Intellectual Morons: How Ideology Makes Smart People Fall for Stupid Ideas, I offer some thoughts on this subject. Intellectuals cling to ideas that fail in practice because the worship of the idea--the ideology--blinds them to reality. Ideology thus serves as a de facto religion for the people who view themselves as too smart for traditional religion. Because the aims of the ideologist are so lofty, the means to acheive them become so vile ("So what if some Ukranians starve," the Communist intellectual might say, "when we're on the road to creating Heaven on Earth?"). Everything from poor results to murder are thus excused. But it is arrogance rather than intelligence (though the arrogance often stems from the inflated ego of the superintellect) that misguides smart people to believe that they can order the affairs of millions of people or devise a theory that explains all of human history.

Do you agree with Hayek's assertion that intelligent people disproportionately fall for socialism and other social engineering schemes? Do you agree with Hayek that smart people reject the unordered development of institutions in favor of the rational construction of them because of their faith in reason? I've offered a few ideas above on why smart people are enamored with social engineering. What are yours?

Less than a week after a 5-4 Supreme Court majority ruled that private land can be seized for other private pursuits, a developer has petitioned the town of Weare, New Hampshire to build a hotel at 34 Cilley Hill Road. Currently residing at 34 Cilley Hill Road is David Souter, associate justice of the United States Supreme Court. If only some other patriotic developer would petition the Washington, DC city council to build a strip mall at 1 First Street, Northeast, he would at once be providing relief to the cash-strapped DC government and performing a tremendous service for the entire nation.

In 1996, historians classified Ronald Reagan as a "low average" president, listing the 40th commander in chief in the bottom half of their rankings. Americans disagree. Millions of Americans participated in the Discovery Channel's Greatest American program, selecting Ronald Reagan for the honor over Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, George Washington, and Benjamin Franklin. Clearly, there is a difference of opinion between those writing the history books and those reading the history books.

"[N]o man or group of men possesses the capacity to determine conclusively the potentialities of other human beings and...we should certainly never trust anyone invariably to exercise such a capacity," Friedrich Hayek wrote in 1960's Constitution of Liberty. This skepticism of man's ability to order the affairs of other men would be later echoed in Hayek's last book, The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism, which is the subject of the first FlynnFiles book discussion, to begin tomorrow and end Friday.

Influenced by such towering thinkers as Adam Smith, Edmund Burke, and David Hume, and contemporaries Ludwig Mises and Karl Popper, Friedrich Hayek projected his influence on conservatives the globe over. Along with Russell Kirk's Conservative Mind and Whittaker Chambers' Witness, Hayek's 1944 title, The Road To Serfdom, would become one of the seminal texts of the postwar conservative intellectual movement, but not before getting rejected by three publishing houses in America and receiving a paltry initial press run of 2,000 by the University of Chicago. To the rescue came some key positive reviews, and a condensed version published in Reader's Digest, both of which propelled the book to sell more than 250,000 copies and earn translation in nearly two dozen languages. As events discredited the overtly brutal socialisms of Germany and Russia, the Austrian emigre Hayek discredited the seemingly benign socialisms of the "civilized" West. His message was as clear as it was controversial: "democratic" socialism is an oxymoron that erodes freedom. The book's readers included a young Margaret Thatcher and a politician from Arizona named Barry Goldwater. Its popularity stemmed from simplifying concepts often made complicated: "[I]n the world as it is men are, in fact, not likely to give their best for long periods unless their own interests are directly involved."

Ironically, the man who penned one of the most important books of the postwar conservative intellectual movement ran from the "conservative" label. Liberals ran from him. In 1974, Hayek shared the Nobel Prize for economics with socialist Gunnar Myrdal, who allegedly gave Hayek the silent treatment at the award ceremony and later cracked that he would never have accepted had he known with whom he would be sharing the prize. But Hayek got the last laugh. Departing this world in 1992, he not only lived long enough to outlast the twin evils of our age, Soviet and National Socialism, but to see his ideas in ascendance too.

Today, the Supreme Court recognized the right to display the Ten Commandments on public land, but barred the Decalogue within court houses...usually. In what was perhaps a microcosm of things to come, Justice Kennedy earlier in this term ruled to outlaw executions of juvenile offenders while he upheld the constitutionality of juvenile executions in 1988. Like Kennedy, the Supreme Court, in today's conflicting decisions and in its recent dualing decisions on racial preferences in higher education, wants things both ways. The law should be anything but arbitrary.

The House of Representatives voted to amend the Constitution. In particular, it's the First Amendment congressmen find wanting. The third clause within the first sentence of the Bill of Rights, the one that prevents Congress from "abridging the freedom of speech," forbids the same legislators who voted for this Constitutional amendment from passing a general law outlawing flag-burning. Thus, various politicians, with motives as pure as Detroit snow, have pushed this amendment empowering Congress to make flag desecration a federal offense. Flag burning is offensive, but not as offensive as this amendment.

Without freedom, there is no virtue. Charity, a virtuous untertaking, presupposes free will. When Robin Hood points his arrow at you and you hand over your wallet, neither Robin Hood nor you has acted generously. Your act was compelled; Robin Hood's subsequent transfer of your lucre to the poor came at no financial sacrifice to him. The morality of governments taking your money to give to other governments is something akin to all this, only it's far worse. Robin Hood, after all, didn't distribute his plunder to the corrupt Sheriff of Nottingham or the tyrannical Prince John.

For the reasons above, there is nothing particularly noble in Live 8's call for increased aid to African governments. For another reason, there's nothing particularly effective in such socialist wealth transfers. This weekend's news of Nigeria's rulers stealing hundreds of billions from their nation's coffers demonstrates this.

Many legitimate charities help in the fight against AIDS, poverty, malaria, polluted water, and other diverse maladies that still afflict the Dark Continent. Your government is not one of these charities.

Last call for January's comments. Despite closing most of the archives to comments, spammers inundate the site with close to 1,000 junk comments a week. This makes it necessary to close comments. Worth revisiting in January include posts on George W. Bush's second inauguration and those protesting it, the Iraqi elections, stingy Europeans calling Americans stingy, the Armstrong Williams-Bush Administration payola scandal, and the U.S. government calling off the search for the Holy Grail, eh, I mean WMDs in Iraq. Speak your peace before you can't speak no more.

Tom Cruise knows Xenu. Katie Holmes likely does not.

In his tit-for-tat with Today Show host Matt Lauer, an awkward Tom Cruise made a number of sensible points--arrived at in part through Scientology--regarding the overmedication of America and the modern fetish for psychiatric therapy. While Cruise was quick to highlight these aspects of his belief system, he failed to mention Xenu, who plays a large role in the upper-level teachings of Scientology. Who is Xenu? Read this short pamphlet, which I first came across in a Harvard Square record store fifteen years ago, that details a side of Scientology that strikes normal people as really peculiar.

All religions contain teachings that weird-out non-believers. Where Scientologists differ is that they try hard to obscure some of their stranger beliefs. Tom, believe anything you want, but c'mon: let your freak flag fly.

When former President Bill Clinton invoked slavery and mistreatment of Indians after 9/11, and said that Americans of European lineage were "not blameless," no prominent Democrat condemned his remarks. When Congressmen David Bonior and Jim McDermott visited Baghdad in the lead-up to the Iraq war, leading Democrats kept any outrage to themselves. When presidential candidate Howard Dean called for a fair trial for Osama bin Laden, Democrats considered the former Vermont governor their frontrunner. When Senator Dick Durbin compared U.S. interrogators at Guantanamo Bay to Nazis and Communists, the Democratic leadership stayed mum. But when Karl Rove described liberals as limp-wristed in their response to 9/11, Senators Harry Reid, John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, and other leading Democrats finally found the outrage that had eluded them in the past. Does not the very vocal offense taken by Democrats to Rove's observation, and their muteness in response to the recklessness of Dean, Durbin, and McDermott, prove Rove's point?

CNN has cancelled The Capital Gang. The last episode airs Saturday night, and that's a shame. Though news channels flood the airwaves, real news, and even discussions about real news, is harder to find. The typical public affairs program has increasingly become a cross between the E Channel and Reader's Digest, mixing trash-TV with human interest stories. Are people getting dumber or is television making them dumber? What came first, the chicken or the egg?

The Fifth Amendment says that you can't be "deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation." Section eight of the Connecticut Constitution says the same thing. The five most liberal members of the Supreme Court disagree, and ruled today that governments can take private property and transfer it to other private parties. The case pitted residents of New London, Connecticut against their city and the development corporations who coveted their property.

"Any property may now be taken for the benefit of another private party, but the fallout from this decision will not be random," Justice Sandra Day O'Connor warned in dissent. "The beneficiaries are likely to be those citizens with disproportionate influence and power in the political process, including large corporations and development firms. As for the victims, the government now has license to transfer property from those with fewer resources to those with more. The Founders cannot have intended this perverse result. '[T]hat alone is a just government,' wrote James Madison, 'which impartially secures to every man, whatever is his own.'"

President Bush is a big-government liberal. Here's exhibit A.

Noel Gallagher of Oasis thinks the concept behind Live 8 is foolish. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but are they hoping that one of these guys from the G8 is on a quick 15 minute break at Gleneagles (in Scotland) and sees Annie Lennox singing Sweet Dreams and thinks, 'F--- me, she might have a point there, you know?'" quipped the pugnacious guitarist. "It's not going to happen, is it?" I hope not, Noel. Even if the food rotted on Ethiopian docks, the event propped up socialist regimes, and routed charity to corrupt officials, at least the spirit behind 1985's Live Aid was humanitarian enough. No one forced anyone to give anything. Live 8, on the other hand, seeks to persuade our government, and the other member states of the G8, to absolve the debts of Third World governments and compel citizens in G8 nations to make involuntary contributions to these often corrupt and socialistic governments via foreign aid. Bob Geldof is as cavalier with other people's money as he was with that bathroom mirror in The Wall. Next time he would do better to pass the hat to his rich friends than to play stick-up man to the rest of us.

Pat Buchanan remarked last month that the "conservative movement had passed into history." John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge, authors of The Right Nation, respond by telling conservatives to cheer up. If Republican were synonymous with conservative, Micklethwait and Wooldridge's Wall Street Journal article would have a strong point. But since the ascendancy of the Republicans has resulted in bigger government, nation-building, government control of political speech through campaign finance reform, lax border enforcement, nationalization of airport security, and the creation of a massive new cabinet department, it's tough for principled conservatives to express much enthusiasm for the current state of affairs.

"Fixate on a snapshot of recent events and pessimism makes sense," the British duo write. "Stand back and look at the grand sweep of things and the darkness soon lifts. There are two questions that really matter in assessing the current state of conservatism: What direction is America moving in? And how does the United States compare with the rest of the world? The answer to both questions should encourage the right."

Micklethwait and Wooldridge point to Republican control of political institutions, the growing power of religious faiths of a more traditional bent, that Bush's enthusiasm for big government serves conservative ends, and the dearth of ideas among the Democrats. "So cheer up conservatives," the Journal piece counsels. "You have the country's most powerful political party on your side. You have control of the market for political ideas. You have the American dream. And, despite your bout of triste post coitum, you are still outbreeding your rivals. That counts for more than the odd setback in the Senate." Perhaps it is because I'm an American conservative that I see things differently from these European liberals.

Spin Magazine has released its list of the 20 best albums of the last 20 years. Tops are Radiohead's OK Computer, Public Enemy's It Takes a Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back, and Nirvana's Nevermind. Coincidentally, FlynnFiles has also--just this very moment--released its own list of the best albums of the last 20 years. The FlynnFiles list lords over the Spin list. Bow to FlynnFiles, Spin. I invite readers to buy the albums on my list through the links, and to create their own lists in the comments section. Here is my list, with a few words on each selection (I reserve the right to alter my list for any reason at any time.).

20. Ryan Adams Rock n Roll
Confuse with Brian Adams at own risk.
19. Tom Petty Full Moon Fever
TP's first solo effort holds up well over time.
18. Paul Simon Graceland
Comeback album replaces Garfunkel with tribal drums and African singers.
17. Nirvana Nevermind
Killed metal, made it uncool for rock stars to be rock stars, and launched a style of music, not all of it good.
16. Radiohead The Bends
This one came out before they lost me with their fascination with robots and machines.
15. The Travelling Wilburys Vol. 1
Charles Truscott Wilbury, Sr. spawned some talented progeny.
14. Wilco Being There
I'm supposed to like Yankee Hotel Foxtrot better. But I don't.
13. Tori Amos Little Earthquakes
Beavis once told Butthead that he feared Tori Amos cutting off his weener. He's not alone.
12. Buffalo Tom Sleepy Eyed
'Sunday Night' rocks like no song rocks. BT is the ultimate garage band.
11. The Lemonheads Come on Feel the Lemonheads
Power pop=fun.
10. Wilco Summerteeth
'Shot in the Arm' is very rock n roll.
9. Pixies Doolittle
Who else sings about space aliens and killing sprees?
8. Dinosaur Jr. Where You Been
J. Mascis sings and plays guitar like he comes from another planet.
7. REM Green
REM ceases to be a college-radio band.
6. U2 Achtung Baby
U2 reinvents itself a second time.
5. Belly King
Awesome drumming.
4. U2 The Joshua Tree
A rock album with two number ones.
3. Buffalo Tom Let Me Come Over
The best album you've never heard.
2. Guns n Roses Appetite for Destruction
If the Incredible Hulk took lots of cocaine and made a rock album, this is what it would sound like.
1. Pete Yorn Musicforthemorningafter
Perfect.

If Terri Schiavo had died on February 25, 1990, instead of March 31, 2005, Michael Schiavo would not be thought of as an adulterer who sued to ensure that his wife died of thirst. Perhaps that is why Michael Schiavo inscribed on his wife's gravestone that she died on February 25, 1990. If Mrs. Schiavo really "departed from this earth" in 1990, this excuses her husband's caddish behavior these past fifteen years. But she didn't die in 1990, no matter what her gravestone says. I would have more respect for Michael Schiavo had he etched a middle finger on his wife's grave. That, after all, is this petty, vindictive man's message to the family of the woman he denied food and water to. If his decade-long list of offenses (ambulance-chasing malpractice lawsuits, denying treatment to his wife, shacking up with another woman, suing to remove Terri's feeding apparatus, shielding the location of his wife's ashes from her family, etc.) doesn't convince you that Michael Schiavo is an egotistical jerk, his congratulatory note to himself on his wife's grave--"I kept my promise"--certainly does. Just as in her marriage, on Terri Schiavo's tombstone it's all about her husband.

Almost 60 percent of respondents to a new Gallup poll for CNN/USA Today oppose the war in Iraq, while about 40 percent favor the war. After being sold on a war to prevent weapons of mass destruction from arriving on American soil, punish Saddam Hussein for his role in 9/11, and create democracy in an Arab state, about three-fourths of Americans initially supported the war. After all, if the Iraqis were to greet us with flowers, why not invade their country? Reality was not as promised. No WMD have been found. Iraq had no role in 9/11. The Iraqi regime needs the presence of U.S. troops for its survival. More than $200 billion has been spent on Iraq, 1,724 Americans are dead, and 12,855 are wounded. Big-government schemes rarely work out as advertised. These poll results reflect the American public's belated understanding of this.

It's only natural--in an unnatural way, of course--that the shattering of taboos against promiscuity, adultery, and homosexuality have led to the shattering of other, more taboo taboos. "But not every taboo has crumbled," complains Princeton's Peter Singer in a 2001 article. "Heard anyone chatting at parties lately about how good it is having sex with their dog? Probably not. Sex with animals is still definitely taboo." Apart from the obvious, vomit-inducing reasons, the physical harm that interspecies sex results in should be persuasion enough for a utilitarian such as Singer. But it is not. Acknowledging that sex between men and hen is "cruelty, clear and simple" because of the fatal consequences (FYI: for the hen), Singer mocks society's revulsion of bestiality. Society, thankfully, still reciprocates.

The story of a teenager from South Carolina copulating with his neighbors' dog, resulting in the animal's death from internal bleeding, may give Singer and other weirdos pause in their advocacy of tolerance for animal lovahs. Then again, it might not. If we understand that we are all animals then "sex across the species barrier," contends Singer, "ceases to be an offence to our status and dignity as human beings." Speak for yourself, fruit loop.

The most popular video game of all time, and the second best video game with the words "Pac Man" in its name, turns twenty-five this month. Pac Man launched a Saturday-morning cartoon, an ice-cream bar, a hit song, and numerous sequel games.

What explains Pac Man's popularity? Its simplicity. This puts in it in sharp contrast to many contemporary video games, which defeat the purpose of mindless entertainment by requiring the operators to read Bible-length manuals to play. A child could understand Pac Man, and many did. Some adults, such as Billy Mitchell, understood it better. In 1999, Mitchell played Pac Man's first perfect game. "Billy Mitchell’s first 'perfect' game has made this category of achievement one of the most sought-after accomplishments in the gaming world," explains the editor of the Video Game and Pinball Book of World Records. "Just like Roger Bannister’s four-minute-mile in 1954, a human barrier has been knocked down and others now have the desire to match Billy Mitchell's feat."

Pac Man proves the axiom that it's better to be first than best. Pac Man's better half, Ms. Pac Man, is Pac Man's better half. Its mazes change while Pac Man's maze remains static throughout. Most stages of Ms. Pac Man boast multiple escape chutes. Its bonus fruit moves about, whereas Pac Man's is fixed below the ghost house. And it is generally a more challenging game. Did Billy Mitchell play a perfect game in Ms. Pac Man? Didn't think so.

Though Ms. Pac Man surpasses the greatness of the original, it is only because it stands atop the shoulders of a giant. Happy birthday, Pac Man.

I blog a mile from Cambridge, Massachusetts, where the U.S. Army celebrated its 230th anniversary earlier this week. The Army was born on June 14, 1775 when the Continental Congress recognized the rag-tag force that had gathered in Cambridge to fight the British. A day later, the Continental Congress named George Washington as the force's commander. Not everyone in Cambridge is so happy to see the Army these days. During this week's commemoration ceremony, protestors booed and jeered while 11-year-old David Smith, son of deceased Medal of Honor hero Paul Smith, led the Pledge of Allegiance. Even posters on a local left-wing message board, many of whom attended the event, laid into the classless demonstrators. A man, whose WWII-era-vet grandad missed parts of the ceremony because of the protestors, wrote: "you lost me, and angered me, by shouting over taps and the pledge of allegiance." Another poster commented, "I found it particularly offensive that the vast number of demonstrators s--- all over the soldiers." Me too. For 230 years, the U.S. Army has had some pretty despicable enemies--Nazis, Communists, al Qaeda, disturbed people from Cambridge who boo a kid (whose dad recently got killed) while he says the Pledge of Allegiance. Seriously folks, get another hobby--or some stronger medication.

More Americans died in Iraq in April than in March, in May than in April, and, unfortunately, if the current rate holds, in June than in May. Partly because of this, the president's popularity and support for the Iraq war have both plummetted. According to a CBS News poll a majority of Americans believe we should have stayed out of Iraq, and six in ten believe things are going badly for the U.S. there. Senior officers have begun to concede as much about the nation-building operation. "We can’t kill them all," Lt. Col. Frederick Wellman observed. "When I kill one, I create three." Recruits, despite the lure of bonuses as great as $40,000, remain scarce in the Army and Navy.

The American people are telling their representatives something. Four are listening. Conservatives Ron Paul and Walter Jones and liberals Neil Abercrombie and Dennis Kucinich introduced "Withdrawal of United States Armed Forces From Iraq Resolution of 2005—Homeward Bound" in Congress on Thursday. It proposes U.S. troop reductions to begin in Iraq before October 1, 2006. The resolution calls for the president "at the earliest possible date, to turn over all military operations in Iraq to the elected Government of Iraq and provide for the prompt and orderly withdrawal of all United States Armed Forces from Iraq." Congressman Jones's support of the legislation is a profile in courage. Jones represents a coastal district in conservative North Carolina, teeming with retired veterans and active duty military. He vocally supported the war in 2003, but is now "troubled" by what he finds--or what we didn't find--in Iraq. Is he worried that his stance will alienate him from the Republican leadership or turn off constituencies back home? Jones answered yesterday, "I will never worry doing what's right."

I've started my own animal rights group. It's called People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals by People in People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals--or PETAPPETA for short. I launched PETAPPETA early Friday morning after learning that police in Ahoskie, North Carolina arrested two PETA employees on charges of animal cruelty. The pair allegedly tossed 18 dead dogs and cats in a dumpster. When the cops caught up with them, the duo had 13 dead animals in their van. These animals were alive, officials at two critter shelters claim, when the PETA duo picked them up. The first order of business of PETAPPETA is to decide what action to take against these two PETA culprits. Suggestions have included dumping red paint on them, accosting them with literature comparing chicken farming with the Holocaust, or breaking into their place of work to free all of the animals these speciesist fiends have imprisoned. Our tactics in PETAPPETA may be extreme, but at least no one can accuse us of being hypocrites.

Was the intent of Illinois Senator Richard Durbin to make Americans look bad or Nazis look good?

Earlier this week, Senator Dick Durbin vented on the Senate floor about treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Durbin complained of air conditioners turned up too high, and others not turned on at all (I'm not sure what level the AC was at when Pakistani terrorists beheaded Daniel Pearl.). The guards even blasted rap music. You see, the prisoners at Gitmo are uncomfortable and this makes Dick Durbin angry. You wouldn't like Dick Durbin when he's angry.

After detailing all that, Durbin, perhaps channelling Ward Churchill, remarked: "If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime--Pol Pot or others--that had no concern for human beings." The blogosphere is abuzz. The American Thinker, for instance, asks: "What is Durbin on?" Indeed, no one in their right mind would compare Guantanamo Bay, which houses actual bad guys and has witnessed zero prisoner deaths, to Nazi death camps, Soviet gulags, or the Cambodian prison-state under Pol Pot. But we're not talking about some Berkeley burnout here. The Democratic Whip in the Senate made these statements.

To understand why the Democrats have become mired in their position as the minority party, think of Durbin's foolish remarks in the context of Barbara Lee voting against military action in Afghanistan, Bill Clinton reacting to 9/11 by saying Americans of European backgrounds were "not blameless" because of the crusades, Cynthia McKinney alleging a Bush-9/11 conspiracy, David Bonior and Jim McDermott travelling to Baghdad prior to the war, Howard Dean's call for a fair trial for Osama bin Laden, and Jimmy Carter sharing his box at the Democratic Convention with Michael Moore. That's not a gameplan for majority status--at least not in American politics.

"Were you born to resist/or be abused/I swear I'll never give in/I refuse/Is someone getting the best, the best, the best, the best of you?" If you listen to the FM band, chances are you've had these words screamed in your ears these last few weeks. "The Best of You" by the Foo Fighters is the best song I've heard on the radio in 2005. Based on the strength of this single, I descended upon a local record store on Tuesday to snatch up the new Foo Fighters album before they ran out of copies (Do as I say and not as I do and purchase the album through the FlynnFiles link below rather than at an actual store. I decree it!).

In the spirit of the White Album, Physical Graffiti, and The Wall, the Foo Fighters' latest release, In Your Honor, is a double album. Disc one is just this side of the hard rock/heavy metal divide. It's faster and louder than past Foo Fighter efforts, and is best played on your stereo with the volume turned to eleven. A more laid back Fighters of Foo appear on disc two. Highlights include drummer Taylor Hawkins singing lead on "Cold Day In the Sun" and the band's other, more famous drummer resuming lead on disc two's excellent coda, the hypnotic "Razor." If disc one is for the naked-kegstand part of the party, disc two is for the end, when the guests have evaporated and the barrell is running dry.

The lyrical references to Dave Grohl and Rudyard Kipling in the last two posts have inspired me to compose my own, Foo Fighters appreciation poem: I got a clue/I bought the Foo/You should too/Wooooooo!

June 15 stands as one of the most significant dates in the history of freedom. On this date in 1215, King John affixed his seal on the Magna Carta at Runnymede. The document, agreed to by King John under duress, outlined a number of matters in which the government and its agents couldn't infringe upon the liberties of free men. The first point affirms that "the Church of England shall be free, and shall have her whole rights and liberties involiable." Following the restriction of the King's power over the Church, the Magna Carta grants rights to women regarding marriage and inheritances, limits fines for trivial offenses, prohibits arbitrary land expropriation, forbids government officials from confiscating goods, and affirms the right of self-government within the Church and among the barons. "The barons shall elect twenty-five of their number to keep, and cause to be observed with all their might, the peace and liberties granted and confirmed to them by this charter," one of the document's concluding paragraphs notes.

The agedness of the Magna Carta and how meager the rights, privileges, and freedoms strike many moderns demonstrate that the societies of the West were made and not born. No genius in a laboratory, or council of wise men sitting round a fire, invented the government we have today. It developed. And as much as we might like our form of government, our mere example and persuasion can't convince outsiders to embrace it there overnight absent the historical set of circumstances that gave rise to it here over thousands of years.

Young America's Foundation just released its annual survey of commencement speakers at top schools. Once again, the study found a liberal dominance among invited commencement speakers. "For twelve years, we’ve shown that college administrators are using commencement ceremonies to send their students off with one more predictable leftist lecture," Ron Robinson, the group's president, explained. "This year, the most prestigious schools exclude scholars like Milton Friedman, Thomas Sowell, Antonin Scalia, and Clarence Thomas for the likes of Al Gore, Kofi Annan, Hillary Clinton, and Howard Zinn. But some positive changes are being made." Glad to hear about the "positive changes," but the campuses have a long way to go before they begin to approach something resembling fairness.

While the mainstream Arnold Schwarzenneger gets heckled as he delivers a commencement address at a school he attended in the '70s, top colleges and universities roll out the red carpet for such fringe cases as former Congressman Ron Dellums (Mills), San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsome (Berkeley), Eric Schlosser (DePauw), Howard Zinn (Spelman), and Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Margaret Marshall (Brandeis). With left-wing screeds frequently appearing on assigned reading lists, campus activists attacking conservative speakers, and liberal professors outnumbering conservatives by greater than 25-1 at some campuses, should we be surprised that administrators push their ideology on the captive audience they have on graduation day?

Human Events has compiled a list of the most harmful books of the 19th and 20th centuries. Unsurprisingly, The Communist Manifesto and Mein Kampf "top" the rankings. Other tomes familiar to readers of Intellectual Morons salt the list. The Kinsey Report ranks fourth and Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique ranks seventh, with Paul Ehrlich's Population Bomb, Theodor Adorno and company's Authoritarian Personality, and Michel Foucault's Madness and Civilization receiving dishonorable mentions.

Books unworthy enough but not listed by Human Events include Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward (Mark Twain called it "the latest and best of all Bibles"), Herbert Marcuse's One-Dimensional Man ("Fiction calls the facts by their name and their reign collapses," "the prevailing mode of freedom is servitude," "the process by which logic became the logic of domination," blah, blah, blah), Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States (brilliantly exposed here!), Leo Strauss's Persecution and the Art of Writing ("one may wonder whether some of the greatest writers of the past have not adapted their literary technique to the requirements of persecution, by presenting their views on all the then crucial questions exclusively between the lines"), John Reed's Ten Days That Shook the World (the author sleeps forever under the Kremlin Wall), Peter Singer's Animal Liberation (PETA awards an abridged version to new members), and Henry George's Progress and Poverty (save for the Bible, said to be the most widely read book in the English language in the 19th century).

Objections? Nominees? Let's hear them.

An Associated Press/Ipsos poll of the American people gives Congress a 31 percent approval rating, the lowest in the short history of the survey. A partial explanation of such low popularity is found in today's headlines, which detail a scramble among almost the entire Senate to associate with a non-binding resolution whose sole purpose is to award good publicity to senators. Granting that opposition to such symbolic votes can be career suicide, public-relations stunts of the like engaged in by the Senate today serve to breed cynicism among people paying attention.

The United States Senate apologized on Monday for the thousands of lynchings in American history. The Senate resolution "apologizes to the victims of lynching" and "expresses the deepest sympathies and most solemn regrets of the Senate to the descendants of victims of lynching, the ancestors of whom were deprived of life, human dignity and the constitutional protections accorded all citizens of the United States." Why? None of the 100 Senators (even a certain former night rider from Appalachia) ever lynched anyone. The victims of lynch mobs obviously aren't any better off because of the belated "I'm sorry." So who benefits from the well-publicized apology? Every U.S. senator who signs onto this meaningless resolution. How typical of our age for "statesmen" to apologize for offenses they did not commit to parties that are beyond redress.

The launch of the FlynnFiles book club is two weeks away. The inaugural selection is F.A. Hayek's The Fatal Conceit. The benefit of assigning a book that I've never read is that I get to read a new book. The danger is the unexpected, which in the case of The Fatal Conceit is that the book is not as accessible as I had hoped. Not to worry, that's what the book club is for. There are a lot of smart blokes lurking about FlynnFiles, and surely they will help us all to understand the 154-page read. In addition to the FlynnFiles regulars, there will be a few ringers who will be joining us for the multi-post discussion. If you want to participate, pick up a copy of The Fatal Conceit through FlynnFiles or some other venue. If you've already picked up the book, happy reading! You have two weeks--just eleven pages a day--to finish.

A California jury found Michael Jackson not guilty on all ten counts in his child molestation trial. Jackson may not be guilty of what he's accused of, but he's guilty of something. Forty-six-year-old men with good intentions don't, as a rule, host sleepovers with thirteen-year-old boys. As for the accuser's family: get a clue. To allow one's child to attend slumber parties with a grown man who has been accused of child molestation in the past is an exercise in the most foul judgment imaginable. Shamon. Ow! Shamon.

"Things came to a head in February [1968] on the day we were due to play a gig in Southampton," Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason recalls in his new book, Inside Out: A Personal History of Pink Floyd. "In the car on the way to collect Syd, someone said, 'Shall we pick up Syd?' and the response was 'No, f--- it, let's not bother.'" Thus, the mythical Syd Barrett was dumped from Pink Floyd and the classic line up of the band--Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Richard Wright, and Nick Mason--was born. This incarnation of the band lasted about thirteen years, finding their way after letting go of their permanently LSD-affected lead singer/songwriter/guitarist and then acheiving mainstream success with Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals, and The Wall. Next month at Live 8 the classic line up of Pink Floyd, after nearly a quarter century apart, reunites.

Edward Klein's new book, The Truth About Hillary, reportedly suggests that Bill Clinton raped his wife Hillary, with the encounter resulting in their daughter Chelsea. How could this be true? Several conspiracy theorists have assured me that Webster Hubbell is Chelsea Clinton's dad. Didn't you know that Bill Clinton fathered an illegitimate son, murdered Ron Brown, contracted AIDS, and oversaw an Arkansas drug-running operation? I read all this on the Internet, therefore it has to be true.

Fanatics allow passion to override judgment. Clearly, Clinton defenders succumbed to this in denying his affairs and other real offenses up until Clinton himself admitted them. And then they just blamed Clinton's enemies for Clinton's actions. But just as love for Clinton blinded supporters to ugly realities, hatred of Clinton blinded his detractors from the not-so-ugly truth. There's no evidence that Clinton committed murder, dealt drugs, fathered a child by a prostitute, or contracted AIDS. But people will believe fantastic things when they flatter their political beliefs.

For much of the 1990s, conservatives wasted time engaging in personal attacks on Bill Clinton, rather than advancing their own political agenda. This contributed to Clinton's election and reelection as president. Now, as Hillary Clinton gears up for her own presidential run, history seems to be repeating itself. I've seen this movie before and I know it doesn't have a happy ending--at least from the Right's perspective. Though Edward Klein is no conservative, his publisher and nearly all of the people looking to purchase his book are. If the Right gets mired in scandal-mongering to derail Senator Clinton's presidential ambitions, they will end up giving her more steam. Mrs. Clinton's public record is bad enough. Why distract attention away from her outside-the-mainstream political views by delving into the murky waters of her private life?

"To hell with his human rights," shouts the menacing guard, "Give him Aguilera!" "No! I'll talk. I'll talk," the prisoner responds. "Anything but the Aguilera!" The detainee begins to intricately describe the inner workings of al Qaeda.

U.S. interrogators at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba employ a widely known but rarely used form of torture: the music of Christina Aguilera. You can bet that the bad guys will talk after a few minutes of "Beautiful." And if they don't, why then, the guards can just crank up Air Supply to eleven, or introduce the prisoner to the musical stylings of DeBarge. Somebody call Amnesty International to make the torment stop.

I watched Kevin McBride, live from the MCI Center, defeat Mike Tyson. Despite sitting amidst three other fellow Irishmen, and a section of other folks of a similar background, I rooted for Tyson. I don't rejoice in his defeat. In his corner, despite winning the fight, he quit. Following the fight, he explained: "I do not have the guts to be in this sport anymore. I don't want to disrespect the sport that I love. My heart is not into this anymore. I'm sorry for the fans who paid for this. I wish I could have done better. I want to move on with my life. It's time to move on with my life and be a father, take care of my children." I respect Tyson. I'm glad I saw him once before he was gone. He owes money, and that's why he fought Saturday night. Boxing is dangerous. Owing money is a bad reason to fight. If Tyson has no passion for the sport, I'm glad he's calling it quits. Despite seeing him live, I won't remember him for tonight. Anyone who does is a knucklehead. Spinks. Holmes. Berbick. Ruddock. etc. This is what he should be remembered for. I don't remember Muhammad Ali for Trevor Berbick. I won't remember Mike Tyson for Kevin McBride.

Few athletes transcend sport. No athlete has transcended sport in my lifetime as Mike Tyson has. Who would have paid their cable company $50 to watch Michael Jordan dunk or Mark McGwire hit home runs? Millions shelled out $50 to watch Mike Tyson fight on their television screens, even long after Tyson's skills had eroded.

I spent a lot more than $50 to see Mike Tyson fight live tonight at the MCI Center in Washington, DC. He's not the guy who obliterated Michael Spinks in 91 seconds, but he once was that guy and I'm hoping that that guy shows up, even if just for a few spurts, to take on Irishman Kevin McBride. Last summer, I detailed my fascination with Iron Mike. This week, ESPN.com has profiled some of the fascinating characters that Tyson scrapped with over the years. You couldn't make up Mitch "Blood" Green, the Jeri-curled warrior who battled Tyson twice: once in the ring, and once in the a.m. hours on the streets of New York. The lanky Green went the distance with Tyson inside Madison Square Garden. I hear Tyson scored a TKO in Harlem. Other memorable characters include Peter McNeeley, who promised to wrap Tyson in a "cocoon of horror," Francois "the White Buffalo" Botha, and James "Buster" Douglas, whose 10-round KO of Tyson stands as the greatest upset in boxing (sports?) history.

Tonight, I will watch a man fight who weighs fifteen pounds more than Kid Dynamite, and sports tatoos that couldn't be seen on the Iron Mike who made Trevor Berbick look as if he'd just stepped off a 100-mile-an-hour merry-go-round. But I'll be looking to catch glimpes of the guy whose first fifteen fights totaled just twenty-three rounds.

Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Howard Dean, John Kerry, Al Gore--the Democrats who may throw their hats in the ring for a run for the presidency in 2008 possess a cachet that the Republicans discussed for the job lack. That's not supposed to be the way it is. The Democrats are out of power. So, which Democrats are the contenders for the nomination? Who are the pretenders? Who would be the most formidable opponent for the Republicans?

The Associated Press surveyed the nation's daily newspapers, inquiring about the use of anonymous sources. About a quarter of the daily papers responded, with one quarter of those papers reporting that they don't use anonymous sources as a matter of policy.

When Vanity Fair revealed Mark Felt as Deep Throat, they also highlighted the drawbacks of anonymous sourcing. Withholding the names of individuals leveling accusations withholds information from the reader--information that often helps the reader to evaluate the credibility of a charge. "Top experts name FlynnFiles world's greatest website" takes on a radically different connotation when you learn that the "top experts" are my mother and brothers. Deep Throat takes on radically different connotations when we learn that he is Mark Felt.

Deep Throat had no ax to grind. Mark Felt did. Both Mark Felt and Bob Woodward acknowledged that Deep Throat felt passed over by Nixon for the spot of J. Edgar Hoover's successor at the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Felt arrived in Washington as a partisan, working on Capitol Hill for Democrat officeholders. Felt exposed illegality in the Nixon administration while partaking in the very same illegality. Mark Felt was convicted in 1980 of authorizing illegal break-ins on the homes of friends and relatives of suspected members of the terrorist Weather Underground group during the Watergate period. If Deep Throat really was a patriot outraged at the powerful abusing their power, he would have ratted on himself too. And what's the second in command at the FBI doing leaking information from FBI files and a grand jury to the press? Apart from that being illegal, Felt could have (at great risk to his career) arrested the ne'er-do-wells himself or gone to Congress with information. But he didn't.

None of this negates the very real crimes of Nixon administration officials. It does cast Deep Throat in a less heroic light. Deep Throat is no longer a mythic figure cleaning out the dirty stables of Washington. Deep Throat is Mark Felt.

The 22nd Amendment prevents George W. Bush from running for a third term. A bum ticker prevents Dick Cheney from suceeding his boss (or so we think). That leaves the field wide open for the Republican nomination. An incumbent president or vice president has appeared on the ballot in every election since 1952. This is not likely to happen in 2008. So who are the contenders? Who are the pretenders?

Les Paul turns ninety today. Slash plays a Les Paul, as does Jimmy Page, Joe Perry, and Peter Frampton. But Les Paul is not just a Gibson guitar. He's a real person. And Les Paul, surprise, plays a Les Paul. At ninety, he releases his first album in more than a quarter century later this summer.

Gregory Despres attempted to cross into the United States from the Canadian border with brass knuckles, a sword, a hatchet, and a chainsaw stained with human blood. U.S. customs agents confiscated his weapons, but allowed Despres passage. A day later, Canadians discovered a grisly scene: the decapitated body of an elderly country musician and the stabbed-to-death body of his girlfriend in their home. Even though Depres, who happens to have a swastika tatooed on his back and a wild-eyed stare, is an American citizen, why didn't customs detain him? What, exactly, disqualifies someone from an unmolested passage into our country?

Al Qaeda killed 3,000 people on September 11, 2001. Guantanamo Bay holds hundreds of members of the group that carried out the 9/11 attacks. Jimmy Carter and the center bearing his name believe that President Bush should "Close down Guantanamo and the two dozen secret detention facilities run by the United States as soon as practicable." Other statesmen of Carter's stature agree, including this guy, this guy, this guy, and this guy. Good public relations doesn't always equate to good public policy.

What contemporary history of America highlights that just seven percent of Africans brought to the New World were enslaved in the United States? Or that as Standard Oil’s prices dropped their market share rose to a monopoly level? Or that Joseph McCarthy underestimated the scope of Soviet infiltration of the U.S. government? None that I know of, other than Larry Schweikart and Michael Allen's A Patriot's History of the United States, which I review on FrontPageMag.com.

It turns out George W. Bush and John Kerry were mediocre students at Yale. Bush, in fact, had a slightly better average than his 2004 foe. I wonder if the "Bush is dumb" crowd, who incessantly invoke such trivia as Bush's college transcripts, will now do the same for Kerry. I'll settle for them ceasing to mistake modest academic achievements as an Oval Office disqualifier.

College is overrated. The almae matres of Harry Truman (never graduated from college), Lyndon Johnson (Southwest Texas Teachers College), and Richard Nixon (Whittier College) prove this. Stellar grades and a high IQ doesn't translate into a great president. When we elect a president, we don't necessarily look for the most intelligent or studious man. Intelligent people can be arrogant, fanatical, cowardly, and lacking in good judgment. In other words, many factors go into making a good president, intelligence being but one. Liberals forget this, insulting half of the men on national Republican tickets as stupid (Ronald Reagan, Dan Quayle, George W. Bush) and the other half--that can't be so dismissed--as evil (Barry Goldwater, Richard Nixon, Dick Cheney). Liberals want an intellectual in chief. Americans want a commander in chief. If you don't get this, look up President Adlai Stevenson or President Eugene McCarthy in the history books.

Reflecting on his "C" average at Eureka College, President Reagan often quipped: Imagine what I would have accomplished had I applied myself.

A documentary on the greatest rock band of all time is due in theaters next year. I speak not of The Rolling Stones or Led Zeppelin, but The Who. The last time The Who released a movie--1979's The Kids Are Alright--it played at a theater in my hometown, and I heard rumors of local teenagers ripping up the seats and generally trashing the place. Who music does that to you. Alas, I was too young to partake then; I am too old to partake now.

Oscar-winner Murray Lerner will direct the film, which has a long and eventful story to tell. The Who introduced feedback to rock records, the smashing of instruments, and the destruction of hotel rooms. They produced the earliest rock opera in the track A Quick One, followed by multi-record conceptual pieces in Tommy, the canabalized "Lifehouse" project, and Quadrophenia--the official album of angry, disaffected youth. The Guinness Book of World Records proclaimed The Who "the loudest band on Earth." The foursome headlined Monterey and Woodstock. On Won't Get Fooled Again, Roger Daltrey delivered the most memorable scream in the history of rock. On My Generation, he delivered the most memorable line in the history of rock: "I hope I die before I get old." Keith Moon obliged, succumbing to chemicals at age 31. Three years ago, bassist John Entwistle joined him in rock 'n' roll heaven, where eleven Who fans from Cincinatti watch them play.

The Who always stayed relevant, from spearheading the mid-'60s British Invasion along with The Kinks, to perfecting the concept album in the '70s along with Pink Floyd, to stamping their influence on punk rock, to serving as a staple of early MTV (Who can forget early-'80s Townshend demanding: "I want my MTV!"). And then, in the wake of their drummer's death and the underappreciated post-Moon efforts--Face Dances and It's Hard--they called it quits. Thankfully, they returned as an occassional touring unit seven years after their first "final" concert in '82. Between 1989 and 2002, I had the privilege of seeing Who reunion shows five times. It may not be the same as seeing them in 1975, but hey, I was two then and Roger Daltrey is ageless anyhow. And now, with their rhythm section in a better place, the original Who reunites on the silver screen. "Rock is dead they say. Long live rock."

A doctor prescribing a patient marijuana is neither "interstate" nor "commerce." The Supreme Court ruled today in Gonzales v. Raich that such activity falls under Congress's purview via the Constitution's Interstate Commerce Clause. It's not called the "high" court for nothing.

So how did the Supreme Court come to classify a non-economic activity confined to a single state "interstate commerce"? "Our case law firmly establishes Congress' power to regulate purely local activities that are part of an economic 'class of activities' that have a substantial effect on interstate commerce," the majority opinion held. Sometime after the joint came round, John Paul Stevens wrote for the majority: "Congress can regulate purely intrastate activity that is not itself 'commercial,' in that it is not produced for sale."

In 1996, the people of California voted to allow doctors to prescribe marijuana for medicinal purposes. In 2005, the Supreme Court usurped the rights of California's voters, and the voters of eight other states, in overturning laws not in conflict with the U.S. Constitution but in conflict with the personal beliefs of six jurists.

Starting next week, federal law will require airlines to document the number of animals that perish on their flights. Cargo holds aren't as luxurious as first class, and dogs and cats--through extreme cold or a lack of pressurization--occassionally die in flight. On the surface, the new law may seem like a common sense measure to provide consumers with product information allowing them to make informed choices. There's another side to the law, though. "Be careful what you wish for," David Stempler, president of the Airline Travelers Association, told the Associated Press. "Some carriers might do what Southwest does, which is not carry pets at all." All laws have unexpected consequences. Some landowners discovering a protected species on their property, for example, prefer to kill it rather than deal with the ensuing hassle from the government. Certainly the intent of the authors of laws protecting endangered species was not the killing of a protected species, but in some cases, that's the effect of the law. The result of the law forcing airlines to maintain mortality records on animal passengers may be fewer carriers allowing pets on flights. Is this the intent of Congress?

"No one," Robespierre warned his countrymen in the early days of the French Revolution, "likes armed missionaries." If only they had heeded his advice, and if only Robespierre himself had only heeded it, everyone would have been the better for it. More than two-hundred years later, Robespierre's words, and the perils wrought from France's disregard of them, offer a lesson to Americans.

Last call for comments for December's posts. Thomas Sowell anointed Intellectual Morons one of the best books of '04. I issued my own "best of" lists in movies, books, and music. The month featured FlynnFiles discussions on Republicans standing to the left of Bill Clinton on nation building, Bush giving conservatives a bad name, and Iraq hawks turning their guns inward. And don't miss my post on presidential pardons, especially timely now that the national discussion has focused on two beneficiaries of executive clemency: Mark Felt and Richard Nixon.

Islamic fanatics decapitated Nick Berg, slit Daniel Pearl's throat, and dragged the corpses of Americans through the streets of Iraq and Somalia. A few Americans, on the other hand, tortured...a book. The Pentagon released information late Friday detailing that a Guantanamo Bay interrogator kicked a Koran, while some prison guards had a water balloon fight that left some prisoners, and their Korans, damp. Oh, the humanity! It turns out Newsweek's story of a Koran thrown in a toilet did occur, only the culprit was a prisoner who despaired that he no loner cared for Islam. I guess it was all a misunderstanding--a misunderstanding that led to more than a dozen deaths in nations where less than half the population can even read the Koran.

Veteran conservative journalist Ralph de Toledano summed up Richard Nixon in a sentence Thursday night on Hardball: "He had no loyalty to anyone and he basically had no principles." So why are conservatives still carrying his water?

"Now I am a Keynesian," Richard Nixon famously confessed in 1971. President Nixon instituted wage and price controls. He took the dollar off the gold standard. The 37th president launched the Environmental Protection Agency, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Drug Enforcement Administration, and Occupational Safety and Health Administration. He recognized Communist China. Nixon did more to institutionalize racial preferences than any other president. He appointed Harry Blackmun and Lewis Powell to the Supreme Court, and named Warren Burger chief justice. He signed Title IX into law.

Perhaps the answer to the question of why Richard Nixon inspires so much conservative loyalty can be found in the premise of another puzzling question: Why do liberals hate the last president to bequeath a lasting liberal legacy? The liberal's knee-jerk animus towards Nixon results in a reflexive defense of Nixon from the conservative. Like George W. Bush, Nixon had the right enemies but the wrong policies. In politics, we sometimes take our cues from how the opposition lines up. The debate over Richard Nixon's presidency ignited by the Deep Throat revelation proves this.

Thirty years ago today, Berkeley radicals rallied to support murderers and criminals. "Death to the fascist insect that preys upon the life of the people," speaker Kathleen Ann Soliah chanted. “Keep fighting! I’m with you! We’re with you!" The group she pledged her solidarity with, and whose peculiar 13-word motto she chanted, was the Symbionese Liberation Army, one of the most bizarre spillover groups from the tumultuous age that most Americans in the mid-'70s had thought had passed.

In late 1973, the Symbionese Liberation Army assassinated Marcus Foster, the superintendent of Oakland's schools. The SLA mistakenly believed Foster sought to impose identification cards on students in his district, and killed him because of it. What the SLA terrorists lacked in wisdom they made up for in passion. After two SLA members were arrested for Foster's murder, the group kidnapped newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst (known as Tania within the SLA) and embarked upon a series of what outsiders called robberies but radicals termed "fundraisers." Apparently brainwashed (or--who knows?--maybe not), the megabucks princess partook in an SLA bank robbery, which security cameras famously caught on tape. In a fiery May 1975 standoff with the Los Angeles police, six SLA members were killed, including the self-dubbed General Field Marshal Cinque, the career criminal who led the rag-tag band of affluent and middle class whites. A few months later, police caught up with Hearst. A few decades later, police caught up with the rest of the gang, which never numbered more than about a dozen people.

Local PBS affiliates have been airing a fascinating documentary on the SLA entitled, Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst. Check your local listings and tune in.

I drive by the Watergate every day. Despite my proximity to the scene of the crime, I've never had an idea about Deep Throat's identity. Not everyone was so clueless. In 1972 and 1973, H.R. Haldeman told Richard Nixon that Mark Felt was leaking information damaging to the White House. The Washingtonian magazine pegged Mark Felt as Deep Throat in 1974. In 1992, The Atlantic Monthly strongly suggested that Deep Throat worked in the FBI and pointed to Felt as the best candidate. Deep Throat "could well have been Mark Felt, who admitted that he harbored ambitions to be the FBI director," the Atlantic Monthly piece theorized. Felt's hometown newspaper, The Santa Rosa Press Democrat, suggested to its readers in 2002 that Deep Throat lived amidst them. That same year, CNN dubbed Felt "a leading candidate." Ronald Kessler's 2003 book, The Bureau: The Secret History of the FBI (buy it here), identified Felt as Deep Throat as well. Vanity Fair may have scooped Woodward and Bernstein in revealing Deep Throat's identity, but numerous writers beat Vanity Fair to the punch too.

Had Charles Guiteau leaked damaging information to the press about the administration of James A. Garfield rather than shot the twentieth president, he not only might have scored the post he coveted but he would be celebrated as a hero today. There's more than one way to bring down a president who passes you over for a job.

Should Europe become a borderless supranation, or should Europe remain France, Germany, Italy, Holland, and so on? France prefers national preservation to state suicide. Polls indicate that the Dutch, who choose to adopt or reject the proposed constitution of the European Union today, prefer national preservation too. The EU constitution is a document drafted by elites to concentrate power in their hands. Arrogantly, the few expected the sanction of the many in tranferring the power from the many to the few. This weekend, Frenchmen issued a stern rebuke to this power grab. Understandably, French voters rejected the handover of the traditional powers of French voters to a supranational body less accountable to French voters. The EU is dangerous to the United States, but not as dangerous as it is to France, Germany, and England, which will cease to resemble France, Germany, and England if they continue to give up power to a distant government.