“Reading a Book is Like Life:
You Live it One Page at a Time.” (Ron Yates)
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About Ronald E. Yates
Author, former foreign correspondent for the Chicago Tribune, and Dean & Professor Emeritus of the College of Media at the University of Illinois, his acclaimed works are now available through this site.
The Latest From My Blog
Iranian Drones to Destroy California? Too Late. Democrats have already done it
Recently, I heard the news that Iran may try to destroy California with drones. I had to laugh at that. Aren’t the Iranians aware that Supreme Leader Gavin Newsom and his gang of socialist Democrats have already done that? Don’t they know that the state’s 39 million serfs, aka inhabitants, …
The Properly Equipped War Correspondent, ca. 1905
The third book in my Finding Billy Battles trilogy begins in the early 1900s, and I find myself still deeply immersed in the lifestyle and routine of that period. Because my central character, William Battles, is (among other things) a journalist who spends time covering (and participating in) conflicts in …
The Death of Freedom in Hong Kong
(In June 2020, I posted the following column about Hong Kong. The reason for the post was that on May 22 of that year, China’s government in Beijing announced that it would allow mainland state security agencies to operate officially in Hong Kong, effectively allowing Beijing to impose national security …
Hakeem Jeffries: the fox with a scheme to “protect” America’s hen house
The other day, I watched Democrat Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries blathering on about recently fired Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noam. Jeffries was ecstatic. In fact, he seemed to be salivating as he tore into Noem’s damaged political carcass. “Good riddance,” Jeffries snarled. “Noem was an unhinged, out-of-control, pathological …
Flashman–Victorian England’s foremost rotter would have made a great foreign correspondent
At the request of a faithful follower, today I am re-posting a column that appeared a while back in The Economist, one of the U.K.’s most prestigious magazines. Written by an unnamed foreign correspondent, it takes a sardonic and self-effacing view of foreign correspondents by suggesting that Harry Flashman, Victorian …
“Scoop,” the Classic Novel that Lampoons Foreign Correspondents
(Occasionally, I like to repost my piece on Evelyn Waugh’s “Scoop,” the classic book that lampoons foreign correspondents. I first read Scoop in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, in March 1975 as Communist Khmer Rouge guerrillas surrounded the besieged city. Day after day, the Khmer Rouge bombarded the city with 107mm Chinese-made …
America the Beautiful, America the Invaded
Last week, I posted a column discussing a new movement in the U.K. designed to “Restore Britain”—meaning to restore Great Britain’s traditions and values, which are under assault by a deluge of third-world migration, both legal and illegal. The founder of that movement, a former Member of Parliament named Rupert …
Is the new “Restore Britain” movement in the U.K. a blueprint for America?
Finally, someone is trying to save Great Britain. But what about America? We are squandering our country’s wealth to accommodate 10-15 million unskilled, unvetted, third-world intruders who were invited to surge America’s open borders by Joe Biden and his duplicitous Democrat underlings. Many, if not most, of these invaders are ripping …
Musings Cluttering My Mind When I Should be Doing Something Constructive
I get a lot of strange emails. Sometimes they contain little bits of wisdom, and when they do, I file them away for future reference. Today, I am sharing some of these musings with you. Perhaps you will find them interesting. Perhaps not. In any case, take a look. You …
Academia’s Assault on the History of Western Civilization
A couple of years ago, I penned a column on the vanishing history of Western civilization in America’s colleges and universities. Specifically, I noted that the National Association of Scholars had published a comprehensive report titled “The Vanishing West,” which traced the decline and near extinction of Western Civilization history …
The Remarkable Life of a Reluctant Hero
All authors are emotionally engaged with their protagonists. I am no exception. I want readers to love my characters as much as I do. That means creating a flawed, three-dimensional protagonist who still has “things to work out.” The Finding Billy Battles series follows Billy from his roots in Kansas, through …
An Old Letter from El Salvador
Between 1978 and 1982, I spent a lot of time as a Chicago Tribune foreign correspondent in Central American countries such as El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama, and Nicaragua — all of which were experiencing vicious uprisings and revolutions. From time to time, I post one of the stories I wrote …
