Foreign Correspondent
“Scoop:” A Classic Satire About Foreign Correspondents
(I continue to receive requests that I 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 guerillas surrounded the besieged city. Day after day, the Khmer Rouge bombarded the city …
On Writing Well: Verbs of Attribution
When I taught journalism at the University of Illinois, I created a Journalist’s Handbook that I required my students to purchase. I collected and revised the information contained in the Journalist’s Handbook for almost four decades. Some of it dates back to my time as a journalism student at the University …
Guidelines for Good Writing
When I taught journalism at the University of Illinois, I created a Journalist’s Handbook that I required my students to purchase. I collected and revised the information contained in the Journalist’s Handbook for almost four decades. Some of it dates back to my time as a journalism student at the …
The Disastrous Eclipse of American Power
When I think of America’s failed financial policies, its weak political leadership in the White House and Congress, and its feeble foreign policy I am reminded of a thought-provoking Thai phrase I once heard. “Maa du kruang bin tok.” Translated it means “A dog watching an airplane crash.” The phrase …
America: Our Unimaginable & Decadent Nation
Victor Davis Hanson is one of the most cogent observers of the American milieu so I am always happy to reprint his commentaries on my blog. He speaks with precision and clarity. But most of all the glaring unembellished truth is always evident in his arguments and observations. Hanson’s commentary …
A Pint-sized Race-baiter at the Podium of the White House Press Briefing Room
I never covered the White House during my 27-year career with the Chicago Tribune, but I knew plenty of people who did. “It’s like covering the cops,” one of my colleagues who did cover the White House once told me. “You don’t expect to get any real news out of …
Where free speech should be promoted, free speech is under attack
I have often posted on this topic. Here is commentary from Rachel L. Brand, former Associate Attorney General of the United States. She makes excellent points about the erosion of Free Speech and the First Amendment at universities—places where diverse opinions SHOULD be available to all students but are not. …
“Hate Speech” and Literature
Let me say right off: I do not believe in the idea of hate speech. One person’s “hate speech” is another person’s “free speech.” In that regard, the American Civil Liberties Union and I are in 100 per cent agreement. More on the ACLU later. In a previous post, I …
The Inhumanity of Critical Race Theory
I have written and posted often about Critical Race Theory—the internecine effort by socialists and communists to indoctrinate and infect the minds of American children with disproven and discredited Marxist dogma designed to weaken our democracy and obliterate our nation. CRT focuses on race, relativism, gender-bending, and identity politics at …