Category Archives: America

And Then There Were Three: David Yeagley Interviews Peter Brimelow

America, Ann Coulter, Ilana Mercer, The Zeitgeist

I was the first to be interviewed by Dr. David Yeagley, who has “invited several nationally known conservative and independent writers to offer their perspective on American Indians.”

It was both an honor and an interesting experience. (I also gained a friend.) Now none other than Ann Coulter has given David an interview. Congratulations, David!

You can read the Coulter interview here. The Mercer interview, “Patriotism, Nationhood, and the American Indian,” is here (and here, if you prefer to read it on David’s site).

Updated: Peter Brimelow has given Yeagley “An English Assessment.” Read it here.

A Republic, if You Can Keep It

America, Constitution, Federalism, Founding Fathers, Individual Rights, Law, Natural Law

Yesterday Bush signed “The Military Commissions Act of 2006.” I went in search for a libertarian analysis, but found only a few splenetic screeds. While perfectly understandable, these execrations do nothing to dissect the implications of the Bill for Americans. As I read them, I knew I ought to be furious about torture. However, too little was being said about the erosion of due process, constitutional protections and the accretion of executive power.

Libertarians need to cite chapter and verse in the actual Bill and then logically and calmly explain its implications for Americans. (It is very possible that, because of his visceral contempt for the Constitution as a so-called statist document, the anarchist can’t rise to the occasion. However, he may want to bear in mind that to the extent the Constitution comports with natural law, it’s both laudable and legitimate.)

In any case, right or wrong, to security-crazed Americans, the constant squealing about torture is a signal to switch off, as it conjures the namby-pamby liberal whose concerns are, overwhelmingly, with the “evil doers.” Readers are likelier to be swayed by arguments that address the possibility of detention without trial of US citizens and the sundering of habeas corpus and the separation of powers.

Finally, I found this, which does just that. This piece from Reason offers a gist of the administration’s impetus vis-a-vis the Bill. This next piece, however, is unhelpful. Libertarians will get its Bastiatian thrust, but, bar some left-liberals, the rest will find it smarmy and juvenile. You don’t have to agree with everything Jonathan Turley says to find him inspiring. (I certainly don’t. Contra Turley, America is a republic, not a democracy, and hence not meant to manufacture “majoritarian” outcomes. And France’s centralized system is the truly ugly system.) There’s a precis of a talk he gave here. Or you can listen to him here.

Letter of the Week: Security 101

America, Bush, IMMIGRATION, Republicans

[Chuck, who works in law enforcement, has sent this to BAB. Please note that the ideas expressed by writers on the forum are not necessarily endorsed by BAB. —ILANA]: Our author, Ilana Mercer, alerts all Americans to the impending doom that is awaiting us all, right around the corner. This is America’s last opportunity to change course. Ilana, a self-identified classical liberal writer, has a solid grasp of common sense logic as it applies to Security 101. Why is it then that our nation’s commander-in-chief, George Bush, is so constantly AWOL, and without a clue, on our sovereign nation’s security. America’s borders, language, and culture are all being slowly, but surely, eroded at an accelerated pace, while George Bush brushes up on his espanol. George Bush is determined to protect us from his ‘radical Islam’—in reality it is simply Islam—but there would be no need to go to other countries and make them more peaceful and tolerant if he would simply enforce a stringent and iron-clad immigration policy !! Some may feel that George Bush has left America’s doors dangerously wide open… How would you describe a neighbor if he were to not only to leave his front, back and garage doors wide open, but then profile for and invite bloods, crips, ms13, la razas, and reconquistas to come and have a Tupperware party in your living room. In George Bush’s mind, that neighbor would simply be a compassionate conservative, not an irresponsible idiot who has relinquished any right to serve as protector of his charges. I believe that George Bush and all sanctuary cities are guilty of treason and sedition. George Bush has and continues to violate his oath to protect our sovereign nation. I believe, as does Patrick Buchanan, one of our greatest patriots of modern times, that George Bush should be impeached for the inactions in honoring his oath and the complicity of maintaining open borders, and the destruction of our American social fabric. [Well, you’re giving him too much credit; public schools, universities, and media have helped a lot in expunging American literature, history, and founding principles from the minds of today’s moronic young.] …and if you want a twosome that will really wow, add Tom Tancredo to the ticket! [I hope he’s a free trader, unlike PB.] http://tancredo.house.gov/You can volunteer for America NOW (www.firecoalition.com, www.minutemanhq.com, www.grassfire.com), or postpone your actions until its too late. —Chuck

America’s Open House

America, IMMIGRATION

“Immigration fundamentalist Tamar Jacoby squints at flesh-and-blood Americans; to her, America is a mere proposition, nothing but an idea. She dismissed Quintero’s illegality as irrelevant to his crime. But for that conceit to fly, Jacoby would have to show that had Quintero been deported or jailed, his victims would have nevertheless suffered the same fate at the hands of another murderer and child molester—a deeply silly suggestion.

Indeed, the Jacobins of unfettered immigration present a consistently weak case against enforcement (and for laundering illegals). If it’s not argumentum ad misericordiam (the logical fallacy of an appeal to pity); it’s fatalism—as when they assert that enforcing the law is futile: “If illegals want to get in, they’ll get in.”

Consider an equally fatalistic parent who leaves the doors to the family home permanently wide open. Why postpone the inevitable, he waffles? If scofflaws were scheming to Elizabeth Smart his daughter or help themselves to his possessions, they’d find a way in, eventually. That this hippie holds an open house soon becomes known around the hood, and the inevitable happens. Can the parent argue in good conscience and logic that the robbery, abduction, rape, or murder of his dependents was unavoidable?

It’s getting harder and harder for America’s policy proxies—politicians, pundits and police—to finesse their criminal negligence and breach of duty.”

The excerpt is from my column, “America’s Open House.” It leads the Commentary page today on WorldNetDaily. Comments are welcome.