So it might not be so good for ratings to be doing a series on a movie that tanked at the box office.  But here's some more on NEVER LET ME GO: The boarding school we see might be regarded as a privileged moment in the history of donor-clones. Their strangely benevolent guardians gave themselves ...

Never Let Me Go is one of the most thoughtful pieces of science fiction ever. The film, directed by Mark Romanek, is, of course, based on the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro. It's hard to see how the film, although it doesn't capture everything about the book, could have been a better adaptation. A labor ...

So my previous post on Walmart being change that's, on balance, bad for us as social beings was one of my most popular and, apparently, least controversial.  That's because many so-called liberals and many traditionalist or "Agrarian" conservatives (followers of Wendell Berry and such) unite in ...

1. I was glad to learn from BIG THINKER Daniel that Walmart has become a catalyst for change on the Green or environmental front.  That's good news, because what that corporation's brains decide to do makes a big difference. 2. But someone might say that the most important issue might be "social ...

So this article calls attention to a fascinating inconsistency shared by our two parties: 1. Republicans (particularly Paul Ryan) want to cut taxes for the rich.  But they also want to means-test entiltements--such as Social Security and Medicare.  That means the rich will pay less to the IRS ...

Looking to past elections to predict the outcome of one soon to come doesn't usually work that well.  Back in October 2008, I looked to eight past elections to try to gain some perspective on what might happen in November.  It turns out that sound historical comparisons can only be made after the ...

These are some very elementary observations: It wasn’t long before all responsible observers came to agree with ME that the NY-26 result (despite the quirky details) is one piece of evidence among many that the Republicans are losing the debate on Medicare. They’re still winning on health care ...

Here's a pithy, gracious, thoughtful, and fairly accurate review of my most recent book by another conservative.  In the spirit of shameless self-promotion, I'll give you a generous taste: In this stimulating collection of essays written while he served on the President's Council on Bioethics ...

I've been asked whether I should reconsider my recent praise of AMERICAN IDOL as an admirably and characteristically American mixture of wisdom and consent.  Although I can't really speak as an authority (having missed several shows), I can see that a revision is in order. The judges—by becoming ...

So here's an engaging and most instructive lecture by the legendary Harvey Mansfield, probably the only member of the government faculty at Harvard who votes Republican.  Mansfield, of course, is famous for his promotion of manliness, Machiavelli, Aristotle, Tocqueville, and constitutionalism.  For ...

So one of our BIG THINKERS, Daniel Honan, gave us a fine introduction to one of the biggest ideas around, THE END OF HISTORY. Daniel is right that the idea is much more plausible than it seems at first.  He's also right that it originates with the German philosopher Hegel.  So it is also found ...

So here's a rare treat: The leading historian of our Founding (Gordon Wood) receives a thoughtful and sympathetic--but indirectly somewhat critical--review by our leading political scientific student of our Founding (James Ceaser). Here's a rather large and meaty taste: So great is the ...

The always fascinating English philosophic intellectual John Gray has written a book about the various ways most of the leading philosophers and scientists of the late 19th and early 20th century were in rebellion against what Gray regards as the fact (and, on balance, the beneficial fact) of our ...

Here's an exaggerated account of the slide of our professors into the proletariat given by The Nation, our leading journal on the left.  Let me repeat what I've said before:  Good exaggerations contain a lot of truth.  AND we conservatives often ally with leftists in a limited and selective way in ...

So here's a ferocious attack on new atheist Sam Harris from the Nation, our country's leading leftist publication.  The conclusion: Harris is oblivious to this moral crisis [of selfish individualism]. His self-confidence is surpassed only by his ignorance, and his writings are the best ...