The American Spectator

February 2012

Note From the Publisher

• Who's Really Conservative?

  Alfred S. Regnery

The Continuing Crisis

• The Continuing Crisis

  R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.

Features

• Mission Implausible

  Still waiting for answers on Operation Fast and Furious, the Obama administration's festering scandal.

  W. James Antle, III

• The Collapse of Jon Corzine

  All of it made possible by his close ties to Democrats and the world of Goldman "Government" Sachs.

  Ross Kaminsky

• Let's Return to the Gold Standard

  Ron Paul and Lewis Lehrman have been right all along, never more so than in this age of massive debt.

  George Melloan

• The United Nations' Rogue Agency

  With the admission of Palestine, UNESCO shows again it is over-politicized and running out of control. The U.S. should head for the exit.

  Joseph A. Harriss

Constitutional Opinions

• Madison vs. Obamacare

  Could it be that the Founders really favored more central government than James Madison let on?

  Seth Lipsky

The Pursuit of Knowledge

• Facing Up to Darwin

  There is a philosophy of the human condition that stands apart from biological science without opposing it.

  Roger Scruton

With the Tea Partiers

• Evolve or Die

  The Tea Party movement is at a crossroads.

  Ned Ryun

Eminentoes

• The Pearls of Pauline

  They don't make movie critics likes this anymore.

  Gerald Nachman

Capitol Ideas

• Background to the Financial Crisis

  A key error of postwar finance, still uncorrected, was the persistent encouragement of debt.

  Tom Bethell

Presswatch

• Strange Newt Respect

  James Taranto

Politics

• The Man From La Fortaleza

  Luis Fortuño says -- convincingly -- that Republicans must do a better job reaching out to Hispanics.

  John H. Fund

High Spirits

• Common Prayer, Uncommon Beauty

  The magnificent Book of Common Prayer has been going strong for 350 years.

  Jonathan Aitken

Ben Stein's Diary

• Down in the Desert

  So much for 45 years of psychotherapy.

  Ben Stein

Conservative Tastes

• Progressive Derangements

  The more precise movie-makers are in their re-creation of the physical past, the more slapdash they have become about the moral past.

  James Bowman

Books in Review

• Herbert Hoover's Long-Awaited Magnum Opus

  Our 31st President's secret history of World War II is now available.

  Burton Folsom, Jr. & Anita Folsom

• Religion Is Not the Enemy

  A remarkable agnostic, Maarcello Pera, explains why.

  Philip F. Lawler

• Republic, Regained

  A serious liberal has written a book conservatives should read.

  F. H. Buckley

• Uncle Sam and the Chinese Dragon

  An alarming reminder of China's growing power unrestrained by any normal moral limits.

  David Aikman

Current Wisdom

• Current Wisdom

  Assorted Jackasses

Public Nuisances

• Barney Shuffles Off

  R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.

• Useless Wonks

  R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.

Last Call

• Bowling Alone

  Strike while the lanes are hot and the pins a'quivering.

  Jeremy Lott