The American Spectator

November 2011

Note From the Publisher

• My One-Night Stand With a Real Pig

  Alfred S. Regnery

Freedom Watch

• Economic Freedom for Black Americans

  When will black Americans finally be "free at last"?

  Allen B. West

The Continuing Crisis

• The Continuing Crisis

  R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.

Features

• Is Vegas Burning?

  Can Sin City survive without the gift of free water?

  Andrew B. Wilson

• Lessons For Obama From Silent Cal

  Frugal, laconic Calvin Coolidge instinctively applied his conservative principles. The result was just what we need today: low debt and rising prosperity.

  Charles C. Johnson

• Split Personality

  What the Republican divide over Social Security means for the future of entitlement reform. Our November cover story, "It's GOP Gut-Check Time."

  W. James Antle, III

• Victory in the Desert

  The Libyan campaign is over -- to whose benefit? It's a question probably better directed to Nicholas Sarkozy.

  Roger Kaplan

The Tax and Spend Spectator

• Government in Full Gallop

  Joseph Lawler

The Pursuit of Knowledge

• Curiouser and Curiouser

  Gadgets have taken over our lives -- particularly among the young, who have no defenses against them.

  Roger Scruton

With the Tea Partiers

• Ohio Rising

  Meet the folks who shot down Obamacare in Ohio earlier this month.

  Ned Ryun

Capitol Ideas

• Extraterrestrial Intelligence and the Search for God

  There's got to be life out there, the atheistic view goes, none of it God-caused, of course.

  Tom Bethell

Presswatch

• History's Smallest Monster

  James Taranto

The Nation's Pulse

• Beyond Steven Brill

  Without good old-fashioned middle-class ideals, what good is school reform?

  William Murchison

Politics

• The Democrats' Worst Loss Yet

  John H. Fund

The Campaign Spectator

• Obama's Tax Reform Trick

  He's all for it if it increases taxes by $1.5 trillion -- and he expects corporate America to go along.

  Grover G. Norquist

High Spirits

• Character and Leadership

  Jonathan Aitken

Ben Stein's Diary

• House Broken

  Amid the gloom, German short-haired pointer rescuers come to the rescue. From our last issue.

  Ben Stein

Conservative Tastes

• We're All Leninists Now

  Everyone's an intellectual, changing the world and transforming our lives.

  James Bowman

Books in Review

• Two Cheers for The World According to Cheney

  There's no giving up on Dick Cheney.

  Aram Bakshian, Jr.

• The Fix Was In

  Conrad Black's greatest book yet.

  John R. Coyne, Jr.

• A Great and Wonderful Experiment

  H.W. Crocker III's politically correct homage to the British Empire.

  Andrew Roberts

Current Wisdom

• Current Wisdom

  Assorted Jackasses

Public Nuisances

• Liberalism Always Goes Too Far

  R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.

• Twenty Percent, Si. Twenty-Five Percent, No.

  R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.

Last Call

• Bully Pulpit

  Is it still okay to put bullying in some kind of historic context?

  Gerald Nachman