The American Spectator

October 2009

Freedom Watch

• Health Care Amtrak-Style

  Barry Goldwater, Jr.

Features

• Not-So-Gentle-Ben

  Obama's risky Bernanke gamble.

  Stephen Moore & John Tamny

• A Dark Horse

  The great Roy Campbell heaped wonderful abuse on the nihilist left, though that's hardly the only reason to treasure him.

  Roger Scruton

• The Worst Years of Our Lives

  The Woodstock Sixties brought everlasting harm to our politics and culture.

  William Murchison

• The World of Market Authoritarianism

  China's winning model is leaving the U.S. and the West increasingly isolated. Our October issue's cover story.

  Stefan Halper

Economics

• The Conservatives’ Big Mistake

  Brian Wesbury

Among the Intellectualoids

• A Little Bit of Economics

  Our president knows it all about a subject he has no use for.

  Andrew B. Wilson

Capitol Ideas

• Twits, Twitter, and Tweets

  Falling behind the hi-tech curve.

  Tom Bethell

Presswatch

• Appeal to Authority

  James Taranto

Letter From Paris

• Sarkozy's Left Turn

  Joseph A. Harriss

The Nation's Pulse

• Big Labor, Green Jobs

  Shriveling unions look for a magic cure.

  Max Schulz

Politics

• Race to the Finish

  John H. Fund

The Environmental Spectator

• America's Second-Best Idea

  In his new PBS series, documentarian Ken Burns takes us on a lovely stroll through our national parks and their history. 

  Bill Croke

High Spirits

• Is Everybody Happy?

  Can non-economic prosperity be measured?

  Jonathan Aitken

Ben Stein's Diary

• Breathless

  Above the fresh ruffles of the surf -- a selection from Ben Stein's monthly Diary.

  Ben Stein

Conservative Tastes

• Look at Me

  The problem with fantasy is also the point of it: there are no natural limits.

  James Bowman

Books in Review

• Friends in Disagreement

  Longtime friends Paul Nitze and George Kennan disagreed stridently about how to defend America during the Cold War.

  Liam Julian

• Second Thoughts on Immigration

  Christopher Caldwell on immigration, Islam, and a continent's demographic transformation.

  W. James Antle, III

• Revisiting Judicial Review

  Instructive and lively reading from James MacGregor Burns -- up to a point.

  David L. Tubbs

• Looking for the Perfect History

  Conservatives keep waiting for the definitive history of the Reagan years.

  Lee Edwards

The Slaughterhouse

• Laughing Gas

  With The Death of Conservatism, Sam Tanenhaus establishes himself as one of America’s premier comic geniuses in the field of political commentary.

  Daniel Oliver

Last Call

• Ending in Arlington

  In search of the essential Ted Kennedy.

  Wlady Pleszczynski