Patrick O'Hannigan
The controversy over the proposed “Cordoba House” mosque to be built in Manhattan less than two blocks from Ground Zero is almost enough to make me want to collar author Dan Brown so as to ask if Robert Langdon, his…
Poul Anderson (d. 2001) described interstellar space as well as anyone ever has. Consider this recollection from astronaut pilot Kyra Davis, the heroine of his 1993 novel Harvest of Stars, who takes a look around while traversing part of Olympus…
Mark Steyn and Hugh Hewitt were talking on Hewitt’s radio show when Hewitt suggested that Barack Obama does not know how to be president. Steyn shoehorned that comment into a column about Obama’s “crassly parochial narcissism,” supporting the dig with…
Rocker and philanthropist Bono wrote an op-ed for the New York Times to make two points: that “the virtual Obama is the real Obama,” and that “the man might deserve the hype.” Bono is not the only well-known musician who…
Some progressive commentators now say that conservatives hate America. Never mind why. The people saying such things could just ask conservatives they know whether that assertion is true. Sadly, many do not ask, they just assert. They do not realize…
When it comes to opinions about President Obama and his agenda, there are people with whom it is impossible to reason. Conservative commentators keep making antivenin for the poisonous speculation about motivation that masquerades as analysis in militantly progressive circles,…
Without Warning by John Birmingham (Del Rey, 528 pages, $26) What would happen if most of the people in the United States, together with those in southern Canada and northern Mexico, were suddenly killed? That is the question asked and…
One thing I learned on Chincoteague Island last week is that Chesapeake Bay breezes do not impede the mosquitoes that congregate one or two blocks inland after a hard rain soaks back roads made from dirt and crushed seashells. Walking…
In an essay for the New York Post published on the opening weekend of the film Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Kyle Smith thumped the teenage wizard and his creator more than either deserved. “Is there any children’s writer…
