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Thomas Fleming is the editor of Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture and president of The Rockford Institute. He is the author of several books, including The Morality of Everyday Life.
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Articles and Posts by Thomas Fleming:

  • I Need to Take a Fifth(1)

    If we lived in a real (not to say free) country, then we would be reading something like the following exchanges:

  • After the Fall(22)

    Obama administration officials have convenient ways of evading responsibility.  Hilary made her getaway before some of the truth about Benghazi began to ooze out from the cracks, and Holder not only has recused himself from the investigation of the AP story but he blames subordinates for all his woes.  Best of all, perhaps, is the evader-in-chief who now claims that he always called the Benghazi attack a terrorist incident.

  • Ella, again(0)

    Let me second Tom Piatak.  I think the best way to start appreciating Ella is by getting (off iTunes, for example) the various songbooks she recorded–Cole Porter, Gershwin, Rogers and Hart.  In these she sings mainly straight without a lot of jazzing around.  My wife generally dislikes most jazz (except George Shearing and a few others) but she is always asking me to play the lady with the beautiful voice.

  • Chechen Surprise(15)

    Last night’s shoot-out in Boston must have brought as much joy to the Kremlin as it has dampened the spirits of  the White House.  Thrilled with the announcement that the primary suspects in the Boston Marathon Massacre were white, anti-American leftists were hoping for the big score, another Tim McVeigh to prove that Tea Partiers and Militiamen are violent terrorists.

  • Conservatives Back Gay Marriage(44)

     

    A great deal of ink is being spilled on the two Supreme Court cases taking up same-sex marriage, but the effect is rather like the ink released by a cuttlefish to cloud the vision of its enemies.  To anticipate my conclusion, let me go on record as saying that family-values conservatives have done vastly more harm than good.  Their arguments and policies lead only to one end: the nationalization of marriage and the family.  Why does the left always win?  Because the conservatives do their work for them.

  • Serbian Tutor Wanted in Rockford(0)

    Serbian Language Tutor wanted for 1-2 hours weekly of study and conversational practice.  Lack of English proficiency is not a problem.  Sessions will be held in our office.

    Please send  resume and  stipend requirement to serbian@chroniclesmagazine.org.

     

  • The Cowboys and Wyatt Earp(40)

    Arrayed against the Earps in Tombstone was a loose and constantly shifting set of alliances known as “The Cowboys.”  Eastern journalists, looking for sensational material, followed the Cowboys’ enemies and rivals in describing them as an organized gang, but no one could quite figure out who the gang’s leader was—Ike Clanton, Bill Brocius, or John Ringold. 

  • The RSO: Antidote to Rockford’s Misery(6)

    On Saturday night, my wife and I were guests of our friends Jim and Betsy  Easton, at a performance of Handel’s Messiah.  The concert was a joint production of the Rockford Symphony Orchestra and the Mendelssohn Club chorus.  The four professional soloists from out of town sang beautifully, but it was the orchestra and chorus that made  greatest impression made on us.  I congratulate RSO conductor Steven Larsen for a fine performance but even more for making great strides in improving the quality of the ensemble.  The playing was tight, and Larsen kept up a sprightly tempo appropriate for Baroque music.  The Chorus (directed ably by Marti Bein) were impressive both for their power (when it was called for) and for their controlled restraint.

  • Immer Dummer(0)

    Just when I was beginning to think the neoconservatives had reached the nadir of ignorance with people like Jonah Goldberg and David Frum, along comes Harvard grad Bill Kristol to flaunt his ignorance.  Bill was so thrilled that someone had put up these mock lyrics to a Harvard Fight song:  Illegitimum non carborundum that he posted a link on his blog.

    Archons of Athens!

    Some old geezers will remember the gag Latin, “Illegitimis non carborundum est,” facetiously translated as “Don’t let the bastards wear you down.”  The joke lay in giving it the appearance of the gerundive of obligation with the subject (illegitimis) in the dative case.  But, what had been a semi-literate gag in the 1960′s is now impenetrable to the brain trust at the Weekly Standard.  Dative shmative.

    I remember once telling Pat Buchanan about some political prediction the young Kristol had made.  Pat laughed his laugh, saying “That guy–he never gets anything right.”

    Pat was right.  If we do not laugh at these poor fellows, we shall have to cry for the Americans who actually read them.  If only their mistakes were confined to the grammar of dead languages and did not extend to the grammar of dead Americans and Iraqis.

  • Unpatriotic Liars(0)

    Here is poor David Frum pretending to have second thoughts about the Iraq War for which he shilled.  Obviously, the only people who are capable of having  second thoughts had to have first thoughts, and there is no sign that Frum has ever done anything but pound a keyboard and recycle other people’s lies.

    http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2013/03/18/the-speechwriter-inside-the-bush-administration-during-the-iraq-war.html

    The friend who sent me the link queried: “Lemme see.  To whom does he NOT apologize?”

    A halfway decent person who had worked for a propaganda regime responsible for so much devastation would have trouble sleeping at night.  Be assured:  Frum gets ten hours of untroubled sleep every night.  For neoconservatives, unconciousness is always just minutes away.