A Norwegian Thatcher?
STANDPOINT, December 2008
Selected older pieces, by category
Note:
The flags indicate the languages that pieces are written in. (I'm
American, so I use Old Glory for English. Sorry, Brits!)
Click to go to: ISLAM AND THE WEST CHRISTIANITY LITERARY COMMENT GAY LIVES, GAY RIGHTS TRAVEL & MEMOIR
HISTORY, POLITICS AND CULTURE
Most recent first
A Norwegian Thatcher?
STANDPOINT, December 2008
"...the Thatcher-like brio with which
Jensen defies PC pieties sets her apart."
Why we need more leaders like Vaclav Havel PAJAMAS
MEDIA, 6 June 2008
"...it is vital that free people be familiar
with and honor the examples of those valiant few who, living under
totalitarianism, have stood up to it with a courage that todays appeasers
of Islam could hardly imagine."
The way of all flesh HUDSON REVIEW, Autumn 2007
"The
cumulative effect [of Seven Up] is, indeed, poetic. Growing out of a
program designed by socialists to promote a collectivist worldview, the
series might almost have been created by libertarians to underscore the
singularity and integrity of the human person."
Staten er overalt! MINERVA, January 2007
"Jeg flyttet til Norge 1. april 1999. Cirka 2. april
begynte nordmenn fortelle meg hvor vidunderlig deres soialdemokrati var."
In the shadow of the Gulag: Tony Judt's Europe
THE HUDSON REVIEW, Winter 2007
"Judt expresses the hope that the European public will
develop a 'patriotism for Europe'; but given how the EU works...the 'patriotism'
he longs for would have to be founded...on a deference not unlike that of a
serf toward his feudal lord."
On the golden age of American songwriting
HUDSON REVIEW, Autumn 2005
"Dylan and Lennon were indeed part of a musical revolution.
But what did they overthrow?
They
overthrew something that is now known (though not, presumably, at Rolling
Stone) as the golden age of American songwriting."
On the wealth of nations NEW YORK TIMES, April
17, 2005
"Why do Norwegians have such a wealthy
self-image?"
On Queen Christina of Sweden
NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, November 7,
2004
"It's not exactly the image Greta Garbo tried to
convey in the 1933 movie, but in Veronica Buckley's vividly persuasive new
biography, Queen Christina of Sweden (1626-89) comes across as the Pippi
Longstocking of her time -- a footloose, strong-willed, mischief-making,
utterly idiosyncratic Swedish imp."
On anti-American caricatures
DAGBLADET, August 1, 2004 (IN NORWEGIAN)
"...i Vest-Europa blir Amerikas problemer
ofte grotesk overdrevet og positive sider feid av banen, mens det styggeste
ved andre land blir bagatellisert eller oversett."
On the early 1960s
WILSON QUARTERLY, Spring 2004
"...the attractiveness of
the early 1960s is bound up to a considerable extent with the periods
naivet, its innocence as to the moral and strategic complexities of the
projects it was undertaking so eagerly."
New York Times columnist David Brooks on this essay.
On Rick Santorum SALON.COM
(use Salon's "free day pass")
"Santorum's
remarks conveyed a staggering disdain not only for homosexuals but for
America's founding ideals."
On David Brock
WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD, March 17, 2002
"He quotes the worst things critics said
about him, and agrees with every word. In a strange way, it's both too much
and, somehow, not enough."
On
PBS
THE NEW REPUBLIC, March 27, 1995
"If Congress pulls the plug on
public television, what will we be losing?"
On Peter Noll's In the Face of Death
NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, January
21, 1990
"While this book may not transfigure its readers'
views of death, as Noll wished, it is nonetheless a remarkable piece of
writing - an evocative, harrowing, maddening and ultimately poignant
self-portrait of an enigmatic soul in extremis."