David P. Goldman

I’ve already had several complaints about bad taste in this post at the First Thoughts blog. Perhaps it will go down better with this . . . . Continue Reading »

A Saudi court has ruled in favor of the public display of a crucifix , despite a Kingdom-wide ban on Christian symbols. The only proviso is that a beheaded human body has to be attached to it: RIYADH (Reuters) - A Saudi court of cassation upheld a ruling to behead and crucify a 22-year-old man . . . . Continue Reading »

My essay “Sacred Music, Sacred Time” in the November issue of First Things stirred up a hornets’ nest at the MusicaSacra Forum. I joined the discussion and the hornets reverted to a discourse that, at the conclusion, was almost amiable. The issue of contention was my passing . . . . Continue Reading »

Unlike Joe Black, the Angel of Death in a dreadful 1998 Brad Pitt vehicle, Prof. Bill Black is a real rather than a figurative Grim Reaper, at least where white-collar criminals are concerned. The former bank regulator, now a University of Missouri Professor, was the main narrator of  this . . . . Continue Reading »

Escalating violence against Egyptian Coptic Christians coincides with a hardening of lines inside Egypt’s banned Muslim fundamentalist organization, the Muslim Brotherhood (Hamas is officially the Gaza branch of the MB).From a poster at this blog’s Forum:Egypt (AINA) — . . . . Continue Reading »

No more Mr. Nice Guy. Over at Asia Times Online this morning, I devoted my “Spengler” essay to the “idiot twins of American idealism.”Former president George W Bush thought that the United States could turn Kabul into Peoria, the archetypal American city in the state of . . . . Continue Reading »

I propose a neologism, “to stiggle,” meaning to make uneconomic loans for political reasons, in honor of Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz. If only we had nationalized the banks, he complains, we would have been able to force the banks to make uneconomic loans that they did not wish to . . . . Continue Reading »

Peggy Noonan asks why the clever young people in charge of the Obama administration fail to notice how much the rest of us are hurting:When I see those in government, both locally and in Washington, spend and tax and come up each day with new ways to spend and tax—health care, cap and trade, . . . . Continue Reading »

What is sacred music? If we simply mean music that assists liturgy or prayer, the category includes Protestant hymns, Christian rock, church chant, musical aids for the memorization of sacred texts, and countless other kinds of music. Much music provides indispensable assistance to divine service, . . . . Continue Reading »

It’s been said before, but it’s worth rubbing in the fact that every economic recovery since Reagan started with small business. The numbers suggest that small business is getting killed. Commercial and industrial loans are still shrinking at the fastest rate on record. I just posted the . . . . Continue Reading »