David P. Goldman

“Why do men chase women? Because they want to live forever,” said Rose Castorini in Moonstruck. Falling in love”really falling in love as opposed to going through the motions”means finding immortality through the mediation of the beloved. No clearer example of this can be found than Dante’s love of Beatrice, the Florentine girl he claimed to have met twice… . Continue Reading »

Today’s Spengler essay at “Asia Times Online” addresses the decline of Arab Christianity and the causes of the extreme rancor that Arab Christians often express towards the Jewish State. (Note: The blurb makes it seem as if I am attacking Israel — quite the opposite. It . . . . Continue Reading »

Asia Times Online today has a guest column by one Raja Karthikeya arguing in full seriousness that war between Iran and Pakistan is possible. He writes,Far from the headlines of the mainstream media, the border between Iran and Pakistan is heating up to epic proportions. In recent months, . . . . Continue Reading »

In the absence of a clear policy alternative (or even a muddy alternative) to Obama, conservatives have taken to their rocking chairs, waiting for Obama to fail so that a repentant populace will come back to them. The fact that Obama’s approval rating fell slightly below the 50% mark in one of . . . . Continue Reading »

After my note the other day on the editing of the Kaddish prayer by an odious West Coast rabbi, a reader observed that clergy  of numerous denominations are tweaking prayers to suit their political or other agendas regularly. Why not — the reader craftily suggests — put together a . . . . Continue Reading »

A friend in Turkey calls my attention to a dramatic reform of the Turkish education system favoring graduates of Islamic religious high schools, calling it the most important developing in the country since 1923:ANKARA, July 22 (AFP)—Turkey’s Islamist-rooted government Wednesday . . . . Continue Reading »

A canonical Jewish joke tells of the Jewish family in the old country many years ago that invites a poor man to Sabbath dinner. The hostess brings out a dish of smoked whitefish, and the poor man proceeds to wolf it down. Chagrined, the hostess says, “You know, whitefish is very . . . . Continue Reading »

M.K. Bhadrakumar, my colleague at Asia Times Online, must be the world’s most infuriating journalist. A former Indian ambassador to Turkey and various points in Central Asia, he can be counted on to take Russia’s side on any issue that might arise. His rambling portmanteau reports read . . . . Continue Reading »

Critics often use the Bible to help explain literature, but, on rarer occasion, literature may help us to understand the Bible. Scores of studies examine the biblical influence on Goethe’s Faust, which—in the prologue, set in heaven—paraphrases the Book of Job. Job is a difficult book . . . . Continue Reading »

Something like Civil War re-enactments, but with a great deal more violence, Rome plays host to an annual replay of the barbarian invasion every summer. Precisely when every Roman who can decamps for beach or mountains, the world’s tourists descend on the city in impossibly large numbers. . . . . Continue Reading »