"I found it [Why America is losing the intelligence war ] extraordinarily good ..." - David Ignatius, The Washington Post "One writer has almost single-handedly raised [Asia Times Online]to a must read position for Internet pundits and it is all thanks to a pseudonymous but brilliant writer calling him or herself 'Spengler'." - blog-poster "Limbic"

What is American culture?
How do Americans look at the world? Is there a characteristic American way of thinking, an American culture? Through what filter does information reach their brain, and by what mechanism do they respond to it? (Nov 18, '03)

Why America is losing the intelligence war
Unique among America's foreign conflicts, the so-called "war on terror" is an intelligence war. That bodes ill for America, because an intelligence war is the kind America is least capable of  fighting, for reasons inherent in the country's character. That is one more reason why Islamic radicalism yet may defeat the West. (Nov 11, '03)

What the Jews won't tell you
Contrary to popular belief among many Jews, anti-Semitism can't be blamed on a chemical imbalance in the brain. Hatred of the Jews stems from profound roots that will not, unfortunately, disappear with a few sessions on a psychiatrist's couch. (Nov 3, '03) 

Mahathir is right: Jews do rule the world
Just because you are paranoid it doesn't prove that they are not out to get you. Paranoid, to be sure, was Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's allegation that the "Jews rule this world by proxy" on October 16. Whether Dr Mahathir himself is paranoid, or whether he adapted his words to the paranoia of his audience makes little difference. Through the twisted prism of paranoia, the facts on the ground do indeed suggest that the Jews rule the world. (Oct 28, '03)

How 'cherry-picking' militant Islam can win
Do you wonder what President George W Bush reads at night? Westerns? Methodist sermons? His favorite, it seems, are popular military histories by Professor Victor Davis Hanson, who reads classics in the California state university system. Hanson now advises the Bush administration, reported the London Times on September 20. ( Oct 3, '03)

You say you want a reformation?
Neo-conservatives in Washington think neither of accommodating the claims of radical Islam nor of a war against Islam, but rather of an "Islamic Reformation". The difficulties arise in deciding just how this reformation is going to take place.  (Aug. 4, '03)

Why radical Islam might defeat the West
The day is coming when great nations will find their numbers dwindling from census to census; when the six-roomed villa will rise in price above the family mansion; when the viciously reckless poor and the stupidly pious rich will delay the extinction of the race only by degrading it; whilst the boldly prudent, the thriftily selfish and ambitious, the imaginative and poetic, the lovers of money and solid comfort, the worshippers of success, of art, and of love, will all oppose to the Force of Life the device of sterility. (Jul. 8, '03)

More killing, please!
History, most notably the American Civil War, teaches us that most of the killing in war typically occurs long after rational calculation would call for the surrender of the losing side. In which case, for there to be peace in the Middle East, many more lives will have to be lost. (Jun 11, '03)

Why Europe chooses extinction
Demographics is destiny. Never in recorded history have prosperous and peaceful nations chosen to disappear from the face of the earth. Yet that is what the Europeans have chosen to do. Back in 1348 Europe suffered the Black Death, a combination of bubonic plague and likely a form of mad cow disease, observes American Enterprise Institute scholar Ben Wattenberg. (Apr. 8, '03)

The sacred heart of darkness
What is it about the French? Even Thomas Friedman of the New York Times, who wears a "world citizen" badge on his tweed jacket like a ski pass, has had enough. He excoriates French "duplicity" at the United Nations, adding, "France is so caught up with its need to differentiate itself from America to feel important, it's become silly." (Feb. 11, '03) 

Do not click on this link
Most of us play a game with the unpleasantnesses of history: If only this, or if only that, terrible consequences might have been avoided. Sometimes I muse that if a few clever people simply had kept their mouths shut, the world might have been a better place. The old Viennese cafe quip (quoted by Paul Johnson in his History of the Jews) comes to mind: "Anti-Semitism wasn't getting anywhere until the Jews got behind it." (Oct. 29, '02)

Singing in the (cold) shower
Hey you! Stop your sobbing! The stock market crash is the best thing that could have happened to America. (Jul 22, '02)

Internet stocks and the failure of youth culture
The Internet has become routine, mourns a front-page commentary in the New York Times' August 25 Week in Review. Despite the hopes of certain "cultural critics" that the Internet would "democratize media" with its low cost of entry, the dystopian vision of a cultural cybersphere has crumbled. The Internet remains useful as an electronic document retrieval system and electronic bulletin board. (Aug. 31, '01)

In defense of genocide
Spengler cannot wish you a happy New Year, but will go so far as to wish you a complete one. Speaking of which, President Clinton has signed a treaty to create a World Court for the prosecution of crimes against humanity. Because the American Senate rather would eat nails than sign this document, it is a mere sentimental gesture, not an act of polity. (Jan 4, '01)