Selwyn Duke

A Socialist by Any Other Name

One of the consequences of being right in an age of lies is that it brands you as a radical. Remember that being an extremist doesn't mean you're wrong, but simply that your views deviate greatly from those of the mainstream.

The Crime of Being White

Just recently I wrote a piece about "more" Keith John Sampson, a college student who was charged with “racial harassment” for reading an anti-Ku Klux Klan book. Not surprisingly, the article evoked a great response, including emails from those with their own stories to tell about persecution inspired by what I will call caucaphobia.

Why Psychology Does More Harm Than Good

In his book The Future of an Illusion, Sigmund Freud said of religion and morality,

When Will We Admit the Truth About Barack Obama?

If you interview someone for a job, you’ll expect him to tell you what you want to hear. There’ll be a façade, and his darker side will remain well-hidden.

Unfair and Unbalanced

The phrase “fair and balanced” certainly has a positive connotation. It is thought the greatest quality a news outlet can possess; it has even become a motto of the Fox News Network. Yet I don’t find Fox very balanced at all.

What should our reaction be when others pray for our conversion?

There recently was a story about a German Jewish leader, Charlotte Knobloch, who criticized Pope Benedict XVI for allowing a traditional Easter prayer that calls for the conversion of the Jewish people.

Cultural Affirmative Action

In a way, I prefer the old, overt affirmative action. While it was government-sanctioned discrimination, at least it was, in some measure, more honest than our cultural affirmative action.

Why toll roads are absolutely the worst way to raise revenue

You’re driving north on the New Jersey Turnpike (I-95), heading toward the Big Apple. Cruising along, you pass exits 7, then 8, 9, 10 and 11, and everything is fine.

Why Most Voters Shouldn’t Vote

Often the most fanciful ideas become the least questioned assumptions. In this election season a few have made themselves apparent, such as the notion that “change” is good by definition and “experience” is definitely good. Yet an even better example is the oft-repeated platitude that greater voter participation yields a healthier republic.

Conservatism is Dead; Long Live Conservatism?

It seems like just yesterday that many were reading liberalism’s epitaph. After the Reagan years, Republican Revolution of 1994, retreat of the gun-control hordes after Al Gore’s 2000 defeat and George W. Bush’s two successful presidential runs, many thought conservatism was carrying the day.

The Wrath of John

Writing in the New York Post, columnist John Hurt warns of the obvious. John McCain may be campaigning as a conservative, says he, but once in office the senator will show his true colors and take a sharp left turn. Hurt opines:

The Clintons, Race, and the 50-year-old Calculation

Since I think the Clintons would probably sell their souls and firstborn for another White House tenure, the idea they would play the race card raises no eyebrow here.

Election Year Nonsense

To use a play on Winston Churchill’s cynical words, the best argument against democracy is a five-minute perusal of election coverage. Another way to put it – at risk of sounding trite – is if it weren’t for nonsense, it wouldn’t make any sense at all. Yet, if being trite were a sin, most presidential aspirants would languish in political purgatory.

Hoisted With Their Politically-correct Petards

What goes around certainly does come around. The first black president’s wife isn’t black enough to be immune from charges of bigotry.

Trying to Kill the Immigration Card

With the victories of Mike Huckabee and John McCain in the first two primary contests and Mitt Romney’s failures prior to Michigan, a fiction is being bandied about: The anti-amnesty position isn’t playing well in Peoria.

The Race for the American Mind

Last year’s scamnesty bill had widespread support among the powers-that-be, with the president, the Democrat majority and mainstream media all singing its praises. Yet it went down to defeat, slain by a new-media coalition of talk radio and blogosphere warriors. Working tirelessly to expose the truth and rally the grassroots, they became a David who slew a Goliath.

The Plastic Lady

The pundits were writing Plastic Lady's epitaph, Pointing to lines going down on a graph. She had a bad finish out west a little ways; To socialist Utopians, it was the end of days.

The Church of Huck: Growing Government in the Name of Religion

There is a candidate in the presidential race who has a serious religion problem. No, it’s not Mormon Mitt or recently-religious Rudy. It is Mike Huckabee.

The Huckabee Hustle

When evangelicals embraced Jimmy Carter during the 1976 presidential campaign, they didn’t know he would repudiate the Southern Baptist Convention a generation later. Today the very same constituency has glommed onto Mike Huckabee, and I can’t help but lament how history truly does repeat itself.

Al Gore Opens Mouth, Increases Carbon Footprint

--Satire-- Speaking today to COOL-IT (Communists for Only Onerous and Lofty Industrial Taxation) in Nome, Alaska, former vice-president Al Gore criticized the United States’ failure to adequately address climate change. Mr. Gore warned of future consequences of inaction while emphasizing that we have already felt the effects of a lamentably low suicide rate. Gore mentioned the extinction of species, the melting of the polar ice caps, and his loss of Florida in the 2000 presidential election. Said Gore,