Wasn't second hand but admittedly years ago, pre Buckley. As a youngster I liked the books. Read them years later (still a long time ago) and found the characters wooden but I think her whole shtick is shallow enough so that you can fill the vessel as you want, sort of like hope and change.

Most aren't catholics but many, like Northeastern liberals who decended from Puritans have filled their spiritual vacuum with a flabby Marxism.. The Soviets infiltrated seminaries, concerned scientists, protestant ministries.the Vatican, (this all became quite clear when the archives were opened up) they recruited and paid, subverted, and seduced many other than their own agents. Where were they to go when their Soviet god died? They stayed, or moved to foundations, educational institutions, the media and into the enviornmental movement and with the embarassment of Soveit totalitarianism and the gulag gone, they operate far more freely and now have a new socialist promise land. Right here. Of course most on the left are just fools.

Ex Catholics and evil mirror image should be clear enough. John Paul brought communism down. Ratzinger cleaned up Liberation theoology, and now as Benedict is leading the charge. What is your point?

As one currency crashes another must soar. The yuan, gold? He'll be on top of it. Beck , our Soros watcher, said he bought 11 tons of gold a few years ago. That is not a bad start

There are more ex Catholics than catholics and as former Congressman Bob Dornan pointed out to me, the radical marxists on the Hill, were almost all ex Catholics. Catholics don't fall into non belief, they fall into collective social justice, collective redemption, collective compassion. They become marxists; it's all there, a heirarchy of authority with a trinity, priesthood and magesterium. It's the evil mirror image. Perhaps that is what the "beast" has always meant.

I don't think so. He is unconcerned about others; it's all part of the game and his game always ends in vast gains for himself. It is that his game is finance not making or building anything real, but superman, godless, an end to himself indeed. But I'm not a fan of Rand, she was right about the collective and what Fr Sirico calls desiccated compassion, but she was a self absorbed kook and it was one of Wm Buckley’s great contributions to conservatism to extract folks from her influence. The founders and Toqueville were right about the importance of virtue to freedom.

Why isn't this article obvious to everyone? Well, we know why politician’s still push Keynesian economics they get to spend the money, and we know why political machines support it because they get to help, and cronies and welfare dependants get the handouts. But what about ordinary taxpaying people; even liberal New Yorkers work and pay taxes, why do they believe the Keynesian nonsense? Any liberals out there have an answer?

What is amazing is that a very large number of New Yorkers go along with this insanity, because, well, sugary drinks are bad for you. This is the intellectual depth of our great liberal city, which is probably the most food crazed, materialistic, self absorbed city on earth. But they know enough not to smoke or drink cokes. I must admit cigars and brandy are far superior although a bit more expensive.

Soros has pulled out all the stops to help Obama. Why? Is it just the challenge of sinking the dollar or the fun of the game of king maker? Or does he see himself as an Ayn Rand superman, the ultimate nihilist, no obligations, no concerns, no responsibility, just the will to power? just pure evil? Probably all of the above and we have to deal with him somehow.

Demographics are delayed reactions to economic incentives and to accumulated cultural attitudes which are also related to past economics. Since future economics cannot be foreseen, the article makes almost no sense. We can't know. What we can know is that if we return to constitutional government and reduce welfare in all its forms to miniscule state level programs, the melting pot will resume and it won't matter where the immigration comes from. On the other hand if we continue to crush the entrepreneurial spirit, and expand the welfare state, the nanny state and the crony capitalist state, we will attract the wrong kind of immigrants, won’t acculturate them and will splinter and die.