Tom Piatak

Tom Piatak

Tom Piatak writes from Cleveland, Ohio.

The National Review Sensitivity Cruise

As many readers of Taki's Mag know, America has recently experienced a nasty outbreak of white racism. While the hate-mongering culprits have been duly punished, it is clear that this stamp-out-the-brushfire approach is hardly a long-term solution. At best, white racism merely crawls underground ...

Far From the Sea of Tranquility

July 16, 2009 marks the fortieth anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11, which led four days later to perhaps the signature American accomplishment of the twentieth century, the landing at the Sea of Tranquility by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin and Armstrong’s famous “one small step ...

Are We All Liberals Now?

Kevin Gutzman, citing leftist historian Louis Hartz"€™ The Liberal Tradition in America, first informed Takimag readers that liberalism is the only political tradition in the United States, and that this was a "€œgood thing."€ Gutzman then restated his thesis over Chris Kopff's objections, ...

What Notre Dame Taught

Notre Dame taught a clear lesson today, in its decision to have President Obama as a commencement speaker and to award him an honorary degree. That lesson is this:  American politicians can freely embrace abortion and face no negative consequences at all. Any pro-abortion politician who climbs ...

The Whipping Boy

Since the fall, auto sales have collapsed. This collapse has affected foreign manufacturers as well as American ones, and many countries are providing government loans and other assistance to their manufacturers. According to an Associated Press story from March, the European Investment Bank is ...

A Saint on Capitol Hill

When one reads the new atheists, one gets the impression that the influence of Christianity has been entirely baleful, that Christianity’s contribution to morality has been entirely negative, and that the United States, far from being a Christian country historically, is really the finest ...

How Modern Wolves Attack

In his homily at his inaugural Mass as Pope, Benedict XVI asked Catholics to “Pray for me, that I may not flee for fear of the wolves.”  The media firestorm over Benedict’s decision to lift the excommunication of the four bishops consecrated without papal approval in 1988 by ...

Israel and Us

If I had to live in the Middle East, I would want to live in Israel, a modern, democratic country with a productive economy, including a burgeoning high-tech sector, and a rich cultural and intellectual life.  There is much to admire in Israel, a dynamic and prosperous nation created in part ...

Where Have You Gone, Sister Aloysius?

When my wife suggested that we go see Doubt, John Patrick Shanley’s film adaptation of his Tony-award winning play, I was skeptical. I never saw the play, but I knew that it was about a priest suspected by a nun of molesting a teenage boy at the parochial school she ran, and I didn’t ...

Catching the Christmas Spirit

When I was young, there was much talk of “the Christmas spirit,” and I’ve always been fortunate enough to begin experiencing the joy appropriate for this time of year sometime before the big day.  This year, that happened this past Sunday.  Going to church in the morning ...


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