Sydney Carton, Natasha Rostova, Tom Joad, Raylan Givens, Phileas Fogg, Rutherford Calhoun, Skink, Atticus Finch, Hercule Poirot, Long John Silver, Tom Jones, Miss Jane Pittman, Scarlett O'Hara, Jackson Lamb, Madame Defarge, Sir Harry Flashman, George Smiley, Sam Weller, Hannibal Lecter, Sam Spade, Huckleberry Finn, Jeeter Lester, Jack Aubrey, Uriah Heep, Augustus McCrae, Joel Cairo, Woodrow Call, Fagan, Donald "Sully" Sullivan, Rub Squeers, Mr. Micawber, Becky Sharp, Flem Snopes, Sherman McCoy, Sherlock Holmes, Count Dracula, Pierre Lambert, Captain Ahab, Edmond Dantes, Shane, Smike, Dirk Pitt, Pierre Bezukhov, Harriet and Guy Pringle, Robinson Crusoe, Anton Rider, Quasimodo, Ben Gunn, Hondo, Alec Leamas, Arkady Renko, Edgar J. Watson, Aurelio Zen, Blue Duck, Ma Kettle, Pearly Soames, Perry Mason, Stephen Maturin, Queequeg, Penrod Schofield, Reverend Reginald Bacon, Rhett Butler, Jay Gatsby, Adrian Mole, Ebadiah Slope, Elmer Gantry, Father Hugh Kennedy, Boo Radley, Joe (The Fat Boy), Philip Marlowe, John Galt, Toad of Toad Hall, Jack Torrance, Victor Frankenstein, Sam Fong, Florentino Ariza, Don Corleone, Wackford Squeers, Mr. Bumble, Rooster Cogburn, Bilbo Baggins, Captain Nemo, Jack Price, Don Quixote, Charlie Carmody, Norman Bates, James Bond, Tarzan, Peter Pan, Rip Van Winkle, Piscine Molitor "Pi" Patel, Dr. Doolittle, Holly Golightly, Ebenezer Scrooge, Gandalf, Dirk Struan, Oliver Twist, Dr. Reo Symes, Casper Gutman, Prince Yakimov, John Blackthorne, Claude Lebel, Josef Roubiček, Sammy Glick, Captain Queeg, Dobie Gillis, Auntie Mame, Charlie Chan, Dr. No, Frank Skeffington, Francis Prescott, Jamie McPheeters, Italo Bombolini, Passepartout, Winston Smith, Miss Jean Brodie, and, of course, Julian Fabius.
Saturday, October 31, 2026
Happy Halloween!
The scariest novel I have ever read is Ghost Story by Peter Straub.
[Photo by Maryam Sicard at Unsplash+]
Friday, October 30, 2026
The Busy Mr. Bate
It does not surprise me that The Man Who Never Sleeps is also an artist.
Compared to him, I am a towering castle of sloth.
First Paragraph
Shortly before Easter in the year 1188 CE, an English archbishop of Canterbury went to Wales on a recruitment drive. Thousands of miles away, war had broken out in the eastern Mediterranean and the archbishop, whose name was Baldwin of Forde, had been tasked with recruiting several thousand able-bodied fighting men to join an army that was being deployed there.
- From Crusaders: The Epic History of the Wars for the Holy Lands by Dan Jones
Thursday, October 29, 2026
The Global Antimanagerial Revolution
Elite rule within liberal democracies has been noted for many decades, with few analyses more insightful on this score than James Burnham's 1941 study, The Managerial Revolution (which influenced, among others, George Orwell as he was writing 1984). Burnham described this revolution as a different kind of realization of a Marxist vision: the propertied (aristocratic) class was in the process of being replaced by a new class who perceived that power lay no longer in static property but in the manipulation of ideas and production processes. The new "managerial elite" would maintain the appearance of what Burnham called "Parliamentary control," but power would be pooled in public and semipublic agencies and bureaus. The new ruling elite would govern a state-managed economy in which a nation's (and, eventually, the world's) wealth would necessarily flow through these agencies, enriching the managerial class. The simultaneous cry against the corruption of Washington, D.C. - surrounded by so many of the nation's wealthiest counties - and the lack of any national dedication among ostensibly American corporations was a reflection of a revolution from below against the "managerial elites" Burnham described. What is conventionally called a populist revolution is better described as a global antimanagerial revolution.
- Patrick J. Deneen, Why Liberalism Failed
Poems, Novels, and Values
I was thumbing through an old and treasured book that I probably snared at a rummage sale while in grade school: One Hundred and One Famous Poems.
It was published in Chicago by The Cable Company in 1926. In addition to some very nice poems, it includes the Declaration of Independence; the Gettysburg Address; President Lincoln's Letter to Mrs. Bixby; the Magna Charta; The Ten Commandments; and Patrick Henry's "Give me liberty or give me death" speech.
It also has "Rules for Choosing Books" which provide guidelines for parents. Among them are:
"Does this book lay stress on villainy, deception or treachery?"
"Are all the incidents wholesome, probable and true to life?"
"Does it show young people contemptuous toward their elders and successfully opposing them?"
"Do the young characters in the book show respect for teachers and others in authority?"
"Are these characters the kind of young people you wish your children to associate with?"
"Does the book speak of and describe pranks, practical jokes and pieces of thoughtless and cruel mischief as though they were funny and worthy of imitation?"
"Is the English good and is the story written in good style?"
Although I have a great deal of sympathy for the character-building nature of the guidelines, I can think of many good books that could fall below their standards.
How would Oliver Twist fare? Or Huckleberry Finn? Or Treasure Island?
Wednesday, October 28, 2026
Elon and His Inquisitors
Their entire system is built to neutralize the people who disrupt.
The result: where we should have 15 to 20 universal geniuses alive at the same time, we have one.
Just one.
And you want to put him in prison.
You summon him before judges, you raid his offices, you insult him morning, noon and night, you dream of breaking up his companies. The man who lands rockets vertically and wants to take humanity to Mars.
You're disgusting.
History won't remember your names. It remembers Galileo, not the inquisitors who tried to silence him.
- Brivael Le Pogam
They're Coming for Your Children
"We'll get you through your children!" - Comment that Allen Ginsberg made to Norman Podhoretz in 1958
More information is surfacing on what many of the Left refer to as "Adultism."
A few books:
- Introduction to Adultism
- Adultism: A Critical Introduction to Discrimination Against Children
- Trust Kids! Stories on Youth Autonomy and Confronting Adult Supremacy
- What is Adultism?
- Challenging Adultism: Centering Youth as Educational Decision Makers
Tuesday, October 27, 2026
Car Shopping?
The first fully electric Bentley - the Torcal - will be making an introductory appearance at the 15th annual Bentley Scottsdale Polo Championship on November 7.
It will be the only Torcal in the country.
True
Writing criticism is to writing fiction and poetry as hugging the shore is to sailing in the open sea.
- John Updike
[Photo by Getty Images at Unsplash+]
The Way It's Supposed to Be
Nicholas Bate: The Outrageous MBA.
[Read about his background. The man knows his stuff.]
Mark Steyn Was Ahead of His Time
He was an early voice on the dangers facing Europe. Don't miss his books.
Monday, October 26, 2026
Modern Times
The last time I replied to a phone message from my health insurance company - a message described as "important" - I got to speak to a very nice man in India who connected me to my local pharmacy so I could refill a prescription that was already being refilled.
Starting the Lunacy
Forty years ago, there were no lawsuits over hot coffee. Such claims were tossed out long before a jury was selected because judges acted as gatekeepers. Today, judges are reluctant to take on this role; they act more like referees. Any claims that can make it over a low threshold of conceivability can go before a jury.
- Philip K. Howard, "Put the Judges Back in Justice, New York Times editorial page, 4/3/95.
What Would You Have Told Pontius Pilate?
On the surface, Pilate's Magician is about a Roman lawyer's review of the most famous trial in the history of the world.
In reality, it is about much more.
Check out the sample on Amazon.
First Paragraph
The grocery store on Uhuru Avenue (formerly Queensway) was owned by Sam Fong, a Chinese immigrant. They called him an immigrant; actually he had lived in East Africa longer than the Prime Minister, who was an African. But to be a Chinaman in a country of seven million Africans is not easy: you stand out; the East cannot save you; you remain a visible immigrant all your born days and so do your children, and so do theirs.
- From Fong and the Indians by Paul Theroux
Sunday, October 25, 2026
Saturday, October 24, 2026
"They shall not pass."
My Substack column: "France Is in an Early Battle for Western Civilization."
[Photo by Pierre-Louis Mièze at Unsplash]
Part of Last Night and This Morning
In addition to preparing several drafts of a Substack essay, there was the surprisingly enjoyable chore of going through several years of The New Criterion and ripping out articles I want to save.
There were quite a few.
It's a great publication.
Friday, October 23, 2026
Thursday, October 22, 2026
White Guilt: European Style
Elsewhere, the (British) Library said that although the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge had expressed antislavery views himself and had recorded those views in his poetry he was on the blacklist nonetheless because he was recorded as having a nephew who lived in Barbados and worked closely with estates where there were slaves. The sins of the father is a familiar problem, but the sins of the people known to the nephew is a new form of associative guilt.
- Douglas Murray, The War on the West
Ira and Bill
Huffington Post in 2011: Former American Civil Liberties Union head Ira Glasser remembers William F. Buckley, Jr. An excerpt:
One more thing must be said, and it was his most attractive quality: he was, on a personal level, an uncommonly kind and gracious man, and a good and loyal friend. I cannot say I was his intimate friend, but in the years I knew him, I saw him on a great many occasions, as a dinner guest, a travel companion, a debating colleague and an adversary. I was there at many a salon, where he enjoyed a social evening of good food, drink and spirited discussion. I saw him with peers, and I saw him with employees. I saw how he behaved with me, and how he behaved with my wife. He was, unfailingly, kind, graceful, and attentive. As imperious as he could be -- and relished being -- in his public persona, that is how unassuming and sensitive to others he was privately. I have known more than a few people in my decades of public life who took exemplary positions on the abstract questions of human rights, but were terrible people privately. Buckley was the opposite: I deplored many of his public positions and thought their consequences cruel and insensitive; but in private he was wonderful and decent and generous to those around him. He was, therefore, a good friend, in a way I never imagined was possible when we first began our series of public policy debates over 30 years ago. I shall miss him.
Wednesday, October 21, 2026
Your Personal Compass
Nicholas Bate provides sound advice on setting your personal compass.
It's thought-provoking. I know of many activities that are highly enjoyable, but I am not sure how often I've reached the level of "fun."
I need to work on that.
A solution which is amusing in itself.
First Paragraph
One hour from Salt Lake City, in a Utah town called Eden, is a breathtaking vista of snow, trees, and sky called Powder Mountain. In 2013, a group of remarkable twentysomethings raised $40 million to purchase the 10,000-acre site. On it they're going to build an eco-retreat and second home (or third or fourth or fifth) for successful entrepreneurs who want to make the world better.
- From Never Eat Alone and Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time by Keth Ferrazzi (2014 edition)
Tuesday, October 20, 2026
Warnings Were Made
In 2021, dozens of retired generals and other high-ranking officers from the French army signed a joint letter warning that, unless the French government got control of the immigration and integration failures that had roiled their country, civil war was a real possibility. The government and media might have considered that these men had a point. But the French authorities took the other option, the same one chosen by governments across Europe: They shot the messengers. Not literally, in this case. They merely hounded the signatories, stripped many of them of their pensions, slandered them, and more. This is the modern equivalent of carrying out a punishment beating pour encourager les autres.
- Douglas Murray, France Stares Down the Abyss of History, The Free Press, October 19, 2026
[Photo by Lucas Lemoine at Unsplash]
Monday, October 19, 2026
Sunday, October 18, 2026
Saturday, October 17, 2026
Riots Throughout France Today
Where is the military?
A Gaullist government would have had troops on the streets weeks ago.
First Paragraph
Afterwards, when the world was exploding around him and the lethal blackbirds were massing on the climbing frame in the school playground, he felt annoyed with himself for forgetting the name of the BBC reporter, a woman, who had told him that his old life was over and a new, darker, existence was about to begin. She had called him at home on his private line without explaining how she got the number. "How does it feel," she asked him, "to know that you have just been sentenced to death by the Ayatollah Khomeini?" It was a sunny Tuesday in London but the question shut out the light. This is what he said, without really knowing what he was saying: "It doesn't feel good." This is what he thought: I'm a dead man. He wondered how many days he had left to live and thought the answer was probably a single-digit number. He put down the telephone and ran down the stairs from his workroom at the top of the narrow Islington row house where he lived. The living room windows had wooden shutters and, absurdly, he closed and barred them. Then he locked the front door.
- From Joseph Anton: A Memoir by Salman Rushdie
Friday, October 16, 2026
The Modern Churchman
An interesting excerpt from Decline and Fall, the 1928 novel by Evelyn Waugh:
Besides this, I have had a letter from Mr. Prendergast stating that he too wishes to resign his post. Apparently he has been reading a series of articles by a popular bishop and has discovered that there is a species of person called a 'Modern Churchman' who draws the full salary of a beneficed clergyman and need not commit himself to any religious belief. This seems to be a comfort to him, but it adds greatly to my own inconvenience.
Remember The Yellow Vest Protests?
Regarding the November 2018 "yellow vest" protests in France:
"Supported by a majority of French public opinion, it has brought together people from very different backgrounds: industrial workers, office workers, small business owners, farmers, young people, middle-aged members of the labor force, retired men and women. These ordinary people, mainly from the working class but in any case unprompted by class consciousness, all have the sense of having been demoted to the status of second-class citizens."
- From Twilight of the Elites: Prosperity, The Periphery, and the Future of France by Christophe Guilluy (2019)
Thursday, October 15, 2026
Please Distribute to All Presenters
Nicholas Bate has a key message: Presenting is not PowerPoint.
PowerPoint should be a last, not a first, resort.
Europe's Absence
What did the crowd of young people shout to Jacques Chirac in 2004, during the first visit by a French president to Algeria since decolonization? "Visas, visas." A malicious wit might say they drove us out and now they all want to come live with us! That does not cast doubt on the legitimacy of their independence, but it does explain this disturbing truth: Europe got over the loss of its colonies much more quickly than the colonies got over their loss of Europe.
- From The Tyranny of Guilt: An Essay on Western Masochism by Pascal Bruckner
Wednesday, October 14, 2026
A Cup of Ginger Tea
Ginger tea made with ground ginger is great for clearing the sinuses.
It's also a nice companion when you're setting priorities and analyzing issues.
I am sipping it while considering the role of literature in life.
More on that later.
[Photo by Milada Vigerova at Unsplash]
Tuesday, October 13, 2026
Upcoming Substack Topics
There will be some meaty subjects, of course, but the ones that often get the greatest attention are the equivalent of flowers, the view of a large meadow, or the preparation of a good cup of coffee.
Consider the prose but also consider the poetry.
Monday, October 12, 2026
The Red-Green Alliance
Spiked: Brendan O'Neill on the leftist-Islamist alliance to destroy Israel.
Michel Houellebecq was an early predictor in his novel, Submission.
Break Out
Kurt Harden at Cultural Offering has kindly reposted one of my blog posts from 2011.
I'm glad to see that its advice still holds up!
How Organizations "Work": Yes Minister
"Hacker himself processed events in a variety of ways, and the readers will have to make their own judgement as to whether any given statement represents
(a) what happened
(b) what he believed happened
(c) what he would like to have happened
(d) what he wanted others to believe happened
(e) what he wanted others to believe that he believed happened."
- From The Complete Yes Minister by Jonathan Lynn and Anthony Jay
A Roman Lawyer Gets an Unusual Assignment
My short and modest novel continues to get positive responses.
Although lawyers may be inclined to like it, it's written for everyone.
Be a rebel. Check it out in paperback or e-book.
[FYI: Most agents and publishers won't consider short novels. Period. The only exception is where the author is famous. One of the many things that should be changed in the publishing business.]
Sunday, October 11, 2026
Saturday, October 10, 2026
Europe Needs Nationalism
My Substack is up on why "European" is as meaningless as "South American."
Let Britain be Britain. Let France be France. And so on.
[Photo by Sebastien Gabriel at Unsplash.]
Friday, October 09, 2026
The Globalist War on Englishness
Writing in Spiked, Brendan O'Neill notes the war on English identity. An excerpt:
Yet [Suella] Braverman is raising an important question: if anyone can be English, doesn't that make Englishness meaningless? When an identity becomes too fluid, surely it dies? Like Braverman, I don't identify as English. I don't have a drop of English blood in my body and my family have been here for five minutes historically speaking. I tick White Irish on medical documents and census forms. It would be mental - not to mention rude - if I was to turn to some lad whose ancestors fought at Agincourt and say: 'I'm as English as you, mate.'
Thursday, October 08, 2026
A Famous Debate Switch
Wednesday, October 07, 2026
Mental Communism
- Brivael Le Pogam
Tuesday, October 06, 2026
Amid All of the Artificial Intelligence Talk
This is a time for us to be rehumanized; i.e. to rediscover what it means to be more than a success formula or a project completer.
What will this require?
More poetry, more beauty, more patience, and more attention to the intangibles.
It will require more time in the white spaces between the boxes on the org chart and, with that, a greater sense of what people want and what they fear.
When the Frost Is on the Punkin
This has become an Execupundit tradition:
Kent Risley with a marvelous recitation of the poem.
Monday, October 05, 2026
Sunday, October 04, 2026
Saturday, October 03, 2026
How the Democrats Drifted Left
City Journal reviews "Nothing Left: Confessions of a Democratic Operative" by Evan Barker.
Hot Times in Europe
Plus:
- The Strange Death of Europe; Islamophilia; The War on the West; On Democracies and Death Cults by Douglas Murray.
- Reflections on the Revolution in Europe by Christopher Caldwell.
- While Europe Slept; and Surrender by Bruce Bawer.
- America Alone; After America; and Lights Out by Mark Steyn.
- The Tyranny of Guilt; and An Imaginary Racism by Pascal Bruckner.
- The Great Replacement; Enemy of the Disaster; You Will Not Replace Us!; and Remigration: The Bourne Speech by Renaud Camus.
- Submission; and Annihilation by Michel Houellebecq.
Friday, October 02, 2026
True
What nature delivers to us is never stale. Because what nature creates has eternity in it.
- Isaac Bachevis Singer
An Imaginary Racism
Let us recall that the goal of a wise politics is to prevent discord and avoid war. But anti-racism, which has become the civil religion of modern times, has been transformed into a permanent war of all against all, a rhetoric of recrimination.
- From An Imaginary Racism: Islamophobia and Guilt by Pascal Bruckner
Thursday, October 01, 2026
America.gov
