Back in the 1980s, Dave Foreman and I compiled The Big Outside, A Descriptive Inventory of the Remaining Big Wilderness Areas of the United States (Harmony Books, 1989). The primary purpose was to accurately depict the true extent of each large roadless area in the contiguous 48 states, defining “large” as 100,000 acres or more in the West, with a 50,000 acre minimum for the East. We defined roadless areas as physical entities delineated by the location of roads and other intrusions that actually interrupt the flow of wildness. So we mapped what was literally roadless and wild on the ground. We…

The polls, which I trust as far as I can throw Michael Moore, are showing something interesting beyond the fact that crusty President Badfinger has fallen and can’t get up. According to Rasmussen, in a head-to-empty-head contest between President Trump and that desiccated old weirdo, Trump has a 10-point edge. He’s 12-points over Kamala, who will probably run in 2024 since * is likely to be sent off to a farm upstate with Major the Dog.   So, does this mean Trump will run in 2024? Well, it sure as heck makes it more likely. The stars are aligning for…

With the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and the rapid victory of the Taliban, some observers have pronounced the commencement of a new Chinese-led regional order. China, they say, will sweep in and develop road and rail infrastructure to extract Afghanistan’s vast mineral and rare earth wealth and thereby emerge as the ultimate winner of America’s longest war. Such projections belie Afghanistan’s grim economic reality. Afghanistan is Asia’s poorest country. It is landlocked and has little of an industrial base to speak of. Improving its connectivity with the region and operationalizing revenue-generating energy and minerals projects are actually essential for sustained economic growth and fiscal self-reliance. But these…

“I tell you, freedom and human rights in America are doomed. The U.S. government will lead the American people in — and the West in general — into an unbearable hell and a choking life.”—Osama bin Laden (October 2001), as reported by CNN   What a strange and harrowing road we’ve walked since September 11, 2001, littered with the debris of our once-vaunted liberties. We have gone from a nation that took great pride in being a model of a representative democracy to being a model of how to persuade a freedom-loving people to march in lockstep with a police state.Our…

After my talk in Rome tonight, I went to dinner with some friends — Italian journalist and public intellectual types. Pro-Americans. I asked them about how the Afghanistan departure was affecting the United States’ standing in Europe. Grim faces all around the table. They said that America’s image has been taking a beating in Europe for a long time, and is really accelerating downward. It’s not just among the political class, but ordinary people too — even people who have typically been pro-American. You can really feel it in public now, they said. It was widely noticed in Italy, the…