Arts, Literature, Culture

Harry Potter

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows--One Week Later. July 29, 2007, on "Your Show," Hosted by Adam Schrager. Channel 20 KTVD/ 9News, Denver. Script.

Severus Snape: The Unlikely Hero of Harry Potter book 7. July 19, 2005. The true meaning of book 6 analyzed, along with the implications for book 7, through examination of the most ambiguous character in the series. Pусский/Russian. En francais. Español. Polski.

A Dementor Short. Mugglewear Casual mars Harry hat trick. Reason Online. June 4, 2004. Review of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban movie.

Deconstructing Rowling. National Review Online. June 20, 2003. Review of The Hidden Key to Harry Potter, which convincingly explicates the work as a series of Christian fiction, in the tradition of Tolkien and Lewis.

Rumors: Quash one, fuel one. While debunking Harry Potter author's Satanist 'quotes,' News promotes drug's 'role' in deaths. Rocky Mountain News/Denver Post. Dec. 2, 2001.

Mugglemania. Harry Potter is the ur-libertarian who just might save civilization. National Review Online. July 22-23, 2000.

Movies

Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia. Movie review. "Gore Vidal: United States of Amnesia" is a fine film for everyone who is interested in American intellectual history. Washington Post. June 17, 2014.

Hollywood, 'Homefront' and the very real problems facing Interpol. Interpol is where lazy script-writers turn when they need foreign-sounding cops who are funnier than the KGB. FoxNews.com. With Theodore R. Bromund. Dec. 11, 2013.

Reefer Madness and the Prohibition of Marijuana in the United States. Encyclopædia Britannica blog. Oct. 26, 2010.

Understanding Inception. Volokh.com. July 27, 2010.

Gun Bans and "Schindler's List". Independence Institute. Aug. 24, 1994. With William R. Tonso.

Michael Moore

The Influence of Michael Moore. "On Point," hosted by Tom Ashbrook, WBUR radio Boston (nationally syndicated). Kopel and Jim Hightower discuss Michael Moore, beginning at 17:30 into the show. Archived for Real Player.

Bowling Truths. Michael Moore's mocking. National Review Online. Apr. 4, 2003. Deconstructing the dishonest documentary.

Fifty-nine Deceits in Fahrenheit 911. Lengthy monograph exposes Michael Moore's fraud. Other versions:

Television

60s sitcom themes: The hidden alien. The strange family that doesn't know it is strange. Volokh.com. Nov. 23, 2011.

Big First Amendment win in United States v. Stevens. Volokh.com. April 20, 2010.

It's not what's on TV, it's TV itself. Too much television time creates children uninterested in self-restraint or empathy. Rocky Mountain News/Denver Post. March 27, 2004.

Shot Through the Heart. Anti-hunting propaganda on Showtime. Review of "Bang Bang, You're Dead." National Review Online. Oct. 16, 2002. With James Swan.

Up with the People. Reviewing NBC's Uprising. National Review Online, weekend edition. Nov. 10-11, 2001. With Glenn Harlan Reynolds.

Tune Out, Light Up. In terms of destroying years of life, television is far worse than tobacco. National Review Online. May 29, 2000. In italiano.

Music

Hillary Clinton's best campaign song: The Yellow Rose of Texas. Although the new pro-Hillary song is terrible, her 2008 campaign song "The Yellow Rose of Texas" shows her strengths. More than just a love song, "The Yellow Rose" tells us about our multiracial past and present. Washington Post. Dec. 9, 2014.

Nat Hentoff interview. Kopel speaks with legendary music critic, journalist, syndicated columnist, and civil libertarian Nat Hentoff. They discuss the current state of civil liberties in America and Nat explains why Obama has been the worst president of all-time when it comes to our individual freedoms. YouTube.com. 55 minutes. Sept. 17, 2014.

We all do extol Thee, Thou leader in Battle. The origins of the Thanksgiving hymn "We Gather Together." Nov. 21, 2012.

Why Yankee Doodle called it "macaroni". Volokh.com. Nov. 19, 2011.

Dark Side of the Rainbow. Does the "Wizard of Oz" soundtrack really match the "Dark Side of the Moon" soundtrack? Relix.

Books and Magazines

Origins of the Declaration of Independence: Samuel Rutherford's ‘Lex, Rex.' Washington Post. July 2, 2016. (Now archived on Reason.com.)

Argentina's free press is in grave danger. Book review of Tiempos Turbulentos. The Kirchner regime's war on the free press and civil society. Washington Post. Feb. 9, 2015.

What a Life Can Be: One Therapist’s Take on Schizo-Affective Disorder. Book Review: “What a Life Can Be: One Therapist’s Take on Schizo-Affective Disorder,” by Dr. Carolyn Dobbins. Washington Post. Jan. 27, 2014.

Book review, Election 2012: The Battle Begins. Volokh.com. Nov. 11, 2011.

Suggestions for your periodical reading list. Volokh.com. June 29, 2011.

Does Kindle change everything? Volokh.com. June 24, 2010.

A Needed, but Inadequate, Critique of Antitrust and Reform Proposals. Book review of The Antitrust Religion by Edwin S. Rockefeller (Cato Institute, 2007). Info Tech & Telecom News (Heartland Institute). April 1, 2008.

Book on CU scandals imperfect. Slim citations, faulty reporting mar worthwhile "Buffaloed". Rocky Mountain News/Denver Post, Nov. 19, 2005.

God, Man, and Tyrants. John of Salisbury and the Policraticus, the bestselling book of the twelfth century. Liberty. May 2004.

Moose Bull. The "D.C. Sniper" police chief's version of history in his book Three Weeks in October. National Review Online. Dec. 11, 2003. With Paul Blackman.

About Christmas. Books that will get you into the Christmas spirit. National Review Online. Dec. 13, 2002. Short review of Stories Behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas.

Reader challenge: Can the columnist. Too liberal? Too right-wing? Or just bad? Which opinion writers would you dump? Rocky Mountain News/Denver Post, Dec. 8, 2002. Column also reviews The News about the News: American Journalism in Peril, by Leonard Downie and Robert Kaiser.

Papers could drop Dowd with ease. She and fellow N.Y. Times columnist Nicholas Kristof are second-raters of late. Rocky Mountain News/Denver Post, Nov. 24, 2002. Column also reviews Todd Gitlin's book Media Unlimited: How the Torrent of Images and Sounds Overwhelms Our Lives.

Reading on reading between the lines. A few books that can help one become a more discerning consumer of the news. Rocky Mountain News/Denver Post, Aug. 4, 2002.

Jane Austen & The First Gen Y: Are the dilemmas of young people in 2000 so different from those of 1813? National Review Online. July 11, 2000.

Texas-Sized Liar. Book review of Flawed Giant: Lyndon Johnson and His Times 1961-1973, By Robert Dallek. The American Enterprise. Nov./Dec. 1998.

Book Review: Apocalypse Not. Relix.

Book Review: Animal Rights, by Peter Singer. Relix.

Review of The Partisan Leader: A Tale of the Future, by Nathan Beverly Tucker.

Military History

A Well-Regulated Militia at Work. Book review of Target Switzerland (the history of Swiss resistance to Hitler during WW II). The American Enterprise, Jan./Feb. 1999.

Unknown Hero. The world really can pivot on great men. Book review of The Richmond Campaign of 1862: The Peninsula & Seven Days, Edited by Gary W. Gallagher. National Review Online. Feb. 17-19, 2001.

A Collaborative Effort. Book review of: The Battle of New Orleans: Andrew Jackson and America's First Military Victory, by Robert V. Remini. Chronicles magazine, July 2000.

Right to Arms

Check the Footnotes. Skip Bellesiles. Read Halbrook. NRO Weekend, January 13-14, 2001. With Clayton Cramer. Book review of Freedmen, the Fourteenth Amendment, and the Right to Bear Arms, 1866-1876, by Stephen P. Halbrook (Praeger, 1998, 248 pp., $57.75).

Stephen Halbrook: Securing Civil Rights. Kopel interviews Halbrook about Halbrook's career, and his new book on the 14th Amendment. America's 1st Freedom, Oct. 2010.

The Militias are Coming. Book Review of Gathering Storm: America's Militia Threat, by Morris Dees with James Corcoran; and A Force upon the Plain: The American Militia Movement and the Politics of Hate, by Kenneth S. Stern. Reason, August 1996.

Disarming Errors. Book review of Michael Bellesiles' Arming America. National Review. Oct. 9, 2000. With Clayton Cramer.

Shaky Aim. Book review of Shots in the Dark: The Policy, Politics, and Symbolism of Gun Control, by William J. Vizzard. National Review Online, weekend edition. Nov. 3-4, 2001. With Paul Blackman.

$100 Billion Mistake. Loose factoids sink books. Review of Gun Violence: The Real Costs By Philip J. Cook and Jens Ludwig (Oxford University Press, 242 pages, $25). NRO Weekend, Aug. 25-26, 2001. With Paul Blackman.

From Bad To Worse. Book reviews of Lethal Logic: Exploding the Myths that Paralyze American Gun Policy by Dennis A. Henigan & Guns, Democracy, and the Insurrectionist Idea by Joshua Horwitz & Casey Anderson. America's 1st Freedom. October 2009.

Anti-Gun & Angry, Too. Another furious gun-banner jumps on the book publishing bandwagon. And as usual, the truth takes a beating. Book Review of One Nation Under Guns by Arnold Grossman. America's First Freedom. April 2007.

Book Reviews: A Nation of Cowards and The Origin of the Second Amendment. Ideas on Liberty. Mar. 2002.

Book review of Armed: New Perspectives on Gun Control by Gary Kleck & Don Kates. National Review Weekend. Jan. 11, 2002. 

Theater and Opera

Christmas for everyone: The Graland Christmas Pageant. Here's a selection of great versions of Christmas carols. And the true story about how Christians, Jews, and atheists celebrated Christmas together, at Graland School in Denver in the 1960s and 1970s. Washington Post. Dec. 24, 2014.

Comedy of Errors at Univ. of Colorado not very funny. Volokh Conspiracy. Aug. 2, 2011.

University of Colorado Opera's "Susannah." Volokh.com. March 18, 2011.

Two Gentlemen of Verona, at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival. Volokh.com. July 20, 2009.

All's Well that Ends Well--Colorado Shakespeare Festival review. Aug. 7, 2007.

Colorado Shakespeare Festival 2006. Reviews of "As You Like It" and "The Tempest." Volokh Conspiracy, Aug. 15, 2006.

Colorado Shakespeare Festival 2005. July 29, 2005. Review of "Twelfth Night" and "The Winter's Tale."

When In Colorado......stop by the Shakespeare Festival. Review of "Antony & Cleopatra." National Review Online. Aug. 2, 2004.

Linguistics, Semiotics, Epistemology

Uncertain Uncertainty. Postmodernism unravels. National Review Online. April 4, 2002.

'Peace activist' or 'war activist'? Media should take greater care in their labeling of participants in conflicts. Rocky Mountain News/Denver Post. April 12, 2003. Also examines the Pearl Jam controversy, and the racist attack on Don Mares.

The Recount Culture. The controversy about Florida isn't just about politics. National Review Online. Dec. 2, 2000. With David Stolinsky.

America's Language Metamorphosis. How the choices of words determines the result of political debate. Rocky Mountain News. Jan. 8, 1996.

Popular Myths Muddle Clear Thinking on Guns, Drugs, Dogs, and Other 'Dangers'. Rocky Mountain News. Sept. 27, 1991.

Sports and Games

The Martial Arts are Arts. Washington Post. Jan. 11, 2017. (Now archived on Reason.com.)

Rifle Golf: America's newest shooting sport. Volokh Conspiracy. Aug. 5, 2011.

Stop Criticizing President Obama for Playing Golf. Volokh.com. August 23, 2010.

Designing Tomorrow's Wargame. Strategy Page. Oct. 5, 2005. Also published in Fire & Movement#137.

Hunting/fishing coverage on rise. Denver dailies in dead heat; Boulder's Camera excels at other outdoor sports. Plus the identity of advice columnists, and chess coverage. Rocky Mountain News/Denver Post, July 19, 2003.

Wisconsin Diversifies. The saga of the Mountaineer. National Review Online. Sept. 5, 2002. University of Wisconsin administrators attempt to prohibit the West Virginia "Mountaineer" mascot from carrying his musket at a football game.

Dead Ringers. When it comes to Olympic shooting sports, TV is in blackout mode. National Review Online Weekend. Sept. 23-24, 2000.

Why People Club Each Other: Some Irish history, and a word of advice to the government. National Review Online. Aug. 31, 2000.

Coors Field: Fans' Homerun, but Taxpayers' Strike-Out. St. Paul Pioneer Press. Sept. 15, 1999.

Deflating Hysteria over Broncos. Denver Business Journal. February 13, 1998.

How Much is Too Much? Baseball salaries. With Michael Novak. Commerce City Beacon. Nov. 18, 1995.

Gambling initiative is an assault on free enterprise. Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph, August 26, 1994. With Jerry Kopel.


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