Who are the best conservative academics? (Shameless vanity)

self

[xm177e2]

Thomas Sowell and Walter E. Williams are very good.

[MindBender26]

Ben Stein, Ph. D. Academic, actor, wit, brilliant and a conservative.

[WxMan2000]

I teach at Penn State. I nominate myself. :)

[WIMom]

Newt Gingrich.

[Torie]

James Q. Wilson and John Lott.

[Washingtonian]

John Lott at Yale University

[True Capitalist]

Dick Armey

[Howlin]

Jonathan Turley!

[Heisenburger]

Judge Robert Bork.

[watsonfellow]

Aside from Pickstock, I should say that at Claremont McKenna College, we had a great number of academic superstars. Charles Kesler, James Nichols, John K. Roth, Gordon Bjork, Ward E.Y. Elliott, etc.....

[hole_n_one]

I bet you're alot of fun at parties.

[watsonfellow]

Ton's o fun.

[Torie]

I have never heard of Turley, so I did a quick search, and this popped up. Cheers.

The professors I know well are alas all retired or dead or past their prime (Friedman, Stigler (the guy who first fingered the high cost and anti-competitive affects of regulation), Cropsey (a hard core Aristotelean (sp), Posner, etc. Sad in a way.

[Howlin]

He is VERY funny. He was on with Brit Hume the night of Clinton's deposition video and he told Brit, "After hearing President Clinton's definition of sex, I'm not sure my wife and I have ever had it."

[watsonfellow]

Cropsey of the Strauss and Cropsey reader?

CMC's government department is a refuge for Straussians.....while I am not one of them, I have great affection for them.

[Anamensis]

John McWhorter at Berkeley. He's young, smart, and one of the few black conservatives on the West Coast. He wrote "Losing the Race" (a "quit whining and get a job, and by the way, Johnnie Cochran's a sleaze and OJ is guilty as sin!" type of book.) He's also written for National Review and a few other conservative magazines, has appeared on Politically Incorrect and a few daytime talk shows. He teaches Linguistics and some black theater.

[caddie]

Sowell and Novak are the best of the best.

But I like Williams and think he is, like Sowell, very witty, and this part of his message doubles its impact, as it does for Sowell.

Rush, a very impressive autodidact, has tremendously well-thought-out points of view, and also packages them so well that he is very convincing on many things. He is also hilarious with the mock-serious tone of voice, and mock pomposity (I think it's mock -- LOLOLOL.) He has noodled-out tons and tons of why liberals think and deceive as they do -- this is a real service to our country.

I used to really, really look up to Joseph Sobran, but, lately, he has become so dogmatic about the Constitution, and how we have so far strayed from it, that he is really depressing to read. Sure, he's right about how we have strayed from the ideals of the founding fathers, and sure, the country was much freer in 1801 than in 2001 -- no argument from me there. But, as humans, we fall short from so many idealized situations --- I think he should encourage better implementation of the Constitution, but, to believe that we can instantly repeal all welfare-social security-transfer payments-etc., etc., he is both unrealistic, and counterproductive.

Bit by bit, he can teach this, but to throw up one's hands and beat the drum about how miserable a failure our country is -- this is not the way to go, and it sours persons to his otherwise very good message.

R. Emmett Tyrrell: likewise used to be very witty, but now, cooperated or executed the sale of this formerly good magazine to some guy named George Gilder, and presided over its ruin. He is more into namedropping and has become very much like the pols he formerly scrutinized.

Noonan: Peg-leg is the best, a little sappy lately, especially on the tube, but that's A-OK. I wish she would write speeches for W, it would be a perfect fit.

[watsonfellow]

He recently wrote a great essay for City Journal, entitled "Towards a Usable Black History" http://www.city-journal.org/html/11_3_toward_a_usable.html

[onyx]

Hugh Hewitt.