Beyond The Mark Steyn Show:
Columns, poems, tales, music, movies and more from Mark and friends
Mark's Week in Review
A Se'nnight of Steyn: June 7-13
Today is the U.S. Army's birthday (251), President Trump's birthday (80), and lest we forget, Flag Day. In 1949, Congress designated June 14 as Flag Day. But Flag Day's history is more storied than a mere Act of Congress. It was a grassroots effort to instill respect and patriotism for the symbol of the United States. During the early days of the Civil War, "Flag Day" was first proposed to rally support for the Union Army after the attack on Fort Sumter. A few years later, a teacher named Bernard J. Cigrand of Wisconsin held the first observance of "Flag Day" for students. Cigrand would advocate for a dedicated day devoted to the U.S. flag for the rest of his life and is remembered as the "Father of Flag Day." Later in the 19th century, ...
Rick's Flicks
Print the Legend: The End of it All in John Ford's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
In 2010 the Western Writers of America surveyed its members and compiled a list of the top 100 western songs of all time. They presented it at their annual convention in Knoxville, Tennessee, and holding down the top three spots were, in descending order, "Ghost Riders in the Sky", Marty Robbins' "El Paso" and the chestnut "Cool Water", recorded most famously by The Sons of the Pioneers. "El Paso", the most cinematic of all three songs, was never featured in a movie, while Stan Jones' "Ghost Riders" has showed up in many, starting with Gene Autrey's 1949 film Riders in the Sky. None of them, however, really lived up to the promise of the song's wistful supernatural theme, which is still waiting for a great ghost story western to fulfill ...
Topical Take
The Not So Curious Case in Dundee
Mark Steyn Clubbers may remember last August Mark's discussion of a case in Dundee, Scotland, where sisters were being harassed by migrants, but who were then charged by the local coppers - the girls, not the migrants. The older sister at the time, to protect her younger sister, brandished a knife and an axe. The MSM immediately came to the aid of the migrants, not the girls (ages 14 and 12). Well, today the case was resolved - and good, ol' fashioned justice won the day. The girls - after a torturous year of media attention, legal fees and the like - have been vindicated. And now the tormentors - from Bulgaria - have been found guilty of making sexual remarks to underage girls (the charges should have more, but nevertheless...). Below is ...
A Clubman's Notes
The Sick Bed
Steyn reads the concluding episode of his highly prescient bestseller America Alone: The End of the World As We Know It...
The Mark Steyn Audio Show
The Troubles
Laura Rosen Cohen and Tal Bachman took over the mic again today at Steyn HQ for Live Around the Planet, while Mark continues to recuperate. The Dynamic Duo tackled tough questions from Mark Steyn Club members about the situation in Belfast, which is now seeing nightly protests; where President Trump is winning - and losing; and of course, Rock n' Roll (i.e., should artists speak about politics and if so, what are the consequences on their careers). If you missed it, the Action Replay is now available, listen now! And remember, if you aren't a member yet of The Mark Steyn Club, you can join here. And if you are, remember, giving is the best way to show you care, so get a friend a Gift Membership today! ...
Clubland Q&A
Live Around the Planet: Wednesday, June 10
In case you missed our live Clubland Q&A, here's the action replay. UPDATE: Live Around the Planet with Tal Bachman and Laura Rosen Cohen! Club members can submit questions now and throughout the broadcast! Greetings from Steyn HQ on this lovely Wednesday morning. And Wednesdays as you know, are Live Q&A Around the Planet day here at SteynOnline. This week, we will once again have a duo arrangement for the live show. Our In House Rock Star, Tal Bachman will join our Sinister In House Jewess for a solid hour of co-hosting festivities starting at 3:00 ET (North America Eastern Time) and 8 p.m. British Summer Time. Tal and Laura will be happy to take your questions on any matters that interest you, whether the arts, culture, politics, ...
Tuesday Notebook
Of Pitbulls and Islamists
Alpha polemicist Sam Harris is an enthusiastic and persuasive debater, but in his June 5 substack post, reproduced in the Free Press, titled, "Why it's futile to debate Israel's enemies," he informed his readers that he would no longer debate antizionists. Harris has concluded that it is pointless to debate with people who take a dimmer view of those who shoot rabid dogs than they do of the rabid dogs themselves. As he explained, "if my intransigence on these matters mystifies you, it might help to understand that, for whatever reason, I think militant Islam is ten times worse than you think it is. When I talk about "jihadists" and their various groups – Hamas, Hezbollah, al-Qaeda, the Islamic State, the IRGC, etc. – I'm talking about ...
The Bachman Beat
An Odyssey To Ignore, Part III
The Odyssey is a story about Greeks, written down by a Greek author, taking place in Greek-speaking areas...
The Mark Steyn Audio Show
Trump, Soccer and Canada
In case you missed our Clubland Q&A with guest hosts Laura Rosen Cohen and Tal Bachman, here's the action replay...
Topical Take
When Wanker Coppers Kill
Mark has been busted out of hospital but still has a way to go before he is at full strength. Thank you for the many kind inquiries, prayers and supportive messages - which he very much enjoys receiving. Overnight, the release of bodycam footage out of the UK of the arrest of stabbing victim Henry Nowak has raised questions yet again re institutions supposedly founded on the principles of Robert Peel: In his final moments, Henry Nowak told police officers nine times "I can't breathe" and four times that he had been stabbed. In response police officer dragged him across the gravel, handcuffed and read him his rights. It was the last thing Henry heard before he died. pic.twitter.com/nIPoPEgOWa — Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) June 1, 2026 ...
Friday Notebook
A Monster and his Suck-Ups
As the USS Nimitz heads to the Caribbean, we share Mark's "obituary" to Fidel Castro...
Topical Take
A Society Entirely Without "Division"
The groupthink in our public discourse is so pervasive it goes as unnoticed as the air...
Politics & Current Affairs
Decapitation for Thee ...and for Me
Programming note: On May 6th 2017 The Mark Steyn Club slipped quietly onto the Internet, and, unlike many of the noisier online launches of the era, we're still here nine years later. We thank (almost) all our First Week Founding Members for re-upping for a tenth year, and we hope our First Fortnight members will want to do the same as this first week of our new season draws to a close...
Topical Take
The Perfect Euro-Metaphor
The Eurovision Song Contest doesn't get a lot of attention in the United States, but years before the euro came along, it was the prototype pan-European institution...
The Mark Steyn Audio Show
The Great Satan
In case you missed Steyn's Clubland Q&A, here's the action replay...
Politics & Current Affairs
Choosing Their Words
If you're wondering what the US Secret Service do when they're not letting you sprint through the security checkpoint, well...
Politics & Current Affairs
The Strait Jacket
"Wars the world has lost interest in" is paradoxically a subject of great interest to me...
Politics & Current Affairs
Let Me Show You to Your Room
Distance lends a smidgeonette of enhanced perspective...
A Clubman's Notes
Oops! He Did It Again
Washington is ever more like Churchill's riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma...
Politics & Current Affairs
The Secret Service Makes Me Nervous
Steyn on yet another Trump assassination attempt...
Politics & Current Affairs
The Crossroads of Europe
Greetings from Ukraine. I'm in the Kharkiv oblast, which the huge numbers of Russian speakers all around prefer to call the Kharkov oblast. But, whichever your preferred vowel, this oblast is oh, such a blast. Last night, the actual Russians (from Russia, that is) tried to take a town about fifteen kilometres away from where I am...
Politics & Current Affairs
It's Still the Demography, Stupid
Twenty years ago this month - January 2006 - The Wall Street Journal and The New Criterion published the first draft of what would become the thesis of my bestselling book, America Alone...
On the Town
Franz and Friend
On this week's On the Town Steyn plays a cavalcade of big names - Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff - plus a bloke you've never heard of but whose tunes you certainly will know...
On the Town
King of the Swingers Meets Emperor of Austria
Mark with an hour of music - and memories of a rather odd double-date in Delaware...
On the Town
Somewhere in France with You
A special D-Day edition of Mark's Serenade Radio show, turning the clock back to the sounds and sentiments of the era...
After America
The Swallows Skim, and All Is Hushed
A special Memorial Day edition on battle, sacrifice and remembrance - from the Civil War to the Great War to the unwon wars of our own time...
Steyn's Song of the Week
Some Enchanted Evening, Rodgers and Hammerstein, AND Frank Sinatra
The words came first. With Rodgers & Hart, the music came first. But Rodgers & Hammerstein opted to reverse the process, which is why the tunes lack that particular freewheeling quality of Rodgers' music in the Twenties and Thirties...
Steyn's Song of the Week
Who's Afraid of the Weeping Willow?
Today's episode celebrates an old friend of our host, the late Ann Ronell, who tells Mark about her two biggest hits...
On the Town
The Canine Sinatra
Welcome to this week's edition of Mark Steyn on the Town. On today's show, we start with Eurovisions past and end with the canine Sinatra...
Steyn's Song of the Week
Happy Birthday to You
There's really only one song with which we could celebrate The Mark Steyn Club's ninth anniversary...
On the Town
Centrefolds and Chaperones
On today's show, we start with playmates and end with chaperones...
Tales for Our Time
Jinns, Rosières, and Prince Bob
One of the most popular features of Tales for Our Time has been the music Mark chooses to accompany each story. So here, after many requests, is a sampler of the accompanying melodies from some of our tales...
Steyn's Song of the Week
Just a Gigolo
Mark traces the history of a very distinctive song from the twilight of the Habsburg Empire to the twilight of disco via an especially pitiful act of rock karaoke and the loss of the word "gigolette"...
On the Town
The Last Farewell
Welcome to this week's edition, coming to you live-ish from the delightful and historic city of Odessa...
Steyn's Song of the Week
Begin the Beguine
Mark in conversation with Artie Shaw and Julio Iglesias on a Cole Porter classic...
On the Town
Dancing with the Polovtsians
With so many ongoing Russian blasts across the oblasts, we enjoy a few extra Ukrainian blasts across the oblasts, with a brief detour into the good old days of the Polovtsian empire...
On the Town
Man, It's an Oblast!
Welcome to this week's edition. I'm weekending in Kiev, and so I thought we'd enjoy a bevy of blasts from oblasts...
Steyn's Song of the Week
Taxman
April 15th marks the end of "Tax Season" in America, and Mark has a seasonal song...
On the Town
You Don't Have to Be Bananas to Work Here
On this week's edition, being of a contrarian bent, we start by going beddy-bye and end at dawn. In between come an easy-listening take on a rock classic, and an extended cavalcade of Non-Stop Number Ones...
Steyn's Sunday Poems
The Whole Earth Is Our Hospital...
An Easter entry to Mark's anthology of video poetry - from T S Eliot's Four Quartets...
On the Town
Fools and Farewells
On this week's show we start in search of a standard and wind up getting a Handel on it. In between come an anglo-franco Caribbean, Japan's all-time biggest non-Japanese hit and Sousa's afternoon nap...
A Clubman's Notes
"The Moslem Character"
The conclusion of our seventy-ninth Tale for Our Time: The Quest of the Sacred Slipper by Sax Rohmer...
A Clubman's Notes
A Night Most Strangely Still
In episode twenty, Cavanagh and the girl with the violet eyes are hot on the trail of Hassan...
A Clubman's Notes
Yellow Silk and Hashish
In episode thirteen of Sax Rohmer's Mohammedan caper, thriller abducted hero awakes in a heady environment...
A Clubman's Notes
Islam Comes Knocking
In episode five, the forces of the Prophet manage to get the better of Scotland Yard's finest...
A Clubman's Notes
The Box Trick of Mohammed
In Part Three of our serialisation of The Quest of the Sacred Slipper by Sax Rohmer, Cavanagh suspects someone is trailing him...
A Clubman's Notes
Hands Off
Welcome to the seventy-ninth audio entertainment in our series Tales for Our Time. Sax Rohmer was at one point one of the biggest-selling authors in the world - and then the arbiters of our culture decided to eighty-six his most famous creation...
Tales for Our Time
The Prisoner of Windsor
A remote fantastical kingdom far from Europe's chancelleries of power... An unpopular monarch on the eve of his coronation... A ruling class of plotters and would-be usurpers... ...and a gentleman adventurer on holiday. No, not Ruritania in the nineteenth century, but the United Kingdom in the twenty-first...
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