Oh What a Tangled Web: Lies, Narrators, and the Fragile Nature of Belief

Mollie Hemingway’s “The Significance of the Recently Released Russia Hoax Documents” in the September, 2025 issue of Imprimis is noteworthy in that it summarizes lies perpetrated against Donald Trump that released now-declassified documents reveal. The root cause of the lies it seems was this: Russia (i.e., Putin) favored Trump and interfered with the US elections …

You Talk Too Much: When National Security Becomes Public Knowledge

In a world flooded with information, some content—especially the kind dealing with national security—may be doing more harm than good. There’s a song release in 1970 by Clarence Carter called “You Talk Too Much” with lyrics that go something like this: You talk too much, you worry me to death, You talk too much, you …

Liberation Day: A Rebuttal to the Free-Market Panic

I’m surprised at the all the fuss about tariffs. One of the economists I respect and follow said “Trump’s proposed tariffs — or what some are calling ‘Liberation Day — represent a step away from free-market classical economic principles and are harmful taxes during a vulnerable time.” Normally I read and go on to the …

Mirror, Mirror…Who’s Got American Culture After All?

There are three words critical to understanding Roger Kimball’s “Restoring American Culture” essay in the Imprimis, February 2025 issue: common sense, culture, and civilization. Unfortunately, Kimball never defined them. It was a provocative essay – one that makes you think. The piece was adapted from his talk last January at Hillsdale College, the people who …

What ARE We Talking About…Really: Kevin Roberts, Rabble-Rouser

There’s a lot of smart people in the world. One of them is Kevin D. Roberts, the president of The Heritage Foundation. He recently appeared in IMPRIMIS, the Hillsdale College publication with an essay “Populist Conservatism and Constitutional Order.” I read his essay twice, and was reminded of a blog I wrote in 2012 entitled, …

James A. Nowakowski (Jim Nowakowski) — writer, business strategist, founder of Interline Creative Group and known online as “Interline Jim.”

This site is less a blog than a thinking space. Here I write as Jim Nowakowski — James A. Nowakowski formally — observer, reader, citizen, and lifelong questioner. These pages hold my personal reflections on literature, culture, politics, history, language, and the uneasy intersections between them. Some pieces are analytical, some speculative, some simply forms …

Defining the Struggle for America

Should you listen to an academic or …? An article by John Fonte published in the June/July 2024 issue of IMPRIMIS, coming out of Hillsdale College, was called “National Conservatism, Freedom Conservatism, and Americanism.” Fonte is a smart guy – degrees in history and a writer for many publications. And while he parses the conservative …

Benny Goodman Incarnate: Dave Bennett and his Quartet Swing on Stage

Artis-Naples was visited by ghosts from the Swing Era past on Friday night, December 8, 2023. When Dave Bennett took the stage with his quartet comprised of himself (Clarinet, Guitar, Piano and Vocals), Jeff Kressler on Piano, Ed Fedewa playing the Bass and Pete Siers on Drums, the audience was transported into an era long …