Why ban TikTok? Because China! Because Internet! Banning TikTok may or may not be the answer to a maiden’s prayer, but for many Democrats and Republicans, it is a much needed balm for all their wounds, or so they are so foolish to believe. Democrats and Republicans are unhappy because neither can command the support…
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The Republicans: WTF Happened to this Party? Part II Part 2: Matthew Continetti and The Right
A few years ago, I wrote an extended piece bearing the title The Republicans: WTF Happened to this Party?. Recently, in response to a couple of engaging (relatively) meas culpas—Matthew Continetti’s The Right The Hundred Year War for American Conservatism and Tim Miller’s Why We Did It—I began preparing an update. I originally planned to…
This is why we can’t have nice public toilets
Well, actually, we can. This is an existing public toilet in San Francisco—note the charming pumpkin tile to match the fall foliage (when it’s, you know, fall). It’s just that we can’t have too many of them, because they cost about $1.7 million apiece and take about three or four years to build. Slate’s Henry…
Barack Obama, wise before the fact, but not, alas, during
Timothy Shenk, a professor of history at the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, which is “within” (somehow) George Washington University, has a nice article up at the New York Times, A Lost Manuscript Reveals the Fire Barack Obama Couldn’t Reveal on the Campaign Trail. What the good professor is talking about is a 250-page…
Okay, I guess that 1996 Clinton-Gingrich welfare reform bill wasn’t perfect after all
In the unlikely event that you are an assiduous reader of this blog, you know that I’m a big fan of the 1996 welfare reform legislation that drastically reduced welfare dependency in the U.S.—and welfare dependency really is a thing—or it really was—regardless of what “passionate” liberals want you to think.1 But, as it turns…
CRT v. Anti-CRT: Wait, Wait! You’re BOTH Right! Occasionally.
OCTOBER 6, 2022 UPDATE: In the course of this report—somewhere in the middle—I discuss crime data from the FBI. I should have pointed out that these data are estimates rather than complete tallies. We don’t know, for example, that there were 10,440 homicides in the U.S. in 2020, although the FBI says we do. I…
Ilya Shapiro: Sometimes he looks like a martyr, sometimes he looks like a dick.
Well, he does! My Cancel-Culture Nightmare Is Over, writes Ilya in the Wall Street Journal, which, I’ve discovered, lets you read a “limited” number of articles for free, which I find convenient, since I would never support such a nauseatingly right-wing rag financially. Sez Ilya My long public nightmare is over. Tomorrow I assume my…
Yo, Ross Douthat! William Jennings Bryan was no Donald Trump!
My God! Has it already been almost five months since I last insulted Ross Douthat? Well, time flies when you’re fightin’ the COVID, I guess (a very mild case, fortunately). But now I’m back, definitely, and loaded for bear! Not to mention smart-mouth conservatives! What got me a little ticked was a recent Ross confection,…
I invented that! Well, sort of.
Over at Bari Weiss’ substack blog, Common Sense, Pano Kanelos, former President of St. John’s College and now newly minted President of the newly minted University of Austin, explains his game plan: We Can’t Wait for Universities to Fix Themselves. So We’re Starting a New One. There is a gaping chasm between the promise and…
Dan Drezner does my job for me. And does it better! Sometimes!
Yeah, that’s right. “Terrible Dan Drezner”, as I often call him—or, sometimes, illiterate Daniel Drezner—has been doing my job—bashing “the Blob” on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and trashing the hawks/neocons on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Okay, neither my nor Dan’s schedule has been that tight, but, still, he has been working hard. One of my principal…