Random stuff I find interesting and you may not.
One of Donald Trump’s closing campaign arguments was that he would deliver a new “golden age” for America. This week, he announced that this Trump-powered golden age has already begun. . . . The U.S. economy is nevertheless the envy of the world. Don’t take my word for it: The cover of a special issue … Read more
The 2024 election tested the limits of identity politics. Not because Kamala Harris was running as a half-black, half-Indian and full-time accent swapper, code switching her way through a multicultural landscape, only to take a beating from a national multicultural electorate. Call it identity politics, the rainbow coalition or the minority majority, Democrats had tethered … Read more
Jimmy Lai has lived a great life: as an entrepreneur, as a media magnate, as a freedom-and-democracy advocate. His friends and admirers want him to have a decent ending. He has been a political prisoner in Hong Kong for almost four years. Most of that time, he has been in solitary confinement. I wrote about … Read more
The defining qualities of Joe Biden the political man were arrogance and dishonesty, compounded by stupidity. That Biden lasted as long in politics as he did—he first was elected to the Senate the year your gray-bearded correspondent was born—and that he rose as high as he did is an indictment of the state of Delaware, … Read more
The Palestinian terrorist group Hamas has welcomed Ireland’s decision to formally join South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), calling on other states to follow Dublin’s lead. “We urge all countries to intensify any pressure against the Israeli enemy to stop its brutal attacks on the Palestinian people,” Hamas … Read more
Murder is wrong, period. So is abusing power. . . . Liberalism is unnatural. You’ve heard me make that point a million times, so I won’t rehash it here. But that doesn’t mean it’s wholly contrary to human nature. It rests on layers of religious, philosophical, and cultural assumptions about how people can live with … Read more
In the last election, Democrats ran as the party of law and order and democracy, framing Trump as a threat to both. This is, in large part, why Jews showed up for Kamala. We would prefer that this country not dissolve into violent chaos —certainly not for the entertainment of pseudo-radicals on TikTok as they … Read more
Cold-blood Americana shouldn’t surprise us. People are sometimes surprised by how often doctors turn up in the ranks of terrorists, tyrants, and similar malefactors. The Nazis had their Josef Mengele, the Soviets their legions of psychiatrists overseeing their medical gulag. In our own times, Ayman al-Zawahiri—second general emir of al-Qaeda and a physician—was typical of … Read more
Remy: Pardon My Son Also see “Joe Biden, corrupt career politician, crawls offstage“ Related PostsChris Arnade on dignity and alienation in America’s working class Please, Republicans, don’t give Elon Musk a bunch more corporate welfare Father Damien ministered to native Hawaiians in a leper colony, now AOC calls him a ‘colonizer’ Teenage wasteland … Read more
Do you know who complains the loudest about self-dealing in the “swamp” of Washington? People who want in on it. Donald Trump’s “drain the swamp” talk has always been the most cynical kind of public-relations horsepucky. For one thing, Trump was for most of his life a minor swamp creature: not a big player like … Read more
Several top Veterans Affairs officials in Tennessee resigned as an internal investigation and a broader congressional probe into alleged sexual misconduct intensified, Breitbart News has learned. Congressional investigators discovered that one man who resigned, whose name they would not tell Breitbart News but sources familiar say was a bargaining unit biomedical employee, had dozens of … Read more
About a year ago, we wrote an editorial about the acquisition of an antiquated mid-cap corporation by another firm. This sort of thing happens all the time, and we don’t normally editorialize on such deals. Bipartisan groups of senators don’t usually care about such deals either, but in this case, one did, so we wrote … Read more
If the Bidens want to escape legal accountability for their pay-for-play operation, Joe better be ready to pardon the whole family. Joe Biden, who spent his vice presidency as the “big guy” behind his son Hunter’s foreign influence-peddling exploits and skated into the presidency because media and tech gatekeepers covered up news of the family … Read more
Could the anti-Trump resistance become a Chinese Communist asset? In the 2024 election, voters in California, Washington, Florida and 7 other states were able to choose not only between Trump and Kamala, but also vote for a presidential candidate from the Party for Socialism and Liberation. The Party for Socialism and Liberation was certainly not … Read more
If Musk is truly serious about fiscal discipline, he’ll advise the president-elect to eschew many of the policies he promised on the campaign trail. Elon Musk has thrown down a $2 trillion gauntlet, claiming he can slash federal spending by that amount. While the billionaire’s proclamations on X often generate more heat than light, one … Read more
A Colorado nurse who saved a mother’s baby now fights to keep her medical license Mackenna Greene was 25 years old and had just started a new position at work late last year when she learned she was pregnant. Unmarried and already mother to a toddler, the Colorado Springs, Colo., resident was ready to jump-start … Read more
Just when you think that things might be about to turn around with regard to the explosion of unbelievably stupid laws and regulations to harass and annoy the people, along comes another one that’s stupid enough to top them all. This one has sprung up seemingly out of nowhere in the past few weeks, in … Read more
Coming to Lai’s defense have been more than 100 politicians from 24 countries. Political leaders, a United Nations body, and human rights groups have publicly spoken out in defense of Jimmy Lai, the Catholic Hong Kong media mogul who faces possible life imprisonment for his involvement in pro-democracy protests, while the Vatican and senior Church … Read more
If anybody ever gets around to making those Remnant bingo cards that Jonah Goldberg keeps promising us, one of the items will be his repeated reminder—and I am grateful to him for repeating it—that financial crises such as the one the United States (and much of the rest of the world) experienced in 2008-09 tend … Read more
Halloween was widely celebrated in Shanghai, perhaps more than in Western cities. Thousands of costumed young people flocked to the city’s art deco core—a remnant of its jazz-age colonial past—joining dozens of parties set to the tune of Michael Jackson’s Thriller and other festive staples. Even the timing was perfect, as late October comes with … Read more
When I saw this lede on a Reuters news story this week, my sense of déjà vu was overwhelming: A former top Vatican official who dealt with clergy sexual abuse issues joined victims on Monday in urging Pope Francis to enact a zero-tolerance law throughout the global Catholic church so any cleric found guilty of … Read more
Ever since Donald Trump became a politician, he has upended electoral norms and disregarded presidential traditions. Yet as he took the stage to declare victory on election night, Trump did something utterly conventional: He claimed to have a mandate. “America has given us an unprecedented and powerful mandate,” the president-elect exulted, describing his win as … Read more
beadledom noun: a stupid or officious display or exercise of authority associated with petty officials, and historically epitomized in England’s parish beadles, who kept order in the church and the poorhouse. From Despair, Inc.: Idiotic, officious displays of authority as practiced by petty bureaucrats and officeholders Related PostsWhy I Write Amish Farmer Faces Fines, Prison … Read more
Ahead of Election Day, women wearing red Handmaid’s Tale costumes, rainbow scarves, and toting warning signs about their private parts rallied in D.C. for Kamala and abortion. The crowd was so small that the media hardly bothered reporting on the rallies. The Women’s March had come a long way since it claimed to have brought … Read more
After the majority of Americans voted for the economy over abortion, furious feminists have announced that they will no longer date, marry or have children. Call it slow motion misery and mass suicide. In the past, Americans protested by refusing to pay taxes, now leftists are protesting by refusing to have children because of their … Read more