Random stuff I find interesting and you may not.
Over the past six to eight months, the U.S. has seen perhaps one of the largest migrations of people based on economic and ideological concerns in almost a century. Not since the Great Depression has there been so many Americans relocating in search of a better life. Today, however, those who relocate seem to be … Read more
By now you’re probably aware of the various purges taking place across tech platforms and social media. Major companies have used the events of January 6th at the US Capitol as an excuse to delete users and deplatform businesses. But the scope of the purge has gone much further than removing calls for violence. For … Read more
The recent condemnations of “reckless rhetoric” come mainly from liberals who engage in it. They froth at the mouth over the mayhem on Capitol Hill, making wild charges about “those responsible for it.” They spread the blame far and wide in the hopes of silencing and discrediting their political opponents. Joe Biden’s religious apologists have … Read more
America will have to pay for its spending spree and its wars. The decade that just ended saw a period of uninterrupted economic growth. In the decade to come, we’ll pay for squandering it. Since the so-called Great Recession officially ended in the third quarter of 2009, the United States has enjoyed 42 consecutive quarters … Read more
It is probably fair to say that Americans are highly polarized right now. Public schooling is likely a reflection of, and contributor to, that division. A reflection, because political control of schools is likely to replicate the divisions and animosities of the electorate. A cause, because public schooling requires people with diverse views and backgrounds … Read more
After the start of the Covid pandemic, my local Harris Teeter grocery store in Montgomery County, Maryland made extensive changes, including placing eight-foot high plexiglass screens between every one of its nine self-service checkout stations. However, a few months ago, one panicky customer complained to the local health department that he felt unsafe at the … Read more
By any measure, 2020 was not a very good year for human freedom. By now everyone is very familiar with the assaults on liberty stemming from measures ostensibly in the name of stopping the spread of covid and the way in which such measures have threatened the very existence of the social order. Beyond such … Read more
The Texas real estate broker who flew on a private plane to Washington, DC, to participate in the Capitol riot last week bragged about her realtor job as she stormed the Capitol with throngs of other President Trump supporters, according to court papers unsealed Friday. The suspect [idiot], of Frisco, faces two charges in the … Read more
What is it with these people and toilets? Donald Trump is, of course, a class-A strange-o, a man whose youngest son is named after the imaginary friend he invented to lie to the New York gossip pages about who he was cheating on his wife with. His gold-plated plumbing fixtures are about No. 1,883,441 on … Read more
Donald Trump should be impeached, convicted, and removed from office. If it takes until five minutes before Joe Biden is sworn in to get it done, then so be it. And if Trump runs out the clock, then he should be impeached and convicted after the fact, barring him from ever holding office again and … Read more
Political hero-worship is foolish no matter what side you’re on. One of the things that bothered me most about the Obama presidency was the hero-worship of him by the left and, if you will pardon the redundancy, the media. Actually, hero-worship isn’t quite strong enough. After all, magazines printed images designed to make it look … Read more
When Trump supporters broke into the Capitol building Wednesday, January 6, 2021, they acted wrongfully. Their actions were wrongful for exactly the same reasons BLM supporters’ actions were wrongful when they broke into hundreds of buildings, both private and government, over the summer of 2020. These acts were wrongful because violence, except in self-defense, is … Read more
Republicans have just spectacularly failed the test of power, and they have been judged for it. Now, they face the test of opposition. If they fail that test, too, then they are done. The Task Ahead for Conservatives in the Biden Age Related PostsWhy Colleges Are Dying Bad Arguments for Nominating Trump Did North Korea … Read more
Why doesn’t Joe’s incitement to the violence of abortion generate full-throated condemnations? Last year, as riots raged across the country, America’s liberal bishops hesitated to condemn the mob. Far from fretting over the inflammatory rhetoric of Black Lives Matter, some of the bishops repeated it. Bishop Mark Seitz of the Diocese of El Paso, Texas, … Read more
Wednesday’s mob assault on Capitol Hill was shocking and brazen: Hundreds of MAGA-hat-wearing rioters broke into the seat of American democracy. They stormed the halls, looting property and assaulting law enforcers, all in service of an absurd political demand: reversing the outcome of an election. Now where had I witnessed such scenes before? The answer: … Read more
Twitter has banned some conservatives like Michael Flynn and Sidney Powell, while letting human-rights violators like Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei continue to tweet. Facebook recently removed the conservative WalkAway page, along with hundreds of thousands of videos and followers. Donald Trump has been banned from Twitter, Facebook, and Snapchat. The First Amendment only restricts what the … Read more
If you ask normal people about the biggest thing that happened in 2020, they’ll probably pick coronavirus, though some might say the 2020 election. But if you ask a policy wonk, you may get a different answer. Especially if we’re allowed to tweak the question a bit and contemplate the most under-appreciated development of 2020. … Read more
Encouraging a mob to target his own allies and disrupt the rule of law, the president has ended his tenure disgracefully—and emboldened the Left. . . . Pragmatist Trump supporters made the calculation that he was the lesser of two evils. His vindictiveness and narcissism had to be balanced against the alternative of an increasingly … Read more
Whatever the barriers, there needs to be a reorientation: more Congress, more trust in Congress, and less president. And ultimately, the public has to return to a place where less of people’s existential meaning is found in what’s happening in Washington. Washington and our relationship to it need reorienting Put not your faith in princes. … Read more
The divisions in America reached a climax this week, and they are not going to go away. Donald Trump has now said he will assure a peaceful transition of power, but what next? He’s also said, “This is just the beginning.” Is this more grandstanding and bragging from the braggart in chief or is he … Read more
Last night, Donald Trump read a speech from a teleprompter. After condemning the violence of the last day, he acknowledged the certification of the 2020 election. “My focus now turns to ensuring a smooth, orderly, and seamless transition of power,” he said. Too late. Maybe delivering a real-estate project or paying off an angry creditor … Read more
This was a nasty anti-democratic mob. But I’m more worried about the anti-democratic elites. Let’s be clear about what took place at the Capitol Building last night. This was a mob assault on the institutions of democracy. The ragtag army of Capitol breachers may have looked ridiculous, decked out in Trump-wear and face paint and … Read more
For me, it was a little revelation to learn how Channel Islanders had behaved under Nazi occupation. I realized that all the grandstanding about British bravery under Churchill was sludge. Had the whole of the British Isles been occupied during World War Two, the British would have acted like the Vichy French. A few, to … Read more
A months-long effort to remove from office more than half of Westminster’s City Council over rapidly escalating residential water bills continues to inch forward despite the city twice rejecting the recall attempt as insufficient. . . . “We were seeing people were angry,” said 20-year resident Debbie Teter, describing the distress she said she witnessed … Read more
Over the past 250 years we have gone from nation of yeoman farmers to a nation of industrial workers to a nation of white-collar workers in technology, government, and the non-profit sector. With each transformation, the sense of being able to determine our own fate declines, and the sense of dependence on those with concentrations … Read more