Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
Stop calling “snowflakes” snowflakes. Stop misrepresenting the greatness of the latter with the god-awfulness of the former, whose ranks include students and citizens too precious […]
Back to School: Student Loan Debt and Crony Capitalism
Whenever I drive past UCLA, with its Romanesque buildings and banners of blue and gold; whenever I see the steps and street lamps that line […]
‘The Final Year’ Is the Last Straw
The Final Year, a new documentary about President Obama’s foreign policy team during their last year in office, has a scene that is an apt […]
‘The Shape of Water’: So Many Beautiful Drops to Drink
Guillermo del Toro, the Academy Award-nominated director of The Shape of Water, should get an Oscar for the entertainment value alone. Even better, let him […]
King for a Day: The Greatness of Martin Luther King, Jr.
On this day, which is no ordinary holiday for no ordinary man, let us speak a truth: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a great […]
On the Road Again: Fixing America’s Infrastructure
There is no road ahead for America without the roadways of America: the literal highways that form our Interstate Highway System. Those highways are the […]
Why ‘Dunkirk’ is the Best Film of 2017
Let us begin at the end of the beginning: “Dunkirk” is the best film of 2017. It is an epic war movie, where names are […]
Perchance to DREAM: What Immigrants May Come—and Stay
Somewhere between the Hyde Park section of Chicago (in a subterranean vault fit to withstand a nuclear blast) and a moving truck stranded on Highway […]
Dismantling the Scaffolding of the Administrative State
The poetry of politics is the most visible and entertaining part of the American presidency. It is a multi-city tour at home and abroad, where […]
The Churchill We Deserve
The scene: The light of a cathedral radio as regal as it is reverential, with its faceplate set aglow, while kith and kin listen to […]
We Must Restore an Architecture of Greatness
To those seeking the names of the architects responsible for our cultural decline, a few words of advice: Do not round up the usual suspects. […]
A Filmmaker’s Fiction Distorts the Facts About JFK
On this 54th anniversary of the assassination of President Kennedy, history once again confirms the truth of the uncertainty principle. That is, the study of […]
Hollywood, Drugs, and Heroin’s War Against Heroes
When it comes to heist movies, Hollywood has an inverse form of “Occam’s Razor.” The more complex and outlandish the security—from multiple checkpoints and a […]
The Last Great All-American Film
February will mark the 34th anniversary of the wide release of the last great all-American film: “The Right Stuff.” Neither a love letter to liberals […]
Life Is Rich: Filmmaker Michael Ritchie’s Portrait of America
If you want to understand America, you need to understand Americans’ attitudes toward politics and baseball. More to the point, you need to understand how […]