Ending the Drug Czar’s Endless War
The words “drug czar” say more about the futility of endless war than all the words written about war. The title is as foreign as […]
Up in Smoke: California’s War Against E-Cigarettes
The California State Capitol disproves the idea that great civic architecture attracts great civic leaders, that the strength of our civil religion corresponds to the […]
Once Upon a Time in Hell
What if there were a chemical reason for the chain reaction of the summer of 1969? A series of odorless but nonetheless noxious fumes: Ben […]
Nike: Goddess of Ignorance
The flag of 1777, not 1861. The Stars and Stripes, not the Stars and Bars. The flag of Betsy Ross, not Nicola Marschall. The flag […]
To the Moon, Jill!
A trio of flags: one raised in victory by six Marines atop Mount Suribachi, a second lifted in defiance by three firefighters at Ground Zero, […]
A Soldier’s Story
He wrote four sentences, totaling 65 words. He said more, in fewer words, than America’s greatest economizer of words. He wrote about the bravery and […]
Stubborn as a Mueller
In the history of fatuous statements, somewhere between Bill Clinton’s disquisition on what the meaning of the word “is” is and theologians debating how many […]
A Day for America
Thousands of flags pierce the earth, filling hundreds of acres of greenery with staffs of bronze and spears of gold, until every headstone and cross […]
The Bankruptcy of China’s Social Credit System
Forget 1984, and focus on 1999: the year “The Matrix” debuted in theaters. Is it possible that Xi Jinping, the current president of China, saw […]
Pay the Writer
To suggest that products produce themselves, to suggest that the means of production work without workers, to suggest that we can animate the inherently inanimate, […]
A Feast for Trial Lawyers, a Famine for Farmers
About those amber waves of grain, above the fruited plain: If trial lawyers get their way, there will be bread and circuses aplenty but little […]
A Day to Unite Against Tyranny
Imagine two liars committed to the same lie for different reasons. Imagine telling half the world communism is the wave of the future, while the […]
The Impeachable Presidency
The office of president of the United States is an impeachable offense. The offenders constitute a gallery of rogues and realists, a monument to men […]
Standing Athwart History, Yelling Pause
When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for all freedom-loving people to stop people whose mission in life is a suicide mission […]
The Death of Humor
Irony did not die in a fireball of Islamic rage. It did not end on the 11th day of the 9th month of a new […]
The Fall of France
What site could be more sacred, what sight could be more sorrowful, what monument could be more metaphorical than reality itself, than the burning of […]
Robert Caro Records a Greeting for ‘The Rockford Files’
This is Jim Rockford. At the tone, leave your name and message. I’ll get back to you. I’ll get back to you, as Lyndon Johnson […]
Pete Buttigieg of South Bend to Mike Pence: Bend Over, You Bigot
Leave it to a politician obsessed with sewers to practice gutter politics. Leave it to Pete Buttigieg, mayor of South Bend, Indiana, to attack President […]
The Amazing Grace of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Greatness is no guarantee of goodness. Nor is goodness a guarantee of godliness, not even when a preacher convinces a president to make good on […]
Trump Trumps China: Beijing Agrees to Ban Fentanyl
America’s longest war is the world’s biggest battlefield. The battle is for the life of the world, waged in every city and every hamlet—in every […]