Just a few days before Christmas, departing Ohio Governor John Kasich decided to play a disappointing Santa and put a massive lump of coal in the pro-life movement’s stocking. He vetoed a bill that would have made it a felony for a doctor to perform an abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected. Mercifully, he […]
More than two years into President Trump’s historic presidency, it behooves us to think more deeply about a persistent sticking point in the political life of the nation: Why do (most) right-wing intellectuals loathe him? This kind of nearly unified opposition cries out for explanation. After all, it is not simply that all left-wing intellectuals […]
Let’s put this silly debate to rest, once and for all. To insist that a mere action movie is actually a Christmas movie is nothing more than edgelord-y internet troll-ism at its worst. Obviously, “Die Hard” is not a Christmas movie but, rather, an action movie that just so happens to take place during Christmas. […]
President Trump once again did something very few thought he would or should do. He hosted a meeting in a camera-filled Oval Office with Vice President Mike Pence, Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), and Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), during which he brazenly and passionately said: If we don’t get what we want . . . I will shut […]
Ah, the holiday season. A time to litter Instagram with literally thousands of pumpkin spice latte and freshly fallen snow pics, images whose purpose is to provide an aesthetically-pleasing-yet-insincere backdrop to the real reason for the season: low, low Black Friday prices, the engine of our runaway consumerist culture. Not only that, but ’tis the […]
In Europe, calling the prophet Muhammad a “pedophile” is not protected speech, at least according to the European Court of Human Rights, the continent’s highest human rights court. The ruling is perplexing, at least on the facts. Muhammad’s third wife, Aisha, was 6-years-old when they were married, 9-years-old when the marriage was consummated; he was […]
It’s no secret that the American polity really doesn’t care about, nor does it fully understand, the role or demands of classical virtue—and that it hasn’t for a very long time. But many, especially (and hypocritically) those who derive an unhealthy thrill from scorning, mocking, and deriding any and all expressions of traditional virtue, are […]
Mr. Chairman, thank you for allowing me the opportunity to set the record straight and clear my name. Senators, I would begin by categorically stating again that the last-minute, scurrilous, uncorroborated, and bad-faith allegations that have been levied against me are totally and completely false. My record as a judge, as a husband, and as […]
U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) on Thursday released a statement indicating that Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh stood accused by an unknown someone of having done a bad but unknown something. A whisper campaign ensued, only to be dispelled on Sunday, when the Washington Post broke a story that identified the accuser and stated […]
The heated polarization over Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court is a sign that the country is ripe for a serious reckoning with what makes a judicial nominee—particularly one to the U.S. Supreme Court—“qualified.” It shows that America is once more willing to take on the burden of doing politics with respect to the […]
Partisans of an “objective, non-partisan” civil service should be very nervous; rule of law supporters should be ecstatic. Why? Because the administrative state is now forced to be more accountable, all thanks to a little-covered move by the Trump Administration, as part of its concerted campaign to rein in the vast “fourth branch” of government. […]
Americans don’t trust the media—and with good reason, as we learned earlier today. Take just the latest bit of fake news to have been cyber-vomited onto social media: according to Politico, Attorney General Jeff Sessions “joined” a “Lock her up!” chant started by a group high schoolers he was giving a speech to. But that […]
On July 4, Rodolfo Rodriguez, a 91-year-old man, was walking down the sidewalk in Los Angeles. While he was passing a woman and her 4-year-old daughter, the mother suddenly pushed him to the ground and began beating him with a brick, screaming, “Go back to your country! Go back to Mexico!” She enlisted several men […]
Famous last words, NeverTrumpers. With the retirement of Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy—the Reagan Administration’s third choice to fill the empty seat of Associate Justice Lewis Powell, remember—President Trump has the opportunity to reshape the Supreme Court into a decidedly more originalist, textualist institution, thus fulfilling a core promise of his 2016 campaign: to appoint judges […]
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday handed down its much-anticipated decision in Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, a case about whether a Christian baker, Jack Phillips, ought to be compelled to make cakes for same-sex weddings. In the 7-2 decision, the court held that any attempt to compel Phillips in that way […]
In just the last month, there have been three school shootings. More if we extend the timeline back to February to include the one at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida. No one can point to any real regulation short of confiscation that might have stopped the killings, and, besides, we already have comprehensive […]
George Mason University law professor Ilya Somin argued recently from his perch at the Volokh Conspiracy that “[i]mmigrants who commit offenses worthy of retribution should be punished. But they should not be subjected to any more punishment than native-born Americans who commit the same crimes. That means they should not be deported, unless deportation is […]
Jonah Goldberg appeared recently on “Conversations with Bill Kristol” to discuss his new book, Suicide of the West. During his chat with one of the nation’s preeminent NeverTrumpers, Goldberg betrayed a serious lack of perspective—one that is indicative of a broader problem in mainstream conservatism. In the midst of discussing politics and our current political […]
Michael Gerson, former chief speechwriter for George W. Bush, writes ruefully in the pages of The Atlantic about “The Last Temptation” of evangelical Christians. Over the course of an excruciating 7,000 words, Gerson laments “how so many evangelicals lost their interest in decency, and how a religious tradition called by grace became defined by resentment.” […]
In the wake of President Trump’s “shithole” comment (which may have been misreported), CNN’s Anderson Cooper asked a predictably leading question of Republican “strategist” Ana Navarro on his show Thursday night: “[I]s there any other way to interpret this comment other than being just racist?” Navarro was happy to oblige. After taking a few potshots […]