Donald Trump’s presidency effectively ended one year ago today in the midst of a cockamamie riot in the US Capitol Building. On the evidence, it was essentially a happenstance outbreak of blind mob mayhem enabled by piss poor policing by the amateur cops who are pleased to call themselves the Capitol Police. Nothing that happened during that five hour melee remotely resembled the violent insurrection against American democracy it’s now cracked up to be.
This year, for the first time since graduation some two decades ago, I did not donate to either of my alma maters. Like many of you, I have become disillusioned with the illiberalism on many college campuses and could no longer support them with an annual gift.
Washington’s own Dave Chappelle, lately much in the news, needs to be careful. If he continues reasonably responding to his critics, he’s going to find himself transformed from a successful comedian to a first amendment superhero.
Over the past decade, as more and more states have legalized marijuana, it has become increasingly clear that state nullification of federal marijuana prohibition is winning. Were it not for more than a dozen US states refusing to enforce federal marijuana laws, there is no way that we’d now be seeing realistic bipartisan efforts to overturn the federal ban. This has only happened because state governments have refused to cooperate.
Of all the willful lies and omissions in the media’s coverage of the Steele dossier, Brian Sicknick, the Covington kids, Jussie Smollett, the Wuhan lab, Hunter Biden’s laptop and so on, nothing beats the evil propaganda peddled about Kyle Rittenhouse.
Early in the pandemic, before vaccines were available, my uncle got COVID-19 and unknowingly passed it to my aunt. She was at high risk, trailing a small oxygen tank behind her wherever she went, and the disease quickly took its toll. She died within days.
During the latter part of the 20th Century, Americans became accustomed to hearing stories of shortages of basic items in the Soviet Union. The metaphor of “waiting in line for bread” came to signify anything where a state-managed effort led to the inefficient and ineffective distribution of consumer goods and services. The state-generated supply chain problems were the butt of jokes for comedians everywhere.
Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers made waves Sunday after celebrating a game-clinching touchdown against the Chicago Bears, the archnemesis of Green Bay.
"All my f---ing life, I own you," Rodgers shouted to Bears fans. "I still own you. I still own you."
Some didn’t care for Rodgers' celebration, but the three-time MVP quarterback—whose record against Chicago improved to 22-5—explained after the game he was responding to Bears fans in the stands who were giving him “the bird.”
It is very easy to say that we have been and are living in unprecedented times in 2020 and 2021. We have experienced a global pandemic, with government-imposed and mandated lockdowns and shutdowns of much of America’s and the world’s economic activities and social interactions, as well as with governmental debts that cumulatively are almost equal to the global Gross Domestic Product. Other than the economic impact of the Great Depression of the 1930s and the disruption of peaceful international association and interaction during the war years of the 1940s, there is little that can be compared to what many people have lived through over the last year and a half, in terms of disruption of everyday, daily life.
It’s no secret that young-adult dystopian fiction had a very real moment recently with franchises like Divergent and Maze Runner making it to the big screen. But the most wildly successful has to be the Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins.
There are few things as important as educating our children, yet, as a society, we don't act that way. We certainly don't place strict demands on the extra spending. We complain if our latest high-tech gadget feature doesn't work as promised, but tolerate a public-school system that was built at a time when there were no telephones, automobiles, or radios.
When people hear the word “fascism” they naturally think of its ugly racism and anti-Semitism as practiced by the totalitarian regimes of Mussolini and Hitler. But there was also an economic policy component of fascism, known in Europe during the 1920s and ‘30s as “corporatism,” that was an essential ingredient of economic totalitarianism as practiced by Mussolini and Hitler.
The terrorist attack in September did immense damage to life and property, damage which the federal government has compounded with its wartime response, which has come at the expense of the freedom of the American people. The very merit of freedom itself has been called into question. If the terrorists desired to do maximum damage, they would have hoped for just such a response.
Images of nearly empty New York City streets, empty Broadway theaters enduring a long hiatus, unique family owned shops and restaurants that will never reopen. This is the legacy of COVID-19.
Despite a late start, ex-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo clamped down, closed the state, and now continues to bear fruit by limiting gatherings. Read more
For the past year, my sights had been set on law school. I spent my time studying for the LSAT, polishing personal statements, and graduating from UCLA with an attractive transcript. It all paid off when I committed to my dream JD program this spring.
But only a week before orientation began, I made the decision to give up my seat.
The weirdest thing about the Biden administration tasking itself with the censorship of “disinformation” on social media is that the United States is the hub of a globe-spanning empire that is built upon a foundation of disinformation, maintained by disinformation, and facilitated by disinformation.
This year’s back-to-school season is as uncertain and unsettling as the last. With schools in some parts of the country set to open early next month, the CDC just announced its virus control recommendations which include required masking for unvaccinated students and staff, continued social distancing, and frequent virus testing.
Nowadays, feminists are all up in arms about the insertion of males who declare themselves to be females into women’s sports. This is not an unreasonable concern for, if encouraged, or even allowed, transsexuals will sound the death knell of female athletic competitions.
“Truth will out” is the most popular fairy tale in Washington. Members of Congress are clashing over whether politicians will appoint an “independent” commission to reveal the facts behind the January 6 Capitol ruckus. Proponents are portraying the issue as a simple choice between “truth or Trump.”
Her funeral was very touching and many of my friends attended her service. She was a giving woman, generous, and opinionated. She reached out to those who needed support and offered kindness in a world that could at times seem void of such virtues.
We’ve all been there before. You’re driving along and you see a pair of flashing blue lights in your rearview mirror. Whether or not you’ve done anything wrong, you get a sinking feeling in your stomach. You’ve read enough news stories, seen enough headlines, and lived in the American police state long enough to be anxious about any encounter with a cop that takes place on the side of the road.
As with GDP overall, it's helpful to look to money printing as a partial explanation—we should absolutely expect to see a surge in demand for employment as a result of the central bank printing up trillions of dollars. In ourmoney printing–based economy, printed money is being substituted for production. Thus, millions of workers can stay home while demand remains steady, or even increases. Idle workers still have a lot of dollars to spend. Demand continues upward even as production falls.
Race, "equity," and implicit bias are being prioritized at institutions that have other pressing tasks. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), whose pandemic role is so all-encompassing that it is now in charge of forestalling evictions, announced last week a major new initiative "addressing racism as an obstacle to health equity."
“Trauma-informed justice” has percolated in academia and activism for decades. It is now knocking on the door of local police departments to demand changes that could upend the basics of how people relate to law enforcement. The approach converts the police into social workers or therapists and erases the due process upon which traditional Western justice hinges. It also increases the odds of wrongful convictions.
