From the Left
/Politics
On Exactly What Team Was Ronna McDaniel Playing?
Ronna McDaniel's conduct following the 2020 election was shocking enough, but NBC's decision to hire her as a paid political analyst almost topped it. The blowback from the company's own commentators prompted the executives to turn around and send McDaniel packing.
The problem for NBC and its decidedly liberal MSNBC news channel wasn't that ...Read more
There Is No Shame in a Cancer Diagnosis
News that Catherine, Princess of Wales, has been diagnosed with cancer set off a pointless argument. One side complained that the royal family had not been forthcoming with the truth behind her long hospitalization. The other held that Catherine has a right to privacy and is under no obligation to make her medical condition public.
Both ...Read more
Arguing Over Culture Is Often Futile
Not a month goes by, it seems, when the country doesn't have some minor cultural trend to spar over. These "debates" can be fun or not. But in almost every case, fights over these passing fixations are futile.
OK. Let's get specific. There's that recent skirmish over something called "bookshelf wealth."
Never heard of it? Well, Architectural...Read more
Are These Republicans Mocking Social Conservatives?
South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace was in Washington telling a story about how her "fiance" wanted more action in bed earlier that day. "And I was like, 'No baby, we don't got time for that this morning.'" To which she added, "He can wait. I'll see him later tonight."
The occasion was a Christian prayer breakfast attended by evangelicals.
...Read more
Build Anything Anywhere Threatens Communities
YIMBY sounds nice. YIMBY stands for "Yes in My Backyard." It's a positive-sounding rejoinder to NIMBY, "Not in My Backyard." The NIMBY label is being used to stigmatize defenders of zoning laws, with the goal of bulldozing the rules.
Needless to say, real estate developers are all for YIMBY -- though not necessarily where they themselves live...Read more
Iris Apfel Was a Peacock Among the Swans
Iris Apfel was that 102-year-old lady with those big round glasses and that big red smile. She'd wear plastic bangles found on street carts with vintage couturier jackets and pile on clouds of feathers. Her socks might be blue, her pants perforated red leather and her handbag made of tin.
And it all seemed to work for her. Fresh-faced "...Read more
Yes, You Can Haul Your Butt to an Early Meeting
The Wall Street Journal ran a curious piece titled, "Is It Ever OK to Have an 8 a.m. Meeting?" It contained two dubious assumptions: (1) That 8 a.m. is very early in the morning, and (2) Employees have a right to rebel against a company policy that interferes with drop-off time for kids at school -- or forces them to alter their workout ...Read more
New York Suburbs Could Return Democrats to Power
In bygone days, Democrats in New York's suburbs could happily vote for Republicans they deemed good guys. Moderate Republicans didn't seem all that different from moderate Democrats, and the two parties worked together in Washington.
Those days are obviously gone. The recent election of Democrat Tom Suozzi to replace George Santos in Long ...Read more
Thank Alabama for Embryo Honesty
I'm not here to join the mockery of Alabama for declaring that embryos are children -- and, therefore, in vitro fertilization clinics must protect them forever. On the contrary, I admire its honesty. Many states have effectively banned abortions, arguing that destroying an embryo amounts to baby killing. Yet they look the other way when ...Read more
The Mediocrity of Jon Stewart
Thank you, Mary Trump, for plumbing the shallow waters of Jon Stewart's wit. A psychologist and sharp critic of her uncle Donald, Mary Trump accused the "Daily Show" host of long suppressing the liberal vote by telling his fan base that the candidates stink equally. She cites political research showing that his what's-the-difference jabbering ...Read more
Parents Who Arm Troubled Kids Finally Face Justice
Her blank face in court spoke volumes. Jennifer Crumbley saw no problem handing her severely depressed 15-year-old a semiautomatic handgun as a Christmas present. Ethan soon after turned the gun on the student body of Oxford High, killing four.
What makes this case both chilling and sickening is that Ethan had telegraphed his rapid ...Read more
Clickbait Fuels Obsession on Biden's Age
The special counsel report claiming that Joe Biden's memory had seriously declined stinks to high political heaven. Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe saw "nauseating similarities" to the agency's investigation of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
To recap, 11 days before the 2016 election, then-FBI director James Comey said that ...Read more
MAGA Attacks America's Sweetheart. Why Not Football, Too?
There's always some pre-game Superbowl story. This year the MAGA Republicans have provided it. And they've gone way beyond their lunatic call of duty by accusing America's sweetheart, Taylor Swift, of diabolical cunning for urging her fans to vote. And for extra measure, they are attacking the National League Football, as well, for something ...Read more
Republicans Want the Border to Bleed
If House Republicans succeed in sinking the strongest border enforcement bill in a generation, they can go back to playtime, impeaching Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and spreading weird stuff about Taylor Swift being deployed for "psy ops."
Come November, though, the voting public will remember the sinking, not the show. Americans are...Read more
What Presidents Spend Money on Really Matters
What matters is not just the sum by which presidents jack up the deficit. It's what the money is spent on. Franklin D. Roosevelt added more to the national debt by percentage than any other president. America needed that borrowing to dig itself out of the Great Depression and then win World War II. The spending was necessary.
Money can be ...Read more
Republicans Turn Themselves into the Open Borders Party
Donald Trump has called on Republicans to kill a bipartisan deal that would give the president emergency powers to shut down the border when illegal crossings get out of hand. He's thus helped President Joe Biden turn one of his political liabilities into a strength.
"If given that authority," Biden said without hesitation, "I would use it ...Read more
US Oil and Clean Energy Both Boom Under Biden
Donald Trump recently warned that Joe Biden would lead us into World War II, a conflict that ended almost 80 years ago. Another world event he may not be current on is America's boom in oil production -- never mind the green energy revolution.
"We are going to drill, baby, drill," Trump said on a recent Fox News town hall.
Actually, America ...Read more
DeSantis Flunked Charm School
What can you say about the guy? That Ron DeSantis was obnoxious? That he came off as weird? His failure to replace Donald Trump as the likely Republican nominee for president seemed preordained. His mistake was copying Trump's penchant for cruelty without absorbing any of the ex-president's talents as a performer.
When they were handing out ...Read more
Biden Starts to Decouple Economy from China
This is a potentially perilous time for our economy and the security of the West. Trade policy with China sits at the center. China is no longer just a trading partner with whom we have differences. It's become a global adversary using trade to dominate militarily as well as economically.
China's strategy is to flood the world with its cheap ...Read more
Christie Enters the Pantheon of Patriots
Chris Christie has done himself a service, done his Republican Party a service and, most importantly, done his nation a service.
He convincingly expressed great remorse for having endorsed Donald Trump in 2016. Then he entered the 2024 nomination race with the goal of stopping a repeat disaster. That was the personal part.
Christie gave his ...Read more