The “Migrant Caravan” Is Just Theater

Feature Article by , November 6, 2018

I have not covered the “migrant caravan” because I am not a theater critic. But a fair bit of politics is theater, particularly around election time, and Trump has decided to make the caravan into his closing pitch for the midterm elections. This is just theater, for both sides. There is some evidence the caravan […]

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Be Careful What You Wish For

Commentary by , October 31, 2018

Five Things You Need to Read Today 1. Be Careful What You Wish For I vividly remember about two decades ago a lot of fevered talk about the “digital divide.” The idea was that only the well-off could afford computers, so only their children would be prepared for the new digital economy, while the poor […]

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The First of Their Return

Feature Article by , October 27, 2018

A Reader’s Guide to Atlas Shrugged, Part 13 Spoiler Alert: You do not need a reader’s guide to Atlas Shrugged—at least not for your first reading. Ayn Rand’s novel is clear, compelling, eminently readable, and perfectly comprehensible on its own terms. Yet Atlas is also a rich and complex novel, with an intricate plot in […]

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Are We All Colluding With the Russians?

Feature Article by , October 20, 2018

Five Things You Need to Read Today 1. The Saudi Ataturk I’ve drawn your attention a few times in the past to the guy I’ve named “the most interesting man in the world,” Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. MBS, as he is called by Western reporters and commenters, has been presenting himself as […]

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The Curious Adventure of the Man of Reason

Feature Article by , October 18, 2018

A Reader’s Guide to Atlas Shrugged, Part 12 Spoiler Alert: You do not need a reader’s guide to Atlas Shrugged—at least not for your first reading. Ayn Rand’s novel is clear, compelling, eminently readable, and perfectly comprehensible on its own terms. Yet Atlas is also a rich and complex novel, with an intricate plot in […]

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The Battle of the Blind

Feature Article by , October 9, 2018

Which party is going to come out ahead in next month’s midterm congressional elections? Don’t ask me. Our politics has gone through the looking glass, and I have no idea how to make predictions any more. But I have noticed a peculiar pattern. Both sides seem intent on burrowing into their bubbles, reinforcing their own […]

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A Formula for Power

Commentary by , October 5, 2018

Five Things You Need to Read Today 1. The Weird Neo-Puritanism of the Anti-Kavanaugh Crusade The contemporary left, with its nannyish campus sex rules and “rape culture” panic, has been inching itself toward a kind of neo-puritan ethic regarding sex. But during the controversy over Brett Kavanaugh, this new puritanism has been oddly widening to […]

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The Vindication of Reason

Feature Article by , September 29, 2018

Nathanael Blake invites me to “discuss our differences over a bottle of whiskey and a large stack of books.” I’ll say yes to the whiskey, though I’ll have a few additions of my own to make to his list of books. This is his introduction to a case that the Enlightenment ideal of rationality is […]

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The Kavanaugh Hearings Are About Reason Versus Emotion

Feature Article by , September 28, 2018

There is only one fundamental dividing line in the reaction to the televised hearings about accusations against Brett Kavanaugh, and it’s not solely a partisan one. It’s the line between those who judged the hearing based on emotions and those who judged it based on reason. The testimony of Kavanaugh’s accuser, Christine Blasey-Ford, added nothing […]

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Lord Acton Versus Pope Francis

Feature Article by , September 27, 2018

The most perceptive and simultaneously most obtuse comment on the current crisis in the Catholic Church is a headline by Marc Theissen: “Suddenly I Understand How [the] Reformation Happened.” This is perceptive, because the mass defection of the Protestants 500 years ago is the right historical precedent for the gravity of the Catholic Church’s crisis, […]

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