Margaret Thatcher said it years ago: socialism works—until you run out of other people’s money. New York may not call itself socialist, but the Continue Reading
Politics
America Runs on Fraud and Calls It Growth
Here's the first rule of modern American economics: if you can light taxpayer money on fire and warm three adjacent zip codes, somebody in a navy suit Continue Reading
Iran’s “’Tis Only a Fleshwound” Strategy
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn warned about lies. Monty Python warned about something else entirely—delusion. Oddly enough, the latter might be more Continue Reading
The Alibi Factory
The cleverest racket in public life is not corruption. Corruption is almost refreshingly honest. It leaves fingerprints, invoices, cousins on payroll, Continue Reading
Leave No One Behind: It’s OK That the Rest of the World Doesn’t Understand
There are a lot of things about the US military that don’t make sense from the outside looking in. Why we train the way we do.Why we push people to Continue Reading
Communism With Better Branding
For an ideology that allegedly died in disgrace, communism’s had a fantastic second act. Not a comeback exactly. More like a wardrobe change, a media Continue Reading
Once You Strike the Match, You Don’t Get to Lecture the Fire on Its Manners
There is a comforting lie we tell ourselves about violence: that it can be summoned, directed, and restrained according to our intentions. That we can Continue Reading
The Costume Shop for Moral Outrage
If you want to understand modern politics, stop looking at policy and start looking at costumes. Everyone is auditioning for the role of Continue Reading
Fayetteville and the War’s Last Days
By Cristóbal S. Berry-Cabán For seventeen years I lived a ten-minute walk from the site of the historic Fayetteville Arsenal, destroyed more than Continue Reading
Europe Can’t Keep Calling Dad
Europe has spent years pretending that dependency is a sophisticated moral posture. It isn’t. It’s dependency. Put a silk scarf on it, seat it on a Continue Reading
When There Are No More Americans Left to Dream
“The American Dream is not dead. But the Americans who believed in it might be.”For generations, the American Dream stood as a beacon: work hard, play Continue Reading
The Broken Chair Club
There’s a giant broken chair sitting outside the United Nations in Geneva, and for once public art accidentally told the truth. One leg blown off, Continue Reading