Every few months, it, seems, the USS Liberty incident makes the rounds online again. Someone discovers it for the first time. Someone else insists Continue Reading
Politics
Halos for the Useless
The modern educated class has built itself a religion for people who’d never survive a real one. It has all the thrilling features of old-time faith, Continue Reading
The Nice People Setting the House on Fire
The most dangerous people in public life are not the obvious crooks. At least a crook has the decency to enjoy the money. No, the real menace is the Continue Reading
The Polling Sausage Machine Still Gets Invited to Dinner
The modern political poll is no longer a thermometer. It’s a sausage machine wearing a lab coat, grinding assumptions, incentives, and audience Continue Reading
They Bought Both Sides
There was a time when Americans were told the country was split between left and right, as if citizenship were a booth at a county fair and democracy Continue Reading
It’s Good That Gas Prices Are So High. It Reminds People That There Is Actually a War On.
Americans hate high gas prices. Politicians know it, economists study it, and every election cycle seems to include promises to bring them down. Continue Reading
When Whiteness Becomes Probable Cause
There’s a point where a society stops pursuing justice and starts playing racial bingo with a body still warm on the floor. We have reached that Continue Reading
Failure Got Promoted and You Got the Bill
Failure used to leave a bruise. Now it gets a staff retreat, a revised title, and a lanyard printed by people who think “impact” is a substitute Continue Reading
The Hot Take Laundromat
Nothing in modern public life is more impressive than the speed with which allegedly serious people can convert ignorance into certainty. Give them a Continue Reading
The Sanctimony Industrial Complex
We’ve built a society where moral status is rented by the hour, and the monthly fee is public performance. That’s the thesis. Not that people have Continue Reading
The Virtue Bunker
There is no sermon more passionate than the one delivered from a safe zip code. That is the central racket of modern public life. The people most Continue Reading
The Cost of Truth is a Comfortable Lie
“The further a society moves from the truth, the more they will hate those who speak it.” It’s a quote often attributed to George Orwell, and Continue Reading