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
Politics
Don’t Be Someone Else’s Useful Idiot
There’s a phrase that gets thrown around a lot in political and military circles, usually as an insult and rarely as a warning: useful idiot. Most Continue Reading
The Grievance Franchise
America has developed a thriving luxury market in moral melodrama, and its flagship product is the explanation that explains everything while Continue Reading
Yellow Paint and Narcan
I was at The Daily Bird a couple of days ago. I had to drop off somebody who had an interview at Meta House a few blocks away. I didn't know how long Continue Reading
Everyone has the right to free speech. No one has the Right to be Heard.
"Free speech" is one of the most misunderstood principles in modern life. It’s praised loudly, invoked constantly, and weaponized relentlessly, often Continue Reading
The Soft Bigotry of No Identification
There are few spectacles in American life more obscene than watching a well-moisturized professional moralist explain that requiring identification to Continue Reading
New Converts Are Always the Most Dangerous Zealots
No matter what the organization, no matter the time or place, there is one thing that holds true within any type of exclusive organization: the new Continue Reading
When Politics Feels Like Betrayal
There comes a point for many people when watching politics stops producing disagreement and starts producing something else entirely: disgust. Not Continue Reading
The House of Hush Money
There is nothing, and I mean nothing, more spiritually moving than watching 357 members of Congress sprint together to bury sexual misconduct Continue Reading
Borrowed Battles and the Hunger for Higher Purpose
People need a mission. They need a reason to get out of bed, a hill to climb, something that demands effort and offers meaning in return. Something Continue Reading
The Alliance of Cowards
There is nothing quite as moving as the modern Western alliance in action, if by “in action” you mean standing in a tasteful semicircle, issuing Continue Reading
Signed for the slogan, invoiced for the consequences.
Last April, I looked at Iran’s eternal stadium chant of “Death to America” and reframed it as the geopolitical equivalent of a gym bro screaming “YOU Continue Reading