Democrats onstage in Houston aspire not so much to govern America as to punish it. Former Congressman Beto O’Rourke called racism not only “endemic” to America but “foundational.” He explained, “We can mark the creation of this country not at…
Laughs never come so hard as when some authority — a vice principal, a parent, a coach — sternly lectures, “That’s not funny!” This in part explains the rolling-on-the-floor hysterics induced by Dave Chappelle’s Netflix special, Sticks and Stones. The…
Red Line Blues, the first novel by Scott Seward Smith, arrives more than six years after its Obama-Romney election backdrop. If its setting seems passé in the wake of the seismic presidential election in between then and now, its theme strikes…
The Joe Rogan Experience works because the host exudes curiosity, the guests fascinate, the format (untethered to word counts or ad breaks) allows for an authentic conversation to develop, the tone remains uninhibited and the palate broad, and the views…
Quentin Tarantino made a movie so brilliant in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood that critics and audiences love it despite missing the point. Like so many good films, it operates, and works, on many levels. When one uncovers all…
A specter is haunting America — the specter of white nationalism. Like all specters, white nationalism appears invisible to some but plainly apparent to others. Some possess the gift. They see “invisible racism” with great clarity. They decipher language that…
Fifty years ago tonight, followers of Charles Manson murdered actress Sharon Tate, her unborn child, Jay Sebring (hairstylist to Frank Sinatra, Steve McQueen, Jim Morrison, and other stars), coffee heiress Abigail Folger, her boyfriend and director Roman Polanski’s boyhood friend…
Americans, a compassionate people, have elected presidents crippled from polio (Franklin Roosevelt), diagnosed with Addison’s disease (John Kennedy), and suffering from Tourette syndrome (Donald Trump). But some maladies ask too much from voters, including RBF, which explains why Kamala Harris…
Not since Chauncey Gardiner has Washington, D.C., so overestimated a figure. Robert Swan (Song) Mueller exhibited a Being There quality on Wednesday. Gardiner and Mueller, two creatures of the capital, long served as blank screens upon which everybody projected sundry…