Professional wrestling fans, like the “shy Trump voter,” harbor an intense passion expressed to others in whispers if at all. The hobby ranks just above pornography but below anime as a pastime engendering the strange combination of enthusiasm and embarrassment….

It has been seven decades since the founding of Israel, more than a century since the downfall of the Ottoman Empire, and about fourteen hundred years since the death of Islam’s Prophet Mohammed led to the split between Sunni and…

Whenever I ride that long, flat stretch of Illinois between Chicago and Davenport, I can’t help but think of Ronald Reagan and the time that he hitchhiked the highway now named for him. It was the fall of 1932, and…

Liberal Democrats were shocked when President Donald Trump appointed conservatives to the federal bench. True, there were vacancies. He was the duly elected president. The Senate had the constitutional authority to approve nominees. But whatever were Republicans thinking? This was…

Let’s look on the bright side. As someone whose home is in the center of London, I have to admit that cities have become much more pleasant to live in since lockdown. There’s less noise, less traffic, less pollution. Same…

I have to work hard to hide that I’m happy about the presidential election. A journalist is a guy who is happy about things that make other people cry. It’s not that we enjoy bombs; it’s just that we love…

It turns out the New Atheists were wrong. During the mid-2000s, American middle- and upper-brow conversation experienced what I once called “the most sustained attack on monotheistic religion since Attila the Hun.” Within a single period of less than ten…

Human beings, and especially our politicians, have a need to feel in control. Tough-guy governors preen about their control measures: lockdowns, closures, hyper-testing, contact tracing, and arbitrary micromanagement of citizens’ lives, families, and businesses. But the evidence that any of…

Huey Long promised a chicken in every pot — to be paid for by “the rich,” whose incomes would be confiscated to pay for it. Joe Biden, channeling AOC through his eyes-wide-vacant and piano-key smile — wants an electric car…

For five days and nights following the death of George Floyd on May 25, the city of Minneapolis was the scene of riots, arson, and looting. A two-mile stretch of Lake Street, located twenty blocks south of downtown, was almost…