When tasked with reviewing Jennifer Burns’ Milton Friedman: The Last Conservative, I was unaware that I was going to read one of the most engaging works of intellectual history I have ever encountered. Continue Reading...
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January 17, 2024
Inhumane Letters and the Joy of Violence
Babel: Or The Necessity of Violence, An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators Revolution is a pernicious novel showcasing the ability of literature to make evil appear good. Evaluating Babel requires considering the purpose of literature; how can a novel be technically excellent, yet fail to achieve literature’s high calling? Continue Reading...
January 15, 2024
Forty Years of Cross-Racial Bonding
We celebrate the January 15, 1929, birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. on the Monday closest to his birthday every year—and this year that Monday is today, January 15. King’s single most quoted sentence is probably this: “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” Continue Reading...
January 12, 2024
Saving Entrepreneurship: More Hard Work, Less WeWork
“When you speak to customers, don’t let them know you are the owners.” This was the advice given to my wife and me by the previous owners when we bought a business in 2020. Continue Reading...
January 11, 2024
Over-Regulation Is Strangling Panama—and the U.S.
Beginning in mid-October, Panamanian activists, led by the militant leftist labor union SUNTRACS, brought much of Panama to a standstill, blocking roads and filling Panama City with daily demonstrations against a copper-mining contract with Canadian firm First Quantum. Continue Reading...
January 10, 2024
The Curse of The Iron Claw
Four decades ago, the American director Robert Aldrich made the most cheerful, companionable, and charitable movie ever produced about professional wrestling. Against all expectations, Aldrich—the grand master of the grotesque on the basis of such cartoonishly misanthropic masterpieces as Kiss Me Deadly, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? Continue Reading...
January 09, 2024
A Future Fit for Conservatives
If you wanted to capture the current conservative mood—a surefire way to sell books—you would write a despairing jeremiad that extrapolates from every worrying trend. James Pethokoukis deserves praise for daring to do just the opposite. Continue Reading...
January 05, 2024
Thinking and Drinking with Plato
My favorite back-to-school reading this year has been Alex Priou’s Musings on Plato’s Symposium. I hurry to add that I’ve long been out of school, but I did pick up the habit of reading there, and what’s more American than lifelong learning? Continue Reading...
January 04, 2024
Evangelicals, Trump, and Witnessing for the Truth
Tim Alberta’s new book, The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism, opens with the death of his father, Richard Alberta, an evangelical minister in suburban Michigan. Continue Reading...
January 03, 2024
Stop Pulling Punches Against Anti-Racism
One of the most telling quotes I’ve heard regarding the conservative movement on racial issues comes from political commentator Candace Owens’ Twitter bio: “Black people don’t have to be Democrats—still.” It epitomizes the modern conservative disconnect: we are very, very good at criticizing existing political visions and are conversely very, very bad at creating alternate ones that appeal to people not on our side. Continue Reading...
