January 31, 2023 “Nasty, brutish, and short” was Thomas Hobbes’s descriptor for life in a “state of nature,” the “war of all against all.” The answer was the social contract — giving the state a monopoly on violence, enforcing law and order, to protect us from each other. But then…

January 27, 2023 I wanted to scream, hearing a recent radio panel discussion about voting rights legislation. The talk was all about “politicians” not caring enough to pass it. I’m so fed up hearing such stuff. It’s not generic “politicians” blocking that legislation. Or gun regulation. Or immigration reform. …

January 23, 2023 People on America’s right are in thorough reality denial. Headlined of course by the 2020 “stolen election” lie. False beliefs about Covid and vaccines cost many lives, perhaps hundreds of thousands. There’s much more. And the left is not immune. How do we know what’s true? (This…

January 19, 2023 When Covid began three years ago in Wuhan, China’s regime acted ruthlessly to contain it, with draconian lockdown, testing, and quarantining rules. This did succeed — in China — but didn’t stop Covid from infecting the rest of the globe. Most other countries initially tried to…

January 16, 2023 Promoting my “Trump Shitstorm” book has been an interesting experience. When I show it to someone, the cover usually provokes a strong reaction. And most responses are positive, because of course most people I know are intelligent and right-thinking. But there are surprises. Which shouldn’t be a…

January 13, 2023 Governor Hochul has nominated Brooklyn Judge Hector LaSalle for New York’s Chief Justice, headlining this as the first Latino in that post. Such ethnicization is cringeworthy. It’s great that previously disadvantaged minorities have entered the mainstream. But that’s the point: a judge who happens to be Latino…

January 9, 2023 President Biden has now made a show of visiting the southern border. The one promise he made to me personally in 2020 was to end Trump’s cruel war on refugees and immigrants. “Immediately, immediately,” he told me. He did swiftly reverse some of the worst of it…

January 6, 2023 I kept warning that voters giving Congressional power to these Republicans would be insane. Kevin McCarthy is a reprehensible character, totally self-serving and dishonest. But that’s not why he’s failing to get elected speaker. It’s actually because he’s not reprehensible enough. Those Republicans refusing to support…

January 3, 2023 “Go Back to Africa!” the marchers chanted, shaking their torches. “Go Back to Africa!” their signs declared. One small detail they overlooked. Black Americans’ ancestors hadn’t exactly come on tourist visas. It was not a “choice” (contrary to what Kanye said). Yet nevertheless, “Go Back to…