Opinion

As someone who came to artificial intelligence via economics and finance, when I first began advising and writing about technology public policies, I was struck by a paradox. At every roundtable, someone would raise the specter of overregulation stifling innovation. Yet, when I asked who was lobbying for these lighter-touch rules, the answer was always […]

Taylor Swift’s new album is polarizing its listeners — and even some of Swift’s die-hard fans. Its lyrics aren’t resonating like they used to, and with selections such as “Did you girl-boss too close to the sun?” and “But I’m not a bad b**** and this isn’t savage,” it’s not hard to see why. But the […]

It’s difficult to say what the most telling fact is in the Middle East triumph of President Donald Trump and Israel. Is it that terrorist Iran backs the president’s 20-point peace plan for Israel and Gaza? Is it that key Muslim neighbors, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey, are all on board? Is it […]

“When you’re accustomed to privilege,” people who write for the New York Times like to say, “equality feels like oppression.” Katie Porter, a former Democratic California representative and media darling, learned that when you’re accustomed to coddling, journalism feels like persecution. Porter imploded in an October interview with a CBS News reporter. The moment went […]

Our brave moral betters in the world of comedy have come to the conclusion that American free speech pales in comparison to the free speech culture of Saudi Arabia, and they have been helped to that conclusion by stacks of Saudi cash. The Riyadh Comedy Festival in Saudi Arabia was a collection of some of […]

Live-and-let-live has always been part of the American ethos, but in recent decades, this laissez-faire individualism has become a prime directive in elite ethics. This is one reason the United States didn’t start wrestling with the baby bust until the past couple of years, a decade after Europe started facing the reality of low and […]

Whenever the president is interrupted at an event with a whisper or note from an aide, something significant and possibly historic is afoot. Perhaps the most memorable example in recent times is when White House chief of staff Andy Card approached President George W. Bush on Sept. 11, 2001, while he was reading to students […]

Imagine being married for 13 years, hitting a rough patch for two years, almost getting a divorce, but then reconciling. You think everything is fine. But then all of a sudden, your wife starts bringing up old problems you thought were resolved years ago. It is happening to more and more couples, and the cause […]

Having secured a historic ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, President Donald Trump has manifestly done more than anyone else to deserve the Nobel Peace Prize (not that the prize deserves much respect anymore). This agreement to end two years of conflict will mean the release of the last 20 living Israeli hostages held by the terrorists. In return, Israel […]

Try a small thought experiment. Suppose you were setting out to design a country that bred lots of terrorists. How would you go about it? You would need old animosities, of course, but there are plenty of places in the world that offer those. The key thing, I suggest, would be to prevent any commercial […]

Martin Suarez opens his dramatic account of his life as an undercover FBI special agent assigned to infiltrate Colombian drug cartels from 1988 to 1994, Inside the Cartel: How An Undercover FBI Agent Smuggled Cocaine, Laundered Cash and Dismantled a Colombian Narco Empire, with the August 1994 attempt on his life. “The assassin pointed his […]

With his tall, thin body and his long arms and legs, Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) looked more like a bag of bones than a world-famous Scottish author. It was his eyes, though, which suggested his literary genius. His friend Mark Twain called them “Stevenson’s special distinction and commanding feature.” His wife, Fanny, said, “Behind them, […]