Opinion

A biblical verse advises that pride comes before the fall. It appears Target might have heeded those words. It’s a brand new day at Target retail stores this June. Consumers will find each retail location a little different than in years past. Instead of being greeted with Pride Month merchandise upon entering Target locations, the […]

Pavement is remembered as the epitome of ’90s slacker rock, southern California ironists who sang-talk impenetrable lyrics over meandering guitar licks, feedback, and toy instruments. With the advantage of hindsight, and with the disadvantage of living in a TikTok-ruled cultural hellscape where nothing seems that serious or that real, it’s finally obvious that Pavement made […]

After nearly two years of Houthi strikes on Western shipping, President Donald Trump suddenly announced a ceasefire in May with the Houthi terrorists occupying parts of Yemen. But this agreement has not stopped the rebel group from attacking American interests. Even after it was announced, the Houthis continued to target our regional allies, including shooting […]

Since its cinematic release on May 23, 1980, Stanley Kubrick’s horror masterpiece The Shining has terrified and perplexed audiences in equal measure. While the Stephen King novel it is based on is a classic example of what George Orwell called a “good bad book” — in other words, a superbly executed potboiler that has no […]

In my last column, I told you about Marine Lance Cpl. Nick Mitchel and how, in 2010, he shipped with his infantry unit to Afghanistan with dreams of earning the coveted Combat Action Ribbon. He wanted to be an all-American badass Marine. He earned the ribbon on his first day in the war, but quickly […]

Caffery Bone, the literary editor of a London periodical, receives an invitation to stay at the mansion of the publication’s proprietor. It doesn’t bode well. Bone is painfully aware that Lord Ower has a track record of hosting those he wants to fire. He casts his mind back to three previous employees who had their […]

Paula Bomer’s novel The Stalker is a poorly written book. The narrative voice is dull. It observes narrowly, always telling when showing would suffice. Its descriptions are crude, such as when it renders a woman’s sagging breasts as “extra butt cheeks.” The dialogue is flat, exchanged between characters who are more of a collection of […]

Gather round the campfire, children, and I’ll tell you a spooky, scary story about witches and the hunting of them.  It was a time of turmoil and terror. A deadly plague cast its shadow over the world, killing by the millions. Children turned on their parents, and neighbors turned on neighbors. In the streets, in […]

The accession of Leo XIV, the first American pope and the third successive non-Italian to lead the Catholic Church, brings to mind the illustrious career of Pope Germanian I, another outsider to the Holy See who reigned over a tumultuous era. Germanian began his career as the disputatious monk Martin Luther before ascending to the […]

The Congressional Budget Office released an analysis of the House-passed One Big Beautiful Bill Act in early June. The report found that, compared to current law, the legislation would decrease tax revenues by $3.6 trillion, decrease spending by $1.2 trillion, and thus increase deficits by $2.4 trillion over the next 10 years. The report also […]

Greta Thunberg is grifting at sea. The moonfaced Swedish malcontent and 11 other Hamas supporters left the Sicilian port of Catania on the Madleen on the morning of June 1, destination Gaza. If, that is, the Israelis let them land. Thunberg is an old salt. On May 1, technical difficulties ended the environmentalist elf’s first […]

MUSK-TRUMP FEUD DESCENDS INTO EMBARRASSING SPECTACLE. Maybe Elon Musk’s escalating attacks on President Donald Trump, and Trump’s increasingly irritated responses, were funny for a few minutes, given that the two had been best buddies just days ago. But the battle quickly sank into ugliness on Thursday. The display will not do any good for either the […]

“It’s not the plan,” former President Dwight D. Eisenhower is supposed to have said, “it’s the planning.” I guess that means that the details of a certain plan matter a lot less than simply having one in the first place. Ike must have known what he was talking about, of course — who am I […]