I’m not referring to the possible effect of Trump’s presidency on the economy, which is the way the expression has sometimes been used. I’m using it more like a sort of speed bump in the narrative—that little obligatory hiccup in … Continue reading →
But then again, people are very strange. This is what it’s come to: Last month, a teacher at El Rancho High School in Pico Rivera, Calif., was captured on video telling his history class that members of the military are … Continue reading →
I’m not sure whether this news makes it better or worse. I think perhaps worse: The Hawaii employee who sent out a false alarm earlier this month warning of an incoming missile attack said they misheard a message played during … Continue reading →
I am sorely tired of it. On the other hand, it raises so many fascinating issues that it’s hard to keep from mulling it over once again. Fortunately, a lot of other people have done the legwork so I’ll link … Continue reading →
David Frum certainly has: This morning’s presidential Twitter outburst recalls those words of Fredo Corleone’s in one of the most famous scenes from The Godfather series. Trump tweeted that his “two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, … Continue reading →
…and we certainly have been speaking of refrigerators lately— I read my new fridge’s manual yesterday. I was looking for instructions on how to integrate some little egg holders that came with it: where do they go? What is the … Continue reading →
I noticed the word “cunning” in the headline of a piece by Spengler entitled “Trump’s Courage and Cunning Confound His Opponents.” He goes on to say: I can think of no politician with his combination of courage and cunning since … Continue reading →
And take up a pen. The evidence indicates that taking notes by hand leads to more learning. The article lists reasons why this may be so: The experiment found that the students who used a laptop did not understand the … Continue reading →
In the wake of the recent spate of sexual offense allegations, “credible” and “credibly” are the latest buzzwords. Just as an example, take this Politico piece, which is by a former Bush speechwriter named Matt Latimer [emphasis mine]: In the … Continue reading →
This news is from Britain, and it’s still an outlier. But perhaps not for long: Teachers should not refer to pupils as “girls” or “ladies” because it means they are “constantly reminded of their gender”, the Government’s former mental health … Continue reading →
I missed this news when it happened, about a month ago: A nuclear disarmament group has won the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize for its decade-long campaign to rid the world of the atomic bomb. As nuclear-fuelled crises swirl over North … Continue reading →
Spengler uses the abominable and extremely unfunny joke of Larry David on Saturday Night Live recently as a springboard for a discussion of the special qualities of Jewish humor—the kind of Jewish humor that is funny, and is characteristically Jewish: … Continue reading →