POLITICS & POLICY

Flag at a protest against Trump administration transgender policies outside City Hall in New York City, October 24, 2018. (Brendan McDermid/Reuters) A group of hundreds of concerned parents is calling for an immediate halt to a taxpayer-funded study on transgender youth where the young participants are given powerful hormone blockers to stave off puberty and
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What does it take to make a good neighborhood? Without question, the answer is communication and openness. While they say that “good fences” make good neighbors, what about the opposite of that? Do fences that are too high make for indifferent neighbors? Do high fences make for neighbors who never communicate, or isolate themselves and
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People line up outside a Chick-fil-A restaurant in Manhattan in 2015. (Carlo Allegri/Reuters) In the past two weeks, two different airports have blocked Chick-fil-A from the premises. First, the city council of San Antonio banned the chain because, in the words of councilman Robert Trevino, “everyone should feel welcome when they walk through our airport.” Then,
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President Donald Trump has taken five dramatic, unprecedented pro-Israel measures. They’re not the only factors that make him popular in Israel; others include his withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear deal and his sanctions on Iran and its proxy Hizballah. But those aren’t moves directed at Israel specifically. The explicitly pro-Israel moves include: 1. Declaring Jerusalem
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Central American migrants surrender to U.S. Border Patrol Agents south of the U.S.-Mexico border fence in El Paso, Texas, March 6, 2019. (Lucy Nicholson/Reuters) A federal judge on Monday blocked the Trump administration’s policy of returning Central American asylum seekers to Mexico until their cases are processed. Judge Richard Seeborg in San Francisco delayed the enforcement
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The Senate’s challenge in approving nominees has affected multiple agencies, but the problem is particularly bad at the EEOC. Last year, I noted in the Wall Street Journal that vacancies at the EEOC had left the Democrat commissioners as the majority of what is supposed to be a five person, bipartisan commission.  Now, since the Democratic chairwoman’s term expired,
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A pro-Brexit, yellow-vest protester in London, March 30, 2019 (Henry Nicholls/Reuters) The U.K. needs those European goods, and the Europeans are of course keen to sell them. When the politicians talk about international trade, they always talk about what the businesses in their country can sell. But British businesses, faced with the possibility of an
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(Brendan McDermid/Reuters) 1969—Justice Thurgood Marshall’s majority opinion in Stanley v. Georgia declares that the First Amendment forbids criminalizing the possession of concededly obscene material. Marshall blithely distinguishes away the Court’s previous categorical statements that obscenity is not protected by the First Amendment. Stanley, Marshall grandiosely proclaims, is asserting “the right to satisfy his intellectual and
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Elon Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur and founder of the aerospace powerhouse SpaceX, is a fascinating case study in leadership. While brilliant, diligent, and hardworking, Musk’s admirable qualities are often outweighed by his troublesome personality quirks. Self-admittedly impulsive and narcissistic—a dangerously potent combo—Musk is his own greatest adversary. His visionary guidance is, without a doubt, an
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The idea of merit has fallen on evil times, as has its corollary concept, objectivity. These principles have now been breached by a consortium of the ideologically minded, who resemble a gang of robbers tunneling under a bank vault. The masterminds planning and executing this operation are a class of “treasonous” intellectuals as Julien Benda
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D0 not be alarmed, comrades, that I, V. I. Lenin, here again so soon from mausoleum after first time to address you. Once you back from what people’s author Raymond Chandler call “Big Sleep,” it become difficult to stop self-commenting affair of day. And we have extreme serious counter-revolutionary problem, tovariches — almost as bad Stalin
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Former Vice President Joe Biden talks to the media after speaking at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers conference in Washington, D.C., April 5, 2019. (Joshua Roberts/Reuters) Progressives attack Joe Biden for having followed customs and mores of that foreign country that is the past. EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is Jonah Goldberg’s weekly “news”letter, the
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A video of Trump supposedly calling asylum-seekers animals has been lighting up Twitter, but the clip is dishonestly edited to leave out the comment he was responding to, which was about MS-13 not asylum-seekers. Here is a good example of the misleading version: .@realDonaldTrump on people asking for asylum “These aren’t people. These are animals.”
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Justice Harry Blackmun. 1994—Justice Harry Blackmun announces his impending retirement after 24 years on the Court. His majority opinion in Roe v. Wade (1973) is rivaled only by Dred Scott as the worst opinion in Supreme Court history. As one of Blackmun’s former clerks, Edward Lazarus (who described himself as “someone utterly committed to the
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President Trump attends a Department of Veterans Affairs event at the White House, August 3, 2017. (Joshua Roberts/Reuters) Making the click-through worthwhile: Democrats in the House demand that the IRS turn over six years of President Trump’s tax returns; Bernie Sanders isn’t quite clear on when he’ll release his tax returns; Beto O’Rourke identifies the
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Senator Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.) speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., January 15, 2019. (Yuri Gripas/Reuters) During the Senate Judiciary Committee’s business meeting today, Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.) made some claims about the confirmation process that need correction. She said, for example, that the Senate abolished nomination filibusters in November 2013 only
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Chicago mayoral candidate Lori Lightfoot speaks during a news conference in Chicago, Illinois, March 26, 2019. (File photo: Joshua Lott/Reuters) Newly elected Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot vowed Wednesday to investigate why the Cook County state’s attorney’s office dropped all charges against Empire actor Jussie Smollett despite the “compelling” evidence that suggests he staged a hate crime against
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(Nejron/Dreamstime) 1939—Two weeks after President Roosevelt nominates SEC chairman (and former Yale law professor) William O. Douglas to the Supreme Court, the Senate confirms the nomination by a 62-4 vote. On the Court from 1939 until 1975, Douglas will become the longest-misserving justice in history. 2017—“The goalposts have been moving over the years,” asserts the
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A Trump supporter holds an American flag at a rally in Madison, Ala., February 2016. (Marvin Gentry/Reuters) In response to God, Ancient Israel, and Nationalism I am enjoying the widening gyre of my discussion with Rich a great deal. And I’m glad for Rich’s clarification below. But I have an empirical question. Rich writes: In
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Protesters demonstrate against President Donald Trump’s plans to end Obamacare in Washington, D.C., March 23, 2017. (Kevin Lamarque/REUTERS) Having weathered the Russian frame-up, the Republicans must now produce a health-care plan. The Democrats and most of their media hallelujah chorus are still sanctimoniously congratulating themselves for showing such vigilance over Russia’s impact on the election.
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A Customs and Border Protection officer near an enclosure holding Central American migrants who illegally crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas, March 27, 2019. (Jose Luis Gonzalez/Reuters) Of course we have a border crisis — just not the one Trump keeps ranting about. When President Trump shut down the government in an attempt
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