Author Archives: John Hinderaker

The Case For Secession

Featured image On Tuesday, a three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Texas cannot enforce its border control law, SB 4, because it conflicts with federal law that preempts the field of immigration. The decision is here. Jonathan Turley analyzes the issue here. Briefly, Turley thinks the panel decision is a correct interpretation of the Constitution and of case law on preemption. The constitutional issue turns on the »

Opening Day

Featured image Poems Ancient and Modern is a new Substack site run by, among others, South Dakota’s leading man of letters, Jody Bottum. I subscribe to it, even though I am not much of a poetry lover, and have found it entertaining and illuminating. Poems Ancient and Modern features a new poem, with commentary, every day. In honor of Opening Day, yesterday’s poem was “Casey at the Bat,” which, as Jody points »

The Scourge of Whiteness

Featured image St. Louis Park, Minnesota, used to have very good public schools. I suppose it was a matter of demographics: the suburb was, at one time, referred to as “St. Jewish Park.” But those days are long gone. Today the St. Louis Park school district is in the hands of the same kinds of morons who generally run our public schools. Minnesotan David Strom has the story: The Saint Louis Park »

A Story of Torture and Sexual Abuse

Featured image In the New York Times, an Israeli lawyer named Amit Soussana describes how she was kidnapped by up to ten Gazans, dragged into Gaza, and was tortured and subject to sexual abuse while held as a captive. It is now-familiar, but horrifying story: The kidnappers attempted to restrain her by beating her and wrapping her in a white fabric, the video shows. Unable to subdue her, the attackers tried and »

America’s Dumbest Man? [Updated]

Featured image I know, I know. But let’s assume Joe Biden has been given a Lifetime Achievement Award and is no longer eligible. In that case, I think Pete Buttigieg is a contender: You really cannot make it up. https://t.co/6fuZhHIwiM — Roger Kimball (@rogerkimball) March 26, 2024 By the way, the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge reminds us how fortunate we are that Buttigieg doesn’t have anything to do with »

It Can’t Happen Here?

Featured image Some time ago, a house in my neighborhood started flying a gay/trans flag. In response, I suspect, two nearby houses started flying American flags. But recently, there was a change: the gay/trans flag was replaced by the Scottish flag: If you remember Scotland as a country of highland clans, conservative Presbyterians and fearsome warriors, that may seem strange to you. But actually, it makes perfect sense: Scotland is being transformed »

Disinformation, Theirs and Ours

Featured image The terrorist attack in Moscow that killed more than 130 apparently was the work of ISIS-K, one of several ISIS franchises. That is what our intelligence agencies say, and I have no reason to doubt it. The fact that ISIS was able to upload video footage apparently recorded by the terrorists would appear to confirm that ISIS was responsible. The London Times reports: A Russian disinformation campaign is attempting to »

Why Are the Universities Cesspits of Anti-Semitism?

Featured image There are several answers to that question, but start with the fact that it is mostly the “elite” universities, and to some extent the larger ones, that have seen severe outbreaks of anti-Semitism. What is different about these institutions? For one thing, they have large numbers of foreign students, many of them from the Middle East and China. This has become a financial racket: the top universities post sky-high sticker »

More Evidence That Liberals Have Lost Their Minds

Featured image Let’s assume the House of Representatives votes to impeach Joe Biden. Assume further that Fox News were to hire conservative Hollywood actors–both of them–to do dramatic readings from the Articles of Impeachment, with sinister background music. What do you suppose the reaction would be? The stunt would be ridiculed as the dumbest political move in history, and rightly so. But, amazingly enough, that is exactly what the Democrats have done. »

Good Riddance, ESG

Featured image Of all the inroads the Left has made into our institutions in recent years, the most puzzling is its increasing dominance of the business world. One aspect of this is the movement for “ESG”–Environmental, Social, Governance–investing. ESG basically means swearing fealty to the craziest of left-wing schemes. Why it became a fad is beyond me. Happily, the ESG craze may be coming to an end. The Wall Street Journal reports: »

Is Biden’s Re-Election Campaign Driving US Foreign Policy?

Featured image It is widely believed that Joe Biden’s anti-Israel, pro-Hamas policy is driven by his desperate need to carry Michigan if he is to have any hope of re-election. That seems like a reasonable assumption, although, to be fair, it is also possible that he shares his old boss’s anti-Israel animus. But here is another one: Scoop: The US has urged Ukraine to halt attacks on Russia’s energy infrastructure, warning senior »

French Students Terrorized by Jihadists [Updated]

Featured image In France, at least two teachers have been murdered by Muslim students, one of them beheaded. The French press reports that “death threats and threats of rape have become common among pupils.” Those threats are directed toward both teachers and fellow students. Now, students at dozens of French schools have been sent “threatening messages and beheading videos” by Islamic radicals. The story is hard to parse out, and more is, »

Enemies of the People

Featured image When we started this site, exposing mainstream media bias was a big part of our mission. Using the then-new internet, we and many others held liberal outlets (i.e., virtually all of them) accountable in a way that hadn’t happened before. The effect of that effort was not that the liberal press became more accurate or more objective. Rather, they came out of the closet. For the most part, they no »

World’s Dumbest NCAA Bracket

Featured image It was Scott who first referred to the sacramental view of abortion, some years ago now. Abortion (much like slavery over the course of the 19th century) went from being a regrettable but sometimes unavoidable evil to being a positive good–indeed, these days, the noblest good to which political life can aspire. To see this perverse attitude in full flower, you almost have to live in Minnesota. Minnesota’s lieutenant governor, »

Gazans for Hamas

Featured image We are often told, by Joe Biden and his minions among others, that Hamas doesn’t really represent Gaza. Hamas is a murderous, terrorist organization, but Gazans are innocent, put-upon civilians. For example: That is the party line, but those who saw video footage of delirious crowds of Gazans celebrating as Israeli captives and bodies were paraded through Gaza’s cities wondered how innocent those civilians actually are. These poll data, from »

Green Tyranny: Not Misguided, But Evil

Featured image This film, Climate The Movie, directed by Martin Durkin, features a number of the world’s leading experts on “climate change.” It does a good job of laying out some of the basic data that show the scientific falsity of global warming hysteria. If you have been following the issue, most of this material will not be new to you. But the film goes on from there to expose the evil »

Who’s Leaving Where?

Featured image We have written about the Great Sort many times, but frankly you can’t emphasize it enough. Americans are deserting blue states and cities in favor of red zones. Liberalism has proved to be a failure by the most reliable measure: fewer and fewer people want to live under liberal regimes. Here are two examples. First, the City of New York, which was thought doomed to dystopia in the 1970s, rallied »