Laughter is the Best Medicine
June 2, 2026 — John Hinderaker
As we await primary results from Los Angeles, this is a break from the news. (For up to the minute hard news coverage, go here.) First a video, of a kid with remarkable skills as a mimic and an excellent knowledge of bird calls. It is taking the internet by storm. Following the video, some observations on turkeys. I saw it. Now you have to see it. His name is
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May 2, 2026 — Scott Johnson
In an epigraph to the novel The Case History of Comrade V. (1972), James Park Sloan quotes someone writing that the surest sign of ________ is the lack of a sense of humor. I wish I could fill in the blank. I don’t remember the quote exactly and I lost my copy of the novel somewhere along the way. However, it comes to mind in connection with President Trump’s comments
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April 29, 2026 — Scott Johnson
I have declared President Trump the King of Comedy. The White house goes one step beyond to take up the stupid taunt of No Kings. Trump or someone working on his behalf is working to become King of Trolls or King of Pain. I’m filing this under Laughter Is the Best Medicine. After the attempted assassination and late night press conference this past weekend, Trump continues to prove himself indefatigable,
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April 21, 2026 — Scott Johnson
Today’s Wall Street Journal reports that “Red Lobster’s Endless Shrimp Is Back—With a Few Strings Attached.” To borrow a phrase from Shakespeare, thereby hangs a tale (or a tail, as the case may be). The Journal story is part history: Red Lobster has thrown its periodic Endless Shrimp party since the early 2000s. The chain ran it roughly annually and restricted the types of shrimp that customers could get. “Every
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March 23, 2026 — Scott Johnson
I was unfamiliar with the story of rapper Afroman (Joseph Foreman) and the case that put his free speech rights in issue. Jonathan Turley flagged the case exactly three years ago in “Police Officers Sue ‘Afroman’ for the Use of Their Images from Raid on his Home.” Now the verdict is in. The jury has spoken. Professor Turley returns to tell the rest of the story in “‘Will You Help
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March 18, 2026 — Scott Johnson
The Washington Free Beacon publishes a companion story for its “Beastmode” video of President Trump contrasting Winston Churchill with Keir Starmer in the Oval Office yesterday. Trump was hosting Ireland prime minister Micheál Martin for St. Patrick’s Day at the time. I wonder what Martin was thinking. Warming to his task, Trump contrasted his treatment of the Churchill bust on display in the Oval Office with its treatment by “Barack
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March 13, 2026 — Scott Johnson
Judge Lawrence VanDyke sits on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The Alliance for Justice pays this backhanded tribute to him: Throughout his career, Lawrence VanDyke has shown his dedication to serving partisan interests at the expense of clean air, clean water, reproductive rights, LGBTQ equality…” and so on. I could stop right there and say that’s good enough for me. But Judge VanDyke has dissented from the Ninth Circuit’s
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February 23, 2026 — Scott Johnson
We went to see the current touring production of Les Misérables at the Orpheum Theater in downtown Minneapolis last night. The tickets were a birthday gift to my wife — it was her third time seeing various productions of the show. She wanted to see it again. Last night it played to a packed house of 2,600 in the conclusion of its six-day run in town. I identified with the
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January 29, 2026 — Scott Johnson
around his Democratic interlocutors (and Rand Paul) in his appearance before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee yesterday. The Department of State has posted video of his testimony along with a transcript here. Need I add that the Department of State has posted his testiomny because Rubio is our Secretary of State? I don’t think so, but it sounds good to my ears. Here is one highlight. LMAO—Krazy Kaine tries to
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January 14, 2026 — Scott Johnson
The Babylon Bee reports the good news and bad news in December’s employment data: The White House announced that job creation in December blew past expectations, with over one million new jobs being created in just one month. However, the unemployment rate remained unchanged, as every single one of the jobs was filled by Marco Rubio. Rubio has reportedly taken over running the interim government of Venezuela, managing an auto
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December 16, 2025 — Scott Johnson
For those of you who have been following along with my long explication of the tangled tale of Ilhan Omar, please note this exchange reported in today’s New York Post story: “Why do you think they keep bringing this up?” Omar was then asked before she walked onto an elevator and out of sight. “Because they’re sick!” she exclaimed. You talkin’ to me? Well, I deny that. I’m not sick.
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December 16, 2025 — Scott Johnson
Looking at the heading I chose for “Rob Reiner’s tragic exit,” I was reminded of his father Carl Reiner’s Enter Laughing. It was the elder Reiner’s first film as a director. I drove over to the Suburban World or Uptown Theater in Minneapolis to see it when it was released in 1967 and still remember funny details of the film depicting Reiner’s semi-autobiographical account of his entry into show business.
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December 10, 2025 — Scott Johnson
The Spectator (UK) is the oldest surviving magazine in the world. It is a venerable institution, now with its own American edition published as Spectator World. Visiting a friend yesterday morning, I received an email message from the Spectator’s pseudonymous Cockburn. He wrote me: “Can’t help but notice…the recent trend in national media for claiming ‘exclusives’ about Somali fraud in Minnesota and Ilhan…have these guys not been reading Power Line/[Center
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December 4, 2025 — Scott Johnson
I’ve subscribed and canceled my subscription to the New York Review of Books in an endless cycle of violence. I am currently in the truce or cancelation phase of the cycle, so I missed Susan Neiman’s NYRB review of David Rieff’s Desire and Fate. I am accordingly grateful that the Wall Street Journal excerpted Neiman’s review in its December 3 Notable and Quotable: Wokeness squib: When the young black poet
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November 21, 2025 — Scott Johnson
We can’t turn to Ammo Grrrll on Power Line for our Friday laughs anymore, but today we have Wall Street Journal sports columnist Jason Gay. Writing about Boston Celtics coach Jason Mazzulla (links omitted), Gay observes: This is a coach who delivers injury updates like he’s at an FBI briefing, who’s opined at length about his affection for the Boston heist movie “The Town,” who’s lamented the end of fighting
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November 17, 2025 — Scott Johnson
A poltical/intellectual battle is underway for the future of the conservative movement. Tucker Carlson and his friends stand on one side of the divide. On the other stands, well, my exemplar of the day — Babylon Bee chief executive Seth Dillon. I’ve been saying Carlson has forced the issue with his recent promotion of neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes, but this is only his most recent effort to inject anti-Semitic poison into
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November 12, 2025 — Scott Johnson
In today’s Washington Free Beacon newsletter, my daughter Eliana links to the video below with the tag “I’ll have what she’s smoking.” I think “I’ll have what she’s drinking” may be slightly more accurate. In any case, the former vice president actually says she was “aware” of Donald Trump’s “strategy” but “wasn’t about to fall prey, or fall into those traps.” No, with her comic accent, she declares that she
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