May 25, 2026 — John Hinderaker

In the Beauty of the Lilies

Featured image In honor of Memorial Day, I am re-posting this video which I recorded in 2007. I did a second post with the same video in 2014. It is from a choir concert in which my youngest child participated when she was 11. I will repeat what I wrote in 2014, then add an additional comment after the video. ********************************* Mark Steyn wrote yesterday (actually, it’s an excerpt from his book »
May 25, 2026 — Scott Johnson

Torture thoughts on Memorial Day

Featured imageToday remember and honor all those who died in military service to the United States. Leo Thorsness is the Minnesota native who was awarded the Medal of Honor for unbelievable heroics in aerial combat over North Vietnam in April 1967. Within a few days of his heroics on the Medal of Honor mission, Col. Thorsness was shot down over North Vietnam and taken into captivity. In captivity he was tortured »
May 24, 2026 — John Hinderaker

As California Goes…

Featured imageSo goes, we hope to God, no other state. Currently there are two big election campaigns going on in the formerly prosperous state of California. The first is for Governor, where Democrats are aghast at the reality that Republican Steve Hilton may very well win. The Democrats’ problem is that, as so often is the case, notwithstanding their claims to overwhelming intellectual superiority, their candidates suck. One of those bad »
May 24, 2026 — Bill Glahn

Ignoring the obvious

Featured imageWe no longer have a firm grasp of the obvious. Louise Perry writes (paywall) in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) weekend edition, Falling birthrates are a mystery Really? A mystery to whom? Perry writes, There’s no shortage of explanations, but there’s a strong counterargument against each of them. Let’s see. The blindingly obvious reason for lower fertility rates is that people are having fewer children during their lifetimes. To Perry’s »
May 24, 2026 — John Hinderaker

Internet Hysteria’s Antidote

Featured imageTwo weeks ago I gave a talk at a symposium on anti-Semitism on the right in New York. One of those who attended the symposium was Dr. Randall Bock. Dr. Bock has a podcast and a Substack. After the symposium, he asked me to be a guest on his podcast, to which I was happy to agree. We talked about a number of things, including Dr. Bock’s work on the »
May 24, 2026 — John Hinderaker

Re-Learning Ancient Lessons

Featured imagePrice fixing is a terrible idea, pretty much always and everywhere. That goes for fixing the price of labor as much as anything else. This old lesson is now being re-learned in Britain: Rishi Sunak: What I got wrong on the minimum wage. What the former Prime Minister got wrong is, he was in favor of it: As Labour prepares for this leadership debate, it should heed figures out this »
May 24, 2026 — Scott Johnson

Chimes of freedom

Featured imageBob Dylan celebrates his 85th birthday today. When he snagged the Nobel Prize for Literature a few years ago, I pulled out all the stops by posting a big set of my favorite covers of his songs. I don’t have any stops left to pull, but I’m adding another cover or four (again) this year in honor of his milestone birthday today. Dylan is first and foremost a songwriter. See, »
May 23, 2026 — Bill Glahn

Motive unclear

Featured imageFrom the New York Post, Gunman who believed he was Jesus Christ opened fire on White House checkpoint, neutralized by Secret Service. Given the result, his belief was mistaken. These incidents occur with such frequency that they hardly even produce a ripple. Nasire Best, 21, fired at a checkpoint at about 6:10 p.m. after being seen pacing in a strange manner up and down 17th St. Northwest, sources told The »
May 23, 2026 — John Hinderaker

Our Long National Nightmare Is Over

Featured imageStephen Colbert is finally off the air. We and CBS can both breathe a sigh of relief. Although–I am happy to say–I have never spent a single minute watching Colbert, one of the Left’s several faux comedians. Colbert has been on something of a farewell tour, as though he were important or popular. Left-wingers in entertainment and politics have offered one paean after another to the failed talk show host. »
May 23, 2026 — Steven Hayward

The Week in Pictures: Messy Massie Edition

Featured imageGreetings from Palermo, where I’m currently on a diplomatic mission to sort out the Europeans. Meanwhile, the salient news of the week is that Republicans seem to dealing with the anti-Semites in their midst while Democrats nominate theirs for higher office. More significantly, in purging Sen. Bill Cassidy and Rep. Thomas “Hot Mess” Massie (did Trump ever call him that?—he should have if not), Trump has achieved what Franklin Roosevelt »
May 22, 2026 — John Hinderaker

The Dems Are Hurting For ’28

Featured imageDemocrats think they have the GOP on the run for this year’s midterms courtesy of their Iranian allies, but a problem looms: they need a presidential candidate for 2028. It has been a while since the Democrats have fielded a strong presidential nominee. Joe Biden was pedestrian at best in 2020, and Kamala Harris was awful in 2024. Surely they can do better in 2028. Right? Perhaps not. Rasmussen reports »
May 24, 2026 — Scott Johnson

Looking back at 24 years

Featured imageThis site has now been around for 24 years. In Internet time, we are like Mel Brooks’s 2000 Year Old Man. Borrowing from and supplementing previous anniversary posts, I want to highlight themes that continue to resonate with me. As these reflections have grown over the years, they have come to rival “Chimes of freedom” in length, if not euphony. • It was 24 years ago this weekend — 24 »
May 24, 2026 — Scott Johnson

Not dark yet

Featured imageToday is the birthday of Minnesota native son Bob Dylan. He turns the ripe old age of 85. It’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there. I want to celebrate him as long we’re both still around to enjoy the occasion. He is a remarkable artist, self-invented, deep in the American grain. A few years back I visited Dylan’s old home at 2425 7th Avenue East in Hibbing. The house »
May 23, 2026 — John Hinderaker

Hunter Meets Candace

Featured imageWho is on the left these days, and who is on the right? Who can tell? Hunter Biden appeared as a guest on the Candace Show, illustrating the new political alignment–not so much left vs right, as crazy vs sane. I haven’t listened to the show–I only have so many brain cells left–so I rely on the New York Post for a report on the interview: Former first son Hunter »
May 23, 2026 — Scott Johnson

Judson’s last ride

Featured imageI might have overlooked Sean Trende’s RealClearPolitics column about his developmentally challenged son if it weren’t for Tim Alberta’s post on X (below). The headline on Trende’s column doesn’t give a clue to its riches: “Judson’s last ride.” We already have a lot to think about this Memorial Day Weekend. You may nevertheless want to make time for this moving column about parenthood, teachers, life, love, and family. Can’t remember »
May 22, 2026 — John Hinderaker

Is There a Based Approach to the Law?

Featured imageYoung conservatives often refer to themselves as “based.” What does it mean? A based conservative is a young, populist, America First, non-establishment conservative. That isn’t a description that applies to many lawyers and judges, especially these days. Is there such a thing as a based approach to the law? There is, and it probably sounds to you like common sense. Law professor Ilan Wurman explains: Right. At the margins, under »
May 22, 2026 — John Hinderaker

Minnesota Pays Murderer $4.5 Million

Featured imageIn the course of committing an armed robbery in Minneapolis in 2004, Marvin Haynes shot and killed the owner of a flower shop. He was prosecuted, identified by witnesses (“Oh my God, that’s him”), and heard to talk about “shooting an old white man” at the time of the murder. Haynes was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. His conviction was upheld by the Minnesota Court of »