A Graham moment of greatness

Featured image Senator Lindsey Graham’s passing on Saturday evening represents a great loss to our public life. Senator Graham had a special moment of greatness in the 2018 Judiciary Committee hearing on the nomination of then Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. Senator Graham not only rose to Kavanaugh’s defense, he called out his Democrat colleagues on the committee for the disgusting charade they had performed in the attempted assassination of »

When the Times covered “Minnesota men”

Featured imageThe New York Times is estalishing a Twin Cities newsletter it call The Local. The promotional announcement requires some translation I am unable to provide: “The Local is a pilot newsletter to connect readers to their communities through journalism…” Sounds like another brick in the wall of the Minnesota left to me. The Times announcment has me thinking back to local stories on which my work has overlapped with that »

How to Lie With Statistics

Featured imageThe New York Times has probably put out more significant misinformation than any other news outlet over the last 40 years. Being scrupulously fair, I admit that the National Enquirer may have propounded even more fake stories than the Times, but the Enquirer’s misinformation is generally insignificant–three-headed calves, cabbages that look like Jesus, and the like–while the Times’ lies are important, like the Russia collusion hoax. Here is a nice »

You don’t need a weatherman

Featured imageThe pardon of child rapist Tou Vang by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and state Attorney General Keith Ellison continues to reverberate. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security posted on X today, So, if deporting a single child rapist doesn’t make the state better or safer, how about deporting a thousand rapists? 10,000? Comments like these appear to deny the existence of a tipping point. It’s the logical fallacy of faulty generalization: »

The Versatile Sophie Cunningham

Featured imageSophie Cunningham is the professional basketball player who over the last couple of weeks has become a leading figure in the world of memes. Equally impressive, Ms. Cunningham is a member of this year’s Sports Illustrated swimsuit team: But that’s not all! Last night in Las Vegas, she made her debut as a ring card girl. First, a word of explanation. It is traditional in boxing, and now in mixed »

Endorsements

Featured imageThe local chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) has begun announcing their endorsements for the 2026 election cycle. First up was their re-endorsement of state Sen. Omar Mahmood Fateh, representing a district in south Minneapolis. Sen. Fateh has played a prominent role in the infamous Feeding Our Future fraud scandal, among other irregularities. Of course, none of this has/will matter to voters in south Minneapolis. Sen. Fateh is »

My correspondence with Sheryl Gay Stolberg

Featured imageWriting about my quarrel with Sheryl Gay Stolberg’s 2018 New York Times profile of Ilhan Omar, I incorrectly stated that Ms. Stolberg failed to respond to my inquiries about her story in writing. She did. However, she asked me to keep her response off the record. She was a gracious and friendly correspondent. She also took my phone call as I stated in the linked post. I didn’t think to »

Lindsey Graham dies at 71

Featured imageThis morning comes the shocking news that South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham died yesterday evening. He had just turned 71 this past Thursday. According to his office, he died after a “brief and sudden illness.” He was completing his fourth term in the Senate and gliding to reelection in November. Statement from the Office of U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina). pic.twitter.com/CQ5yVvqTH1 — Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) July 12, 2026 What »

Law Enforcement for Sale

Featured imageMy first experience with law enforcement being sold out to partisan interests arose out of a program, in which, as I recall, New York University Law School was involved, to place anti-fossil fuel lawyers in state attorney generals’ offices to sue oil companies. The effort was funded by left-wing money. So the far left was able to use public authorities to pursue its extremist agenda, courtesy of secret left-wing donors. »

Iranian Assassination Attempt?

Featured imagePresident Trump says the Iranian government may try to assassinate him: “1000 Missiles are Locked and Loaded and aimed at the Islamic Republic of Iran, with thousands of more to immediately follow, should the Iranian Government act on its threat, pronounced in many corners of the Globe, to assassinate, or attempt to assassinate, the sitting President of the United States of America, in this case, ME!” Trump wrote on Truth »

The Week In Pictures: Goodbye, Nazi Edition

Featured imageThe week began with Independence Day, and it featured a lot of World Cup action. If you can call anything that happens in soccer action. Europe sweltered under a non-air conditioned heat wave, and the Iran conflict resumed. But what motivated meme-makers more than anything else was the spectacular implosion of the Graham Platner Senate campaign. I suppose because it was so unexpected: who would have imagined that the campaign »

Motive unclear [With Comment by John–Updated]

Featured imageFrom Reuters, No Evidence of Political Motive in Murder of Former UK Minister Widdecombe, Police Say. Ann Widdecombe was a prominent figure on the right in Britain. She served in government under former Prime Minister John Major as a Conservative and member of the U.K. Parliament. Later in life she joined the Reform party as a spokesperson and member of the European Parliament. She also did some reality TV shows. »

Strait notes

Featured imagePresident Trump gave the thugs calling the shots in Iran a deadline of Saturday evening to declare the Strait of Hormuz open. No threats, no tolls, no shooting, no drones. In other words, he sought a statement of compliance with our understnading of previous agreements. The Wall Street Journal summarized the state of play as of Friday night: The Trump administration believes that a nuclear deal with Iran is growing »

Sunday morning coming down

Featured imageRoger McGuinn turns 84 tomorrow. I am drawing on what I wrote to pay tribute to McGuinn when he turned 83 last year. It is time to celebrate again. He is a gifted and influential artist. Before founding the predecessor to the Byrds with Gene Clark and David Crosby, McGuinn was a folk nut. He returned to his first musical love with Roger McGuinn’s Folk Den, where he posts new »

Kratom

Featured imageMinnesota produces more news than can be consumed locally. From the U.K. Daily Mail, Former Obama staffer accused of stealing from colleagues to fund drug habit. The Daily Mail reports, Adam Fetcher, 42, was let go from his role as Chief Communications Officer for the City of Minneapolis last week amid a police probe, The Minnesota Star Tribune reported. According to the outlet, Fetcher, who earned $186,495 a year in »

When the Times profiled Omar

Featured imageNews that the New York Times will launch a Twin Cities newsletter brings to mind a few of the Twin Cities stories that the Times has covered over the years. Some of them overlapped my own work on Power Line and gave me a fresh perspective on how the Times works. When Minnesota Fifth District Rep. Ilhan Omar was elected to Congress in 2018, then-Times congressional reporter Sheryl Gay Stolberg »

Platner Says Goodbye

Featured imageGraham Platner officially withdrew from the Maine Senate race today. This is his letter to Maine’s Secretary of State: I only want to call attention to the manner in which Platner concluded his letter, presumably expressing his priorities: F*ck ICE. Free Palestine. Up the Hearts. “Up the Hearts” is a soccer reference, which I guess fits–so much for Platner’s blue collar bona fides. But “F*ck ICE” and “Free Palestine” are »