MONDAY, AUGUST 5, 2024 Jennifer Rubin's glitch: For quite some time, we've been advancing a basic point: We humans weren't exactly built for this task—for the current assignment. Nor have we ever been "the rational animal" in any obvious sense. The great anthropologists have noti … | Continue reading
SUNDAY, AUGUST 4, 2024 So says a Fox News report: We're not sure who's reviewing the work of Landon Mion, a youngish Fox News reporter. Just how youngish is Mion? He's four years out of college (Kennesaw State, class of 2020). He's been employed by Fox News since April 2022. He c … | Continue reading
SATURDAY, AUGUST 3, 2024 Linguistics professor explains: The irony lies in the author's identity line. The author in question is John McWhorter. Beneath his latest column for the New York Times, his identity line says this: John McWhorter is an associate professor of linguistics … | Continue reading
FRIDAY, AUGUST 2, 2024 Candidate Trump absolved: Candidate Trump dropped his campaign's new bomb right at the start of the interview. He was providing the dope about Vice President Harris. Here's the key part of what he said: TRUMP (7/31/24): So I’ve known her a long time indirec … | Continue reading
FRIDAY, AUGUST 2, 2024 Where do these tragedies start? We humans! Our imperfect brains are imperfectly wired to promote Enlightenment values. They're imperfectly wired to let us sift information. They're imperfectly wired to deal with the types of situations we refer to as "diver … | Continue reading
THURSDAY, AUGUST 1, 2024 Say it to her face: Just to establish the record, this is what the gentleman said at yesterday's interview session: TRUMP (7/31/24): I’ve known her a long time, indirectly, not directly very much, and she was always of Indian heritage, and she was only pr … | Continue reading
THURSDAY, AUGUST 1, 2024 The tyranny of a tough crowd: When Sandra Smith hired on at Fox News, she fell in with a tough crowd. That would be the principal finding our analysts now report. As background concerning this local culture, they asked us to consider two recent examples: … | Continue reading
WEDNESDAY, JULY 31, 2024 An elegy for Troy: How clownish is the American discourse, in ways which generally go unreported and undiscussed? How clownish is it? Consider two recent snapshots of the American "cable news" landscape. We'll start with the latest viewer ratings—the Niel … | Continue reading
WEDNESDAY, JULY 31, 2024 ...to present this discussion of Us: How did it happen that Sandra Smith did such a ridiculous thing? It isn't that she wouldn't call the Democratic Party by its actual name when speaking in her own voice. That long-standing prohibition is pathetic and ch … | Continue reading
TUESDAY, JULY 30, 2024 The heartlessness is right here: "This whole trial is out of order," Al Pacino famously said. Reportedly, it's one of Hollywood's most misquoted remarks. In our view, the statement should be borrowed more often, given the fact that so many elements of our c … | Continue reading
TUESDAY, JULY 30, 2024 Broadcaster Smith did not: Will Candidate Harris end up winning this year's election? There's no way to be sure. On the one hand, she carries a lot of "baggage." On the other hand, she'll be running against Donald J. Trump. Today, in his weekly Conversation … | Continue reading
MONDAY, JULY 29, 2024 ...from a (somewhat) surprising source: Last evening, a funny thing happened to JD Vance, the "childless cat lady" critic. Last night, he encountered a bit of fairly stern pushback. It came from a (somewhat) surprising source. We say the pushback was surpris … | Continue reading
MONDAY, JULY 29, 2024 "[Adult behavior] must die:" A funny thing happened to Sandra Smith, age 43, during a recent broadcast. At present, Smith serves as co-anchor of America Reports, a Fox News Channel program. Each weekday, the program is broadcast from 1-3 p.m. Eastern. John R … | Continue reading
SATURDAY, JULY 27, 2024 ...they mooed and they brayed on command: Can Candidate Harris win this election? Almost surely, it's too early for polling to be highly significant. That said, we'll look at some new polling results below. First, we'll offer this: Candidate Harris is a bi … | Continue reading
FRIDAY, JULY 26, 2024 True Belief marches on: The news report appeared online on July 20, in the New York Times. It provides the germ of an anthropology lesson, but also a lesson in logic. For starters, the news report ran beneath this dual headline: The Voting Machine Conspiracy … | Continue reading
FRIDAY, JULY 26, 2024 The tools do this every night: Who in the world is Chael Sonnen? Below, we'll start to answer your question, possibly for the second time. First though, riddle us this: Who the heck was José Ortega y Gasset? Also, what did he say in his most famous book, The … | Continue reading
THURSDAY, JULY 25, 2024 They've left the bombs in Trump's hands: In the case of President Biden, it was fairly easy for the press corps to identify the apparent problem. It looked like a type of problem which everyone had seen before, if only in classic films like Driving Miss Da … | Continue reading
THURSDAY, JULY 25, 2024 "IDIOT," he instantly said: It was Monday evening, July 22. The Termagant sat on a Fox News Channel set, presiding over a gathering of Usefuls. The show was broadcast at 10 o'clock Eastern. If normal procedures had been followed, the program had begun to t … | Continue reading
WEDNESDAY, JULY 24, 2024 Applebaum listens to Trump: Anne Applebaum gives voice to the germ of a highly valid point in a recent essay for The Atlantic. Her essay appears beneath the headlines shown below. The headlines do a decent job of stating her basic thesis: Suddenly Trump L … | Continue reading
WEDNESDAY, JULY 24, 2024 There's something bad wrong with this: There's nothing wrong with being 23. Almost everyone knows that. There is something wrong with our failing American culture. Frequently, the elements of this cosmic dysfunction are almost wholly ignored. And so it wa … | Continue reading
TUESDAY, JULY 23, 2024 Some reasons to harbor some doubts: Can Kamala Haris win this election? She'll be running against the craziest person ever nominated for the job. But here's what the New York Times' Bret Stephens tells Gail Collins today as part of their weekly Conversation … | Continue reading
TUESDAY, JULY 23, 2024 ...except on the Gutfeld! program: "I still believe in a place called Hope," Candidate Bill Clinton said. In one sense, the candidate was referring to his small hometown in southwestern Arkansas. In a larger sense, he was sketching a stance with respect to … | Continue reading
MONDAY, JULY 22, 2024 TV giant doesn't: A commenter to Kevin Drum's most recent post makes a sagacious remark. Just for the record, Drum's headline says this: Kamala Harris will poll as well as Biden by next week For ourselves, we hope she'll be polling better than President Bide … | Continue reading
MONDAY, JULY 22, 2024 How to pronounce her first name: As of Saturday morning, two famous fictional persons headlined the White House campaign. The Democrats were going to nominate Lear. The Republicans had already nominated Agamemnon, lord of men. In the Iliad, Agamemnon is the … | Continue reading
SUNDAY, JULY 21, 2024 As has President Biden: We had come to think more poorly of President Biden over the course of the past year. The reasons can be listed at some later date. For today, his announcement that he will be stepping aside took us all the way back to our junior year … | Continue reading
SATURDAY, JULY 20, 2024 ...and climate change is a hoax: This past Tuesday, USA Today filed a report about a relatively minor apparent effect of ongoing climate change. For the record, the report assumes the truth of a fairly obvious fact. It assumes the fact that climate change … | Continue reading
FRIDAY, JULY 19, 2024 The New York Times reports: Yesterday afternoon, we wrote about the part of Usha Vance's convention speech in which she referred to her husband's "childhood traumas." For us, the unusual reference triggered recollections of her husband's best-selling book, H … | Continue reading
FRIDAY, JULY 19, 2024 The Fox friends get passed over: Last night, Donald J. Trump finally confirmed the widespread report: "I had God on my side," he confessed in the early moments of his convention speech. By the norms of American political speech, that revelation can almost be … | Continue reading
THURSDAY, JULY 18, 2024 Also, what's in a word? Last night, Usha Vance introduced her husband, J. D. Vance, at the Republican National Convention. We were struck by one part of her short introduction. More specifically, we were struck her inclusion of one particular word: USHA VA … | Continue reading
THURSDAY, JULY 18, 2024 Duly recorded, for history: Long ago and far away, an Olympian intervened to save the life of one of her favorites. The god in question was Athena, daughter of Zeus. As we noted yesterday, she intervened to save the life of Paris, the feckless Trojan princ … | Continue reading
WEDNESDAY, JULY 17, 2024 But also, the New York Times on Vance: We just scrolled through the front page of the New York Times web site. With respect to climate issues, these four headlines appeared: We Mapped Heat in 3 U.S. Cities. Some Sidewalks Were Over 130 Degrees. Ukraine’s … | Continue reading
WEDNESDAY, JULY 17, 2024 Last Saturday, "our lord and savior" did: It's an ancient, extremely human way of understanding the universe. In the western world's first poem of war, this understanding is given voice in the poem's first dozen lines: Rage—Goddess. sing the rage of Peleu … | Continue reading
TUESDAY, JULY 16, 2024 But also, the weekend friends: The apparent assassination attempt took place at roughly 6:12 p.m. Eastern. With two hours, Senator Vance had managed to figure it out! Everyone has always known that Vance is plenty smart. But, in this particular case, his cl … | Continue reading
TUESDAY, JULY 16, 2024 Our plan RE the weekend friends: Much like Rick in Casablanca, we'd been misinformed. Yesterday afternoon, we told you that today's high temperature in Baltimore was forecast to be 101 degrees. As of this morning, the forecast stands at 103! We regret the e … | Continue reading
MONDAY, JULY 15, 2024 The plane crash on the South Lawn: As of 2 o'clock, Baltimore's predicted high temperature for today stood at 100 degrees. Tomorrow, the predicted high is 101. Something like two weeks back, the resident chimp at the Fox News Channel referred to climate chan … | Continue reading
MONDAY, JULY 15, 2024 Friends don't let friends hear from Others: As it turned out, the assailant—the gunman, now deceased—was only twenty years old. As it turned out, he was a registered Republican. That said, it still isn't clear what his political views may have been, or wheth … | Continue reading
SUNDAY, JULY 14, 2024 No Bad Judgment Left Behind: Full disclosure! We watched two hours of Fox & Friends Weekend this morning. We watched the 6 o'clock and 7 o'clock hours. The three regular weekend "friends" were on hand, joined by two members of the weekday Fox & Friends cast. … | Continue reading
SATURDAY, JULY 13, 2024 It brought us a moment of pleasure: Once in a while—it happens quite rarely—we're afforded a moment of pleasure. As the world of "our democracy" turns, it happens less and less often. This past Tuesday, almost wholly by accident, we were afforded one such … | Continue reading
FRIDAY, JULY 12, 2024 Also, JFK: It's known as Lincoln's Farewell Address. We know it from the closing pages of Sandburg's Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years, Volume II. The president-elect was leaving for Washington. He spoke to neighbors and friends from the back of his train a … | Continue reading
FRIDAY, JULY 12, 2024 Then again, so did Candidate Trump: Did E.J. Dionne get it right when he offered the warning in question? He issued his warning four days before the fateful June 27 debate. This was the text of his warning: DIONNE (6/23/24): Because the “age issue” has been … | Continue reading
THURSDAY, JULY 11, 2024 Here's what Chris Coons said: BREAKING! We ourselves had a "one-off" once! It happened somewhere around 1990. It was caused by a prescription drug error. We were taking steroids as a treatment for poison ivy, something we'd done a few years before. In this … | Continue reading
THURSDAY, JULY 11, 2024 Could this be the latest fail? Long ago and far away, Al Pacino made a famous statement. "This whole trial is out of order," the gentleman famously said. He was denouncing a fictional trial, one part of a fictional movie. The film's official title was some … | Continue reading
WEDNESDAY, JULY 10, 2024 This is your "public discourse:" With apologies, we're going to take you back, once again, to the current cutting edge of the societal garbage can. We refer, of course, to the Fox News Channel's nightly Gutfeld! program. Last night, the angriest little ch … | Continue reading
WEDNESDAY, JULY 10, 2024 ...it was called Trump's latest LIE! A funny thing happened to America's discourse in the aftermath of the June 27 Biden-Trump ersatz "debate." We wouldn't call what happened a "fail." We would say it was fail-indicative—a hint of a failed public discours … | Continue reading
TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2024 Like you, we have no idea: We awoke this morning to videotape of the rubble—of the destruction—at Ukraine's largest children's hospital From 6 o'clock until 6:15, we then watched the rubble of the pseudo-discussion being conducted on Fox & Friends. We then s … | Continue reading
TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2024 Donald J. Trump made way, way more, CNN also said: As we noted yesterday, E. J. Dionne—to his credit—has copped to an "epic fail." His confession may have been a but puckish, but he confessed nonetheless. As we noted yesterday, the epic fail to which he copp … | Continue reading
MONDAY, JULY 8, 2024 Was it a bit of a fail? What explains President Biden's performance at the June 27 debate? We still can't answer that question! Last Friday, the president spoke with George Stephanopoulos for twenty-two minutes about that very topic. In this morning's print e … | Continue reading
MONDAY, JULY 8, 2024 That said, have the fails been general? The Washington Post's E. J. Dionne has long been a good, decent person. In a column in today's paper, he cops to an "epic fail." That unflattering term belongs to Dionne himself. As we type, his column is listed as the … | Continue reading