Roger Kimball is a US columnist for The Spectator, the publisher of Encounter Books and the editor and publisher of the New Criterion.
I suspect that Somalis around the country – especially, but not exclusively, in Minneapolis – wish about now that they had spent more time studying the wit and wisdom of Gertrude Stein. Stein, had she lived in our own day, might well have become commissioner of New York City’s Fire Department. She had the one
Here we are at the beginning of a new year. Since I don’t have any childcare “learing centers” to offer my readers, I thought, the weather being frigid here in the northeast, I would reach out with the warmth of – no, not “collectivism,” to which I am allergic – but of some recent discoveries
What do you think: is it manifest destiny that the United States acquire or at least exercise control over Greenland? That’s pretty much how we got Texas, California, New Mexico, Hawaii, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Guam and American Samoa. Then there was the Louisiana purchase. In 1803, Thomas Jefferson doubled the size of the United
One of the things I admire about Zohran Mamdani is his candor. You know where you stand with him. Mamdani, who was sworn in a few days ago by Senator Bernie Sanders as New York’s first Muslim mayor and also its first avowedly socialist mayor, makes no bones about his ambitions. He was elected as a “democratic socialist,”
Trump should stop all federal welfare funds to offending venues, and much of the “Somali community" should be repatriated
According to the handy timeanddate.com website, the Sun rose over our patch of Long Island Sound today at 7:18 this morning. It will set this afternoon at 4:28. From beginning to end, we will enjoy 9 hours, 12 minutes and 53 seconds of full daylight (not counting the prefatory and subsequent periods of twilight) in this bit of
As a mighty US armada bobs in the Caribbean off the shores of Venezuela, President Trump just addressed the nation from the Diplomatic Reception Room at the White House. With characteristic delicacy and understatement, he outlined the accomplishments of the first 11 months of his second term in office, lightly criticized his predecessor and cautiously opined
In his History of the Franks, Gregory of Tours (c. 539-594) wrote one of my favorite opening sentences: “A great many things keep happening, some of them good, some of them bad.” Who can disagree? Gregory’s works are full of interesting morsels. Writing about the miracles of St. Julian, for example, he notes that a
If I were a bookie, I would be making odds now about when the European Union will finally unravel and die. Unless there is an imminent and drastic course correction, the blessed event cannot be far off. I might need a Doomsday Clock akin to the one publicized by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
In case after case, judges ruled to stymie the executive branch for one main reason
Our evening’s wine consumption had hidden interconnections
The GOP old guard is piggy-backing on the campaign against anti-Semitism to undermine the President’s agenda
The previous election was rife with anomalies
Galileo said that wine is sunlight caught in water. Egly makes the sunlight sparkle
The President’s vigorous effort to call to account those who waged lawfare against him is a necessary purgative
Does the President have the authority to hire and fire his agents and underlings? The Constitution says yes
The winery’s most distinctive wines are blends of Portuguese grapes grown in the Paso Robles hills and the valleys beneath
The disabused lineaments of common sense are everywhere taking shape again
Socialism, which promises a more humane, caring, and equitable society, has always delivered a bloodier and more oppressive one
The President has to be one of the most punished people in American history
