1,088 words
Once upon a time there was a fairy kingdom that lived inside a place called The Beltway, and was surrounded on all four sides by a land called America. The Beltway was aligned with another kingdom called Manhattan, inhabited by disembodied heads that spoke from the walls of bars, and with yet another closed kingdom called Hollywood, the abode of half-educated narcissists. (more…)
2,064 words
In news reports, the word “teen” has become a dog whistle that racist reporters use to identify young, black criminal suspects. Due to misguided propriety, it’s considered racist merely to call them black, even though everyone knows that when you identify anyone in a news story as a “teen,” that’s shorthand for “young black malefactor.” (more…)
1,176 words
Holy Hannah. This next election is shaping up to be a zoo. We have Biden, a veritable zombie dependent on his ambient ventriloquists and more Adderall than Cornell in exam week. There is Kamala, so close to nonexistent that we could send her home and just keep her nameplate. No one would notice. And then we have . . .
Oh, God. (more…)
John Lee Malvo (left) and John Allen Muhammad murdered 17 people and wounded 10 others while terrorizing the DC area in 2002.
John Lee Malvo (left) and John Allen Muhammad murdered 17 people and wounded 10 others while terrorizing the DC area in 2002.
3,510 words
After returning home from a Christmas party in 2021, I turned the dome light on in my car as I prepared to get out. Up to that point, I’d always kept it off, entering and leaving my automobile at night in complete blackout. I had adopted this tactical lifestyle starting in October 2002, when the area around Washington, DC was being terrorized by the sniper team of John Allen Muhammad and John Lee Malvo. (more…)
4,603 words
The Vice President of the United States: It’s a lousy job, but someone’s got to do it. So why not cut to the chase and get a lousy person?
This was the premise of the comedy series Veep, which ran from 2012-2019 on HBO, chronicling the rise and fall and semi-rise of Selena Meyer, who schemes, rules, dominates, cowers, and obfuscates her way to power. Selena, aided (and generally hindered) by her staff, carries the water for President Hughes, and is almost totally ignored except when he orders her out to show the flag, take the heat, or be his pit bull, although Selena winds up as a Chihuahua more often than not, especially when a last-minute bit of political expediency by the unseen President leaves Selene as the fall guy . . . or gal, less a pit bull than sacrificial lamb. (more…)
2,495 words
Julie Kelly
January 6: How Democrats Used the Capital Protest to Launch a War on Terror Against the Political Right
New York: Post Hill Press, 2022
The stampede of Trump supporters in and around the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021 was a big nothing, and a revolutionary event at the same time. The ultimate meaning and endpoint of January 6 has yet to be fully understood, but a decent overall account of the event has emerged from Julie Kelly, a reporter for American Greatness. (more…)