Column

Director John Millius is nothing less than a legend. Milius played a critical role in ’70s cinema, and beyond. He wrote Apocalypse Now, Conan the Barbarian and helped sculpt two Dirty Harry films. The auteur’s 1984 action film Red Dawn quickly achieved cult film status, influencing a generation of rebels in the process.

On the fiftieth anniversary of “Earth Day” -- something of an ecological feast day -- journalistic, philanthropic, and religious leaders echoed the spirit of the original celebration: The human race is a cancer on the planet. In the sternly reinforced quiet of stay-at-home orders, this Team Earth reveled in how the world was such a better, cleaner, calmer place when most humans couldn’t commute…

This week, the price of oil futures collapsed catastrophically. In fact, the prices collapsed into negative territory in the near term. This bizarre situation, prompted by lack of consumer demand and lack of storage facility, led the irrepressible Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., to tweet: "You absolutely love to see it. This along with record low interest rates means it's the right time…

One of the first lessons in an economics class is everything has a cost. That's in stark contrast to lessons in the political arena where politicians talk about free stuff. In our personal lives, decision-making involves weighing costs against benefits. Businessmen make the same calculation if they want to stay in business. It's an entirely different story for politicians running the government…

Washington Post media blogger Erik Wemple recently issued the 13th article in a series on the partisan liberal media promoting the Clinton-funded “dossier” assembled by ex-British spy Christopher Steele. Newly declassified notes from the report of Justice Department inspector general Michael Horowitz reveal Steele’s “findings” were part of a Russian disinformation campaign. “It’s ironic that the…

On January 31st, President Trump announced a travel ban from China. And was promptly denounced as a racist and xenophobe by both Democrats and the media. There, for example, was former Vice President Joe Biden tweeting this:

Hollywood loves nothing more than teaming with politicians to send a message. Stars spent eight full years coordinating with the Obama administration on everything from volunteerism to the calamitous ObamaCare rollout. That sense of unity disappeared like so many Thanos victims once a Republican entered the White House in 2017.

Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld once cautioned newcomers to learn from those who held the same positions before. “Try to make original mistakes rather than needlessly repeating theirs,” he said. Harry Kazianis should have taken Rumsfeld’s advice before writing this annoying paragraph on April 2: "The rapidly worsening pandemic is shaping up as the defining challenge of the Trump…

The biggest joke in Barack Obama’s endorsement video for Joe Biden was his warning about what Biden was facing. “It won’t be easy. The other side has a massive war chest. The other side has a propaganda network with little regard for the truth," he said. Obama has almost the entire news (and entertainment) media eating out of his hand. The late-night comedians lash out at Trump with buckets of…

As our national lockdown drags on, Americans seem less and less inclined to move swiftly toward societal reopening. Perhaps that's due to the consistent media focus on the risks of reopening. Perhaps that's also due to the psychological comfort of the status quo: When we've been made to feel safe in our home, it's difficult to leave it. Or perhaps we, as a society, have so fundamentally altered…

America's colleges are rife with corruption. The financial squeeze resulting from COVID-19 offers opportunities for a bit of remediation. Let's first examine what might be the root of academic corruption, suggested by the title of a recent study, "Academic Grievance Studies and the Corruption of Scholarship." The study was done by Areo, an opinion and analysis digital magazine. By the way, Areo…

Almost three weeks after she went on the record with her sexual-assault allegations against Joe Biden, The New York Times and The Washington Post have issued their own investigative reports on Tara Reade, who briefly worked for Senator Biden on Capitol Hill in 1992 and 1993. The networks are still delaying. Top editors say hey, we're not "political actors." Come on.

I know the late summer and fall of 2018 seems a world away in today’s virusland. But recall the headlines of the period. Headlines like these: The Washington Post: “California professor, writer of confidential Brett Kavanaugh letter, speaks out about her allegation of sexual assault.” NPR: “Who Is Christine Blasey Ford, The Woman Accusing Brett Kavanaugh Of Sexual Assault?”

There’s no way Milano could explain away her support for Vice President Joe Biden in light of the crush of allegations against him. Still, Milano’s belated response, after being called out across social media and by fellow #MeToo warrior Rose McGowan, is both too late and too insipid to believe. The Democrats’ likely choice to challenge President Donald Trump this fall has a documented history of…