R. Emmett Tyrrell

WASHINGTON -- There is still more gibberish emitting from the pope as he travels to and from the Far East. Now he is safely home in the Vatican, so only his close advisers will hear the claptrap that comes from him as he tries to placate the Red Chinese and the Russians and, who knows, maybe he is even aiming his rhetoric toward North Korea and the Palestinians. He has kind words for anyone…

WASHINGTON -- While verifying the authenticity of quotes in my new book, “How Do We Get Out of Here? Half a Century of Laughter and Mayhem at The American Spectator -- from Bobby Kennedy to Donald J. Trump,” I was brought to a standstill by one quote in particular. It is the work of a very fine historian done some 20 years ago, Helene Carrere d’Encausse. The quote reads as though it was a…

WASHINGTON -- There was a curious report in The Washington Post late last month. I saw it in no other newspaper. It began thus: “When Yevgeniy Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner mercenary group, launched his attempted mutiny on the morning of June 24, Vladimir Putin was paralyzed and unable to act decisively, according to Ukrainian and other security officials in Europe.” Did you get…

WASHINGTON -- Leonard Leo, the founder of the Federalist Society and various other conservative groups, sits on a bundle of money. Moreover, he is giving a lot of it away. He is not giving it to any left-wing cause or even to the Girl Scouts of America. He is giving it to right-wing causes. About this The Washington Post is apparently furious. Last week, The Post prattled on…

WASHINGTON -- Well, how are things going for Vladimir Putin? He has been showing a KGB sleuth’s cunning at warfare for over a year now, and he has been doing it against an enemy who is outgunned and outnumbered. Oh yes, and by the way, that enemy is also winning the war. All Putin’s forces have been able to win is the battle for Bakhmut, and Putin had to empty out a prison or two to do it. Of…

I always used to purchase Gillette shaving products. Gillette made products that appealed to me. When I was a boy, Gillette advertised the Friday night boxing matches. That was enough inducement for me. Perhaps Gillette also advertised the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, too, and shows about outdoor life, such as hunting and fishing. Yet, I quit them several years ago when I made an…

WASHINGTON -- Some time ago, I wrote that there was a very easy and suave way to solve the trans guys’ yearning for an opportunity to compete against the girls, who now dominate women’s sports. My solution will end the heartless intimidation of these tender youths -- the guys, not the girls. It will allow the guys to thrive against the conventional ways of female sports, which can be brutal.…

WASHINGTON -- Last week in this space I wrote about culture and how essential it is to the politics of a nation. If the culture of a country is upbeat, the country will be fine. If the culture of a country is in decline, its politics will follow. Simply put, culture prefigures politics. Russia -- once referred to as the Soviet Union -- is an example of what I have in mind. Imagine mighty…

WASHINGTON -- Do you know that this country was once derided as being the most prudish of all the major countries on earth, even more prudish than the U.K.? For decades, we were laughed at for our prudish ways. Then something happened. We moved from being puritanical to being obsessed by sex and, by the way, obsessed by violence, too. We became obsessed with killing each other, or at least…

WASHINGTON -- Tucker Carlson’s recent travails with the media remind me of the great M. Stanton Evans’ solomonic judgment regarding Richard Nixon. Said Stan: “I never liked Richard Nixon ... until Watergate.” Then he saw the 37th president in a different light. Well, I did not like Tucker Carlson very much until he got fired by Rupert Murdoch. Then, as everyone among the bien-pensants piled on…

WASHINGTON — Who is buried in Grant’s Tomb? Actually, Ulysses S. Grant is buried in Grant’s Tomb, which comes as a bit of a surprise to young Americans educated in our modern educational factories, all airconditioned, with counselors on every floor and armed guards patrolling the halls. Also, there are psychiatrists on duty daily for troubled students who may have encountered a rude word in…

WASHINGTON –  I am about to put the finishing touches on my memoir. The book will be about 400 pages in length, but I had a lot to reveal. I spent some time dilating on my adventures with the world champion Indiana University swim team. It seemed that everyone on the team held a world record but me. Then there was the founding of The American Spectator and all that that entailed. It…

WASHINGTON -- Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s suave minister of foreign affairs, was recently asked by one of Russia’s ubiquitous billionaires: whom does President Vladimir Putin seek advice from on the Ukraine war? He responded that Putin has only three advisers, though they are renowned. They are Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great and Catherine the Great. By the way, how did Russia amass so many…

WASHINGTON -- I have of late been searching vigorously through my morning newspapers for the causes of and the cures for inflation. It seems to me that most people whom I know are well aware of what causes inflation and what might be the cure for it. The cause is too much money chasing too few products. The cure for it is to restrain the growth of the money supply. The source of money is in…