December 2018

Hosted by Charlie Sykes.

Also: Michel Houellebecq in Praise of Donald Trump, and more.

Alice B. Lloyd on parting words: After all, tomorrow is another day.

John Podhoretz on what makes a movie stand the test of time.

Hannah Long on how escape-room operators are locking in fun and profit.

Ian Marcus Corbin on values in the art world.

Clare Coffey on what these creatures of myth and mystery reveal about ourselves and civilization.

Algis Valiunas remembers the composer of ‘Ave Maria’ and the opera ‘Faust’ on his bicentennial.

John Talbot reviews A.M. Juster's translation of Maximianus, the forgotten 6th-century poet of bawdiness and decrepitude.

A new curriculum to teach students how to disagree.

The president can’t save an industry he doesn’t understand

What can be done about Americans’ declining life expectancy?

One of every seven pickups sold in the U.S. is diesel—for good reason.

The astonishing resilience of the Department of Justice.

At a congressional hearing this week, Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) asked an irate and not entirely comprehensible question about his granddaughter’s iPhone. The only problem, as the tech exec who was the hearing’s sole witness explained, is that iPhones are made by Apple but the tech exec was the CEO…

Not for the first time, Americans appear to be slightly confused about events in France. The mass demonstrations that began as a protest against President Emmanuel Macron’s “climate-change” taxes gave comfort to conservatives here, and not without reason. The new levies on gasoline and diesel…

The hot cause right now is prison reform, and even lots of conservatives are on board. The Heritage Foundation put out an article with this title: “How This Criminal Justice Reform Bill Could Make Our Neighborhoods Safer.” My reaction: Have supporters of the bipartisan reform bill now before the…

The guilty pleasure whose time has come

In most of the European Union, when the authorities hold a plebiscite and don’t get the result they want, they hold another, and another, until the voters see it their way. The English tradition holds democracy in greater esteem than that. Or at least it used to, before the Brexit mess.

James Bowman on judging a classic Hollywood director by the standards of the wrong era.

Maybe you have to live in the bleak midwinter to get it. Maybe you have to see the countryside in its ash-white purity to understand—the landscape burnt-over by the dead indifferent cold. Maybe you have to wonder, as you wander out under the distant stars, what it would mean to live in a universe…

The Scrapbook has had occasion to complain from time to time about the way in which journalists in the mainstream news media use the terms “conservatives” and “Republicans.” “Conservatives” hold this loathsome opinion, they might write, or “Republicans” are doing that bizarre thing, but when you…

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New information from the Census Bureau confirms that the Swamp is still the Swamp. Between 2013 and 2017, the five wealthiest areas in America by median income were Loudoun County, Virginia; Fairfax County, Virginia; Howard County, Maryland; Falls Church City, Virginia; and Arlington County,…

The Scrapbook has a weakness for hardcover collections of essays and columns. Not many people like them, judging by how well they sell, but we boast several shelves full of collections by William F. Buckley, Joseph Epstein, George Will, Gertrude Himmelfarb, Christopher Hitchens, and many others.

For two years we’ve watched as highly educated liberals come up with one reason after another for Hillary Clinton’s loss in the 2016 election. Russian trolls and hackers, James Comey’s memo, hopelessness among white opioid addicts, Donald Trump’s sophisticated use of a metaphorical “dog whistle,”…

Donald Trump is frequently faulted, and rightly so, for attempting to take credit for things he had nothing to do with. With Trump, though, you get the feeling it’s the habit of the real-estate mogul and showbiz kingpin talking. He doesn’t actually think (does he?) that the stock market goes up…

Much has already been said about Donald Trump’s rambling, semicoherent statement on the U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia in light of journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder. We would only like to say a quick word about a single phrase in that strange document: “That being said.” It occurs at the…

We tried to look away, but it was no use once we read the headline: “Why It Matters That Alex Trebek Mispronounced The Name Of My People On ‘Jeopardy!’ ” The piece ran, fittingly, at the Huffington Post. The author, Ngozi Nwangwa—Shirley, to use her anglicized name—is a New York-based writer and “a…

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The American left, as we’ve had occasion to remark in these pages before, suffers from a paucity of new ideas. Or maybe it’s truer to say it suffers from a surfeit of old ones. In any case, one old idea making the rounds among Democrats these days goes by the moniker “Medicare for All.” The…

Danny Heitman on a pocket-sized collection of Christmas cheer.

Theresa May retains office but hemorrhages power.

Also: A short history of the poinsettia, green madness, and more.

On today's Daily Standard Podcast, frequent contributor Adam J. White joins host Charlie Sykes to discuss the latest with the Mueller probe, Michael Cohen, and the National Enquirer.

In this latest episode, the Substandard discusses the new Avengers trailer, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, and the Netflix gambit. Sonny loves Office Space, JVL shares theories about the Avengers, and Vic shows off his Rainbow Loom bracelet—plus a possible connection between gout and salad?

Christoph Irmscher reviews a new translation of Uwe Johnson’s massive, masterly year-in-the-life novel, ‘Anniversaries.’

Paul Cantor explains how Mary Shelley’s monster tramples all over the supposed line between high culture and pop culture.

We call use a little faith and hope in our lives.

Let's just start with her individualism.

What the conventional wisdom misses about 2018 and 2020.

The outgoing U.N. ambassador sounds a lot like someone running for something.

Hosted by Charlie Sykes.

Supporters argue the legislation should be viewed as a strong signal to Saudi leaders regardless of whether it passes.

Also: Writing and walking, a fake poet returns to Twitter, and more.

Danny Heitman on the 1842 visit left the novelist profoundly unhappy with America and its capital.

Anti-Israel boycotts used to be a thing for left-wing loonies. No more.

Whose bathroom is it anyway?

The story goes that the head writer on The Simpsons television show walked into a meeting one morning, two small band-aids on the same cheek, another on his neck under his chin. “What kind of a country is this?” he exclaimed. “They can kill all the Kennedys, but they can’t make a decent razor…

Transcripts.

It's not just for Brett Kavanaugh.

Hosted by Charlie Sykes.

Also: Kelly’s Slater’s wave, a life of Thomas Cromwell, and more.

Plus: Larry Fitzgerald reminds us how great Jerry Rice was, exaggerated crime on TV, and diplomatic blunders.

The gene editors can’t be trusted to self-regulate.

Hosted by Charlie Sykes.

Is anyone fit to host the Oscars?

Also: Flannery O’Connor’s letters to Caroline Gordon, and more.

Politically, Democrats are better off not pursuing impeachment. But they may not have a choice.

High-ranking public officials have resigned for less than what these documents allege.

The Holocaust Museum has an exhibit about American attitudes toward Jewish refugees. And it's missing the most important part.

High-tech dominance won’t be solved with tariffs.

The caravan is overwhelmingly made up of young men looking for work—not women and children.

A recent piece in New York magazine caught our eye: “Michael Avenatti’s Campaign Failed Because Democrats Don’t Want Their Own Trump.” Avenatti, as readers may wish to forget, is the trash-talking attorney and left-wing bad boy who made himself famous by representing the adult film actress Stormy…

Given their comparable movie careers, why is John Wayne still an icon while Gary Cooper is all but forgotten?

Joseph Epstein on Marcel Proust among the grand women of the belle époque.

Paul Dean on misbehavior in Shakespeare’s day, from insults to mobs to cross-dressing.

David Bahr on the project to see Xenophon alongside his peers.

Amy Henderson on the technologies that brought show tunes to the masses—a review of ‘From Broadway to Main Street.’

The fundamentals are still strong. But the stock market collapse is on the president's thumbs.

How Edwin Meese saved originalism.

How do we know this is fake? Let us count the ways.

Hosted by Charlie Sykes.

Also: The women of Abstract Expressionism, and more.

Elections aren’t immune from the human tendency to bend the rules and cheat.

This is the saga of Jason Lewis. For a quarter-century, the Minnesota congressman was a talk-radio host. He started in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolis and did a spell in Charlotte before returning to the Twin Cities. I was a guest on his show a few times. As best I recall, they were frisky…

To his credit, President Trump rose to the occasion on the death of George H. W. Bush. Among other things, his immediate response—on Twitter, of course—was a generous and eloquent tribute, mindful not only of the late president’s distinction but of his own obligation to the office he now inhabits.…

California’s politicians dream of ecotopia, but fire victims just want to rebuild.

Subsidies and fuel efficiency standards are terrible ways to effect change.

Hosted by Charlie Sykes.

Support for a war powers resolution has increased among both parties since March.

Also: God in Denis Johnson’s work, and more.

In this latest episode, the Substandard discusses Green Book—Sonny shares his disdain while Vic lavishes praise. JVL and Sonny ask Vic if there's any movie he doesn't like. Sonny and Vic do their worst Italian impressions. Vic takes questions about his recent gout flare up.

The 2020 campaign has begun and Cory Booker is in it to win it.

Rand Paul is a grandstanding obstructionist whose chief joy seems to be blocking the few bills on which there is wide agreement.

The president does not seem to understand the difference between democracies and autocracies.

For some reason yet to be fathomed, the 50 million Americans born between the greatest generation and the baby boomers were never assigned a name—at least not one widely recognizable.

An attempt to think a little more clearly about the Democratic presidential primary.

Hosted by Chris Deaton.

Also: An “endlessly interesting” account of 20 languages, and more.

Orchestras and universities are working together to feed our hunger for community and a shared American identity

Theresa May’s Brexit deal means the end of sovereignty and democracy.

The outgoing U.N. ambassador will stay in New York and says she wants to be a "voice" on foreign policy.

Hosted by Charlie Sykes.

El Chapo, they are not.

Also: A short history of adaptations of Animal Farm, and more.

Actually, the president accomplished quite a lot.

The league has an abuse problem with narcotics and with Toradol. Marijuana could be an off-ramp. Also: GM, GHWB, and GA football folds.

In late September, FedEx driver Timothy Warren was driving through a neighborhood in Portland, Ore., when Joseph Magnuson shouted at him that he was going too fast. When Warren, who is black, got out of the truck, Magnuson berated him with numerous insults, including, according to witnesses, a…

Trump will struggle to win Michigan again.

Looking back at the performance of TWS’s First Forecast Model

I used to write a fair amount about West Germany and report on the federal elections. Like most American journalists, historians, political analysts, and politicians—and most Germans, for that matter—I could not imagine the collapse of the Soviet empire and the unification of the two Germanies.

Ex-NFL receiver Anthony Gonzalez’s impressive political debut in the suburbs of Cleveland, Akron, and Canton.

George H.W. Bush and the legacy of the Greatest Generation

An intra-Democratic fight over border security portends a power struggle in the upcoming Congress.

Hosted by Charlie Sykes.

President Trump is in deeper political trouble than he thinks. And I’m not talking about whatever special counsel Robert Mueller has up his sleeve. Trump has real-life re-election trouble.

Also: The return of Jeeves, the decline of History, and more.

A quiet leader, and a good one.

It would make dangerous and violent criminals eligible for early release.

David Skinner on why the American Heritage Dictionary closed its usage panel this year—and why it existed in the first place.

Tony Mecia on how a Bond villain’s Alpine lair came to house a museum for 007.

John Podhoretz on seeing the Coen brothers’ new western on screens large and small.

B.D. McClay on the Muppets adaptation of Dickens’s classic tale of redemption.

Amy Henderson reviews Desmond Morris’s book dishing the dirt on the Surrealists.

The president has elected himself to GM's management team.

What it was like to work for the man.

Edmund Burke famously ridiculed the radicals and revolutionaries of his day for justifying violent and unjust acts by simpleminded appeals to abstract values. The abstract value he had in mind was liberty, which the mountebanks of France and their cheerleaders in England used to justify murder and…