October 29, 2018

Occasionally one reads an op-ed in one of the country’s big newspapers from an author, usually a Washington insider of some variety, who decided to get out and see the country he loves. The op-ed writer has taken a road trip across the country and wishes to tell his metropolitan readers about the…

The ferocious incivility Americans have witnessed for decades has arisen largely from the left—and for good reason

Reassessing ‘bimbo eruptions’ in the #MeToo era

A peculiar argument has begun to circulate on the right: Conservatives who care about the future of conservatism should not only refuse to vote for Republicans who share Donald Trump’s worst traits on November 6, they should support Democrats across the board. Doing so, this reasoning goes, would…

Nebraska’s junior senator finds hope all around—but not on TV, not on a screen, and not in Washington.

I was awakened out of my reverie the other morning by a shocking news flash: Nikki Haley was resigning from her post as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations! According to initial reports, the envoy’s announcement was “sudden” and “unexpected” and “caught Washington”—certainly caught me—“off guard.”

A Democratic takeover of the House will change things.

The Swedish Academy took the year off. Robert Messenger explains why we should be glad.

Concluding her Senate floor speech in behalf of Judge Brett Kava­naugh—her vote for him was the decisive one—Republican Susan Collins expressed “her fervent hope” that he “will work to lessen the divisions in the Supreme Court so that we have fewer 5-4 decisions and so that public confidence in our…

We now know why President Obama had to struggle so hard to spur the economy and allow it to grow more than 2 percent a year. And that was the high-water mark. In the last quarter of his presidency, growth had slipped to 1.5 percent. Today it’s obvious what Obama’s problem was. He had the wrong…

In New Jersey’s 11th, GOP candidate Jay Webber promises to be ‘a tough out.’

Can Rhode Island’s tax-cutting governor win another three-way race?

If Katie Arrington wins her race, it will be just the latest triumph in a life of struggles.

It’s not because Beijing disappeared Meng Hongwei.

Marsha Blackburn finally seems to be pulling ahead in the Senate race.

The Taliban, which knows the U.S. is desperate to leave, just attacked a meeting between Afghan officials and the top U.S. military commander.

Chris R. Morgan on how Salem’s legacy of fear and injustice gave rise to a kitschy way of life.

Adam Roberts reviews ‘Red Moon,’ the latest novel from science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson.

John Podhoretz: The new Neil Armstrong biopic starring Ryan Gosling is a joyless schlep.

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Did you know we’re not supposed to notice the difference between male and female robots? In this month’s Wired magazine, we learn about the pressing question of whether we should assign certain gender traits to certain kinds of robots. Why do we care about this infinitesimal non-issue? Because…

Ordinarily The Scrapbook enjoys writing about the stupid things associated with modern politics and culture. It’s a touch irritating, though, to have to spend time and energy insisting that obviously true things are, in fact, true. Things like the differences between men and women.

Readers will know the background already: Elizabeth Warren claimed to be Native American while she was a law professor at Harvard despite (a) appearing about as Anglo-white as one can appear and (b) having scant evidence that her claim of Native American heritage was true. She cited family lore…

I have a new set of socket wrenches. If you knew me well, you might not be completely surprised, but nevertheless, this is a first for me.