Being far away from home in Iceland and Britain for the last two weeks was perfect timing. Just as President Biden was proving to the whole country that he’s incapable of being president for another four years, or another week, I left the madness of American politics and flew off to Europe for a vacation […]

“If you could master any language in the world, what would it be?” “C++.” It’s a classic programming joke. The humor is ironic: language skills are less important than technological ones. Humor, I’m told, doesn’t flourish in tech. Computers can’t understand it. And, some would argue, neither can engineers. But the computer bit isn’t quite […]

Last week, Professor Ruth Ben-Ghiat , author of “Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present,” commented that “one of the most alarming things” about “Project 2025” is the blatant admission that Donald Trump did not accomplish everything he intended to in his first administration. “They got a slow start […] so their codeword is ‘day one,’ ” […]

Republican Gov. Jeff Landry of Louisiana recently signed legislation into law that requires a poster-sized display of the 10 Commandments in “large, easily readable font” in all public classrooms, from kindergarten to state-funded universities. The law should ultimately be struck down by the Supreme Court, but with the current justices, one never knows. Legalities aside, […]

Two events — seemingly unrelated — reveal a major historical change taking place right now. The first is the U.S. Supreme Court decision on presidential immunity. The second is the heightened public sensitivity, caused by Joe Biden’s personal crisis, to the risks of our heavy dependence on the single person who holds the presidency. The […]

As I’ve done for every Fourth of July since the 1976 bicentennial, I settled down last week to watch my favorite patriotic movie: “1776.” The music is as familiar as it is delightful, the actors are perfectly cast, and the finale never fails to bring tears to my eyes. Those bells — that bell — […]

Deep down, I am a very shallow person. That’s why I was appalled to find that some books have age limits recommended on the back cover. I may not be the perfect middle schooler those authors have in mind, but since when are adults discouraged from reading James Patterson? What kind of dystopian society do […]

I’d already finished my nap, eaten the contents of the soggy paper bag full of soggy airplane food, read a couple of pages of that slick airplane magazine, stretche, and began to look idly around at the other passengers. We were all flying to San Antonio, Texas. With nothing better to do, I became very […]