Are Payoffs to Mistresses Campaign Expenses?

I didn’t think so in the case of John Edwards. Although Trump has a worse factual record to work with than Edwards in certain respects, I’m...

Feeding Your Williamson Habit

Can’t get enough Kevin Williamson? I know the feeling. In addition to the articles and posts, here’s a podcast for you — a Q&A. Basically, I...

Twelve Things that Caught My Eye Today (December 13, 2018)

I’m a day or so late on a few of these, but in case you haven’t seen… 1.  ‘Victory for Victims’: Trump Signs Genocide Relief Act for Iraqi...

The Boys of August

New Republican Congressman Supports Vaccine/Autism Paranoia

Good grief. Mark Green, a newly elected Republican to the House of Representatives from Tennessee, has put his foot in it before even being sworn...

Boring Old Business News from CNBC

The headline above a CNBC report from the poetically named Berkeley Lovelace Jr. (surely that name rightfully belongs to a down-at-the-heels...

Theresa May’s Stalemate

London — Theresa May won the confidence vote, as expected, but by a slim majority of 83. Though she has signaled she’ll stand down before the...

Help Me with the G-File

People often can’t believe I ate the whole thing, but that’s not important right now. Other people often don’t believe me when I say that I...

Goldberg to McCarthy: Mea Culpa

In response to A Peeved Response to Jonah Andy makes a host of excellent points and I think I agree with pretty much all of them (though I...

Hey, This Is Santa! We Got a Fund Appeal Going On

Last week in these precincts, NR Institute launched its end-of-year Fund Appeal (see the wise pleas from Brother Brookhiser, Comrade Salam,...

The Right Won’t Accomplish Anything by Radicalizing Marriage

A few weeks ago, I wrote a piece for NRO called “No One Can Have It All,” in which I argued that both third-wave feminism and some right-wing...

Are Payoffs to Mistresses Campaign Expenses?

In response to Are Payoffs to Mistresses Campaign Expenses? Forgive my ignorance, Rich — I’m often mystified by these very subtle arguments over...

A Peeved Response to Jonah

In response to Political Standards in the Post-Clinton and Trump Era While I appreciate the gracious caveats in my friend Jonah’s Goldberg’s...

Stormy Daniels Ordered to Pay Trump $293K in Legal Fees

A federal judge on Tuesday ordered Stormy Daniels to pay President Trump over $293,000 to cover the bulk of his legal fees against her. U.S....

Trump Wants the Fed’s Help on Trade

Reuters: Trump said he needed the flexibility of lower interest rates to support the broader U.S. economy as he fights a growing trade battle...

Uniformity and Individuality: A Tale

In yesterday’s Impromptus, I had some notes on National Review’s cruise last week in the Caribbean (and some photos to boot). A few of the...

What Evelyn Wrought

When I say I love to read obituaries, I don’t mean to be macabre — I’m not happy the people are dead, far from it. I just love reading about...

The Bottom Line of Nationalism

The Brexit debate is a useful illustration of what nationalism actually is. The British, at least some of them, are desperate to claw back their...

The Court’s Next Religion Case

. . . concerns whether a World War I memorial can be shaped like a cross. Rick Garnett, a law professor at Notre Dame University, has a...

Against the USMCA

The agreement we have, NAFTA, is slightly better than the revised version that President Trump wants. Over at Bloomberg Opinion, I argue that...

NC9 Looks Worse by the Day 

Macron’s Failure 

Tyler Cowan is a Macron supporter who has written an excellent column diagnosing his failure: Macron doesn’t have any new ideas or vision,...

Will UNC Give In to Teaching Assistants’ Demands?

The latest disruption at the University of North Carolina is a “strike” by grad students who work as teaching assistants (TAs). They’re refusing...

Pence & The Drax Invisibility Technicque

I was on a plane during yesterday’s Oval Office meeting but I caught up with the video. I think some of the handwringing over the spectacle is...

Tea for All

My latest Jaywalking has some U.S. politics, and some Europe, and some porn (I mean, a comment on its awful impact). It also has some music,...

Political Standards in the Post-Clinton and Trump Era

In my latest column I try to tackle a peeve of mine going back at least as far as the Clinton scandals: The way issues of character, morality, and...

Will the Dems Bet on Beto?

Progressive group MoveOn.org has conducted an early straw poll for the 2020 Democratic presidential field, and the group’s members narrowly...

May Day

Theresa May faces a no-confidence vot e from her party today. The challenge to her leadership comes from those favoring a harder Brexit over her...

Wednesday Links

If May Wins the Confidence Vote — What Next?

Numerous Conservative MPs have stated they will back Theresa May in tonight’s confidence vote. Dissatisfaction with the prime minister has been...

Universities for the Future

Much of today’s conversation surrounding the state of American universities centers around what goes on in elite colleges. To some extent this...

Vietnam War Refugees and Deportation

The Atlantic is reporting that the Trump administration wants refugees from the Vietnam War to be subject to immigration laws that would allow...

The Laughing Snowflakes

I yield to no one in my admiration of Kat Timpf, a steady voice of sanity and common sense in our ever crazier world. I agree with her that it’s...

Orbán and Us: America First

Viktor Orbán is a darling and hero of many on the American right — and the British right and other rights. For them, the Hungarian leader is a...

Everything Old Is Bad, a Continuing Series at Vox

Vox has found yet another part of the Constitution that is standing in the way of something it likes, in this case Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Writes...

Theresa May on the Brink

Only hours after you read this, the Tories will have decided whether or not to ditch Theresa May as Tory leader and thus prime minister. Outside...

Theresa May to Face a No-Confidence Vote

It’s official: Theresa May will face a leadership challenge tonight. In a Tory leadership contest, MPs who wish to hold a vote of no confidence...

It Is the Land of Chocolate After All

From The Guardian : A street in a western German town got a repaving worthy of Willy Wonka when a tonne of chocolate flowed out of a factory and...

Great American Photos

In today’s Impromptus, I begin with the latest Oscar controversy and end with a National Review cruise (complete with photos). In between, I have...

Time’s Pick Isn’t About Trump . . . But People Will Think It’s About Trump

The editors of Time chose slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi as the magazine’s Person of the Year. (Yesterday, I predicted that they would go...

The Brexit Betrayal

Theresa May has decided to delay Parliament’s “meaningful vote” which was scheduled for today. The vote on her draft Withdrawal Agreement was...

Today In Useless Metrics: Firearms Edition

A Fox News headline: “US Army eyes new automatic rifle that fires with pressure equivalent to tank: report.” I wondered a little about...

The Credibility of the Regime

Here is a sobering little paragraph from Michael Scammell’s useful New York Times essay on the centenary of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: When the...

Urban Outreach

My weekend piece on the need for conservatives to speak to city-dwellers has inspired some comment and criticism, some of which I am grateful for....

Bad Thinking About the Gender Gap Is Unkillable

Also from that National Journal story: Rep. Mike Bishop, a second-term Michigan Republican, said in an interview last month after his defeat that...

Tom Emmer on Why Republicans Lost the House

Judging from the early Twitter reaction, a lot of people think that the new head of the House Republican campaign committee, Representative Tom...

Solzhenitsyn at 100

NR marks the centenary of the birth of the 20th Century’s leading foe of totalitarianism by republishing his powerful 1983 Templeton Prize speech,...

Macron’s Failures

Sometimes I wonder why the international press has allowed itself to participate so fully in Emmanuel Macron’s fantasy life, in which he is a...

Theresa May’s Debacle

Join the Party, at NRPlus

If you read The Corner or listen to NR Podcasts, you probably know by now that you should join NRPlus. Maybe it’s another item on the long list...

15 Things that Caught My Eye Today (Dec. 11, 2018)

1. From the Secretary of State today: On November 28, 2018, I designated Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, Sudan, Saudi Arabia,...

Help Wanted?

President Trump has decided to replace his chief of staff. That’s his prerogative, and it seems reasonable given how hard he appears to have found...

Trump Flunks Shutdown 101

The first rule of shutdown fights is never to say that you want a shutdown. This rule has demonstrated its power over and over again, and yet here...

Anarchists for Eisenhower, Etc.

Eric Levitz of New York magazine has written a long-ish post that is mostly about my political views, which he gets mostly wrong. This is not...

What Good Did USA Today‘s Ambushing Kyler Murray Do Anyone?

Congratulations to Kyler Murray for winning the Heisman — and in a year during which Tua Tagovailoa was playing football, no less. And all shame...

Kelly Out

I’ve been a fan of General Kelly, but apparently the relationship with Trump had gotten so toxic and he was so exhausted that any discipline he...

Euthanasia Becoming First Resort in Quebec

Euthanasia advocates are so full of it, promising that snuff medicine will only be a last resort when nothing else can be done to alleviate...

CNN Claims SCOTUS ‘Sides with Planned Parenthood’ in Denying Cert

The Supreme Court this afternoon declined to hear a case involving public funding of groups that provide abortion procedures, such as Planned...

A Bush and a Babe

My Impromptus today begins with notes about Bush 41 — then goes on with notes about the current president, possible future presidents, and others...

Hanukkah Ends, but the Sanctuary Lamp Is Eternal

“Light my fire,” God tells Moses, “and keep it lit.” That’s my dynamic-equivalence translation of Bible passages — Exodus 25 and 27,...

Long Views

If you ever have a chance to sit down and have a leisurely talk with Rob Long — do. It is a highly enjoyable experience. I did this on last...

Employers and IQ Tests

Frederick Hess and Grant Addison point out an anomaly: In Griggs v. Duke Power Company (1971), the Supreme Court unanimously interpreted this...

Fixing the College Sports Mess

At quite a few of our institutions of higher education, the sports tail wags the academic dog. School leaders have gotten hooked on the glamor and...

A Rebuilding Year for Time’s ‘Person of the Year’

Time magazine unveiled their list of finalists for the Person or Newsmaker of the Year for 2018. The title isn’t what it used to be. A generation...

Alexandria De Bergerac

It’s blindingly obvious that whoever is writing incoming Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s tweets is not Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. AOC has...

More Evidence We Need Disability Reform

Earlier this year I had a big piece about the disability system. That system is a disaster: To oversimplify somewhat, it tries to enforce an...

Does Free Trade Kill Jobs?

Elizabeth Warren recently gave a major speech on global affairs, including a discussion of U.S. international economic policy. She’s not...

Tough Words from Justice Clarence Thomas

If either Chief Justice John Roberts or Justice Brett Kavanaugh had voted to hear that case about private rights of action under Medicaid, the...

Brexit Delays

Well, Theresa May has called off the vote on her Brexit deal —  most likely, she figured out that the result of the vote would be so humiliating...

Fifteen Things that Caught My Eye Today (Dec. 10, 2018)

Join me Wednesday night in lower Manhattan for a conversation with our Jonah Goldberg about his book Suicide of the West and other things. Details...