(Joe Skipper/Reuters) Once taboo, the word has become an unfortunate national habit in need of breaking. One of my favorite 1960s anecdotes comes from legendary broadcaster Larry King, who tells of attending his first roast at New York City’s Friars Club. There, French actor Maurice Chevalier dared to utter the F-word live on stage. King

Jeremy Corbyn (Andrew Yates/Reuters) Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday expressed outrage at British Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn’s support of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro’s regime. “It is disgusting to see leaders, in not only the United Kingdom, but the United States as well, who continue to support the murderous dictator Maduro,” Pompeo said at a

Sen. Cory Booker speaks during an Iowa Democrats Black Caucus town hall in Des Moines, Iowa, April 16, 2019. (Elijah Nouvelage/Reuters) Party leaders and 2020 rivals were largely non-committal when asked to comment on the New Jersey senator’s expansive plan. On Monday, New Jersey senator Cory Booker introduced a gun-control plan that’s much more restrictive

Heidi Schreck in What the Constitution Means to Me (Joan Marcus) A Broadway show presents legal analysis crude enough to dazzle progressives. We’ll stipulate that should the end of the American experiment as defined by its current Constitution be imminent, it will probably not be habitués of Broadway theater who do the overthrowing. Nor are

(Dado Ruvic/Reuters) Twitter, Facebook, et al. need transparent, viewpoint-neutral, First Amendment-based content policies. Yesterday, my colleague and podcast co-host Alexandra DeSanctis wrote a piece describing a confrontation between Pennsylvania state representative Brian Sims and an elderly woman who was apparently praying quietly outside a Planned Parenthood office in Pennsylvania. Sims’s actions toward the woman were

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D., N.Y.) speaks after announcing that she is forming an exploratory committee for the 2020 presidential race, in Sioux City, Iowa, January 18, 2019. (Scott Morgan/Reuters) Campaigning for president Tuesday, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand promised to only nominate judges who will uphold Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court precedent that established a constitutional

(James Lawler Duggan/Reuters) Federalism isn’t just a fluffy theory. Trump got you down? Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez giving you the willies? Try federalism — now with 70 percent less authoritarianism. To the uninitiated, conservatives sometimes sound — to put it plainly — bonkers. Your lefty friends are going on and on about free health care and making

Attorney General William Barr, flanked by Edward O’Callaghan (left) and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, at a news conference to discuss Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report, in Washington, D.C., April 18, 2019. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters) The Department of Justice said Monday that it was “disappointed” with House Democrats’ decision to begin contempt proceedings against Attorney General William

Signs at the 2019 March for Life in Washington, D.C. (Katie Yoder/National Review) He cannot comprehend the incoherence of championing abortion rights while intimidating a woman for exercising her right to free speech. In Pennsylvania, an elected official has taken it upon himself to silence his own constituents in the name of the Constitution. State

(Philippe Wojazer/Reuters) Journalists have a habit today, especially during the Trump era, of patting their own backs. CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta’s upcoming book “The Enemy of the People: A Dangerous Time to Tell the Truth in America” is a good example of this hubris. The book is described by the publisher as an

Students mourn during a candlelight vigil for victims of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., February 15, 2018. (Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters) Disgraced former Broward County sheriff’s deputy Scot Peterson, who failed to act to stop the shooter who killed 17 at Parkland, Fla.’s Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School last year,

Demonstrators react in front of a burning military vehicle during clashes with security forces in Caracas, Venezuela, May 1, 2019. (Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters) While Republicans were largely united in their support for the opposition to Nicolás Maduro’s regime, Democrats offered a wide range of messages on the issue. When Ilhan Omar was asked about Venezuela on

The Pentagon in Washington, D.C. is seen from aboard Air Force One, March 29, 2018. (Yuri Gripas/Reuters) The Pentagon has revealed that 120 civilians lost their lives as a result of American military operations in 2018. In a report released Thursday, the Defense Department said that 42 civilians had been killed in Iraq and Syria,

(Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters) The Trump administration on Thursday adopted protections for medical professionals who have moral objections to performing certain controversial procedures. The new rule, instituted by the Department of Health and Human Services, will prohibit regulations designed to punish doctors who decline to perform abortions, assisted suicides, and sterilizations, among other procedures. The rule requires that

Attorney General William Barr returns to a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, May 1, 2019. (Aaron P. Bernstein/Reuters) Attorney General William Barr will not appear before the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday to answer questions about special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation as previously planned, the Department of Justice announced Wednesday evening. Citing the

NBC has a video from Tuesday in which the Democratic congresswoman from Minnesota says, “The thing that upsets the occupant of the White House, his goons in the Republican Party, many of our colleagues in the Democratic Party, is that they cannot stand that a refugee, a black woman, an immigrant, a Muslim shows up

Venezuelan National Guard (GNB) members face off with demonstrators during anti-government protests in Caracas, Venezuela, April 30, 2019. (Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters) Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday that U.S. military action in Venezuela is on the table as the opposition to the socialist regime of Nicolás Maduro, led by self-declared interim president Juan Guaidó, takes to the

President Jimmy Carter signs an extension of the Equal Rights Amendment at the White House, Oct. 20, 1978. (White House/National Archives) It is long past time to bury the proposed amendment. Is the federal Equal Rights Amendment still before the states? This week, the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties of the

Grand Central Terminal in New York, N.Y., November 20, 2018 (Carlo Allegri/Reuters ) Americans need to keep in mind the aphorism, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” This past weekend, Grand Central Terminal rolled out new digital departure and arrival boards, replacing the nostalgia of its split-flap Solari boards with a ubiquitous blue glow.

Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of JP Morgan Chase & Co., arrives to testify before a House Financial Services Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., April 10, 2019. (Aaron P. Bernstein/Reuters) Representative Katie Porter (D., N.Y.) lashed out Tuesday at a Chase Bank tweet that encouraged customers to cut down on wasteful spending, arguing

A candlelight vigil is held at Rancho Bernardo Community Presbyterian Church for victims of the shooting at the Congregation Chabad synagogue in Poway, San Diego, Calif., April 27, 2019. (John Gastaldo/Reuters) Why are heinous acts like this weekend’s Poway synagogue massacre so seductive to their perpetrators? Some will look at this weekend’s Poway synagogue shooting and

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speaks during the town hall meeting in Queens, New York, April 27, 2019. (Jeenah Moon/Reuters) Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) doubled down over the weekend on her previous defense of the Department of Veterans Affairs health-care system, arguing that its critics are out to destroy it and the veterans who depend on

Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke speaks during a kickoff rally in El Paso, Texas, March 30, 2019. (Lucas Jackson/Reuters) The progressive environmentalist group Sunrise Movement criticized Beto O’Rourke’s climate-change-policy proposal on Monday as insufficiently ambitious relative to the Green New Deal proposal that has captivated many of his fellow Democratic presidential contenders. O’Rourke on Monday

The Estelada (Catalan separatist flag) flutters during a protest the day after a banned independence referendum in Barcelona, Spain, October 2, 2017. (Enrique Calvo/Reuters) The term is too evocative, and its connotations too various, to function as shorthand for political ideas that need to be unambiguous. Israel figures prominently in the latest segment of the

Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz before testifying on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., June 19, 2018 (Joshua Roberts/Reuters) The DOJ inspector general is on the case, and there are signs he’ll be tough on the agencies. Department of Justice inspector general Michael Horowitz announced in March 2018 that his office was reviewing the

Two eminent public intellectuals — Jordan B. Peterson, the Canadian psychologist, and Slavoj Zizek, the Slovenian philosopher — sold out the Sony Centre in Toronto with their debate “Happiness, Capitalism vs. Marxism.” What followed had little to do with happiness and less to do with capitalism and Marxism, … Read More

A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in N.Y., January 8, 2019. (Brendan McDermid/Reuters) The economy grew 3.2 percent during the first quarter of this year, beating analysts’ and investors’ expectations, according to data released Friday by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). Economists had expected a first-quarter showing of 2.5 percent

Vice President Mike Pence walks outside in Munich, Germany, February 16, 2019. (Michael Dalder/Reuters) Vice President Mike Pence on Friday condemned beleaguered FBI agent Peter Strzok and Justice Department lawyer Lisa Page for discussing the possibility of “infiltrating” his transition team in a series of text messages reviewed by Republican lawmakers. Pence is demanding further

Former Vice President Joe Biden announces his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination, April 25, 2019. (Biden Campaign Handout via Reuters) Incorporating nonpartisan national symbols into partisan endeavors — a presidential campaign, for instance — only deepens the nation’s division. EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is Jonah Goldberg’s weekly “news”letter, the G-File. Subscribe here to get

Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx in Chicago, Ill., February 23, 2019 (Kamil Krzaczynski/Reuters) A Cook County judge recently castigated State’s Attorney Kim Foxx for upholding a double standard by prosecuting an anonymous woman for filing a false police report after dropping all charges against Empire actor Jussie Smollett, who was indicted for the same offense. Smollett