In the U.S., we enjoy the protections of the First Amendment, particularly around political speech –– talking or writing about the wrongs that government and its agencies do. In Russia, as in many other autocratic legal/political systems, dissent is punished by the...
I’ve long admired Norm Ornstein, a public intellectual who leans conservative and has written several books that illuminate the current political dysfunctions in the United States. See, for example, It’s Even Worse than it Looks, reviewed here by Robert Kaiser for...
Elon Musk might just be one of the most interesting people on the planet: head of Space X, Tesla, and the Boring Company, he seems to be everywhere all at once. Without his Starlink system (part of Space X), Ukraine would lack the ability to track Russian drone...
Don Mayer, July 3, 2023 The U.S. Supreme Court has wrapped up its 2022/23 agenda with the usual array of arresting (and sometimes controversial) opinions, including a notable set-back for affirmative action in the Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard case. What’s...
As a member of a teenage Republican club in the early 1960s, I met several “Young Americans for Freedom” (“Yaffers”) and John Birch Society members. The JBS opposed the civil rights movement and believed the U.S. was in dangerous “moral decline,” railing against...
