Jonah Goldberg stories, Page 9

The Supreme Court recently announced it will take up Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a challenge to a Mississippi law that all but bans abortions after 15 weeks. It’s the first case in years that could result in the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling that,...

If you’re the kind of person who boasts about being a political independent, this may be hard to hear: You’re part of the problem. This no doubt will come as a shock, in part because independents get such fantastic press. That in itself is odd, given that independents have no...

The Colonial Pipeline, which provides roughly 45% of the East Coast’s oil, gas and jet fuel, was hacked last week by a group called DarkSide. The cyberattack forced the pipeline owners to shut down operations, leading to long gas lines in many American cities. The incident has sparked a long-overdue...

In his address to Congress last month, President Biden used some variant of “compete” a dozen times. “We’re in competition with China and other countries to win the 21st century,” Biden said. “We’re at a great inflection point in history.” Chinese President Xi Jinping, Biden said, is “deadly earnest about...

“Banned in Boston” is a phrase that probably doesn’t resonate with many people today. But there was a time when “Footloose” might as well have been set in Beantown. Founded by Puritans in the 1630s, Boston held onto its Puritan zeal — if not necessarily the Puritan faith — for...

We don’t know what the Biden years will ultimately look like, but one thing is pretty obvious, at least to me: It won’t be a new New Deal, nor will this be the beginning of a new Progressive Era. First, a bit of history. The New Deal, particularly in the...

Joe Biden didn’t just campaign as a moderate. He signaled again and again that he would be an affable placeholder president who’d clean up the messes created by his opponent, mend some fences with allies and get the pandemic under control. “Look, I view myself as a bridge, not as...

Joe Biden’s first 100 days as president will be in the books Friday, and one thing is clear: Boring is a superpower. But first, let’s start by noting that the whole “first 100 days” thing is a pseudo-event that’s only a big deal because politicians and journalists agreed to make...

Nothing is more vital to serious thinking than the ability to make distinctions between superficially similar things. The gas pedal and the brake pedal look awfully similar, but if you can’t distinguish between them, good luck getting out of the driveway safely. Distinctions don’t just matter among similar-but-different things. They’re...

Marjorie Taylor Greene was readying her assault, like that legendary Anglo-Saxon warrior Canute the Great at Assandun. The QAnon-friendly first-term Georgia congresswoman, who was banned from any committee assignments shortly after she was sworn in, was poised to launch her “America First Caucus” with Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., an anti-Semitic...

President Biden has decided to end the war in Afghanistan. He feels it’s time, and so do a lot of Americans. I feel it too. I’m just not sure feelings should win the day. In his televised address announcing the decision, Biden reiterated that American withdrawal can’t be “tied to...

You know all those “Florida Man” stories? “Florida man arrested for throwing alligator through drive-thru window,” “Florida man learns the hard way he stole laxatives, not opioids,” etc.? There are several theories for why Florida men stand out so much, starting with Florida is just weird. The most interesting involves...

The debate over Georgia’s new voting law has been deeply depressing to watch for a number of reasons. The first is that it hasn’t really been a debate so much as a lot of performative shouting from all directions. The second is that many of the law’s harshest critics don’t...

The Georgia debacle is a perfect example of the rolling collective action problem of our democracy. A collective action problem, simply put, is when there is a goal that would benefit everyone — in this case, confidence in our machinery of democracy — but the incentive structure for the individual...

You know what you get for spending trillions of dollars you don’t have? More fights over Dr. Seuss, cancel culture and identity politics. By any measure, the federal government has been on a spending spree for decades. Without getting bogged down in the green eyeshade stuff, suffice it to say...

American politics is caught in a perverse paradox. The bases of both parties would like nothing more than to destroy the other party. But it is precisely this animus that prevents them from accomplishing their goal. That’s because the best strategy for partisans to wreak havoc in the other party...

I get the idea of curses or bad karma. The house where a triple murder took place is going to sell for less than the one next door no matter how much you scrub the stains. I wouldn’t want to use Hannibal Lecter’s dishware no matter how much you cleaned...

Well, that didn’t go well. Last week, China and the United States met in Anchorage for the first high-level talks between the two governments since Joe Biden was elected president. It was supposed to begin with a photo op and brief opening statements from each side. Instead, we got a...

A decade ago, one of the first things Republicans did after taking back the House of Representatives was get rid of earmarks. For those of you who don’t recall, “earmark” is the term of art for when members of Congress bring home the bacon to their district. The GOP was...

You wouldn’t know it from how Republicans and Democrats are talking, but the 2020 election was actually a success. During a pandemic, we had a national election with record-breaking turnout. The presidential candidate receiving the most votes in both the Electoral College and in the popular vote was rightly declared...

There’s a difference between saying something can’t be done and recognizing that you can’t do it. For instance, I can’t run a marathon — at least not without some profound lifestyle changes. But that doesn’t mean marathons can’t be run. Happens all the time, just not by me. Likewise, when...

After the Senate passed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, President Joe Biden came out to take a bow. This measure came “not a moment too soon,” he said. “For over a year, the American people were told they were on their own.” This is the kind of thing presidents...

In our increasingly secular age, being on the side of science is similar to being on the side of God — a way to settle an argument by not actually making an argument. Just enlist an unassailable authority and move on. That’s how Joe Biden campaigned for president, vowing to...

Greater Orlando, Fla., hosts several of the most visited theme parks in the world. At the Magic Kingdom you can dress up like a princess, pretend you’re a pirate or just act like you’re a kid again. Universal’s Islands of Adventure lets diehard Harry Potter fans pretend they’re students at...

Joe Biden ran for president on a “return to normalcy.” His challenge is that there are three competing definitions of normalcy for him to contend with. Biden didn’t actually use the slogan “return to normalcy.” But as numerous political observers (including yours truly) noted during the campaign, that was both...