This week on “Need to Know,” the perspicacious James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal joins Jay and me. He answers the question: Which of the Obama scandals is the worst? We wonder about trusting government and – who can resist? – ponder how a Republican administration that was revealed to have sicced the IRS on its opponents would be treated. James muses on what happens when you elect a community organizer as president of the United States. We tour the lesser scandals of the week (oh yes, there are more), pause to praise Rudyard Kipling, and ponder the greatness of people who stand up for freedom and human dignity in repressive states, knowing that they will be tortured. Jay rubbed shoulders with some of them this week at the Oslo Freedom Forum.
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‘Why Would Jussie Smollett Do This?’ They Cried
By Kyle Smith
Brian Stelter, chief media correspondent for CNN, was baffled. “You know, we saw a lot of politicians and Hollywood celebrities and activists rally around Jussie Smollett's side as soon as he made these accusations several weeks ago,” he said on Saturday night after his own network, among others, had begun ...
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Good News: A Unanimous Supreme Court Strikes a Blow for Civil Liberties
By David French
It's always a good day when even Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg writes like an originalist -- and that's exactly what she did when she wrote the opinion for seven justices in Timbs v. Indiana (justices Gorsuch and Thomas filed separate concurring opinions). At issue was the important question of whether the Eighth ...
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Reparations for Slavery: Just More Symbolism over Substance
The French people recently completed paying out about $60 million to non-French victims of the Holocaust and their survivors in a program administered by the United States, a reminder that the United States’ central role in the rehabilitation and rebuilding of postwar Europe never quite came to a ...
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The Identity-Politics Left Now Despises Bernie Sanders
I’m old enough to remember a time when an independent secular Jewish socialist with a long record of support for Communist regimes would be considered a force for diversity in a typical field of Democratic candidates. Think back to years past, when the likes of Walter Mondale, Gary Hart, Dick Gephardt, Al Gore, ...
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Zion Williamson’s Injury and the Injustice of College Sports
By David French
If you don’t know anything about Duke freshman Zion Williamson, just a few facts will get you up to speed. First, he’s a 6 foot 7, 285-pound basketball player, a forward in a linebacker’s body. Second, he’s known for his intensity and effort on each and every play. Third, he’s got the athleticism to do ...
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A Sublime Christian Masterpiece of a Film
By Kyle Smith
‘There are two ways through life -- the way of nature and the way of grace,” remarks the saintly mother at the outset of The Tree of Life, one of the most awe-inspiring films of the 21st century. She continues:
Grace doesn’t try please itself. It accepts being slighted, forgotten, disliked, accepts insults ...
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Will Woke Progressives Allow Celebrities to Be Christian?
By David French
You may have missed this news, but Chris Pratt, one of the most likable celebrities in modern American life, is now problematic to some people. But he’s not alone. Justin Bieber, Kylie Jenner, and Selena Gomez are under scrutiny now also. Their crime? They’ve attended Evangelical churches — such as Hillsong ...
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