Author: admin

Social elites have always defined themselves — and justified their elite status — by their manners. I think we must have forgotten this since the word "uncouth" became, well, uncouth. Originally meaning "unknown" or "unknowing" the word was in common use by the 18th century to indicate someone who was unfamiliar with the manners of…

The news came last night from The New York Times. "The Obama administration is planning to issue a sweeping directive telling every public school district in the country to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms that match their gender identity." That’s also the way I heard it first thing this morning from CBS radio…

They’re demonstrating in Seattle about "capitalism" again. Young people, presumably of the hip variety now famed for supporting Bernie Sanders, rioted there on May Day. The Seattle Times reported nine arrests and several injuries to police, including one officer who was bitten. Meanwhile, James Pethokoukis of the American Enterprise Institute, noting that a recent survey found…

In the issue of The New Statesman dated 23 April 2016 — the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death — you may find a sort of symposium titled "Shakespeare, our contemporary: the Bard 400 years later," which offers a forum for a selection of big thinkers to ruminate on how "the Bard" is, really, pretty much…

Upon returning to the United States last week after a few days in Paris I was astonished to read that while I was visiting the recently re-opened Picasso museum, enjoying a splendid lunch at a delightful restaurant called Camille in the Rue des Francs Bourgeois and going on from there to the Victor Hugo house…

Given a day to digest the dire results of the Ides of March primary elections, The Washington Post went into what could only be described as a meltdown over the suddenly looming prospect of a Trump presidency. Clearly it was all hands on deck for the war against the bombastic billionaire. The paper even opened…

As I have indicated more than once in my columns for The New Criterion, I am the reverse of enthusiastic about the presidential candidacy of Donald Trump, yet the more the media hate and gang up on him, the more inclined I am to like him. Perhaps it’s just my contrarian nature. On Sunday The…

Guess what? Keith Olbermann is moving. Yes, I thought you would be excited to hear about it. But wait until you hear why. I’ll give you a hint. The building where he lives bears, like so many others, the name "Trump." OK, that makes it obvious. But let’s let Keith tell it in the op…