Conservative Conversation and Community
Six years ago, faced with a gaping hole in the state budget, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie decided the way to fill the coffers was to offer legalized sports betting. All four major professional sports leagues and the NCAA immediately objected and sued to stop it. Their hammer was the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act – or PASPA.
MoreA while back, deceased Russian pop singer Eduard Khil became a meme based on this lovably nutty performance: More
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Recommended by R> Members In 1933, the author was pursuing his ambition to follow his father into a career in the Prussian civil service. While completing his law degree, he had obtained a post as a Referendar, the lowest rank in the civil service, performing what amounted to paralegal work for higher ranking clerks and judges. He enjoyed the […]
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I admit to being a hopelessly disorganized individual, and working in a cluttered corner “office” in my home. The “logical (to me) chaos” of my workspace right now says something meaningful about the state of academic rigor today, thanks to a couple of completely coincidental items. On my desk there is a pile of paper that represents the first 50 or so pages of a nearly 500-page manuscript, and an iPad with a somewhat related book in my Kindle queue waiting for me to complete.
The book is The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why It Matters, by Tom Nichols, and the manuscript is on a theory of “political Darwinism.” They are definitely polar opposites on just about any scale one would like to use to compare them, which makes them remarkably similar. Nichols is pointing out how society — particularly America — has shifted to a point where all experts are considered untrustworthy. The author of the manuscript is showing how the shifting trends in politics are actually following a fairly logical evolutionary process that needs a severe interruption if we prize freedom at all. The similarity between them lies in both their serious tones of warning against the track our society is following now, and their extreme attention to detail in an academic sense. The other item of note about them is that the book is authored by someone who is generally conservative, and the manuscript’s author is essentially a libertarian.
MoreThe blessed hearts at CNN Money have shocking “Bachelor” news they think you should know: Want to become a contestant on “Bachelor in Paradise”? You’ll need to sign a contract that allows the producers of the show to do nearly anything they want to you and your reputation — including filming you naked, airing the […]
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Today on the Daily Standard podcast, Preston Cooper of the American Enterprise Institute joins host Eric Felten to find out why, whether good times or bad, the price of college tuition keeps going up.
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David French of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America discuss the resignation of three CNN reporters after the redaction of a deceptive story on a top Trump advisor. They also express frustration over the tactics of Senate Republicans as the debate over the new healthcare bill escalates.Then, they decry the double standard, as it provides little coverage of the FBI’s bank fraud investigation of Bernie Sanders’ wife. And they defend John McEnroe’s controversial comments on NPR that while Serena Williams is the best women’s player of all time, she would struggle greatly on the men’s tour.
MoreWithout warning, on a fine spring day in central Florida, an enormous explosion destroys the campus of the University of Central Florida and the surrounding region. The flash, heat pulse, and mushroom cloud are observed far from the site of the detonation. It is clear that casualties will be massive. First responders, fearing the worst, […]
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Eric Felten talks with Erica Wagner, author of the new book Chief Engineer, about Washington Roebling, the man who built the Brooklyn Bridge.
MoreToday I’m not just reviewing one thing, I’m reviewing Two Things! You get a bonus thing for the price of one thing! Aren’t you excited? Okay, confession time, they are closely related because today I wanted to discuss Lev Grossman’s book, The Magicians and the recent ScyFy show of the same name based on that […]
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In this AEI Events Podcast, AEI’s Gerard Robinson hosts Senate Committee on the Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who addresses the bipartisan Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act of 2015 he cosponsored with Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and several other lawmakers. This aims to cut mandatory minimums, grant judges greater sentencing discretion, and help prisoners successfully return to society.
Following Chairman Grassley’s remarks, Hayne Yoon (Vera Institute), John Huffington (Living Classroom Foundation), and the Pat Nolan (American Conservative Union Center for Criminal Justice Reform) discuss how to prepare prisoners for life after prison, reduce recidivism, provide opportunities for returned citizens, and reform the criminal justice system to create safer communities and more stable families. The panelists also address improving prison conditions for women, introducing prosecutorial discretion in sentencing, and funding and operating correctional education programs.
David French of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America celebrate the Supreme Court decision that upheld a portion of President Trump’s travel ban, overturning lower court rulings. They also applaud the SCOTUS decision in favor of Trinity Lutheran Church against the State of Missouri in a religious liberty case. And they question Pride Month’s “inclusivity” as LGBT members of the Jewish community are ejected from a Chicago pride march for having the Star of David on a rainbow flag.
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I stopped at a hardware store this weekend to acquire a couple of carabiners with which to tether a friend’s Jet Ski to its mooring. As I was parking and getting out of my Yukon, I watched an elderly lady park her red Prius in front of the store and go inside. On her car […]
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I write a weekly book review for the Daily News of Galveston County. (It is not the biggest daily newspaper in Texas, but it is the oldest.) My review normally appears Wednesdays. When it appears, I post the review on Ricochet on the following Sunday. More
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Bret Stephens doesn’t like Twitter, so he decided that you shouldn’t either.
His reasoning is lax, but the New York Times columnist blames the social media platform for “pornifying” politics. “Twitter is the political pornography of our time,” Stephens claims, “revealing but distorting, exciting but dulling, debasing to its users, and, well, ejaculatory. It’s bad for the soul and, as Donald Trump proves daily, bad for the country.”
MoreRecommended by R> Members What phrases do people of certain parties, ideologies, or factions utter so frequently that you could turn it into a drinking game? What phrases turn up here on the site so often that they almost require you to take a shot? I know we’ve had these sorts of things for political debates before, but this […]
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In this AEI Events Podcast, AEI’s Jeffrey Eisenach hosts Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai for a discussion on the chairman’s first 100 days and his vision for the future of US communications policy. Chairman Pai emphasizes the need to close the digital divide, modernize rules, eliminate unnecessary regulatory burdens, promote entrepreneurship and innovation, protect consumers and public safety, increase agency transparency, and reform agency processes.
In a follow-up discussion, Dr. Eisenach and Chairman Pai discuss the Open Internet Order proceedings and the role of Congress and the courts in addressing the controversial issue, in addition to the importance of ensuring that FCC policies enable competition and empower innovators.
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Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America discuss House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi feeling the heat from members of her own party after Tuesday’s loss in Georgia, but they are excited to see her determined to keep her job despite being a drag on the party. They also express concern over the new Senate Republican health care bill, which Democrats were already protesting and has some Republicans on edge as well. And they speculate on President Trump admitting he knows of no tapes of his conversations with former FBI Director James Comey.
MoreAs a carbofluid vegesexual, I identify as a sweet potato, but sometimes a yam. Don’t you dare mistuber me! And the world ends not with a yam, but with a tuber. More
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Recommended by R> Members Ah, the first day of summer. And, if you’re a larger-busted woman, the first day of a season not really designed with you in mind. Even if you’re not big-busted, just older, or physically odd in some way, finding attractive but modest summer clothing whose modesty doesn’t draw too much attention to itself can be tough.
There are many causes of bustiness. One is just being heavier. Others are busty even at lower BMIs, and may spend most of their lives trying to wrangle themselves into normal-size clothing, which, especially during sleeveless season can lead to unfortunate spillover effects. Many women already wear the wrong size bra, causing not only discomfort, but needless dowdiness. At least during colder seasons, a dowdy bustline is more covered up. Not so in summer, when high-riding bands and pit-cleavage can escape the confines of clothing for the world to see.
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Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America celebrate with the pro-life community over the news that a California court is dropping 14 of 15 charges against activists David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt, whose undercover videos show Planned Parenthood illegally selling aborted baby body parts. They also express concern over the FBI’s reluctance to state that the Alexandria shooter was politically motivated. And they discuss reports that German police are raiding homes and interrogating people over controversial social media posts.
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France’s new president, Emmanuel Macron, wants to create a Silicon Valley in his country. After the Trump administration dumped the Paris climate agreement, Macron filmed a video in which he called upon “all scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, responsible citizens who were disappointed by the decision of the President of the United States, I want to say that they will find in France a second homeland.”
Now let me digress: Over lunch the other day, a trusted AEI colleague told me that Arizona is known for its strong youth hockey. This surprised me. No one is going to mistake a state whose official plant is the saguaro cactus for, you know, Minnesota. But it turns out that many NHL players retire to Arizona. This provides the state with an abundance of coaching talent and interest in the sport. So there was no grand plan to turn Arizona into a youth hockey mecca. It happened organically. More an accident of weather than anything else.
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Victor Davis Hanson examines the growing political and cultural rifts between Red and Blue America, looks at the historical precedents for such alienation, and provides recommendations for how Americans can once again learn to live with one another.
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In this AEI Events Podcast, Chairwoman Virginia Foxx of the House Education and Workforce Committee (R-NC) delivers a keynote to discuss the opportunities of career and technical education, followed by a discussion with AEI’s Andy Smarick. Chairwoman Foxx states that CTE can help fill jobs in in-demand fields, potentially increase graduation rates, and give students more schooling options.
Mr. Smarick and Chairwoman Foxx then discussed the federal government’s role in expanding CTE, with Chairwoman Foxx stating that local-level decisions on the subject were more beneficial. She also stressed the importance of online and distance learning.
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Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America celebrate Republican Karen Handel’s win over Democrat Jon Ossoff in Georgia’s special congressional election. They also enjoy watching Democrats fight publicly over what went wrong in a race that was supposedly a referendum on President Trump and a model for winning back the House in 2018. And they react to the news that former Obama Attorney General Eric Holder plans to be much more visible in his “resistance” to President Trump and might run for president in 2020.
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