Our most effective U.S. presidents—and keep in mind, I’m saying “most effective,” not “best”—possessed, to one degree or another, a certain measure of indifference to human life. Whether you’re preserving the Union, inciting a World War, incinerating a couple hundred thousand Japs, ...

When a witch doctor reads the leaves in a sucker’s, I mean customer’s, teacup (a process known as “tasseography”), it’s essential that the mark, I mean “sitter,” has actually handled the cup. Say what you will about tea-leaf readers—call them charlatans, call them lunatics—they ...

Her name was Nari and she was the tallest Korean girl I’d ever seen. Six foot, at least. It was 1996 and we were on our second date when she started talking politics. Naturally, I assumed she’d be leftist. She was a student at UCLA…’nuff said. But I wasn’t prepared for just how ...

In times of war, neutrality is rarely rewarded. And if you’re a citizen of a country smack in the middle of a war, it can often be dangerous. A little-known fact about World War II is that, in the nations occupied by Germany, especially (but not solely) in the East, the anti-Nazi partisans, ...

2017 started poorly for the entertainment industry. An unprecedented screwup during the Academy Awards led to the wrong film being named Best Picture. That was bad enough, but the film that was robbed wasn’t just any movie, it was the gay black drug dealers in love movie, and come on—how many ...

In the 1972 black comedy The Ruling Class, Peter O’Toole plays Jack, a paranoid schizophrenic British nobleman who thinks he’s Jesus. Jack’s family members hatch a plot to seize his fortune and have him committed, but Jack’s psychiatrist, desperate to keep his patient from being ...

This year’s South Park Halloween episode poked fun at the avalanche of sexual assault and harassment allegations currently roiling Hollywood. The premise of the episode is that every Halloween the town’s men dress up as witches and spend a week getting high and drinking. This year, the ...

There are few hard-and-fast rules in politics, but here’s one that’s as set in stone as any you’ll find: Whenever leftists call for an “honest dialogue,” what they’re actually seeking is a purge. “Honest dialogue” is nothing more than a ruse to get people to expose themselves as ...

I’m not going to say I called it, but I kinda did. Back in April, I wrote about the growing ease with which a woman can take down her male boss or colleague by alleging some manner of sexual impropriety. “In the current year, it’s the men who need the chaperones,” I wrote. As canny as I ...

My neighborhood in West L.A. is like a gated community, but without the gates. Single-family residences only; no apartments allowed. No stores or home-run businesses. The homeowners association enforces its rules and regs with an iron fist. Occupancy limits ensure that a hot mess of ...