Nothing Makes Sense Except Charles Portis
John Wayne and Glen Campbell on the set of True Grit.Entertainment Pictures/ZUMA I made my first experiments in Southern identity at the age of 13, when my father gave me a copy of Barry Hannah’s Geronimo Rex. It was something I did not know I needed. I was tired of the bullying, mostly self-inflicted, that…
Rod Blagojevich—Not Alice Johnson—Is the True Face of Trump’s Criminal Justice Policies
Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich waves to his friends after giving a press conference at his Chicago home.Mark Welsh/Daily Herald/AP In a Fox News interview this week, White House spokesperson Hogan Gidley pushed back on criticism over President Donald Trump’s decision to grant clemency of Rod Blagojevich, the corrupt Illinois governor-turned-Celebrity Apprentice star. “The president is…
Poll: Bloomberg Down Only Slightly After Debate Disaster
Here’s the first of the post-debate polls I’ve been waiting for: The good news for Mike Bloomberg is that debates seldom affect poll numbers much. So even though he bombed horribly, he only went down three points in the post-debate poll. He still has plenty of time to dust himself off and do better in…
California Cops Are Collecting Info on Millions of Drivers Who Have Done Nothing Wrong
A Santa Monica, California police officer points a radar gun.Joe Sohm/Visions of America/Universal Images Group via Getty Images Law enforcement in four of California’s most populous counties is storing, searching, and sharing detailed records on millions of random drivers, according to a new report from the California State Auditor, a nonpartisan government agency. The audit,…
Crime in New York City
I had lunch with a friend yesterday and I promised him that I’d dig up the violent crime figures for New York City. Here they are: This chart alone should provide you with pretty good clues to the answers to these questions: Did David Dinkins have a pretty good record on crime? Was Rudy Giuliani’s…
Kickstarter Was Supposed to Be About Conscious Capitalism. So Why Did It Oppose a Union Drive?
Maurizio Gambarini/AP Yancey Strickler, the co-founder and former CEO of Kickstarter, has been in a bit of a bind. His book, This Could Be Our Future, is a “manifesto” for “a more generous world.” It is an argument for—and even a partial guide to—a new, conscious capitalism. But he can’t avoid the other major development…