Ronald E. Yates 
(Occasionally, I like to repost my piece on Evelyn Waugh’s “Scoop,” the classic book that lampoons foreign correspondents. I first read Scoop in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, in March 1975 as Communist Khmer Rouge guerillas surrounded the besieged city. Day after day, the Khmer Rouge bombarded the city with 107mm Chinese-made …
The most controversial movie of 2024 (so far) is the dystopian film “Civil War.” It depicts a politically and socially divided America in the throes of a second civil war. In the not-too-distant future, the United States is no longer united but split into four warring forces or states. There …
Every day, a new political poll materializes, telling us which presidential candidate is leading in which state, county, or even city. Other polls tell us which candidate is leading nationally or who is leading with a particular group of voters: black, Hispanic, Asian, white, etc. I’m weary of polls like …
In 1968, Chicago was known as “the city that works,” meaning a powerful Democratic political machine commanded it. The master of that machine was a virtuoso politician and mayor named Richard J. Daley. A year before, “Boss” Daley had pitched Chicago as the site of the 1968 Democrat National Convention. As …
In college, I read George Orwell’s gloomy and ominous novel 1984. While it was eye-opening, I never once considered that the totalitarian world it portrays could ever materialize in America. Today, I’m not so sure it couldn’t. We seem to be already moving toward the dystopian totalitarian state of “Oceania” …
I recently read the transcript of Clay Travis’s speech last April at a Hillsdale College National Leadership Seminar in Bellevue, Washington. Travis is co-host of The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show and founder of the sports media company OutKick. What he said about sports, particularly women’s sports, was powerful …
Does anybody believe the first presidential debate on June 27 between Donald Trump and Joe Biden will be fair? I don’t—not when the moderators are Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, both of whom are afflicted with TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome) and are perhaps the biggest Trump haters at CNN. If …
It used to be said that when the United States coughed, Europe caught a cold. Times have changed. In recent European Parliament elections, millions of Europeans cast their ballots across 27 countries, and Europe’s conservatives won big. Very big. It was MEGA, as in “Make Europe Great Again,” big. This …
Accomplished wordsmith William Safire once defined a generation gap as “a frustrating lack of communication between young and old, or a useful stretch of time that separates cultures within a society, allowing them to develop their own character.” That’s a pretty good definition. But it doesn’t tell the whole story. …
In the past couple of weeks, two stories caught my attention. One decried the growing wealth gap between the young and old in America. The other highlighted the growing difference between older and younger Americans in terms of social values and morality. Should we be surprised by either of these …