Enjoying the view from Limbo
A text message exchange with a young friend of mine yesterday, March 1st here in Korea: She: I’m struggling with deciding how many clothes I should bring to Seoul. On another side of the earth, war is happening.I: Yes, there are now multiple wars happening, due to a few idiots who think they can do whatever they want. I hope you will be...
George Will, the long-compromised Republican establishment conservative, has somewhat miraculously rediscovered his principles with aplomb during the Trump era, presumably due to the liberating effects of being forcibly ousted by the populist pogrom from his secure home within the party establishment. Exemplary of his octogenarian rejuvenation is his take on the Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision to strike down Trump’s global reign of terror...
A few random thoughts (not all of them mine) regarding the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to strike down Donald Trump’s global reign of economic terror by means of his “signature policy initiative,” namely his tariffs-by-mood-ring-and-mean-girl-whim fanaticism. First, from former Republican congressman Justin Amash on X: I’m not sure there’s ever been a president more distant from the ideals of the Founders of the...
The First Lady.— I cannot even imagine what it would be like to be the kind of person who would be interested in watching a documentary about Melania Trump — or “Sweet pea,” as her friend Ghislaine Maxwell affectionately called her, though this cute friendship, I suspect, is not mentioned in the documentary. Unaccomplished, vain, apolitical, amoral, a non-entity who, like everyone who...
by Daren Jonescu · Published February 15, 2026 · Last modified February 16, 2026
What does it mean to be open-minded, in the sense required for serious learning and self-development? It certainly does not mean assuming that every idea is as good as every other, or that no one’s perspective is truer than anyone else’s. That is not openness; it is relativism. Relativism is the death of thinking, philosophy, and self-development, because it suffocates the desire that motivates…
Bad Bunny was the performer at the Super Bowl half-time show. I never heard of Bad Bunny before this month. I understand he sings in Spanish. (I cannot verify whether “sings” is strictly the correct verb here, though I suspect not, based on the photos of Mr. Bunny that I have seen; and I surely will not attempt to verify it by listening...
Anyone who knows me knows that I am often susceptible to the charge of being excessively disdainful or dismissive of most things contemporary, at least in the soul-defining realms of ideas, art, and politics. I freely admit to being guilty of such an excess on occasion, or even on most occasions. Having granted this, however, I must aver that I come by my...
A good warrior is a person who is willing to obey orders or carry out an assigned duty for his society, even to the point of death if necessary. A good man, by contrast, is a person who is willing to disobey orders or defy an assigned duty of his society, even to the point of death if necessary. From this it follows...
America Descending / Liberty's Labors Lost
by Daren Jonescu · Published February 8, 2026 · Last modified February 9, 2026
Donald Trump is trying to execute in the 2026 midterm elections the same strategy he used in the 2020 presidential election: Start telling people months ahead of the election that the Democrats are planning massive voter fraud, though without providing any evidence to support this; on election night, stand up and declare that the election fraud he predicted has really happened, though without...
It is very true that videos can lie. It is equally true that government officials can lie. But when several videos shot independently by several different people from several different angles present one consistent picture, while several government officials mouth one script written or approved by one government official, then we are being asked whether we are more inclined to believe several different...
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