The Kinks vs. the People in Grey
Happy 50th birthday to Muswell Hillbillies, a concept album about nostalgia, conformity, and the evils of urban renewal programs.
Culture
Congressional Report Confirms Trump's USDA Food-Box Program Was a Huge Waste of Money
Replacing parts of SNAP with a poorly overseen food delivery program turned out to be an expensive disaster.
Review of the New Dune Movie
It's by far the best cinematic version of Frank Herbert's classic science fiction novel.
Loki
Even the most powerful cosmic demigod can be foiled by the even-more-powerful machinations of bureaucracy.
Boston Officials Want to Know if You Think This Dilapidated Shack Is Historically Significant
The city's solicitation of public input on the demolition of shacks, sheds, and boarded up homes is an invitation for NIMBYism.
Netflix Says Algorithm Is Protected by First Amendment in 13 Reasons Why Suicide Lawsuit
Is a required content warning or algorithm change a violation of the First Amendment?
Manchin on Biden's Plan To Let IRS Snoop on Bank Transactions: 'It's Screwed Up'
Plus: RIP to political humorist Mort Sahl, a look at which households pay the largest share of sin taxes, and more....
NIMBY New Yorkers Sue City Over 'Proliferation of Outdoor Dining'
The Open Restaurants Program spared much of New York's restaurant industry from the ravages of COVID-19 shutdowns.
Lockdowns' High Costs and Murky Benefits
Cato economist Ryan Bourne's new book is a much-needed rejoinder to the obtuse economic reasoning of many pandemic-era policy makers.
How the Government Seized a Rare Wu-Tang Clan Album (and a DAO Bought It Back)
Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, formerly owned by Martin Shkreli, was auctioned off by the government and bought by the blockchain/art enthusiasts at PleasrDAO.
The Spinning Wheel of Confusing Television Reboots Lands on 4400
Just like the characters, this short-lived sci-fi show makes a mysterious return years later.
Dune Is an Epic Love Letter to Classic Science Fiction
This is Denis Villeneuve's movie, but it's fully Frank Herbert's Dune.
Media Try To Cancel In-N-Out Burger Over Refusal To Enforce San Francisco's Vaccine Passports
Plus: The CDC greenlights "mix and match" booster shots, the U.S. is accepting zero Uyghur refugees, and more...
MIT Canceled a Professor's Guest Lecture Because He Opposes Race-Based Admissions
"This idea of intellectual debate and rigor as the pinnacle of intellectualism comes from a world in which white men dominated," says one of the cancellation's defenders.
You Can't Fight Campus Illiberalism With More Illiberalism
Free speech on campus is in jeopardy. But many people on the left and the right are rising to fight for our liberal democratic values.
The French Dispatch Is a Profoundly Great Film About the Nature of Art and Freedom
A twee, fussy, brilliant movie from a pathologically twee and fussy director.
Barely Legal Strippers Now Illegal in Texas
Under S.B. 315, it is a misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail, to employ 18- to 20-year-olds at any sexually oriented business.
Coastal Carolina University Is Trying To Fire a Professor for Saying Hurt Feelings Were Not 'a Big Deal'
Steven Earnest thought the most trivial of incidents did not merit the university's concern.
Netflix CEO Apologizes for Having Principles
When employees tried their hand at a shakedown, CEO Ted Sarandos buckled a bit under the pressure.
Americans Want Racial Diversity More Than Ever Before
People are increasingly tolerant of racial differences.
The Last Duel Is More Than a Medieval #MeToo
Ridley Scott's jousting film is also a slyly subversive take on cultural perspectives.
The Chosen
Christian media has a track record of creating hopelessly bad productions, but Dallas Jenkins' TV series is a cut above.
Netflix Staff Apparently Unaware That Dave Chappelle's Comedy Special Would Include Jokes
No one is safe from Chappelle's jokes—but also, everyone is safe from Chappelle's jokes.
Why Millennials and Gen Z Hate Boomers, and What To Do About It.
Karla Vermeulen's Generation Disaster: Coming of Age Post-9/11 is a starting place to mend the new generation gap.
Feds Undermine Themselves by Targeting Parents Who Criticize School Officials
Muzzling critics of government policy will just make them angrier.
Federal Court Upholds California's Oppressive Restrictions on Freelance Writers
A panel has unanimously determined the First Amendment isn’t violated if state regulations keep independent writers from landing work.
How Government Devastated Minor League Baseball
And why stopping the subsidies can help bring it back.
It's Time To Kill the Mandatory Beef Tax That Underwrites "Beef, It's What's for Dinner"
The beef checkoff problem raises prices without benefiting ranchers
Squid Game Is a Bloody Commentary on Consumer Debt
Would you risk your life to write off your loans?
A Different Approach to Anti-Racism
"If you want to fight the impulse that we human beings have to feel better than others," says Chloé Valdary, "it's a bad idea to make people so insecure."
Michigan Students Accuse Celebrated Music Professor of Racism for Screening Othello
Bright Sheng survived the Cultural Revolution. Or so he thought.
No Time To Die Gives Us a Not-Quite-Woke James Bond
Daniel Craig’s final outing as 007 is a reckoning with everything that made Bond who he is.
The Family Firm
Context, tradeoffs, and preferences matter—both in parenting and outside of it.
The Sims 4: Cottage Living
You can finally set up a farm with crops and animals such as cows, llamas, and chickens—heedless of zoning rules!
A.G. Merrick Garland Tells FBI To Investigate Parents Who Yell at School Officials About Critical Race Theory
School boards want some perturbed parents branded domestic terrorists.
South Korea Considers Banning Dog Meat
Talk of a ban follows declining popularity of dog as a restaurant dish.
We Are Satellites
Sci-fi novelist Sarah Pinsker's new book deals with the ways technology shapes how we conceive of the inner self.
'Equity,' 'Multiculturalism,' and 'Racial Prejudice' Among Concepts That Could Be Banned in Schools by Wisconsin Bill
A bill touted as banning "critical race theory" in schools would actually ban a huge array of speech around culture, race, and sex, its sponsor says.
Venom: Let There Be Carnage Might Be the Worst Movie of the Year
It's a crude, ugly derivative of a crude, ugly film.
