 Dear Weekend Jolter, Before we arrive at the standard fare of this weekly cornucopia . . . It should be noted, as the subject line states, that while Santa Claus and Macys may have pulled off something extraordinary at Herald Square, a true miracle took place a block over, on 35th Street, where William F. Buckley established the headquarters of an infant National Review, where it took root, where it grew and thrived, where it make good on its pledge to stand athwart history yelling stop. Christmas Eve aside, Bill's visions were decidedly not of sugarplums. Our friends at National Review Institute — which Bill also founded, and also on 35th Street — have, as explains our paysan David Bahnsen, helped launch and sponsor a mighty effort on NRO, Capital Matters, that in the face of ascendant Socialism daily makes the case for free markets and free people, that hurls wisdom and insults at leftist fiscal lunacy, and that defends that vital thing that has lifted billions from poverty: capitalism. NRI's effort deserves your attention, and may we add consideration of support. But let's let David say such: In an age when too many in the political class, the ivory tower, and yes, even Fortune 500 companies have abandoned the empirical testimony of history and rejected the inherent morality of markets, the duty those of us have to defend ordered liberty is most profound. National Review Institute, the nonprofit journalistic think tank that supports the National Review mission, has collaborated with NR to launch a new, bold project — National Review Capital Matters — because we take this duty seriously and believe that the greatest defense against the argument of leftist economics is to, well, win the argument. While the other side seeks to gather power and to monopolize messaging in the classroom, we must win the debate in the public square. We must capably defend the call of the entrepreneur, the vitality of capital markets, and the nobility of free enterprise. We must highlight the capitalist dynamism and impulse to create that have lifted more people out of extreme poverty in the last 30 years than in all prior human history. . . . Capital Matters holds in disdain the worldview that, in its vain pursuits, squashes human flourishing. It holds fast to the historical legacy of America's markets-based economy, and the democratic norms and institutions that protect it. The greatest tool the Left has in 2020 to undermine free markets is a mainstream and unopposed demonization of capital, of capital markets, and of capitalists in its day-to-day reporting, commentary, and editorial content about business and finance.
The Miracle on 35th Street eventually moved to Lexington Avenue and now resides at 44th Street. It remains just as miraculous. Do read David's appeal in full, and do consider his recommendation for support. It has even moved this Missive’s Author to contribute. You can do the same here. Now, rooty toot toots and rummy tum tums of conservative wisdom await, so put down the figgy pudding you God-rested merry gentlemen and ladies and indulge! Short Links, Sweet Links Editorials He leaves as he came, with our kudos: Attorney General William Barr Was Right Man for the Job. Ornaments Galore Decorating the Tree of Conservative Wisdom Kyle Smith: Jill Biden's Doctorate Is Garbage Because Her Dissertation Is Garbage. Kyle Round Two: Jill Biden's Garbage Dissertation, Explained. Rich Lowry: The Embarrassing Russian Disinformation Canard. Matthew Continetti: Biden Administration Courts Disaster with Progressive Ideologues from Obama Era. Mark Krikorian: Immigration: Biden Administration Will Unravel Border Rules Slowly. Frederick M. Hess: Betsy DeVos Interview: Education Secretary Reflects on Her Tenure, Her Critics, and School Choice. John Yoo: Texas Election Suit — The State Lost, and Conservatives Won. Victor David Hanson: Where Did the New Mad Left Come From?. George Hawley and Richard Hanania: Republicans & the Working-Class Party Myth: Cultural Concerns Decide Most Voters’ Choices. Jack Butler: Left-Wing Cultural & Political Dominance Has Limits. Kevin Williamson: The College-Debt Debate Is a Culture-War Battle. Cameron Hilditch: Why American Children Stopped Believing in God. Conrad Black: China's Horrific Triumph amid the Coronavirus Pandemic. Helen Raleigh: Australia Stands Up to China's Bullying Campaign. Alexandra DeSanctis: Tulsi Gabbard & Abortion: Democrat Introduced Two Pro-Life Bills. David Harsanyi: Death-Penalty Debate: Honesty Needed. Capital Matters Maybe Alex Muresianu will answer "just about everything": What Biden Gets Wrong about Taxes and Manufacturing. John Fund watches the exodus: Businesses & Entrepreneurs Flee California’s High Taxes & Regulation. Rick Scott demands the GOP hold firm: Republicans Must Not Cave on Blue-State Bailouts. Thomas W. Miller Jr. argues against forgiveness: Student-Loan Debt: Form a Commission, Don’t Rush Toward Debt Jubilee. Lights. Camera. Review! Armond White sees a BLM puppet show: With Drawn Arms: Race-Hustling Documentary Exploits Olympics Legend Tommie Smith. More Armond: He catches a hypnotic post-punk flick: True History of the Kelly Gang Is 2020's Great Gangsta Epic. Kyle Smith is not jive talkin': The Broken-Hearted Bee Gees. More Kyle: He feels the floorboards tremble: Ma Rainey's Black Bottom: August Wilson's Powerful Play on Netflix. From the New December 31, 2020 Issue of Your Favorite Conservative Magazine Jimmy Quinn talks with the Secretary of State: The Pompeo Doctrine. Graham Hillard wonders if comedians will give Biden a pass: Punchline in Chief. Andrew C. McCarthy finds judicial aversion to election-undoing: The Courts Hold the Line. Kevin Williamson assesses the strong support for marijuana legalization: The Marijuana Majority. Now, Let Us Serve up All of That, Only This Time with All the Trimmings Editorials 1. William Barr has chosen to resign as Attorney General. He leaves with our commendation. From the editorial: The "background commentary" never ceased. On Monday, it led to the president's losing one of his most effective cabinet officials, one who served Trump, the Justice Department, and the nation admirably — better, obviously, than his boss will ever appreciate. The attorney general's public exasperation in February over the president's outbursts was rare, but the situation was all too typical. He found himself caught between, on the one side, subordinate prosecutors who were recommending a draconian sentence for Roger Stone and, on the other, a willful president who wanted the case to disappear. Barr rejected both Trump's demands and the push by the prosecutors for a sentence befitting a mafia leg-breaker. He recommended a sentence in exactly the 40-month range that the judge, no Trump or Stone fan, ended up embracing. This was a second tour of duty as AG for Barr, who served President George H. W. Bush 30 years ago. He is smart and savvy in the ways of Washington, so he knew what he was getting into. He ends his tenure right where he's been all along: whipsawed between a president's unreasonable demands that he politicize important investigations, and media-Democrat smears that he has politicized the Justice Department merely by conducting those investigations.
A Stocking Stuffed with So Many Goodies 1. Kyle Smith takes the hammer to the dissertation of "Dr." Jill Biden. From the piece: Mrs. Biden wanted the credential for its own sake. As for its quality, well. She got it from the University of Delaware, whose ties to her husband, its most illustrious alumnus if you don't count Joe Flacco, run so deep that it has a school of public policy named after him. That the University of Delaware would have rejected her 2006 dissertation as sloppy, poorly written, non-academic, and barely fit for a middle-school Social Studies classroom (all of which it is) when her husband had been representing its state in the U.S. Senate for more than three decades was about as likely as Tom Hagen telling Vito Corleone that his wife is a fat sow on payday. The only risk to the University of Delaware was that it might strain its collective wrist in its rush to rubber-stamp her doctoral paper. Mrs. Biden could have turned in a quarter-a**ed excuse for a magazine article written at the level of Simple English Wikipedia and been heartily congratulated by the university for her towering mastery. Which is exactly what happened. Jill Biden's dissertation is not an addition to the sum total of human knowledge. It is not a demonstration of expertise in its specific topic or its broad field. It is a gasping, wheezing, frail little Disney forest creature that begs you to notice the effort it makes to be the thing it is imitating while failing so pathetically that any witnesses to its ineptitude must feel compelled, out of manners alone, to drag it to the nearest podium and give it a participation trophy. Which is more or less what an Ed.D. is. It's a degree that only deeply unimpressive people feel confers the honorific of "Doctor." People who are actually smart understand that being in possession of a credential is no proof of intelligence.
2. Descended upon by the flying monkeys of various social media platforms, Kyle doubles down on Mrs. Biden academic thin gruel (with apologies to gruel). From the encore: The dissertation, Student Retention at the Community College: Meeting Students' Needs, shimmers with the wan, term-papery feel of middle school, although in defense of today's middle schoolers, they at least ... READ MORE
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