Editors Note: This is the second essay in a symposium on the Iran War and Americas role in the Middle East. You can read the first essay here. 　　“To the great proud people of Iran, I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand.” So spoke President Donald Trump when he announced the commencement of Operation Epic...

　　Editors note: This is the first essay in a symposium on the Iran War and Americas role in the Middle East. 　　The US-Israeli war against Iran was fought for unclear purposes, with a vague strategy, towards an ambiguous end. That does not mean it contributed nothing to US interests. The world is safer with a weaker Iranian regime whose nuclear...

　　Americans are falling in love with Project Hail Mary, a movie about an astronaut who finds himself alone at the end of the universe, with perhaps no hope of ever returning among mankind. He then has to figure out how to save mankind in very difficult circumstances, by his wits and his technical know-how. A man a lot like the...

　　In his piquant memoir, Streetwise, Lloyd Blankfein, former CEO of Goldman Sachs, shares an arresting anecdote about the administrative state. The SEC sued Goldman for allegedly misleading investors about the risks of mortgage-backed securities. Blankfein considered the suit meritless but settled for $550 million. “You can’t litigate against your regulator. It’s like a Star Trek episode: an alien controls the...

　　When the Supreme Court, on April 1, heard arguments about birthright citizenship in Trump v. Barbara, the justices focused on jurisdiction. The Fourteenth Amendment provides: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” The extent of birthright citizenship thus turns...

　　Journalist Jane Jacobs coined the term “cataclysmic money” to describe a sudden, large investment into a neighborhood. It is in the precise sense of “deluge” or “flood” that she means the word, inviting us to imagine spigots of public or private money looming ominously over urban America, poised to rain torrents of dollars on the just and unjust alike. “This...

　　The social circle of the painter Joshua Reynolds was remarkable even by the clubbable standards of Georgian London. Goldsmith, Fox, and Garrick were chums. Boswell dedicated a book to Reynolds. Edmund Burke executed his will. Having revolutionised British art education by founding the Royal Academy of Arts, he died in 1792, knighted and rich as a hog. He lives on...

　　“The only possible excuse for this book,” wrote G. K. Chesterton at the outset of his 1908 book Orthodoxy, “is that it is an answer to a challenge. Even a bad shot is dignified when he accepts a duel.” 　　This is vintage Chesterton: witty, memorable, charmingly self-deprecating. Just two lines into the book, he already has readers fully engaged, hungry...

　　6 Reasons We Can Believe in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ 　　By Jim Burns 　　If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. —1 Corinthians 15:17 　　The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the cornerstone of our Christian faith. If Christ did not rise from the dead, your faith is in...

　　Editors Note: The following essay was previously published in The Washington Post on February 12, 2026. 　　On the far-too-long list of big mistakes I have made over time, several come under the heading “too much of a good thing.” It started with that third piece of coconut cream pie I ate at age 5. That was the last time for...

　　“Are any of you suffering hardships? You should pray. Are any of you happy? You should sing praises.Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord.Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will...

　　“He told them,‘My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.’” (Mark 14:34 nlt) 　　As the hour of Jesus’ crucifixion approached, the enormity of what He was about to do—of what He was about to endure—weighed heavily on the Lord. He retreated to an olive grove at the foot of the...