A young Hillsdale student writes: All of us young people need to give manual work a try, and summer is the perfect opportunity to do so. It needn’t be your full-time job: Build a fence for your parents, mow some elderly neighbors’ lawns, take care of a friend’s toddler for the day. Proverbs says:  Idle hands are the devil’s workshop; idle lips are his mouthpiece. The idleness the pandemic forced us into and the lethargy and idiocy that has come in its wake prove the wisdom of both writers.  This Sunday morning as I head to church (to celebrate graduates!) I pray for utility, prod ..read more

Big stories yesterday about H.R. 6090, “Antisemitism Awareness Act of 2023.”  The title is certainly inoffensive, terribly appropriate actually, given what is happening on our campuses these days.  The host contends it was intended primarily to demonstrate the antisemitic streak in the Democrats, most evident anyway in the likes of Ilan Omar and Rashidi Tlaib – and it did with 70 Democrats (more than 30%) voting against the resolution.  However, there were also a scant few Republicans (<10%) that voted against it and that, the host rightly points out, is what the left-leaning ..read more

President Biden’s comments yesterday on the campus unrest seemed to want it both ways.  Something often referred to as “splitting the baby.”  Because we don’t get near the Bible in public education anymore, people may not know that reference.  It refers to a biblical story wherein two women come before King Solomon claiming motherhood over a baby and Solomon responds by offering to split the baby in half, half for each woman.  Of course, the real mother immediately reveals herself, repelled by the thought and offers to give the baby to the other woman rather than watch her ..read more

Our nation sits on a foundation built of decency and respect for the law.  Before there was a constitution, a Congress, a presidency or justices, there were those two things.  It is impossible to write laws to direct every human interaction, hence decency is mandatory. If no one respects the law there is no way to enforce it short of becoming a complete police state, and even then it does not really work.  If our nation is to work at all there must be decency and respect for the law.  And yet the two leading stories that confront us, for the last several days and for severa ..read more

Mary Kissel, among former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s most trusted advisors, is now executive vice president of Stepehns, Inc. She and I discussed the path the General Secretary Xi has placed the CCP. Heads up to trustees of endowments: You may want to study your exposure to Cina’s economy very closely: Audio: 05-01hhs-kissel The post Mary Kissel On Secretary Blinken’s “Strategy” For Visiting Xi, And On Investment In China appeared first on The Hugh Hewitt Show ..read more

Andrew C. McCarthy argues, quite technically, that the current criminal trial of Donald J. Trump in New York is illegal.  At Powerline John Hinderacker follows up more accessibly and says, “His legal arguments are well taken, but the reality is perhaps even more stark. This prosecution is entirely fraudulent.”  Hinderacker considers, briefly, if Trump should simply return to the campaign trail, refusing to cooperate with this extra-legal nonsense, pointing out that since the prosecution is purely political so should be the response.  Heck of a point, but it further undermines th ..read more

Senator Tom Cotton joined me this AM: Audio: 04-30hhs-cotton Transcript: HH: My guest is United States Senator Tom Cotton. Good morning, Senator. Welcome back. TC: Good morning, Hugh. Thanks for having me back on. HH: I’m playing the Vietnam protest music of my youth. I wasn’t in college at the time that went on, but I heard it, and I saw it, and I am amazed that we’re seeing it again. What is your reaction to the takeover of Columbia’s Hamilton Hall this morning, and to the obvious antisemitic actions and assaults that occurred at UCLA that went unpunished yesterday? TC: Hugh, from coast to c ..read more

Sadly, we are not cartoon talking dogs, momentarily distracted by a squirrel that can easily pick up the conversation exactly where we left off.  Once a conversation is diverted, it tends to follow the diversion, not the original strain.  Covid was a giant diversion of the national conversation and sadly many of us are still running down the path of the diversion and we have not returned to the main conversation.  Some seek to reinforce the diversion.  Some seek to regain lost credibility to reinforce the diversion.  Which is why Jm Geraghty’s concerns that the preside ..read more

When I moved to Southern California in the early 80’s the automobile was THE status symbol.  Southern California has always had an amazing car culture, but amongst it was the car purchased purely to indicate status – often falsely so.  Mercedes and BMWs were commonplace in SoCal and it was not uncommon to see one parked in front of a studio apartment.  So status conscience was LA and so valued was the automobile as an indicator of that status that people frequently spent almost all of what they had to get one of those cars, choosing to live in quite poor accommodations so long a ..read more

Just before Easter, presidential candidate Donald J. Trump announced the “God Bless The USA Bible.”  Tasteless? Perhaps, but the reaction has been stunning and almost completely missed the mark. Yesterday an “evangelical pastor” in North Carolina went off on it and the “news” went round and round and round.  The irony is stunning.  Trump is using the Bible to garner attention and this guy is using Trump’s Bible to garner attention, and, of course, he got it.  There are two levels on which to consider this issue. One, the man’s entire issue is the confusion of church and sta ..read more