Words, Weather, Etc.

In Impromptus today, I begin with a grim subject: the Cultural Revolution. One of the vanguard of that revolution has just died. With her classmates, she killed her principal — their high-school principal, Bian Zhongyun (a 50-year-old mother of four). The Cultural Revolution was not a unique event. Far from it. Popular frenzies often result in a great deal of blood.

Further on in my column, I have U.S. politics, and our many points of view. Consider Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Georgia Republican who sits on the Homeland Security Committee of the U.S. House:

As I point out in my column, that kind of thing is funny — until it’s not. (Who’s “they,” by the way?)

I have a couple of items related to education — including one about a teacher who was fired for refusing to use a student’s preferred pronouns. (The teacher has won a chunk of change in court.) Let me excerpt my column real quick:

I have a question, one I have been asking for years, and to which the answer cannot be known: Will the pronouns thing prove a kind of fad? Like the hula hoop or lava lamp? Or is it here to stay, a permanent part of the human condition?

I pose just that question in my latest Q&A podcast, here. My guests are two colleagues, young colleagues, Haley Strack and Kayla Bartsch, who are William F. Buckley Jr. Fellows here at National Review. I think they could open up a terrific law firm or other company: “Strack & Bartsch.” They are thoughtful, interesting, and amusing, as you will hear in our Q&A. We talk about pronouns, yes — but also about growing up, favorite writers, college, music, and so on and so forth.

Haley is from California, Kayla from Minnesota. At the end of our conversation, I ask them about the future of our country: Are they optimistic? Pessimistic? The answer is: optimistic, at least ultimately. Frankly, they make me feel optimistic too (on account of their own excellent selves).