Posts by Swedan Margen
TMZ Turns Its Pitiless Lens on Politicians
Politics has never been TMZ’s focal point, but political issues that aggrieve Levin personally have steered the outlet’s coverage from its inception. While growing up, in the San Fernando Valley, Levin saw fame’s capacity to protect certain people from the consequences of the law. His father, who owned a liquor store, grappled with frequent sting…
Read MoreTrump vs. the Pope | National Review
They shall beat their swords into plowshares, but not yet. Source link
Read MoreWhat Zendaya Leaves Unsaid
Is her professionalism an obstacle to risk? Fatal to artistry? She speaks matter-of-factly about her relative privilege in the industry. She is not “only” an actress; she is a producer, which dates back to her time on “K.C. Undercover.” As a cultural figure, she strikes me as a code-switcher. She is not the crossover case,…
Read MoreHow Waymo and Waze are pitching in to help solve L.A.’s pothole problem
Waze and Waymo are teaming up to help combat Los Angeles’ growing pothole problem. The companies announced a program that will use Waymo’s self-driving cars to better detect potholes in the city. The data will be available to city officials through Waze’s traffic data-sharing platform, according to a news release last week. The number of…
Read MoreThe New York Times Can’t Take Left-Wing Violence Seriously | National Review
Rebutting such reporting in the detail it deserves would require a book-length argument — which I plan to provide. Source link
Read MoreEric Swalwell Reaps What He Sows | National Review
The California Dem is now claiming to be a victim of the very game he himself chose to play. Source link
Read MoreOpenAI CEO Sam Altman addresses Molotov cocktail attack on his home and AI backlash
Hours after a Molotov cocktail was thrown at his San Francisco home, OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman addressed the criticism surrounding artificial intelligence that appears to have been the impetus for the attack. In a lengthy blog post, Altman shared a family photo of his husband and child, stating he hopes it might convince people…
Read MoreNoah Kahan Makes an Unlikely Home-Town Hero
In 2023, Noah Kahan, a singer and songwriter from Strafford, Vermont, leapfrogged to superstardom following the release of “Stick Season,” a COVID-era LP full of claustrophobic, lovesick folk songs. Kahan has a soft, nasal voice—more Simon than Garfunkel—and he uses it to eulogize relationships that falter for reasons both intentional and incidental. If its instrumentation…
Read MoreWhy I Wanted to Keep My Marriage a Secret, by David Sedaris
All these years later, I could still see their room so clearly: its dark, almost black wood panelling, their checkerboard-tiled floor. It was three times the size of mine and a lot quieter. I’d just bullied their mattresses into the hall when my mother showed up and put an end to it. “But I have…
Read MoreA Lesson of Vietnam: Getting in Is Easier than Getting Out
The war was sustained by a seductive delusion: that an unwinnable conflict might still be managed into an outcome short of humiliation. Source link
Read MoreR. Kikuo Johnson’s “Meet-Cute”
For the cover of the April 20, 2026, issue, the cartoonist R. Kikuo Johnson, a new father, tackled an issue that people in his age demographic often face. “I was childless into my early forties,” Johnson said. “By then, my partner and I noticed that a lot of our peers were at a similar crossroads: dog,…
Read MoreThe Violence in Vermeer
As yet, archival research has failed to substantiate this conversation, although it appears, more or less intact, in the 2003 movie version of Chevalier’s book, with Colin Firth, as a well-wigged Vermeer, issuing instructions to Scarlett Johansson, as Griet. Meanwhile, we have a fresh contender for the role of the girl in the painting. In…
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