Author: Lance Garrison

He is thinking of giving up stand-up after his next HBO special. “It’s like playing the cello,” he told me. “You got to always be working at it.”On “Club Random,” where he gets stoned and sips tequila and invites guests to partake of pot or their drinks of choice as well (Seinfeld had coffee; Couric had a paloma), Maher can get downright sentimental, and confessional. He spoke to Martin Short about waking up in the middle of the night with morbid thoughts, by which he meant death. He fretted to Seinfeld that “men have been ruined by the phone and…

The task before Judge Aileen Cannon, who is presiding over the classified documents case of Donald Trump, is not easy. She must protect Mr. Trump’s constitutional rights while also ensuring the prompt and fair administration of justice.Still, it is inexcusable that she is utterly failing to keep the case moving along in a fair but timely manner. And unfortunately, there isn’t much that the special counsel in the case, Jack Smith, can do about it.While working as an attorney in the C.I.A.’s Office of General Counsel, I developed an expertise in Espionage Act prosecutions similar to the one pending against…

For example, in January, the co-founder of one A.I. company argued that the technology could improve quality of life for isolated older people, writing, “Companionship can be provided in the form of virtual assistants or chatbots, and these companions can engage in conversations, play games or provide information, helping to alleviate feelings of loneliness and boredom.”Certainly, there are valuable and beneficial uses for A.I. chatbots — they can be life-changing for people who are visually impaired, for example. But the notion that bots will one day be an adequate substitute for human contact misunderstands what loneliness really is, and doesn’t…

There is no franchise in Hollywood filmmaking that is as consistently good, and as consistently interesting, as “Planet of the Apes.”I feel very strongly about this, and not because I am an admitted enthusiast of genre filmmaking. Like any long-running series, “Planet of the Apes” — which spans 10 films and more than 50 years — has its lows. But those are well outnumbered by the films that deliver real thrills, showcase strong (and occasionally exceptional) performances and, rare among Hollywood movies of its type, provoke thoughtful discussion of serious ideas.If you somehow are not familiar with the premise of…

Now that President Biden is pressuring Israel to back away from an all-out invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah, some supporters of Israel feel betrayed.They ask: How can Israel protect itself and ensure its security if it can’t eliminate Hamas leaders hiding in tunnels under Rafah? Why sacrifice thousands of lives, Palestinian and Israeli alike, but stop short of a definitive end to the war that would lay the groundwork for rebuilding Gaza?They raise legitimate questions, but I think they misunderstand Biden’s motivations as purely humanitarian and intended simply to avert a blood bath in Rafah. Saving lives…

Throughout the Republican primary campaign (such as it was), it was perfectly clear that the multiple indictments of Donald Trump helped him consolidate support. This was a source of moral exasperation to liberals, but their bafflement coexisted with the hope that what played well with the MAGA faithful would have the opposite effect in the general election. Trump’s cries of persecution might rally conservatives in a primary, but the trials themselves would help Joe Biden cruise to re-election.The trial that we’re actually getting, the prosecution of Trump for falsified business records related to hush money payments related to his assignation…

In 1960, I sat on the living room floor in front of a black-and-white television and watched one of the presidential debates between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy. It wasn’t my preferred programming, but my parents were watching it and communicated to me that this was sort of a homework assignment, as in, “this is how democracy works.” I was nearly 8. I remember fidgeting with the shag carpet, wondering how long this was going to go on, yet also taking in the fact that the two men on the screen opposed each other, probably didn’t like each other,…

“Fico was shot.” The message arrived in one of my group chats shortly after 3 p.m. on Wednesday. I checked the news and forwarded what I could find out to my friends and family. Information was limited, and headlines like “Robert Fico Was Shot After the Government Meeting in Handlova” seemed absurdly matter-of-fact.Yes, Mr. Fico, Slovakia’s prime minister, has been a controversial figure. But could he really have been shot multiple times on a weekday afternoon in May? On Friday, he remained hospitalized in serious but stable condition after undergoing surgery.Slovakian politics are deeply polarized in ways that have tipped…

I understand why parents are unhappy with the proliferation of computers in school, as my Opinion colleague Jessica Grose documented in a recent series of newsletters. “One way or another,” she wrote in one of the pieces, “we’ve allowed Big Tech’s tentacles into absolutely every aspect of our children’s education, with very little oversight and no real proof that their devices or programs improve educational outcomes.”I’m optimistic, though, that artificial intelligence will turn (some) haters into fans. A.I. can custom-make lessons based on each student’s ability, learning style and even outside interests. For example, imagine teaching ratios by showing a…

To the Editor:Re “Trump Knows Dominance Wins,” by M. Steven Fish (Opinion guest essay, May 7):It used to be that the two parties disparaged each other for three months out of four years during election time. After that, they went back to hammering out helpful policies with civility, despite their different interests and philosophies. Governance worked, and democracy worked.Over the last 30 years one party gradually stopped caucusing and stopped making policy and instead kept testing the effectiveness of words of disparagement within the world of talk radio while cynically pandering to the pain of a large segment of Americans.That…