Columns

It’s been a fabulous week for conservatives, Republicans and millions of ordinary Americans.

Martin Walker, the gifted former Washington correspondent of The Guardian, used to start his speeches saying that the Fourth of July wasn’t a time for sorrow for him, as it was a time when good British yeomen farmers in the colonies revolted against a German king and his German mercenaries.

OK, raise your hand if you think you’ve received a scam phone call or text this past week. If you raised your hand, you’re probably right. YouMail, a company specializing in blocking those messages, estimates Americans will receive 52 billion (with a B) robocalls this year, which breaks down to 1 billion every week. If you think the number of scam phone calls you get on your cell phone is bad, nearly half of all phone calls to landlines are deemed to be bogus.

Nearly a year before the United States entered the Second World War in December 1941, media baron Henry Luce wrote a Life magazine editorial, declaring that “The 20th Century must to a significant degree be an American Century.”

I’m flipping through a book my wife, Karen, gave me for my birthday: “Taste — My Life Through Food” — by Stanley Tucci. It’s about his life and love affair with food, among other things.

What would the Founders think of the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs? Say we do what Bill and Ted did in their “Excellent Adventure.” We jump into a phone-booth-shaped time machine and travel back to 1776 to find Thomas Jefferson and ask him about Dobbs. I see at least two possibilities.

When the U.S. Constitution was ratified June 21, 1788, the two men most responsible for its success were Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, who, along with John Jay, wrote The Federalist Papers.

As if $5 a gallon gas, a baby formula shortage and record-high inflation weren’t stressful enough for American women, we now have another problem on our hands (or, more literally, in our pants): a tampon shortage. Nationwide, women are finding bare shelves in the feminine care aisle with no end in sight.

The outcome of the midterm elections will be determined by two numbers: Do voters care more about a 5-4 Supreme Court ruling on abortion or paying $5 a gallon for gas?

Goodbye, legal right to abortion.