The Conservative Cave

Movie stardom and modesty are not two things that usually come in one package, but it would be hard to find a man more brash and confident on screen and more humble in his personal life than Harpo Marx. ... Arthur Adolph Marx, who got his nickname Harpo from his impressive harp performances, was the silent brother in the act, always relying on wacky and over-the-top physical humor. His on-screen persona was worlds away from his real self.

... The only extant recording of Harpo’s voice is an interview clip where the comedian describes one of the many instances in his life of antisemitic persecution (in fact, he left school in second grade after anti-Jewish classmates pitched him out a window). Unlike his brothers — particularly Groucho — Harpo hated the limelight. While he chased women in movies, he was so shy in real life his wife had to pursue him and propose a few times before he married her. After that, he was devoted to her and the children they adopted. Harpo’s son Bill idolized his dad and spent his life preserving Harpo’s legacy... .
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"... Harpo had been asked to be a judge in the first Israel International Harp Competition," Milligan explained. "He came in to our (music) store in a great panic because they had asked him to be one of the judges. Harpo said, 'Anyone of those harpists can play circles around me. I have no business judging that competition.' So, Harpo spoke to the man who managed Lyon & Healy in New York at the time; he had some connections to the people in Israel. They worked it out so that Harpo was an honorary judge, which thrilled him a great deal."

In contrast to Harpo's estimation of his own skill is the testimony of Carrol McLaughlin, a concert harpist and professor of harp at the University of Arizona, who performed in the 1980s and early 1990s with Harpo's son Bill in a tribute for Harpo. McLaughlin would play the music Harpo had composed and played. "I have played Harpo's music, note for note, and it is as tough as anything I have ever played on stage," McLaughlin affirmed. "Some of his music is tougher than pieces by [famed harp composer] Tournier. His music is very advanced harmonically. ... Harpo loved the harp. He practiced three to four hours a day. When we see Harpo playing, he's playing from his soul."
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Son Bill remembered, “Dad once told a friend he wanted to have as many kids as he had front windows in our house on Canon Drive in Beverly Hills... so that he could see them waving at [him] when he got home from work.” Unfortunately, Harpo and his wife Sally couldn’t have biological children, but they adopted four kids and built a happy home. With all the broken homes, busted marriages, inflated egos, and overweening ambition in Hollywood over the decades, Harpo stands out for his familial devotion, humility, and integrity.

Please sit down before reading the rest of this sentence: locking up criminals reduces crime.

Forgive the snark — I'm not at all making fun of City Journal's Tal Fortgang or James Q. Wilson ... I'm making fun of the fact that our friends on the Left must be constantly reminded of this basic truth.

"Violent crime is overwhelmingly the work of a small group of repeat offenders," Fortgang reported, "that is, it is highly concentrated." But even I was shocked by just how concentrated it really is.

In New York City in 2022, just 327 people accounted for a third of all shoplifting, with more than 6,000 arrests between them. In Oakland, 0.1% of the population — that's 400 people — committed a majority of the city's homicides in recent years. "In 2014, data showed that three-quarters of state prisoners...had at least five prior arrests," Fortgang wrote. "Nearly 5 percent had 31 or more, a larger share than those imprisoned after just a single arrest. "

Fortgang concluded that "The case for an incapacitation-first approach to crime control follows directly from these indisputable facts."
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Which brings us to the second group of people in need of incarceration: the mentally ill.

According to research performed by Grok and double-checked by Yours Truly, psychiatric hospitalization rates have plummeted since 1963, and JFK's wildly underfunded Community Mental Health Act resulted in a radical reduction in institutional capacity. By 2025, the U.S. will have fewer than 12 public psychiatric beds per 100,000 population — down from over 300 before Kennedy and Congress shifted the responsibility for mental health care to "communities."

Then think of the killing of Iryna Zarutska in Charlotte earlier this year.

Decarlos Brown Jr. was mentally ill. Instead of being institutionalized like so many others, he was left on the streets, where his condition was exacerbated by drug abuse. A craptaculent local criminal justice system put him through an endlessly revolving door of incarceration and homelessness. ...

Jay Leno figured out what audiences actually want, and it turns out they want to laugh without the political sermon. I know, shocking, right? The 75-year-old comedian and former Tonight Show host has been on tour with his stand-up act, and he made a wise decision a while back that is paying off: He ditched the political material entirely, and the results speak for themselves.

During a recent appearance on NBC's Today with Hoda Kotb, Leno laid out his strategy in plain terms. He took politics completely out of his comedy routine while performing across the country. The results speak for themselves: Ticket sales jumped by 20-30%. The reason is simple. Nobody wants a lecture when they show up for a comedy show.

The choice was practical, not ideological. When you’re playing all over the country, you’re going to have politically mixed audiences. Coincidentally, I recently bought tickets to see Leno in Niagara Falls next year, and one of the reasons I had no qualms about buying the tickets is that I know he doesn’t want to alienate half his audience.

Leno estimates that roughly a third of any given crowd is going to disagree with whatever political stance a comedian takes. So why alienate them? Late-night TV is different. On television, you can tailor your monologue to a self-selecting audience that already agrees with you, and there is a built-in laugh track to paper over the awkward silences. That luxury does not exist when you are standing on a stage in front of real people who paid real money to be entertained, not preached to.