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Build Back Beautiful

City Journal
August 23, 2026
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The movement to restore beauty in public architecture is gaining surprising adherents beyond just conservatives, notes Paul Shakeshaft in City Journal. While deciding whether a new design meets the beauty test is guaranteed to remain contentious, Shakeshaft welcomes the recognition that it should be a key criterion. As he puts it: “We don’t need to arrive at a metaphysical consensus over the definition of beauty to reestablish its place in our public life.”

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Keeping the AI Apocalypse at Bay

Writing in City Journal, Judge Glock examines legal efforts to control AI and dismisses the current fixation on suing for specific harms, such as bad advice. “The idea that we should treat Big Tech, including AI companies, like we treated Big Tobacco, is exactly the wrong idea,” he observes. A better approach is to assess product liability based on which parties can perform the task at the cheapest cost, as is the case with the regulation of medical equipment. This “has the benefit of putting the onus on companies themselves to game out dangerous scenarios and prevent them,” he advises. For more on AI, see this C2C article.

Moscow’s Bayonet

U.S. Navy Admiral James Stavridis (ret’d) explains in Jewish World Review how Russian President Vladimir Putin still poses an existential threat to NATO, despite Russia’s current preoccupation with its war in Ukraine. Over the next few years, he warns, an aggressive Putin is likely to attempt a variety of covert or special forces operations in the Baltics, including in Latvia where Canada has 3,000 troops stationed. “If the Russians probe with a bayonet and encounter mush, they will likely keep going. If they find steel, they will withdraw,” he predicts. For more on Putin’s implications for Canada, see this C2C article.

Euthanasia Clouds the Western Mind

The American Mind’s John Petrakis notes that France’s recent approval of medically-assisted euthanasia means that nearly the entire Western world has now legalized the procedure, with only the UK and post-Communist European states holding out. “This development is best understood as an expression of the radically skeptical postmodern spirit,” Petrakis observes. “By annihilating the conviction that human life is valuable and worth preserving, euthanasia…ultimately lead[s] to the negation of the human being.” The West, in other words, is erasing itself. For more on Canada’s experience with MAID, see this C2C article.

Bad Mom? Bad Wife?

The Massachusetts trial of Lindsay Clancy for killing her three young children (recently declared a mistrial) became a litmus test for couples – with some publicly breaking off engagements due to disagreements over her culpability. Writing in The American Mind, Evie Solheim ponders the malign influence of social media on the marriage decision for younger generations. “When men and women treat existence as a zero-sum game, everyone loses,” she writes, pleading for greater understanding between the sexes. For more on marriage, see this C2C article.

Keeping the AI Apocalypse at Bay

Writing in City Journal, Judge Glock examines legal efforts to control AI and dismisses the current fixation on suing for specific harms, such as bad advice. “The idea that we should treat Big Tech, including AI companies, like we treated Big Tobacco, is exactly the wrong idea,” he observes. A better approach is to assess product liability based on which parties can perform the task at the cheapest cost, as is the case with the regulation of medical equipment. This “has the benefit of putting the onus on companies themselves to game out dangerous scenarios and prevent them,” he advises. For more on AI, see this C2C article.

Moscow’s Bayonet

U.S. Navy Admiral James Stavridis (ret’d) explains in Jewish World Review how Russian President Vladimir Putin still poses an existential threat to NATO, despite Russia’s current preoccupation with its war in Ukraine. Over the next few years, he warns, an aggressive Putin is likely to attempt a variety of covert or special forces operations in the Baltics, including in Latvia where Canada has 3,000 troops stationed. “If the Russians probe with a bayonet and encounter mush, they will likely keep going. If they find steel, they will withdraw,” he predicts. For more on Putin’s implications for Canada, see this C2C article.

Euthanasia Clouds the Western Mind

The American Mind’s John Petrakis notes that France’s recent approval of medically-assisted euthanasia means that nearly the entire Western world has now legalized the procedure, with only the UK and post-Communist European states holding out. “This development is best understood as an expression of the radically skeptical postmodern spirit,” Petrakis observes. “By annihilating the conviction that human life is valuable and worth preserving, euthanasia…ultimately lead[s] to the negation of the human being.” The West, in other words, is erasing itself. For more on Canada’s experience with MAID, see this C2C article.

Bad Mom? Bad Wife?

The Massachusetts trial of Lindsay Clancy for killing her three young children (recently declared a mistrial) became a litmus test for couples – with some publicly breaking off engagements due to disagreements over her culpability. Writing in The American Mind, Evie Solheim ponders the malign influence of social media on the marriage decision for younger generations. “When men and women treat existence as a zero-sum game, everyone loses,” she writes, pleading for greater understanding between the sexes. For more on marriage, see this C2C article.

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