Rhetoric and slogans have a habit of straying from reality, which is usually more complex. Writing in Quillette, John McWhorter examines American crime statistics. He concludes that the claim the police regularly kill black people under circumstances in which white people would be merely disciplined is a misperception.

Toppling a Communist Empire for $2.7 Million
Though widely thought of as focused on waterboarding terrorists or poisoning foreign potentates, it was by smuggling paper that the CIA achieved its most monumental triumph. R.M. Gerecht in a book review for The Washington Free Beacon charts how the late Cold War-era operation to flood Poland with Western books, magazines, printing supplies and audio recordings fatally weakened the country’s Communist dictatorship, setting the stage for the downfall of the entire Soviet empire. Total cost: US$2.7 million.


