Year: 2012

Socialism is a rich man’s game. Oh, sure, random overheated: (sometimes: impoverished) Occupiers agitate for their version of economic equality, possibly gumming up the works at the Lincoln Tunnel, but the real financial justice action comes from the wealthy — or so it would seem. And I’m not just talking about Hollywood, where George Clooney is full […]

Trayvon Martin became a household name for all the wrong reasons. Martin’s death created an international firestorm because George Zimmerman, the person at fault, was not immediately taken into custody by Sanford, Florida authorities. What made things worse is that Martin is black, Zimmerman is part-Hispanic/part-white and the Sanford police chief is white. It is […]

“If Mitt Romney can be pushed around, intimidated, coerced, co-opted by a conservative radio talk show host in Middle America, then how is he going to stand up to the Chinese? How is he going to stand up to Putin?” So asked Bryan Fischer, a radio host with the American Family Association, after claiming credit […]

When I married five years ago, I was on the fence about having kids. I thought some parental gene might kick in, but it never did. Now, at 40, I’ve accepted that a childless marriage is best for us, given my wife’s fertility issues and my ambivalence about parenthood. My wife, however, sees no purpose […]

France has elected only the second Socialist president in its history — the first being Francois Mitterrand, who spent 14 years in the driver’s seat back when French presidential terms lasted seven years rather than five, and who made a hard-right turn away from economic socialism and toward spending cuts after his first two years […]

A moment’s reflection will remind us that virtually none of us get overly excited when confronted with a “problem.” That’s human nature. However, those who solve problems are the ones who survive and thrive. Think about it. The primary role of the physician is to help people solve their health problems. Attorneys solve people’s problems, […]

At my daughters’ school last week,: The Israel Defense Forces musical ensemble came to share the spirit of the youth of: Israel: with the popular and traditional songs that they perform at army bases in: Israel.:  Naturally, following school there was a discussion at home about: Israel’s need for an army, and my daughter asking normal kid questions about good […]

In addition to labeling conservatives and Republicans “anti-woman” (for opposing government-mandated free contraception), “anti-black” and “anti-Hispanic” (for advocating photo identification for voting), and “anti-science” (for skepticism regarding the belief that man-made carbon emissions will destroy much of the planet), Democrats now regularly label Republicans “anti-gay” (for opposing same-sex marriage). All these charges are demagogic. But […]

The “Occupy” movement, which the Obama administration and much of the media have embraced, has implications that reach far beyond the passing sensation it has created. The unwillingness of authorities to put a stop to their organized disruptions of other people’s lives, their trespassing, vandalism and violence is a de facto suspension, if not repeal, […]

Last week, I showed how the Republican Party likely would lose the presidential election in November if it were to use conventional campaign tactics. However, I also explained an unconventional strategy that could usher in victory for the GOP and our republic — a tactic used by President Abraham Lincoln. This week, I want to […]

President Obama formally kicked off his re-election campaign in Richmond, Va., and Columbus, Ohio, Saturday, and his theme was certainly not, shall we say, “it’s morning again in America” — President Ronald Reagan’s optimistic re-election slogan in 1984. Obama’s central message was more like: “Hey, I realize things look bad, and I’m not going to […]

“Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country,” President John F. Kennedy famously said in his inaugural address. In his bid for re-election, the hope-and-change president, Barack Obama, clearly has decided to ditch JFK’s country-first approach. The Obama-Biden campaign is all about what this country can […]

“Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates Jr.” is another of the Harvard professor’s wonderful television series for PBS. This is “must-see TV” and a more than worthy sequel to three previous projects Gates has hosted about how some of us came to be what and who we are. In this latest 10-part series, Gates […]

In an April speech in Berlin, Dr. Andreas Dombret, a member of the Executive Board of the Deutsche Bundesbank (the German central bank), offered a startlingly frank assessment of the current problems in Europe.:  Although his comments were meant to apply to the tensions and imbalances that exist between the northern and southern tier of […]

“Half of what I say is meaningless, but I say it just to reach you, Julia.” The Beatles That song was written about a combination of John Lennon’s mother and his budding relationship with Yoko Ono. This week, with the advent of a mythical “Julia,” the Obama campaign has given that line new meaning. So […]

“The Avengers” opened this weekend to the biggest film opening of all time — making over $200 million at the box office in a single weekend in cinemas in North America, and set to become one of only a handful of movies to gross $1 billion worldwide. Unknown to many is that these characters were […]

Washington Post editorial writer and liberal blogger Jonathan Capehart is puzzled. Why does the “non-issue” of Harvard Law professor and Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren’s Native American ancestry “require so much attention?” he asked last week. When Warren was teaching at Pennsylvania, Texas and Houston law schools, she identified herself as Indian — or, to […]

A Canadian couple of my acquaintance has just published a book provocatively titled The Locovore’s Dilemma: In Praise of the 10,000 Mile Diet. A new review in Publisher’s Weekly calls it a “daring, bare-knuckled, frequently sarcastic defense of the status quo in Western industrial agribusiness. From the point of view of the well-off, well-fed North […]