Year: 2012

Recently, White House senior adviser David Plouffe made a comment that didn’t receive the scrutiny it deserves. The statement demands attention because it frames President Obama’s re-election campaign theme and illustrates how grounded in disinformation the theme is. Apart from Team Obama’s formidable community organizing skills aimed at demonizing Mitt Romney as a wealthy, compassionless […]

Democrats were riding high in the polls in 2006 and 2008, and one of their big issues was health care. Then, after passing the president’s health care law, the politics shifted, and the issue helped sweep the GOP to victory in the 2010 midterm elections. A few months later, Republicans had a 14-point advantage in […]

Until last week, Chief Justice John Roberts was vilified as the leader of a conservative judicial cabal poised to destroy the Obama presidency by overturning the federal takeover of health care. But with his unexpected affirmation, Roberts suddenly was lauded as the new Earl Warren — an “evolving” conservative who at last saw the logic […]

When it comes to Jewish population studies, we are conditioned to expect reports of doom and glum. Assimilation and intermarriage among non-orthodox Jews have been unstoppable facts of life in the American melting pot. The Russian American Jewish community seems like an unlikely place to look for a bright spot for ensuring Jewish continuity, but […]

When asked at the close of the Constitutional Convention in 1787 what the Founders had wrought, Benjamin Franklin famously said, “A Republic, if you can keep it.” That question might also be put to the five Supreme Court justices who voted last week to uphold the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, which mandates health […]

Some random media observations from the past few days::  How great it was to see the clip of Guns N’ Roses, the legendary rock and roll band playing Hatikvah to thousands of screaming fans in Tel Aviv this week ? http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/244074 Why is it that Mitt Romney’s announced plans to visit: Israel: is seen as an effort […]

We who work for newspapers have a love/hate relationship with the Internet. On the one hand, more people than ever — millions every week — are reading our product. On the other hand, fewer are paying for it. Search engines, such as Google, make it easier to look up information, but they’re pirates that make […]

That’s more or less what happened last Sunday in Mexico, at least as far as most American journalists (including me) are concerned. That’s a vivid contrast with the last three presidential elections in Mexico, which had enormous consequences for that country and for the United States. I happened to be in Mexico on vacation in […]

What’s pale yellow, riddled with holes and not very sharp? President Barack Obama’s renewed class-warfare attack on GOP opponent Mitt Romney. To kick off the Independence Day holiday, America’s fundraiser-in-chief took to Twitter to stoke wealth-bashing resentment against Republicans. “FACT,” Obama’s official Twitter account declared, “In 2010, Romney reported having a $3 million Swiss bank […]

Since progressives want government to run health care, let’s look at what government management did to K-12 education. While most every other service in life has gotten better and cheaper, American education remains stagnant. Spending has tripled! Why no improvement? Because K-12 education is a virtual government monopoly — and monopolies don’t improve. In every […]

Anthony Daniels, who writes under the pen name Theodore Dalrymple, is a retired prison doctor and psychiatrist who tells of his experiences with his patients in “Life at the Bottom.” It’s an insightful book of essays about the self-destructive behavior and attitudes of the underclass. In one essay, “We Don’t Want No Education,” reprinted by […]

In the wake of the Supreme Court ruling upholding the Affordable Care Act (aka “Obamacare”), NPR’s “Talk of the Nation” held a seminar of sorts at the Aspen Institute’s legendarily pretentious Ideas Festival. Someone in the audience asked NPR health policy correspondent Julie Rovner this question: “Today’s decision is a positive decision for the estimated […]

In the wake of my last commentary on the horrendous Supreme Court decision upholding Obama’s health care plan, several people have pointed out that I erred in saying that the income tax is a “direct tax.” While it is technically correct that the Court ultimately declared it to be an excise, not a direct tax, […]