Year: 2013

When Governor Jerry Brown signed the Trust Act, he ended the partnership established between local law enforcement and Immigration and Customers Enforcement authorities that the federal Secure Communities program established. Under Secure Communities, jails submit arrestees’ fingerprints to both criminal and immigration databases to identify deportable aliens. Brown’s signature made formal what had been for […]

Amid all the tussling over the government shutdown and the debt ceiling, a couple of bombshells went off in the blogosphere that may prove of more enduring importance. They suggest that there is a nontrivial possibility that Obamacare may implode. The first bombshell went off on Tuesday, from Ezra Klein of the Washington Post’s Wonkblog. […]

A recent Rasmussen poll found that 1 in 3 Americans would rather win a Nobel Prize than an Oscar, Emmy or Grammy. Though there’s no way to disprove this peculiar finding, I’m rather confident that it’s complete baloney. The average American probably can’t name more than one Nobel Prize winner — if that. Even if […]

“We’ve got to get the Rockefeller Republicans out of the party,” a fellow told me in Minnesota recently. Or was it Arizona? Or Wilkes-Barre, Pa.? Actually, I think it was all three. I hear it all the time as I travel around the country speaking to conservative groups. For those of you who don’t know, […]

An atheist group has filed a lawsuit to have the Ground Zero Cross removed from the 9/11 museum in: New York. Their claim? The existence of the Cross has brought on headaches, indigestion, even mental pain. These claims are ridiculous. So is the lawsuit. The cross was found in the rubble of the: World: Trade: Center: and still stands as […]

As an outspoken critic of the federal academic standards scheme known as Common Core, I’d like to offer some friendly advice to opponents. Stop insulting. Stop digging. Stop projecting. Start listening. Central planners in Washington have been caught off-guard by the grassroots revolt against the national standards/testing/curriculum juggernaut. Real input from the hoi polloi was […]

“Think for a moment about the term ‘Redskins,’” NBC Sports commentator Bob Costas exhorted viewers in his halftime tirade during Sunday’s Cowboys-Redskins game. “Ask yourself what the equivalent would be, if directed [at] African Americans, Hispanics, Asians, or members of any other ethnic group. When considered that way, ‘Redskins’ can’t possibly honor a heritage or […]

Call me Pollyannaish or insincere, but I am not depressed about the so-called “caving” of the GOP — for a host of reasons. To put this in perspective, let me confess that I did feel totally dejected after Obama’s re-election in 2012. How could he possibly have won, I wondered, given the obvious failure of […]

When President Obama nominated Janet Yellen to be the next Chair of the Federal Reserve Board the praise he offered was similar to what had already poured in from around the country. In their assessments of Ms. Yellen’s long career, Congressman, editors, and academics have underscored how her prescience and caution distinguish her from the […]

Shortly after the end of World War II, a pair of allergists gave some medication to a patient suffering from hives. Surprisingly, the patient reported her lifelong battle with carsickness had disappeared. After follow-up testing, Dramamine quickly became standard issue for fighting motion sickness. This is one of many unexpected discoveries highlighted in “Happy Accidents,” […]

Churchville, VA–We can’t predict how the government shutdown will be resolved in the short term, let alone the more permanent long run effect. Things are so bad that The Economist magazine has a sketch of George Washington’s Mt. Rushmore head, scowling at the brawling political parties. The Economist claims to offer “Global intelligence for excellent […]