Author: Larry Elder

Given the choice between having a Marine Corps of 5,000 whites and 500,000 blacks, then-Marine Corps Commandant Lt. Gen. Thomas Holcomb said he would much rather have the whites. That was over 70 years ago. America has travelled quite some distance from the time of that racist statement to the election and re-election of a […]

The headline at CNN Money was, “Why America’s Youth Aren’t Finding Jobs.” If you expected an analysis of how and why President Barack Obama’s policies hurt the job market for the young, think again. Believe it or not, CNN wrote a piece, supposedly explaining the tight job market, without using the following words: Obama, Obama […]

How’s the left-wing, ivory-tower, we-know-best elitist Obamanomics working for you? Here’s the news. First-quarter gross domestic product numbers for 2013 were recently revised — downward from 1.8 percent to 1.1 percent. For perspective, four years into the recovery from the last deep recession in ’81-’82, the economy grew at 4.1 percent. What about the declining […]

My unsolicited advice to Anthony Weiner is to drop out of the race for mayor of New York City. But since you insist on staying, hold a press conference: My fellow New Yorkers, The New York Times, among others, tells me to quit the race. Here’s my proposition. I’ll resign when the Times poses this […]

“I think you should check out the APEX program,” my high school counselor, Mrs. Workman, suggested. APEX stood for Area Program Enrichment Exchange, and involved several L.A. area high schools, including Fairfax High. Intended for “advanced” students, the program allowed them to take courses not offered at their home school. In my case, I had […]

Someone did an experiment to test an old tale — that a frog placed in a pot of cool water, which is then slowly and continuously heated, will be boiled to death. By contrast, if thrown directly into scalding hot water, the frog jumps out. But it turns out that, no, once the water got […]

Why did the Trayvon Martin-George Zimmerman case become a national obsession? After all, about 14,000 murders take place every year in America. In just one city, Chicago, President Barack Obama’s adopted hometown, murders are on pace to reach around 400, down 27 percent from last year but on par with 2011. In 2012, only 26 […]

If celebrity cook Paula Deen is out because of her decades-old private use of the “n” word, what about its public AND private use by MSNBC’s Al Sharpton? What about HBO host Bill Maher’s use of the “c” word? The crisis Deen must deal with confirms the observation of a former editor of the conservative […]

The recent Obama administration scandals shift the spotlight from the economy. Yet the recovery remains depressingly sluggish, with the labor force participation rate at a 34-year low as millions of able-bodied, able-minded Americans simply stopped looking for work. With President Obama in the fifth year of his presidency, let us examine the effect of the […]

The scandals surrounding the Obama administration come down to one common theme — that the ever-growing size and scope of our federal government gives it enormous power over virtually every aspect of our lives, power that in the wrong hands can be used to reward supporters, exact revenge and punish enemies. In education, health care, […]

“We know the statistics,” said President Barack Obama, “that children who grow up without a father are five times more likely to live in poverty and commit crime; nine times more likely to drop out of schools and 20 times more likely to end up in prison. They are more likely to have behavioral problems, […]

CBS news anchor Scott Pelley offered an apology — for the wrong reason. “Our house is on fire,” said the CBS News managing editor and evening anchor. Pelley, in a recent speech at Quinnipiac University, said: “Today, right now, as we occupy this house (of American journalism) that was built for us, our house is […]

How does President Barack Obama, a man of such keen intelligence, with such promise to “change” America, find himself in so much serious trouble? From the IRS targeting conservatives to the continued confusion over what happened at Benghazi to provoking a battle with The Associated Press by subpoenaing phone records that could involve as many […]

Hearing rumors that the billionaire, libertarian Koch brothers might buy the Los Angeles Times, the L.A. City Council sprung into action. Three members proposed a motion to oppose the sale of the Times to any owner seeking to turn “L.A.’s metropolitan daily into an ideological mouthpiece.” Cue the laugh track. UCLA professor Tim Groseclose wrote […]

Three young Cleveland girls missing and presumed dead turned up alive and in good health. A hero of the story is a neighbor, Charles Ramsey, a black man who helped free the girls from the home in which they were apparently imprisoned for some 10 years. Among other things, Ramsey said: “I knew something was […]

Investigators cannot yet tell whether the bombings at the Boston marathon, which so far have killed three and wounded more than 170, are the product of domestic or foreign terrorist(s). But whether foreign or domestic, America’s enemies are colorblind. In supporting President Barack Obama’s re-election, The New York Times editorialized about how his smarter, more […]

As recently as 1956, nearly 39 percent of blacks voted Republican in that year’s presidential election. After the Civil War, Abe Lincoln’s Republican Party easily carried the black vote — where blacks were allowed to vote. Unwelcome in the Democratic Party, most blacks voted Republican and continued to do so through the early part of […]

My latest book, “Dear Father, Dear Son,” focuses on the importance of fathers — and the increasing number of children who grow up in homes without one. Fox’s Juan Williams understands this — sort of. He gets the “what,” but not the “why.” Williams, in a Wall Street Journal piece called “Race and the Gun […]

Gun control advocate comedian/actor Jim Carrey becomes the latest Hollywood leftie to trash legendary actor and former NRA head Charlton Heston. About his new anti-Heston parody song, Carrey tweeted: “‘Cold Dead Hand’ is abt u heartless motherf — kers unwilling 2 bend 4 the safety of our kids. Sorry if you’re offended by the word […]

To the list of liberals who vote for higher taxes — and then proceed to complain about them — add comedian Bill Maher. Incredibly, the caustic, left-wing Maher recently warned, “ln California, I just want to say: Liberals — you could actually lose me.” As a resident of California, a state with high income taxes, […]

Is Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg really complaining — in 2013 — that “only” 14 percent of executive officers are female, that women earn 77 cents compared to a dollar earned by men, and that women hurt their own advancement by failing to “lean in” and become more assertive? Is this 2013 or 1953? In her […]

Former NBA star Dennis Rodman traveled to communist North Korea, a trip financed by a documentary filmmaker. Rodman appeared neither officially nor unofficially as part of the U.S. government. An incredulous George Stephanopoulos of ABC subjected Rodman to a grilling more suitable for a corrupt, double-dealing politician: “When you said you love Kim (Jong Un) […]

Weeks before the Oscars, Sony Pictures, the studio behind “Zero Dark Thirty,” put out this statement: “We are outraged that any responsible member of the Academy would use their voting status in (the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences) as a platform to advance their own political agenda. The film should be judged free […]

Dads matter. President Barack Obama said it recently in Chicago, a city on track for 600 murders this year, the equivalent of two Sandy Hooks per month. Too bad he still does not understand that his left-wing ideology is the problem. After the Sandy Hook tragedy, Obama, much of his party and much of the […]

My new book, “Dear Father, Dear Son,” talks about the No. 1 social problem in America — children growing up without fathers. In 1965, Daniel Patrick Moynihan wrote “The Negro Family: A Case for National Action.” At the time, 25 percent of blacks were born outside of wedlock, a number that the future Democratic senator […]

In “Zero Dark Thirty,” the movie about the killing of Osama bin Laden, one of the first scenes shows a terrorist being waterboarded, where useful information gets extracted. The movie thus asserts the controversial practice leads to actionable intelligence. Not only was former President George W. Bush criticized for “authorizing torture,” his critics argued that […]

Once upon a time, a group of people known as the “Democrats” expressed great fear of tyranny by government. This was a time long, long ago, when a man from a place called Texas, representing a people known as the Republicans, occupied the White House. Leaders of the Democrats feared tyranny by the Republicans and […]