Category: Column

Fifteen years ago this week, my beautiful daughter Veronica entered the world. She didn’t make a sound. As I stretched out my arms to hold her in the delivery room, furrow-browed doctors and nurses instead whisked her away. I shouted after them in panic: “Is she all right? Is she going to be OK?!” Slightly […]

This year is the 10th anniversary of a book called “The Republican War on Science.” I could just as easily write a book called “The Democratic War on Science.” The conflict conservatives have with science is mostly caused by religion. Some religious conservatives reject evolution, and some oppose stem cell research. But neither belief has […]

Though the Trans-Pacific Partnership is supposed to be the trade deal that needs fast track to get approved by Congress, the real worry is the Trade In Services Agreement being negotiated in secret. Until now, the details of TiSA have been hidden carefully, but a draft treaty and notes about the negotiations now in progress […]

An African-American millionaire can buy a home in any expensive suburb. Color is no longer a barrier. Despite this progress, President Obama’s Department of Housing and Urban Development is accusing expensive towns of racism, simply because most minorities can’t afford to live there. Westchester County, New York, has struggled under a federal monitor since 2009 […]

This week, Rachel Dolezal, the former local head of the Spokane NAACP, a lecturer in Africana studies at Eastern Washington University, and a proud black woman, was revealed to be a non-proud white woman. She lied about her personal history: She said her parents whipped her when they lived in South Africa, that she underwent […]

Nebraska’s legislature recently made headlines when it ended the state’s death penalty. Many found it odd that a conservatives-dominated legislature would support ending capital punishment, since conservative politicians have traditionally supported the death penalty. However, an increasing number of conservatives are realizing that the death penalty is inconsistent with both fiscal and social conservatism. These […]

The political left has come up with a new buzzword: “micro-aggression.” Professors at the University of California at Berkeley have been officially warned against saying such things as “America is the land of opportunity.” Why? Because this is considered to be an act of “micro-aggression” against minorities and women. Supposedly it shows that you don’t […]

If you doubt that Christians are fair game for ridicule by the cultural left, take a look at the hit piece on Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia by Jeffrey Tayler for Salon. I can’t decide which is worse, the title or the subtitle. The title: “Antonin Scalia is unfit to serve: A justice who rejects […]

Here’s a difference between Left and Right that is rarely noted despite the fact that it is at least as important as any other and even explains many of the other differences.   At the core of left-wing thought is a rejection of painful realities, the rejection of what the French call (SET ITAL) les […]

“You’d have to be made of stone not to feel for these students,” Education Secretary Arne Duncan said as he announced an Obama administration decision to forgive as many as 350,000 loans taken out by students of the now-defunct Corinthian Colleges. “Some of these schools have brought the ethics of payday lending into higher education.” […]

Upon hearing of the massive data breach of employee information from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) — allegedly by hackers working for the Chinese government — Kay Coles James, the former director of OPM under George W. Bush, told me she was “aghast,” adding, “I can’t think about the national security implications of a […]

Franklin Graham, How Dare He! Do you ever get the feeling that perhaps you are the one who is crazy? It would have been easy for me to feel that way back in 2008. It appeared that every black person in America was giddy with excitement about the possibility of America electing its first black […]

It’s pretty simple: When dealing with a police officer, don’t be a jackass. But as easy as it seems, behaving like a decent human being appears to be a bridge too far for a seemingly ever-growing number of Americans these days. The infamous pool party in Texas is but the latest example of people being […]

After years of extensions and capitulations, the P5+1 negotiating team of nations is nearing a nuclear agreement with Iran. Perhaps soon, Ali Khamenei, its Supreme Leader will extend his crinkled blood soaked evil hand to affix his signature to a farce. Cheers will erupt and champagne glasses click away as toasts to peace are made […]

“There are also those who claim that our reform effort will insure illegal immigrants. This, too, is false. The reforms I’m proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally,” President Barack Obama proclaimed in a 2009 speech to Congress. It was a memorable event, in part because Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., shouted, “You […]

U.S. President Barack Obama recently cautioned U.S. Coast Guard Academy graduates in a commencement speech: “I’m here today to say that climate change constitutes a serious threat to global security, an immediate risk to our national security. And, make no mistake, it will impact how our military defends our country.” Whenever someone utters the words […]

Hillary Clinton has a new crusade. The Democrats’ only name female candidate for president sees “a sweeping effort to disempower and disenfranchise people of color, poor people and young people from one end of our country to the other.” In a speech at Texas Southern University, Clinton also charged, “Republicans are systematically and deliberately trying […]

We’ve known for a long time that Barrack Obama is clueless when it comes to dealing with what’s left of Iraq. Now we also know he’s still planless. Our president was in Europe earlier this week at a “Group of Seven” conference, where he met with leaders of the world’s seven most industrialized economies. During […]

All but 54 courageous Republicans sided with President Obama to approve giving this president fast-track authority to OK trade deals. As a result, trade pacts will require only a majority vote in each house rather than the two-thirds specified for treaties in the Constitution. And no amendments will be allowed. Debate will be limited and […]

Another election, another surprise. Actually, two elections, in two countries last weekend, with surprisingly pleasant surprises. And in two very large countries: Turkey (population 82 million) and Mexico (119 million), both very important to the United States. In the runup to the Turkish election, speculation in English-speaking publications centered on whether President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s […]

“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.” – The Serenity Prayer. If we were completely honest, we’d admit that Bruce (Caitlyn) Jenner’s problem is also ours. Jenner’s gender identity disorder is someone else’s eating…substance abuse…antisocial…you name […]

Chris Christie is dopey on marijuana. No, he’s not a pothead. He’s either ignorant or pandering fear about cannabis for votes. Christie’s against states’ rights, vowing to use the power of the federal government to override and crush the rights of the states to establish their own laws on marijuana prohibition. Vowing to use the […]

Marco Rubio bought a bunch of stuff he probably couldn’t afford. Welcome to America. So The New York Times has pulled together another hit piece — this one insinuating that Rubio, who the newspaper evidently believes is the GOP front-runner, is both a reckless spendthrift and a financial failure. The story — either clumsily or, […]

First, the good news: It turns out President Obama was right. Al-Qaida is being destroyed. One could even say he deserves some credit for this happy turn of events. Which brings us to the bad news: Al-Qaida is dying out because it’s being replaced by something far worse. According to a fascinating report in the […]

Constitutional conservatives don’t like it. Trade unions abhor it. Obama critics hate it. Environmentalists despise it. Outside the Beltway bubble, a broad coalition of voters from the left, right and center opposes the mega-trade deal getting rammed through Congress this week by the Republican establishment on behalf of the White House. Here’s why. The Obama […]

Almost exactly two months after Hillary Rodham Clinton’s official announcement that she’s running for president, she will give her first “official campaign announcement speech,” on June 13, according to her Twitter account. In other words, the Clinton campaign wants a do-over. Her first rollout was the most disastrous nonfatal presidential campaign debut in modern memory, […]

  It’s to be expected that I hardly agree with President Obama on any political issues, as we have radically different worldviews, but what I don’t understand is why there isn’t more alarm from all quarters about the potentially existential threats to this nation posed by his policies.   Obama’s ideas, policies and actions in […]

What sometimes seem like epic battles to reshape the world generally fade to irrelevance very quickly. To take just one recent example, 20 years ago the Justice Department was trying to break up Microsoft because the software giant was perceived as too powerful to be challenged by other firms. Today, of course, all the talk […]

Hillary Clinton had one of the worst campaign rollouts in living memory. Her low-key (to the point of inaudibility) announcement video came in the midst of a months-long period of deeply damaging stories about her mania for secrecy (the private email server), which she indulged even at the expense of the law and national security, […]