Category: Column

San Francisco is foodie heaven. If you want to eat out, you will never lack for options. That’s the plus side. On the downside, Ess Eff menus are getting so precious they take the fun out of eating. You practically need a doctorate to read a menu in this town. I studied Latin and speak […]

Hillary’s all in for 2016. Whoopee. She officially arrived Sunday – but not in the flesh. She announced her decision with a low-key tweet and a two-minute video featuring a diverse lineup of adorable Democrat voters, a sappy message about being “a champion of everyday Americans” and very little face-time for herself. Then, to prove […]

Until California residents confronted the reality of a worsening drought and acute water shortages, Earth Day’s original purpose to raise environmental awareness had slowly faded. Suddenly, conservation is back at the forefront even though politicians persistently ignore the link between population growth and dwindling resources. When Earth Day was organized in 1970, the United States’ […]

Presidents are inevitably shaped by the circumstances in which they campaign for — and come into — office. In 1932, Franklin Roosevelt called for “bold, persistent experimentation” and followed through once in office. Had Roosevelt run in another year, or had there been no Great Depression, he would have campaigned and governed differently. The same […]

The United States Postal Service is careening toward financial catastrophe, posting a $5.5 billion loss in fiscal year 2014. It’s the eighth year in a row with multi-billion-dollar losses, and the Postal Service has maxed out its $15 billion line of credit from the U.S. Treasury. If it is declared insolvent, much of this debt […]

Sen. Marco Rubio announced his candidacy for president of the United States at the Freedom Tower in Miami on Monday, highlighting his family’s hardscrabble immigrant roots and embracing traditional values but also vowing to usher in a “new American century.” As a matter of political pragmatism, is there any convincing reason Rubio shouldn’t be the […]

So far, of the declared candidates for president, the only one who voted for the Iraq War is the Democrat. I recently made that observation on Twitter and the response was instructive. I will refrain from reprinting the more piquant language from Hillary Clinton’s supporters, but one common theme was that I am a fool. […]

We live in a constitutional republic in which our elected officials are bound by the constraints of the Constitution, which means they don’t have a license to do whatever they please, even if they think it would be best for the country. That President Barack Obama so flagrantly violates this enshrined legal principle and much […]

Hillary announced her candidacy proclaiming that she would be the spokesman for “everyday Americans” struggling to live the American Dream. Yet we must remember that three key policy planks of the Democratic Party are diametrically opposed to her supposed goal: immigration, Obamacare and the refusal to curb China’s currency manipulation. Immigration keeps wages down and […]

This was a big week for the political press. That means it was also a good week for highlighting how the world of the political elite is so out of touch with the world of everyday Americans. The excitement for the pundits was launched by the announcement that former Secretary of State, senator and first […]

Two relatively recent photos of Barack Obama with foreign leaders reveal much about his deep-dyed leftism. The first features President Obama and democratically elected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of one of America’s most loyal friends. Obama looks strained. His face is stiff, and his eyes are veiled. The second is a snap of Obama […]

New data from the U.S. Treasury shows that the federal government has amassed $74 trillion in debts, liabilities and unfunded Social Security/Medicare obligations. This amounts to $603,000 for every household in the U.S., a fiscal burden that exceeds 90% of all the private wealth accumulated in the history of America. Each year, the Treasury and […]

“We must change the decisions we are making by changing the people who are making them,” Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., proclaimed in his presidential campaign kickoff Monday. It was impossible not to think of when Barack Obama in 2008 — a freshman senator with an impressive personal story — chose to challenge presumptive nominee Hillary […]

It is tax week 2015. If you completed your tax return on time and wrotethat check you’d much rather leave in your account, why notpour yourself a cup of coffee (or maybe a bottle of antacid relief) and plop yourself down in your favorite easy chair and sit a spell.You deserve it. While relaxing, why […]

On Tuesday, CNN ran what should have been a puff piece in its travel section about the wonders of visiting Cuba. The title of the piece spelled out the angle: “Why you should travel to Cuba before it looks like everywhere else.” The authors, James Williams and Daisy Carrington, write, “Cuba is not like other […]

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, after winning reelection, pronounced Chicago “the greatest city in America.” Run by Democrats for more than eight decades, Chicago should serve as a showplace that reflects the wonderful world of “progressive policies.” Public schools are a mess, and the city’s finances place their bonds at near junk level. In 2013, the […]

There are classic films, like the ones on TCM and AMC, and there are modern films. There are few modern classics. “Little Boy,” in theaters April 24, could be a modern classic. The film is set in a Southern California town during World War II. A couple’s oldest son, London Busbee (David Henrie), is drafted, […]

Although China’s economy has been leading the world in annualized growth since the days that mobile phones had retractable antennas, there have always been some aspects of the country’s commercial and financial system that loudly broadcast the underlying illogic of a Communist Party’s firm control of burgeoning capitalism. China’s stock markets were one such venue […]

The magnolia tree in our front yard is bursting with color, all pink and white and signaling to the world that spring is here, and all I could think of was this: Hillary must be nigh. For I could all but feel her powers. Suburban Chicago, where I live, isn’t exactly Iowa, where Hillary Clinton […]

Gwynnie P is down with the struggle, comrades. She may make $19 million a year, own mansions in London, New York, Brentwood, Malibu and the Hamptons, charge $550 for her Goop.com “travel backgammon set,” and fly by private jet, but she feels your pain. OK, it’s not as painful as her last $5,200 Thermage session […]

Religious oppression was one reason many of our ancestors came to America. They wanted to escape rulers who demanded that everyone worship their way. In Ireland, Catholics couldn’t vote or own a gun. I assumed that because many of America’s founders came here to escape such repression, they were eager to allow religious freedom in […]

One of the wonders of modern times is that reality is often seen as a social construct and therefore optional. Thus, if one finds a particular reality offensive or inconvenient, he just “changes” it. Say that one is born a male or a female but believes that nature made an error. Some believe that nature’s […]

Hillary’s announcement seems aimed at attracting no publicity and providing no bump in her sagging poll numbers. No hoopla. No crowds. No women talking about the history being made. Just a stealth car trip to Iowa with tweets from gas stations. All this would seem defensive in the extreme. It would appear that she is […]

Bernard Kerik, who headed New York City’s jails and then the Police Department before a felony conviction landed him in federal prison for four years, is reinventing himself as a prison reformer. In his new book, “From Jailer to Jailed,” Kerik describes the brutality of solitary confinement. Serious reformers are also zeroing in on the […]

PARIS — As U.S. political focus turns to declarations of presidential candidacies, there needs to be a deliberate effort to avoid a repeat of the “Obama adventure.” Remember how Obama was supposed to be some kind of benign political homemaker who, unlike his predecessor, George W. Bush, was going to wrap up overseas military engagements, […]

How long will this country remain free? Probably only as long as the American people value their freedom enough to defend it. But how many people today can stop looking at their electronic devices long enough to even think about such things? Meanwhile, attempts to shut down people whose free speech interferes with other people’s […]

Please forgive me, but I’m singularly unimpressed with Hillary Clinton in general, but especially as a Democratic presidential candidate. I’m neither smug nor complacent about the likelihood of defeating her, but I am incautiously optimistic. I hope I’m not wrong; the country can’t take four more years of the same disastrous policies. Frankly, I’m a […]

Hillary Clinton has announced that she is running for president of the United States. What her likely nomination says about the Democratic Party and tens of millions of Americans is depressing. Other than Barack Obama — whose resume consisted of being a charismatic black — it is hard to come up with a less accomplished […]