Category: Column

My friend Julia died as we knew she would. Cancer had ravaged her body for a decade. She no longer could breathe. She was at home, under hospice care, when she asked for a dose of morphine that she knew would kill her but also keep her final moments free of pain. I mention Julia’s […]

Taxes are obviously on everybody’s mind this time of year, which makes it the perfect time to ask where — or to whom — all our money is going. First things first: In 2014, the government collected roughly $3 trillion. It spent $3.5 trillion. In other words, it had to borrow $500 billion to pay […]

Two weeks ago, Ted Cruz announced his candidacy for president at Liberty University, and last week, Rand Paul announced at the Galt House hotel in Louisville, Kentucky. Marco Rubio is expected to announce this week at the Freedom Tower in Miami. Others will follow. So what have we learned about the race for the Republican […]

In the video announcing her presidential candidacy, Hillary Clinton says the economic deck “is still stacked in favor of those at the top.” She should know because she has gobbled up a lot of cash for speaking fees and the Clinton Foundation. The video also includes the word “reinventing,” a kind of self-reset button (it […]

Democrat John Edwards campaigned in 2008 on the theme of his 2004 Democratic National Convention speech about there being “Two Americas.” The American people rejected Edwards and his class warfare both times, but he had a point: There are two Americas. Not the two Americas in which John Edwards had two families, though those were […]

You know there’s a problem with the Iran nuclear agreement when The White House releases a fact sheet to the press outlining the agreement, and Iran issues a statement claiming the fact sheet is false… within 15 minutes. Oops. White House: “Iran has committed to halt enrichment above 5 percent and dismantle the technical connections […]

The assisted-suicide movement is the rare self-proclaimed civil rights movement that exists to cater to the wishes of affluent Americans. On Tuesday, the California Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on SB 128, a bill to legalize assisted suicide in the state. (Proponents don’t like the word suicide, so they call the measure the “End […]

The cowboy philosopher Will Rogers once said, “If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.” Unfortunately, his advice is often ignored in Washington, where the answer to our national debt is more government spending and the policy prescription for a slow economy is to favor special interest groups. Take one of the latest trends, […]

Justice has been done in Boston, but it’s not finished. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been found guilty in the Boston Marathon terrorism bombing. The verdict Wednesday was no surprise. Everyone in the country already knew that Tsarnaev and his dead brother planted two bombs in the crowd at the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013. Even […]

Is the tide turning against President Obama’s purported nuclear weapons deal with Iran? One sign that the answer is yes is the devastating opinion article in Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal by former Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and George Shultz. The architect of Richard Nixon’s opening to China and the partner of Ronald Reagan in […]

Since President Obama’s first year in office, the federal government has been illegally using your federal tax dollars to pay lobbyists at the state and local level to lobby for tax hikes, zoning restrictions, and other nanny state policies that pick your pockets and limit your freedom. Every time a scandal breaks or Congress tries […]

How about now? Are you in favor of the death penalty now? I ask because the preferred argument from opponents of the death penalty is doubt: We can never be sure; look at all of the people released from death row; we can’t afford to risk ending a single innocent life. None of those arguments […]

Who controls the past controls the future. — George Orwell, “1984” The candidates who are announcing for president will be cheered to know that the Democratic Party has been hemorrhaging popularity the way the housing market lost value in 2008. In 2009, 62 percent of Americans had a favorable view of the party. In January, […]

Those who say that Hillary is not being hurt by the email scandal need to have a look at the latest Quinnipiac Poll released on Thursday. Her lead in Iowa and Colorado has vanished, and she is no better than tied against all Republican candidates. In Iowa, her favorable rating is down to 45 percent […]

At this point, I am mighty bullish on Sen. Ted Cruz but I very much like several other possible GOP presidential contenders, and I have to say that Republicans can learn a valuable lesson from Sen. Rand Paul’s recent handling of the ambush media. Often when Republicans are ambushed, they fumble around, grow defensive and […]

Modern American universities used to assume four goals. First, their general education core taught students how to reason inductively and imparted an aesthetic sense through acquiring knowledge of Michelangelo, the Battle of Gettysburg, “Medea” and “King Lear,” Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy,” and astronomy and Euclidean geometry. Second, campuses encouraged edgy speech and raucous expression — […]

Barack Obama is a young man. By the time he leaves office, he will be in his mid-50s. Based on life expectancy, he could live for another 40 years or so. So he will be around to see the full consequences of his disastrous Iran nuclear “framework.” The deal is done. No matter what Republicans […]

If Hillary Clinton wants to read the heart of the Democratic Party as the 2016 presidential campaign cycle begins, she should look homeward: To Chicago. Because here, in the aftermath of establishment Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s re-election victory over the progressive Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, you can see the Democratic establishment’s template of power. And Rahm is […]

Rand Paul’s entry into the 2016 Republican presidential primary is good for the GOP. I won’t proclaim that Paul, 52, has the gravitas or character to occupy the Oval Office — that remains to be seen — but I do believe that all the other Republican hopefuls should watch and learn from Kentucky’s junior senator. […]

When people speak of “the first woman president” they usually mean Hillary Clinton, who is expected to announce her candidacy soon. But there’s another woman, a Republican, who will shortly vie for the top job. She is Carly Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlett-Packard. The polls don’t register much support for Fiorina, but if people listen […]

Eight months ago, President Obama put on a grand show for the troops. Surrounded by new Secretary of Veterans Affairs Bob McDonald, assorted politicians, military leaders and a bevy of TV cameras, the commander in chief signed the “Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act.” He’s good at inking things. Obama condemned the “inexcusable conduct” at […]

Bake me a cake, or go to jail! Sadly, that is the new message from “inclusive” America. If you don’t want to cater, photograph, preside over, sell pizza at, sell flowers to or otherwise participate in a gay wedding, you will be punished. If you don’t want your business to pay for a kind of […]

“Brothers will be brothers” seems to be the message of Todd Purdum’s article about the Clinton siblings. Comparing Hugh and Tony Rodham and Roger Clinton to the likes of Donald Nixon, Sam Johnson and Billy Carter misses the point. The brothers may be similar, but the way the president or candidate treated them is quite […]

Obamacare is making the least popular day — April 15 — even worse. For about one in four tax filers, it’s turning out to be a nightmare, with extra paperwork and penalties. And for high earners or anyone selling a piece of property or business, Obamacare means higher taxes. If you enrolled in Obamacare in […]

PARIS — We’re witnessing arguably the most unfocused and undisciplined U.S. foreign policy in history under President Barack Obama. If I’m seeing it and you’re seeing it, then it’s a safe bet that America’s opponents are seeing it — and attempting to exploit it for long-term gain. What might that exploitation look like? Take a […]

Rolling Stone screwed up. In most media scandals, it’s unfair to paint with such a broad brush. When Stephen Glass concocted his fables at the New Republic, he went to antiheroic lengths to conceal his deceptions from his colleagues. Janet Cooke, who famously won a Pulitzer for her Washington Post series about an 8-year-old heroin […]

“When yet another hand clamped over her mouth, Jackie bit it, and the hand became a fist that punched her in the face. ‘Grab its motherf—ing leg,’ she heard a voice say. And that’s when Jackie knew she was going to be raped.” Thus started a 9,000-word article in Rolling Stone magazine about the supposed […]