Category: Column

Ever have days you wish the Internet did not exist, we still had three channels and only one dinnertime national newscast?  Not counting commercials, Cronkite or Chet Huntley would read about 22 minutes of news interspersed with filmed correspondent reports. We were spoon-fed far fewer stories than today and life seemed less stressful. But now, […]

Last week the US House voted overwhelmingly in favor of an anti-Russia resolution so full of war propaganda that it rivals the rhetoric from chilliest era of the Cold War. Ironically, much of the bill condemns Russia for doing exactly what the US government has been doing for years in Syria and Ukraine! For example, […]

Rush Limbaugh is a savvy guy who thinks Republican leaders are wrong to shun the idea of another government shutdown. Appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” he argued that the only important poll is the one held on Election Day. “(The GOP) won a landslide election 10 months after that so-called shutdown. … The essence of […]

The fiasco of “Rolling Stone” magazine’s apology for an unsubstantiated claim of gang rape at a University of Virginia fraternity house — and the instant rush to judgment of the university administration in shutting down all fraternities, when those charges were made — should warn us about the dangers of having serious legal issues dealt […]

While many in the nation, from Oakland to New York, rally in protest over the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, I keep wondering: What about the good cops? As with our military personnel, we are often quick to hang the allegedly corrupt but slow to honor those who serve honestly to protect. According […]

Americans are divided politically along cultural, not economic, lines. Partisan preference is highly correlated with views on non-economic issues and only loosely related to economic status. This is the norm rather than the exception in American political history. Party preference has run along regional, racial and ethnic lines more than the divisions along economic lines […]

We don’t have to love our parents. We have to honor them. Last week PragerUniversity.com released 11 five-minute video courses: each of the Ten Commandments and an introduction. We received over one million views this first week. The reason we made these videos is that we believe that everything needed to make a good world […]

Americans are divided politically along cultural, not economic, lines. Partisan preference is highly correlated with views on non-economic issues and only loosely related to economic status. This is the norm rather than the exception in American political history. Party preference has run along regional, racial and ethnic lines more than the divisions along economic lines […]

Democrats seeking to explain their defeat and Republicans trying to take a lesson from their good fortune need look no further than “The New Class Conflict” by Joel Kotkin, published this past September. Kotkin argues that progressives/liberals/Democrats have veered away from a concern for the economics of the average American as they embrace what he […]

Like two predatory animals circling each other, Republicans and Democrats are trying to sort out the meaning of last month’s election and plan strategies for the remaining days of the current Congress and the new one in which Republicans will hold majorities in both houses. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), soon to be chairman of the […]

One of President Ronald Reagan’s most famous quips was that the nine most terrifying words in the English language are “I’m from the government and I’m here to help you.” It is indeed sad that America today is plagued, indeed threatened, by the very institution it invented to protect its own citizens. Government. And there’s […]

Eric Garner died in July because he resisted arrest, forcing police to take him down the way they take down thousands of suspects daily. Only Garner wasn’t an average suspect. He had allowed himself to become morbidly obese and had diabetes, heart disease and who knows what other self-imposed health problems. Still, he never should […]

Democrats cheered when Senator Barack Obama promised them that if he were elected President, no lobbyists would “work on regulations or contracts directly and substantially related to their prior employer for two years.” On his first day in office, President Obama propagandized this campaign deceit with a press conference broadcasting him signing an executive order […]

When California Gov. Jerry Brown was pushing Proposition 30 in 2012, he sold it with the promise that the income and sales tax increases in his measure would put off sharp tuition increases in the UC and CSU systems. Sacramento increased state funding for the University of California and California State University by 5 percent […]

As we saw last weekend at the start of the St. Louis Rams-Raiders game, we’ll be dealing with the facts and symbolism of Michael Brown’s death for a long time. “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” doesn’t accurately describe what really happened when Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson shot Brown to death last summer. But it should […]

In the Clinton White House, I worked hard to help to craft the State Children’s Health Insurance Program in the aftermath of the crash of Hillary’s health care proposals. The idea, warmly embraced by the president, was that children’s health care should not be held hostage in the national debate over medical funding and insurance. […]

At a time when Ferguson, Missouri, has been under siege, the president unilaterally brought millions of illegal immigrants “out of the shadows,” the so-called Islamic State beheaded another American, an architect of Obamacare admitted the law was conceived and birthed in deception, and the secretary of defense was unceremoniously dumped, it’s no wonder that a […]

After news of the baffling decision by the New York grand jury not to indict a police officer in the killing of Eric Garner, I sent out a (slightly) hyperbolic tweet that wondered why Americans would want to entrust their free speech and health care to an institution that will kill you over failure to […]

Despite falling oil prices, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) voted on November 27th not to cut production in order to boost prices. The key to this decision appears to have been the attitude of Saudi Arabia, which has long been the first among equals in the coalition. Not surprisingly, the decision led to further oil […]

In his “Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior,” George Washington offered this sage advice: “Associate with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad company.” Too bad President Obama and his best Chicago golfing buddy (BCGB), Dr. Eric Whitaker, didn’t heed our Founding […]

Reasonable people can disagree on whether racism was involved in the tragic death of Eric Garner. My own suspicion is that this misfortune could have transpired just as easily with a white man resisting arrest and/or a black cop choking him. And even though lots of people don’t want to hear it, reasonable people can […]

Rolling Stone magazine and its reporter Sabrina Rubin Erdely are facing a great deal of skepticism about a story called “A Rape on Campus: A Brutal Assault and Struggle for Justice at UVA.” The article tells the story of “Jackie,” a University of Virginia student who says she was gang raped at a fraternity party […]

Evidence mounts that President Obama is reacting with greater defiance and lawlessness despite Americans’ repudiation of his agenda in the November elections, and the word is that Republican leaders in Congress are relaxing their resistance. Isn’t it axiomatic that if you reward bad behavior you’ll get more of it and that if you punish it […]

Speaker John Boehner’s plan to fund the government operations for a year, but excepting Immigration and Customs Enforcement from the bill is a great deal that conservatives should accept and celebrate. If Boehner can get the Democratic Senate — while it lasts — to agree to his proposed formula for avoiding a government shutdown, it […]

Thanksgiving week, GOP House aide Elizabeth Lauten posted an admonishment of first daughters Sasha and Malia Obama on her Facebook page: “I get you’re both in those awful teen years, but you’re a part of the First Family, try showing a little class,” it began. And: “Dress like you deserve respect, not a spot at […]

The first fruit of the Republican victory in the midterm election is the failure of President Obama’s efforts to give away everything to Iran in the nuclear negotiations. If Democrats had kept the majority on Nov. 4, we would all be wincing, as Obama would have triumphantly announced a “peace” deal with Iran that would […]

Recent statements by Federal Reserve officials would lead just about anyone to believe that one of the bank’s central missions has always been to guard against the lurking threat of deflation. They warn that since official inflation has remained below the Fed’s 2 percent target for almost two years, the country is liable to fall into a stagnant morass unless […]