Category: Column

The soap opera that played out in Richmond these last weeks and ended with the convictions of former Gov. Bob McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, on multiple counts of fraud and conspiracy charges is a tragedy for them, their children and the voters of Virginia. By most objective standards, McDonnell did a good job as […]

“If you watch the nightly news, it feels like the world is falling apart,” President Obama told Democratic mega-contributors last month in one of the 400-plus fundraisers of his presidency. But not to worry. “The world has always been messy,” he said. “In part, we’re just noticing now because of social media and our capacity […]

It has been over a month since Michael Brown was shot and killed in Ferguson, Mo., and we have yet to hear the police officer’s version of events. Was Officer Darren Wilson badly injured in his scuffle with Brown? Did Brown attempt to seize the officer’s weapon? Did Wilson have reason to fear for his […]

Forty years ago many Americans celebrated the demise of the imperial presidency with the resignation of Richard Nixon. Today, it is clear they celebrated too soon. Nixon’s view of presidential powers, summed up in his infamous statement that, “when the president does it that means it is not illegal,” is embraced by the majority of […]

Eight days before 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot and killed in Ferguson, Missouri, he received his high school diploma from Normandy High School in the Normandy School District near Ferguson. In January 2013, Normandy district schools lost their accreditation from the Missouri state Board of Education because of poor performance on standardized tests and poor […]

News broke this week that Luke Russert, son of the late Tim Russert, will be a regular part of the “revamped” Meet The Press starting today. He’s 29, has worked for NBC News since graduating college, and…that’s about it. His last name is the only qualification he possesses for joining the “team” of the longest […]

They’re going to have to get used to it. I speak of the school students who are complaining about the taste of their government-funded school grub. As part of the 2010 National School Lunch Program, you see, school districts that want federal funding to feed their kids must follow stringent nutritional guidelines designed to curb […]

It was not until Thursday night’s debate in Sacramento between Gov. Jerry Brown and his GOP rival Neel Kashkari that I realized what a gift the challenger has given the Republican Party. Up until then, he hadn’t impressed me much. Had Assemblyman Tim Donnelly won the runoff, he likely would have delivered some bon mots […]

Another meaningless Labor Day has passed. For most Americans, the holiday represents a day off from work and the unofficial end of summer. Many attended local parades where they heard November election candidates pledge to create jobs. President Obama, in Wisconsin, said that under his direction, the economy has never been better. Obama pointed to […]

Black caliphate flags flap in the open air. Islamic head-choppers wreak bloody havoc around the world. Nearly a dozen commercial airliners disappear in Libya. And America’s immigration and entrance systems remain in shambles. Now is a good time to ask a question I first posed 10 summers ago: Where is Adnan Shukrijumah? A decade later, […]

On the Internet, you’re never really alone. Name any fad, any cause, any hobby or passion — Shaker furniture? Dungeons and Dragons, Bolivian tree frogs? — and you’re only a few clicks away from someone who shares your obsession. That’s great. It’s also horrible. Because while there’s no harm in tree frog fans sharing pictures […]

On August 28th while the geographical area formerly known as Iraq descended further into chaos, President Obama announced to the world “We don’t have a strategy, yet.” A few days later, another brave American journalist was brutally beheaded by a slickly televised cockney-accented jihadist. Clearly things are not going well outside the bubbly confines of […]

Do you remember the left’s chants about President George W. Bush: “Have you had enough yet?” Well, I could easily ask that about President Obama, but instead I’ll ask: “Do you believe us now?” Some of us have been saying from the beginning that something just isn’t right about Obama. Something is very different about […]

President Barack Obama slipped up last week when he told reporters, “We don’t have a strategy yet” to dispatch the Islamic State. These things happen. On “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., dished out a mild but fitting response to the president’s remarks. “He’s very cautious,” she said. “Maybe in this instance […]

The lovable legend of Robin Hood with his band of Merry Men making life difficult for the Sheriff of Nottingham offers a great way to understand the politics of 21st-century America. As with any such story, casting is key. The modern version would place tech entrepreneurs in the role of Robin Hood and his gang. […]

The world seems to be falling apart. Only lunatics from North Korea or Iran once mumbled about using nuclear weapons against their supposed enemies. Now Vladimir Putin, after gobbling up the Crimea, points to his nuclear arsenal and warns the West not to “mess” with Russia. The Middle East terrorist group the Islamic State keeps […]

It’s one thing to watch race hustlers like the Rev. Al Sharpton bellowing, “No justice, no peace.” But when the attorney general of the United States makes false but racially incendiary claims about today’s alleged “pernicious racism,” we are in uncharted territory. Holder complains about different prison rates, different school expulsion rates and longer prison […]

We’ve all heard the expression: “A man’s best friend is his equipment.” You haven’t? Well you must not work for the Pentagon. There, military dogs are considered mere “equipment” and as such can be left behind when the troops come home. It’s a bit more complicated than that. Military dogs are enlisted (drafted actually) to […]

The promise the Chinese government made to Britain and to the world as Hong Kong reverted to Chinese control at midnight on June 30, 1997, that China would abide by the “one country, two systems” plan, which would afford Hong Kong greater autonomy, except in matters of foreign relations and defense, was to last 50 […]

The Sisters Tsarnaev have been nothing but trouble. Double, bubbling trouble. While their Boston Marathon bomber brother Dzhokhar awaits trial this month for the bloody 2012 attacks that killed three and injured hundreds, his elder Chechen immigrant siblings Ailina and Bella remain on the loose in the U.S. after their own frequent run-ins with the […]

Last week I said the Environmental Protection Agency has become a monster that does more harm than good. But logical people say, “What else we got?” It’s natural to assume greedy capitalists will run amok and destroy the Earth unless stopped by regulation. These critics don’t understand the real power of private ownership, says Terry […]

“Use your tools to fix their car,” a key tenet of the idea of triangulation, should be the lynchpin of the Republican midterm campaign of 2014. The president has found a compelling issue in income inequality. Now it is up to the Republicans — not to challenge the issue’s legitimacy as a national concern, but […]

There are things that really puzzle me. Some life insurance companies charge lower premiums if you haven’t made a life-shortening lifestyle choice. Being a nonsmoker is one of them. Actuarially, that makes sense because the life expectancy for smokers is at least 10 years shorter than for nonsmokers. Insurance company policies charge higher premiums to […]

I’m not really into the political cannibal thing. And I’m old-fashioned enough to believe that eating humans — even in metaphor — is still a sin. But there’s something unspeakably attractive about the Democrats’ eat-the-rich campaign as they approach the mid-term elections in November. President Barack Obama and his crew need to excite their base. […]

So much for non-ideological foreign policy. When Barack Obama ran for president he vowed to be non-ideological. He was a pragmatist and a problem-solver. It wasn’t just that George W. Bush’s ideology was awful, ideology itself was a kind of sinful stupidity. “What is required,” Obama declared the day before his first inauguration, “is a […]

Last week, as riots in Ferguson, Missouri decrescendoed and the country held its collective breath over the question of the indictment of Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown, rappers Diddy (formerly P. Diddy, formerly Puff Daddy, formerly Sean Combs), 2 Chainz, The Game, and Rick Ross, along with 10 of their […]