Category: Column

When liberal Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and the conservative former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich agree on something, attention should be paid. Feinstein, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, said last Friday that the U.S. must confront the jihadists who call themselves the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS or ISIL). “It takes an […]

With, most recently, incumbent Republican Senators Pat Roberts in Kansas and Lamar Alexander in Tennessee winning their respective primaries, Tea Party challengers failed in all attempts in this primary cycle to defeat Senate incumbents. Now we’re starting to hear eulogies about the Tea Party movement. But let’s not confuse birth pains with death throes. The […]

It’s a tradition as old as time — blaming someone else for one’s own problems. It’s called “scapegoating,” and humans have a long history of it. We blame others for our own hardships because, well, it’s easier than dealing with the fact that most, if not all, our problems are the result of choices we […]

Ah, summer. What a great time for boys to read “The Dangerous Book for Boys.”: First released in the U.K. in 2006 and the U.S. in 2007, the book is filled with useful information on how to make knots in a rope, build a go-kart or treehouse, create a working bow and arrow, and engineer a […]

Imagine our government issuing a law requiring women to surgically remove their external genitalia.: As “The Islamic State,” aka “ISIS,” is reportedly spreading its radical Islam from Iraq to Lebanon, Americans need to understand this organization. Now calling themselves “The Islamic State” (previously known as “The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria” and “The Islamic State […]

The standard thing to say about the various Republican primaries this year is that the tea party movement has lost one race after another. That’s a defensible conclusion but also an oversimplification. I see more turbulence and undercurrents among Republican primary voters than usual. The evidence is that incumbents — both those the mainstream media […]

Last week, on July 30, the Republic of Argentina was declared to be in default for the third time in 30 years. Let’s put that into perspective. If you were a bank officer who offered a 30-year mortgage to the Government of Argentina in the early ’90s you would have spent nearly the entire life […]

Jonathan Alter at The Daily Beast has an idea that will infuse the president’s “economic patriotism” rhetoric with some bite: Compel companies to take “loyalty oaths” to prove their patriotism. You may find this suggestion a little creepy, maybe even a little fascistic; but Alter says that “it’s time for red-blooded Americans to take matters […]

It’s back-to-school season across the country. But in an increasing number of districts, “back to school” doesn’t mean back to learning. Under the reign of social justice indoctrinators, academics are secondary to political agitation. Activism trumps achievement. In Massachusetts, the John J. Duggan Middle School will open on August 25 with a new name and […]

In the summer of 2007, then-Sen. Barack Obama was asked if he was worried that his proposed withdrawal from Iraq would result in ethnic cleansing or even genocide. He scoffed at the premise. “By that argument you would have 300,000 troops in the Congo right now — where millions have been slaughtered as a consequence […]

The United Nations plays a supporting role in every war between Hamas and Israel. U.N. spokesmen routinely issue statements, accusations and denials about everyone’s conduct, including their own (most recently they had to account for why they returned rockets, discovered in a U.N. school, to Hamas). Israel was denounced worldwide for an “attack” on a […]

It’s time to revisit the widely disseminated myth that compromise in politics and governance is the highest virtue. Recently, I heard a television host whom I like and respect lament that Congress left town without taking action on our border crisis. Members of Congress, the argument goes, just need to get together, put aside their […]

A common criticism of liberals is that their solution to every problem is to throw money at it.Why not? : Government has a lot of money and can tax the people and businesses to get more of it. : It’s a seemingly easy solution to messy and uncomfortable situations. Here’s why not – there can be an […]

The tech industry will have a more lasting impact on America’s future than Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama combined. That’s not the sense you get from reading the news these days, but journalists and historians always overstate the impact of politicians while underestimating the impact of entrepreneurs. That was true at the founding […]

In 1964, Malcolm X chastised black people for their blind allegiance to the Democratic Party. He said: “You put them first, and they put you last — ’cause you’re a chump. A political chump! … Anytime you throw your weight behind a political party that controls two-thirds of the government, and that Party can’t keep […]

World War I started one century ago. Wait! Don’t stop reading. For most Americans, the war is like algebra or frog anatomy — something you have to study briefly in school but then never have to think about again. Unlike World War II, with its unambiguous villains, epic battles and clear victory, World War I […]

On the occasion of this week’s 40th anniversary of Richard Nixon’s resignation from the presidency, The Washington Post sponsored a reunion featuring Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the Watergate reporters who “brought down” the 37th president. In fact, Nixon committed political suicide. He thought he could get away with what other politicians had done, but […]

In the past few weeks, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has referred to Hamas as a “humanitarian organization,” likened the thousands of unaccompanied minors at the U.S. border to the “baby Jesus” and flouted House etiquette by heckling a GOP member. When Republicans talk that way, it’s a story. Not with Pelosi. “Not a single […]

The voice on the other end of the line is exasperated. “It’s insane,” he wants America to know. “We’re in a war zone.” And there’s no room for apathy. “This is coming to a town near you,” he warns. The man on the phone is a veteran of the Department of Homeland Security who works […]

If I drive across a U.S. border, I expect to stop at a Border Patrol checkpoint. But imagine driving to the grocery store, or Mom’s house, well inside America, and being stopped by the Border Patrol. Many Americans don’t have to imagine it — it’s how they live. Even as the federal government fails to […]

Navi Pillay, U.N. high commissioner for human rights, has accused both Israel and Hamas militants of committing war crimes in the Gaza conflict. Her harshest criticism, as well as that of most nations, has been reserved for the Israeli government, charging that it has committed war crimes in direct violation of the Geneva Conventions. In […]

The complex, mind-numbing debate over illegal immigration and America’s borders has suddenly become very simple. Once the various plans — the Gang of Eight Immigration bill, the Cornyn bill, the House GOP plan — dominated the debate. Now it’s much simpler. The question has crystalized to a choice between in and out. With the appearance […]

Ebola poses virtually no risk to most Americans, but hospital workers and their patients could face real danger if someone unknowingly infected with the deadly virus travels to the U.S. and visits an American emergency room for care. Many hospitals are poorly prepared to contain: any: pathogen. That’s why at least 75,000 people a year die from […]

On Tuesday, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer hosted Hamas spokesman Osama Hamden. The week before, Hamdan labeled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “a new image of Hitler” on the network. But now, for some reason, Blitzer stumbled into a random act of journalism: He asked Hamdan about comments he had made suggesting that Jews used Christian blood […]

LAS VEGAS — The big players in the global information-security industry are intermingling with computer hackers this week at the annual Black Hat conference in Las Vegas. Even Chris Inglis, who stepped down as the deputy director of the National Security Agency earlier this year, is scheduled to attend the conference in his new capacity […]