Category: Column

In a speech this past February, Attorney General Eric Holder said Americans need to reconsider the punishment that convicted felons lose their right to vote. While some states have means for felons, usually those convicted of non-violent crimes, to regain their voting rights, Holder said, “an estimated 5.8 million Americans – 5.8 million of our […]

The red flags contained in the national and global headlines that have come out thus far in 2014 should have spooked investors and economic forecasters. Instead the markets have barely noticed. It seems that the majority opinion on Wall Street and Washington is that we have entered an era of good fortune made possible by […]

In a recent piece in Politico titled “Why Are Asian Americans Democrats?”, professors Alexander Kuo, Neil Malhotra and Cecilia Hyunjung Mo, make the contention that “microaggressions” and social exclusion has pushes the entire Asian-American community to vote for the Democratic Party. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, microaggressions, according to Fordham University, “are common verbal, […]

Universal preschool sounds like a no-brainer. President Barack Obama proposed it in his State of the Union. He followed that address with a speech in Decatur, Ga. “Study after study shows that the earlier a child begins learning, the better he or she does down the road,” he said in Georgia. “But here’s the thing: […]

They’re everywhere. Turn on Fox News, local news, Animal Planet, HGTV, The Family Channel or talk radio. Pro-Common Core commercials have been airing ad nauseam in a desperate attempt to persuade American families to support the beleaguered federal education standards/testing/technology racket. Who’s funding these public relations pushes? D.C. lobbyists, entrenched politicians and Big Business interests. […]

The right side of history is bunk. In domestic politics, people (mostly liberals) tend to say, “You’re on the wrong side of history” about social issues that are breaking their way. It’s a handy phrase, loosely translated as, “You’re going to lose eventually, so why don’t you give up now?” Philosophically, the expression is abhorrent […]

The most febrile of George W. Bush haters liked to claim during his tenure that the former president “scared” them. There is far more reason to be frightened by President Barack Obama, because fecklessness and inconstancy trigger wars. The outstanding example of weakness inviting aggression was the conduct of the democracies toward Adolf Hitler in […]

This is a headline we should never see in the United States: “Federal Judge: Yes, Arizona and Kansas Can Require Voters To Prove Their Citizenship.” The fact that this issue would be disputed at all is astonishing. That it is legally contested is stunning. That the prime mover in initiating the legal challenge is our […]

The political community is abuzz about the growing possibility that Republicans might win control of the Senate this November. But little attention has been paid to a larger and more significant trend. Like former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, President Barack Obama saw his party lose control of Congress during his time in […]

  Let me begin by saying that I think the only issue in the 2014 election should be Obamacare. In fact, that should be the only issue in every election until it’s repealed.I also think all Republican candidates should be trained with shock collars and cattle prods to automatically respond, upon hearing some combination of […]

Americans now have more computer power in their smart phones than did the Pentagon in all its computer banks just 30 years ago. We board a sophisticated jet and assume that the flight is no more dangerous than crossing the street. The downside of this complete reliance on computer gadgetry is a fundamental ignorance of […]

When liberal pro-Obama scholars question the legality of President Barack Obama’s actions to implement Obamacare, the issue of illegal presidential use of power moves from partisan to frightening. George Washington Law School’s Jonathan Turley is the second most quoted law professor in the nation and a two-time Obama voter. He recently testified before Congress on […]

What is it about Western leaders from Neville Chamberlain to George W. Bush who want to find good in men of bad character? Acting as if he were endowed by special insight bestowed upon no one else, President George W. Bush declared in 2001 that he had looked Vladimir Putin in the eye and “was […]

Of course Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg is right to point out that “bossy,” the other B-word, is often used to discourage girls — and later women — from becoming leaders. “Words like bossy send a message: don’t raise your hand or speak up,” says the website of her “Ban Bossy” campaign. “By middle […]

Have you had enough of the testing tyranny? Join the club. To be clear: I’m not against all standardized academic tests. My kids excel on tests. The problem is that there are too damned many of these top-down assessments, measuring who knows what, using our children as guinea pigs and cash cows. College-bound students in […]

Spring cleaning is a healthy tradition. If only politicians did it! They don’t. When Barack Obama ran for president, he promised to clean house, “I’m not a Democrat who believes that we can or should defend every government program just because it’s there. There are some that don’t work.” I cheered when I heard that! […]

Many economists, politicians and pundits assert that median wages have stagnated since the 1970s. That’s a call for government to do something about it. But before we look at the error in their assertion, let’s work through an example that might shed a bit of light on the issue. Suppose that you paid me a […]

Amid all the controversy that surrounds the Obama presidency, none has really changed his personal image among the American people. His credibility has suffered as his claims about Obamacare have been proven false. Certainly, his competency is more subject to question. But, while voters disagree with much of what he proposes and has done, none […]

With so much uncertainty in the world, it’s upsetting to see American politicians, backed by cheesy special interests, trying to start a war with Europe. A cheese war. And in the jingoistic climate of today’s aggressive and expansionist cheese policy, I’m a cheese lover without a country. And some will call me a traitor. When […]

PARIS — There are fewer things more pathetic than watching someone take a running dive off a high board only to end in a spectacular belly flop and still think that they’re scoring a perfect 10. That’s U.S. President Barack Obama right now on the issue of sanctions against Russia. It’s a worrying attitude that […]

On March 17, 19 parents who send their children to Success Academy, a Harlem charter school, filed suit in federal court to stop New York Mayor Bill de Blasio from denying them previously arranged space in a public school building. Without space, their children and 173 others will not be able to continue at Success […]

When I was a kid — which wasn’t that long ago, given that I just turned 30 in January — I recall hearing a popular phrase on the playground: “Mind your own business.” MYOB reared its head whenever somebody threatened to rat out a fellow student for anything from harmless roughhousing to juvenile delinquency. The […]

Will everyone please stop talking about a new Cold War? However badly things work out between Russia and the United States and the West, a new Cold War isn’t in the cards because Russia today isn’t the Soviet Union. Sure, there are similarities. We are in a diplomatic and geostrategic conflict with Russia, which was […]

Professor Amy Chua of the Yale law school is better known as a “Tiger Mom” because of her take-no-prisoners, tough love approach to raising children. She and her husband Jed Rubenfeld (a fellow Yale law professor) have written what may turn out to be the best book of this year. It is titled “The Triple […]

At a time when polls show public opinion turning against the Democrats, some Republicans seem to be turning against each other. Even with the prospect of being able to win control of the Senate in this fall’s elections, some Republicans are busy manufacturing ammunition for their own circular firing squad. A Republican faction’s demonization of […]

At 15 years of age, Amy Purdy took up snowboarding and quickly advanced in the sport she came to love and master. At 19, Amy contracted meningococcal meningitis. She had less than a 2 percent chance of living. Amy miraculously survived, but not without the life-altering loss of her spleen, her kidneys, the hearing in […]

Even though it was in Burlingame, one might have expected the California Republican Party’s weekend convention to feel a bit like the last days of Pompeii. The Dems hold every statewide office and control both houses of the Legislature. Still, GOP Chairman Jim Brulte managed to halt an orgy of panic. In a chat with […]

My humble advice to the GOP: Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Don’t fail to grasp the significance of the Florida election. Make Democrats pay for their president and their shared agenda. Don’t listen to any in the liberal media, the Democratic Party spin machine or any establishment Republican types who tell you […]