Category: Column

I have found the issue that can bring America together. Republicans and Democrats, urban hipsters and country folk, corporate scions and infrequent fliers — they all seem to agree: The federal government must not allow mobile phone use on planes. If the Federal Communications Commission allows airlines with properly equipped planes to open the cellphone […]

I was thinking of not doing a column this week. Now that the White House has told us we shouldn’t have to keep a full-time job because of health care, I thought I’d do just one column a month. I want to cut back my work hours so I can qualify for some of those […]

If I were the devil, I would not rest until I had undermined the foundation of — and extinguished freedom’s flame from — America, the nation referred to as the world’s last great hope – that shining city on a hill to which other nations of the world aspire. I would accomplish my goal slowly […]

House Speaker John Boehner officially tabled for this year an all-encompassing immigration bill because, he said,: President Obama can’t be trusted to enforce either existing laws or ones that might be passed. Boehner is only telling the convenient part of the story, however. Even though Republican leadership that includes Boehner, Whip Kevin McCarthy, Majority Leader Eric […]

Another Obamacare fiasco? Guess what. We’ll rationalize that disaster into something awesome: tout de suite. You can’t keep your insurance if you like it? Consider yourself lucky. Obamacare disincentivizes work. Be grateful! The Affordable Care Act will cost three times as much as initial estimates? Spending creates jobs. The exchanges have been a disaster? Stop rooting […]

On Feb. 17, 2009, President Obama promised the sun and the moon and the stars. That was the day, five years ago, when he signed the $800 billion “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.” President Modesty called it “the most sweeping economic recovery package in our history.” He promised “unprecedented transparency and accountability.” He claimed the […]

Hannah Arendt coined the term “the banality of evil” to describe the galling normalcy of Nazi mass murderer Adolf Eichmann. Covering his trial in Jerusalem, she described Eichmann as less a cartoonish villain than a dull, remorseless, paper-pushing functionary just “doing his job.” The phrase “banality of evil” was instantly controversial, largely because it was […]

Few have ever heard the name Debo Adegbile. He’s President Barack Obama’s nominee to head the civil rights division of the Justice Department. A few months ago, his nomination would have been a non-starter — there is more than a whiff of radicalism in his past. But we are in a new world. Sen. Harry […]

The big story about the federal budget this week was the Republican Party’s struggle to deal with raising the debt ceiling. Last year’s big budget story was President Barack Obama and the Democrats coming to grips with the so-called sequester, a policy gimmick that modestly slowed the growth of federal spending. Neither of these storylines […]

The nightmare societies portrayed in the George Orwell novels “1984” and “Animal Farm” gave us the word “Orwellian.” That adjective reflects a vast government’s efforts not just to deceive and control the people, but also to do so by reinventing the meaning of ordinary words while rewriting the past itself. America, of all places, is […]

Michael Sam appears to be a fine young man. But, no, he isn’t the first openly gay male U.S. athlete to play in a major sport. And “brave”? Can we please dispense with the absurd Jackie Robinson comparisons? Wake me when a black collegiate pro prospect “comes out” as a Republican. A starting senior on […]

“If at my convenience I might break them (laws), what would be their worth?” — Charlotte Bronte, “Jane Eyre” We’ve come a long way since Justice Charles Evans Hughes remarked a century ago, “…the Constitution is what the judges say it is.” Or have we? According to the Galen Institute, a nonprofit public policy research […]

My fellow Americans of all colors and creeds, I have a proposal that probably will offend some and comfort others. : It is offered in the spirit of fulfilling the guiding American principle that you see on your money: E pluribus unum – out of many, one. I propose that we rename the annual February observance […]

Put on your super-shocked faces, everyone: Former Obama administration official Hilda Solis, who is now running for yet another government position in Los Angeles, is embroiled in yet another union corruptocracy scandal. The Hope and Change hits just keep on coming. Solis served as President No More Business As Usual’s first secretary of labor. Remember […]

Politicians say, “We’re all equal,” and pretend that they represent everyone. But, in fact, they constantly pick winners and losers. America is now like the place described in George Orwell’s book “Animal Farm”: “All animals are equal,” but some are “more equal than others.” “Animal Farm” was about Communism, but today the allegory applies to […]

There is no material poverty in the U.S. Here are a few facts about people whom the Census Bureau labels as poor. Dr. Robert Rector and Rachel Sheffield, in their study “Understanding Poverty in the United States: Surprising Facts About America’s Poor” (http://tinyurl.com/448flj8),: report that 80 percent of poor households have air conditioning; nearly three-quarters have […]

In state capitols throughout America, a drama will play out this coming year and in every subsequent year for at least a decade. Legislators and governors will find themselves unable to provide decently for education without cutting back on the ambitious Medicaid expansion built into Obamacare. Even in those states that opted not to participate […]

The Obama administration and New York’s senior senator, Democrat Chuck Schumer, are conspiring to muzzle their political opponents before fall’s midterm elections, and to literally outlaw free speech. They are rushing through a change in IRS regulations that would prevent tea party organizations and other not-for-profits, called 501(c)(4)s, from engaging in customary pre-election activities, such […]

PARIS — At a time when many of us have become fixated on U.S. intelligence agencies’ “big data” programs, authorities are becoming aware of a much more insidious kind of threat — one that could successfully exploit the growing blind spot created by our overreliance on technology. Jon Wellinghoff, the former chairman of the Federal […]

Last week, the Congressional Budget Office released a report discussing the ramifications of Obamacare. The report revealed that the work-hour equivalent of approximately 2.5 million jobs would disappear from the workforce, thanks to Obamacare, in a voluntary process in which employees would simply dump out of their jobs, knowing they could get health care through […]

SOCHI, Russia — About the only difficulty I’ve encountered here, wandering alone, far from the official Winter Olympics staging grounds, has been my inability to speak Russian. Still, I’m able to communicate somewhat effectively, as I often do at home with our earthier elected officials, through use of broad pantomime, exaggerated facial expressions and voice […]

In our current age of spin and counter-spin, there is no contortion too great for a politician to attempt. On occasion, however, the threads of one story become entangled with another in a manner that should deeply embarrass, if the media were sharp enough to catch it. This happened last week in response to the […]

Of course it’s too early to talk about 2016. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way … The most interesting dynamic about the presidential race so far is that the Democrats are behaving like Republicans — and vice versa. Since 1940, with the arguable exception of Barry Goldwater, Republicans have nominated the guy […]

Remember the IRS scandal? It’s gone. Poof. So flaccid has press interest in the story become that President Barack Obama made bold in an interview with Fox News to say there was not a “smidgen of corruption” in the IRS’s conduct. It requires terrific confidence in the passivity of the press to float the discredited […]

Random thoughts on the passing scene: It is amazing how many people still fall for the argument that, if life is unfair, the answer is to turn more money and power over to politicians. Since life has always been unfair, for thousands of years and in countries around the world, where does that lead us? […]

(Editor’s note: Chuck has postponed the second part of his series “Alcohol vs. Marijuana” until after the Winter Olympics so he can address some moments of inspiration from the games.) American snowboarder Sage Kotsenburg, a native of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, made the decision of his life in Olympic competition over the weekend, and it paid […]