Category: Column

As 2013 comes to a close, it’s as good a time as any to do some national soul searching. Polls show that three out of four Americans say the nation is on the wrong track. Disapproval ratings of our president are lodged above fifty percent. Clearly, whatever was generating the glow that got the most […]

This year, like all that preceded it, was packed with some incredibly stupid things. As we shake off 2013 and welcome our government master into the medical examination room (except those who can’t afford Obamacare, can’t get the website to work or lost the plans they liked), let’s take a look back at just some […]

There’s a reason why only 8 percent of New Year’s resolutions are kept: Too many of us make resolutions that lack resolve. “Resolve” is a powerful world. According to one dictionary, it means “to solve a problem, or to find a satisfactory way of dealing with a disagreement.” Bill Gates elaborated on the concept in […]

When I read that Duck Dynasty’s Phil Robertson made some horrible “homophobic” and “racist” comments for which liberals and gay activists were demanding the entertainment program be ripped from the flat screens of its 14 million fans, I was compelled to read the actual interview in GQ Magazine. It seems Phil is being crucified for […]

With apologies to “Howl” author Allen Ginsberg. Part I I saw the vast majority of three generations destroyed by madness, cursing unethical betrayed Spitting at frozen screens teasing 404 error waiting for the dusk of peak hours Onesie-clad hipsters sipping hot chocolate little marshmallows bobbing blinking hashtags in a sea of brown Who opened cancellation […]

Driving around last week as I finished my last bit of Christmas shopping, it seemed like Duck Dynasty merchandise was everywhere. Who would have thought, in 2013 the hottest gift ideas would involve rednecks from Louisiana? What’s more, I never would have believed anything the “Duck” family said would be a source of national controversy. […]

By the looks of it, U.S. President Barack Obama may be close to joining the French in taking on the Chinese — in Africa. According to my sources in the French government, Obama made it clear to both British and French leadership at the onset of his presidency that he was going to leave it […]

The wheels began to come off Obamacare in 2011 when the administration announced that the “CLASS Act,” a provision to provide long-term disability care, was, in the words of Kathleen Sebelius, “totally unsustainable,” and would be discontinued. What was the problem? The White House website had boasted: “No taxpayer funds will be used to pay […]

At Christmas we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, whom we Christians believe is the second person of the divine Trinity, who took on human form to experience our sufferings, die for us and make our salvation possible. The idea of God becoming man strikes us as a bit odd, at the very least. How […]

During the holiday season, many reflect on finding the right balance in their lives. As a nation, we’re in a season of searching for the right balance between individual freedoms and the role of government. The clearest indication that things are out of balance nationally is that the median household income in our capital city […]

Christmastime is an occasion for families to come together. But the family is not what it used to be, as my former American Enterprise Institute colleague Nick Schulz argues in his short AEI book “Home Economics: The Consequences of Changing Family Structure.” It’s a subject that many people are uncomfortable with. “Everyone either is or […]

On almost every left-right issue that divides Democrats and Republicans — as well as Republicans themselves — there is a neglected populist constituency. The result is that populist politics are largely caricatured as Tea Party extremism — and a voice for the middle class is largely absent. The problem with Obamacare is that its well-connected […]

The outrage industry was in high dudgeon just before Christmas over remarks “Duck Dynasty” family patriarch, Phil Robertson, made to GQ magazine about homosexuality. Outrage is the primary ingredient for political fundraising and political power. One must always have an enemy. Let’s go down the “I Take Offense” checklist and make sure all the boxes […]

Consider this: Taylor Swift wasn’t even born yet when the fight over the Mount Soledad cross began. How much longer will it drag on? Disgruntled atheists first filed suit over the memorial at a veterans park in San Diego in the summer of 1989. The fringe grievance-mongers have clung bitterly to their litigious activities for […]

If you saw a fat man in a sleigh distributing presents this week, he was in violation of several government regulations. The Federal Aviation Administration has complaints about his secret flight path. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources might shoot his unauthorized reindeer the way they shot a baby deer named Giggles at an animal […]

Politicians can be progressives, liberals, conservatives, Democrats or Republicans, and right-wingers. They just can’t be dumb. The American people will never elect them to office. Let’s look at it. For years, I used to blame politicians for our economic and social mess. That changed during the 1980s as a result of several lunches with Sen. […]

A&E’s indefinite suspension of “Duck Dynasty” star Phil Robertson over his comments regarding homosexuality, and the subsequent backlash, is an important cultural moment in American life. For the first time in decades, traditionally religious Americans have come out of the closet en masse to speak out against anti-religious bigotry from proponents of gay rights. This, […]

Normally at this time of year, the culture-war fight is over a guy with a white beard. That’s true again this year. What’s different is that Phil Robertson has taken Santa’s place, and instead of a war on Christmas, we have a war on “Duck Dynasty.” The patriarch of the popular A&E reality show said […]

Ronald Hale went to the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Canada last month with a lung problem, but instead of being helped, he was killed by the superbug carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriaceae. The germ, which had been brought into the hospital by a female patient initially treated outside Canada, put him into septic shock and caused organ failure. […]

The press has framed Ben Bernanke’s valedictory press conference last week in heroic terms. It’s as if a veteran quarterback engineered a stunning come-from-behind drive in his final game, and graciously bowed out of the game with the ball sitting on the opponent’s one-yard line. In reality, Bernanke has merely completed a five-yard pass from […]

I wouldn’t volunteer to be Phil Robertson’s speechwriter. He chooses his words too carelessly. But with Christmas arriving, it’s worth pausing a moment to consider two other faces of Christianity today. Many who are hostile to religion are eager to portray the “Duck Dynasty” star’s comments about homosexuality as the essence of Christianity. Because the […]

Once again, liberals demand an increase in the minimum wage. President Obama said raising the minimum wage – the lowest amount, by law, most employers can pay – is a step in addressing rising income inequality, something he called “the defining challenge of our time.” Data on income inequality does not lie… when the goal […]

Lee Strobel earned a Master of Studies in Law degree from Yale Law School, became the award-winning legal editor of the Chicago Tribune and was a spiritual skeptic until 1981. I recently read his short 91-page booklet titled “The Case for Christmas,” in which he viewed the sacred holiday as an investigative journalist and interviewed […]

A&E’s suspension of Phil Robertson for expressing his politically incorrect, Bible-based opinion on homosexual behavior has turned out to be a blessing in disguise and serves as an object lesson for Christian and other social conservatives, as well as other lovers of liberty. The politically correct left has built a culture and network of intimidation […]

As a Jew, and a religious one at that, I want to wish my fellow Americans a Merry Christmas. Not “Happy Holidays.” Merry Christmas. I write, “my fellow Americans” because, as reported by the Pew Research poll released just last Wednesday, nine in 10 Americans say they celebrate Christmas. Apparently, many Americans have forgotten that […]

Sometimes it seems like things are upside down. Barack Obama and his Obamacare administrators are continually making laws, through blogpost (suspending the employer mandate) and bulletin (suspending the individual mandate). This, even though the Framers of the Constitution said that it was Congress that would make the laws; the president is just supposed to faithfully […]

The Department of Justice should get a new name — like the Department That Can See No Evil, the Department of Dungeons or the Department of Cover-ups. Once a bad law becomes the law of the land, it takes years of activism engaged by countless voices to force Washington to patch things up for a […]

Each year during the period of conspicuous consumption known as Christmas shopping, I try to think of a gift that will not be returned, exchanged or forgotten before next Christmas. One year it was a goat for a poor African farmer through World Vision. Another year it was a sewing machine for a woman in […]

The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), which is legally challenging ObamaCare, said the latest exemption issued by the Obama Administration proves ObamaCare is “unworkable and fatally flawed.” “As millions of Americans continue to lose health insurance coverage because of ObamaCare, this latest maneuver does nothing to right a sinking ship and further proves […]