Category: Column

Paul Ryan is now polling first in Iowa for the next presidential election. If Ryan is encouraged by this news, he is not much of a student of recent political history. Polling first in Iowa more than two years prior to the state’s overhyped, first-in-the-nation caucuses is a bit like being told by the guy […]

I’m turning into my father. About this time every year, my father pulls me aside and asks me to tell my five sisters that he doesn’t need any gifts for Christmas – and, “for Godsakes, please tell your sisters I don’t need more sweaters. I can’t wear the sweaters I have now. Use the money […]

The NSA isn’t inherently evil. Serious people track serious threats to the lives of millions of Americans every day. This is not why the NSA needs to be disbanded. Too many serious people who disregard the U.S. Constitution and Americans’ right to privacy have decided they know better than the framers of the Constitution and […]

As world leaders at the UN Climate Summit reached an agreement to tighten the shackles of oppressive global warming regulations late November, God laughed, and the moisture from his breath touched the earth, painting the place where the Christmas story began, the Holy Land, white with snow December 13. The same day, the Arab Spring […]

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s $20 billion net worth founder, has invested a large chunk of his money into destructive comprehensive immigration bills, one in the House and another, already passed, in the Senate. Zuckerberg’s goal through his pro-immigration lobbying group FWD.org, is to triple legal immigration by increasing H-1B and other work visas and granting amnesty […]

As the fifth year of the Obama presidency draws to a close, it may be time to examine the unspoken but powerful assumption behind the policies of the president and his party. That is the assumption that in times of economic distress Americans would be, more than usual, supportive of or amenable to Big Government […]

On Friday, Dec. 20, 2012, Obamacare died. The president announced that if your health care plan was cancelled as a result of the requirements of Obamacare, you are relieved from having to obey the individual mandate to have health insurance. He also said that a simple catastrophic policy would suffice if you chose to get […]

With Democrats cratering in the polls over their collapsing health care law, they are trying to pivot to the only part of their policy agenda that still enjoys broad public support: the minimum wage. But their advocacy and its popularity rest on the incorrect belief that a significant number of families live on the minimum […]

“Duck Dynasty’s” Phil Robertson is not alone. He’s the latest in a long, long lineup of politically incorrect targets of the left’s sensitivity mob. Founded in 1985, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) gangstas won’t stop until both the cultural and legal enforcement of their agenda are the norm. The A&E network (Atheists […]

President Obama commuted the sentences of eight crack-cocaine offenders Thursday, including that of Clarence Aaron, who was serving a sentence of life without parole for a first-time nonviolent drug conviction when he was 23. Aaron’s story represents the worst excesses of the federal criminal justice system. Aaron, of Mobile, Ala., had no criminal record. He […]

So rednecks need to be politically correct now? Wait, before the National Association of Rednecked Persons attacks me, let me be clear that I don’t mean “redneck” as an insult. Indeed, Redneck Pride has been on the rise ever since Jeff Foxworthy got rich informing people they “might be a redneck.” (Some clues: if your […]

I must admit I’ve never watched “Duck Dynasty,” but this brouhaha over A&E’s suspension of the show’s star, Phil Robertson, for his remarks on homosexual behavior in an interview with GQ has little to do with “gay” issues and everything to do with thought and speech control — and the left’s intolerance. Robertson first expressed, […]

Journalist Michael Kinsley once defined a political gaffe as when someone “accidentally reveals something truthful about what is going on in his or her head.” In other words, a gaffe is when a political player accidentally tells the truth. This appears to be what happened in a recent Washington Post story. Tens of millions of […]

Instead of always taking incoming fire, how about Republicans start sending some back? It’s great that they stopped HillaryCare, but if they had actually fixed health care by forcing health insurance plans to be sold in a competitive free market, there would have been no opportunity for shyster Democrats to foist Obamacare on us.It’s fantastic […]

There are all sorts of time bombs embedded within Obamacare. Will we force doctors to treat the millions of new Medicaid patients who are signing up for services that can be only partially reimbursed? How exactly will the IRS collect penalties from millions of off-the-books youth who choose not to buy coverage? For those who […]

PolitiFact has awarded their “Lie of the Year” to President Barack Obama for his promise that “if you like your health care plan, you can keep it.” PolitiFact, a feature of the Tampa Bay Times, purports to rate the truthfulness of statements/assertions made by politicians. The accurate are rated “true,” then slide down the scale […]

In his classic novel “1984,” George Orwell warned about the evils of a totalitarian state dominated by a single ruling party with total power over its inhabitants. Oceania, his fictional superstate, is under complete surveillance by the authorities. The character known as “Big Brother” reminds everyone he is constantly monitoring the citizens of Oceania, mainly […]

This is the time of year when belligerent atheists corral fellow “freethinkers” together in an attempt to legally disrupt displays of the Nativity. Wherever these innocent – and usually welcomed – Christian religious displays are found, there’s often a bitter atheist complaining to local authorities and the media because public display of the baby Jesus […]

Jahi McMath, 13, died after a routine tonsillectomy, according to doctors at Children’s Hospital Oakland who declared McMath brain-dead on Thursday. The coroner’s office was set to remove her body on Tuesday. Jahi’s mother, Nailah Winkfield, doesn’t believe her daughter is dead. She told reporters, “I want a second opinion.” Family members and supporters have […]

Dirty Harry Reid sabotaged the filibuster, and now the Democrats are running wild in Washington. Mark my words: We all will pay a price. Thanks to Reid’s crony-coddling rule change, unqualified stooges will manage the Obama Department of Homeland Security. It’s a bundler’s world, and we’re just living in it. God help us. On Monday […]

This wasn’t a great year for liberty. A few disasters that government caused: –Obamacare. It was supposed to “bend the cost curve” downward. The central planners had lots of time to perfect their scheme. For a generation, the brightest left-wing wonks focused on health care policy. The result? Soviet-style consumer service comes to America. –Government […]

Pope Francis, in his apostolic exhortation, levied charges against free market capitalism, denying that “economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world” and concluding that “this opinion … has never been confirmed by the facts.” He went on to label unfettered capitalism as […]

We’ve all heard the Obamacare horror stories: members of the individual insurance marketplace who watched their plans get canceled; business owners watching their costs rise; and employees finding out that more is coming out of their paychecks for approximately the same benefits. But the underlying logic of Obamacare was that those in need would benefit […]

Last night, I received an email from President Barack Obama about his health law. He said, “The law is working. Already nearly 365,000 people across the country have picked private plans through the Marketplace.” Sorry, Mr. President, but a mere 365,000 people signing up on the federal health exchange, while almost 50 million are uninsured, […]

Former New York Times foreign correspondent Joel Brinkley is on sabbatical. His column will return to American Voices in June 2014. During his absence, John Kass has been added to American Voices.) A new report commissioned by the French Socialist government to make recommendations on how France can better integrate its residents of foreign origin […]

Christmastime is supposed to be the season of giving. : Why is so much being taken away from people? As a man of the cloth and a staunch defender of the Judeo-Christian faith that built our great nation, one thing that always bothers me is when atheists seek to deprive us of the true reason for […]