Category: Column

It’s a question that’s popping up more and more. On the surface, the question answers itself. We’re talking about pinstriped insurance company executives, not Hells Angels. One doesn’t want to paint with too broad a brush, but if you were going to guess which vocations lend themselves least to revolutionary zeal, actuaries rank slightly behind […]

I’m interrupting my series on Common Core State Standards for public schools to join the appeal to Iran and North Korea for the release of American hostages like imprisoned American pastor Saeed Abedini and missionary Kenneth Bae. And I’m also calling upon President Obama and Congress to step up their action, stand for religious freedom […]

Just when President Obama is on the ropes with Obamacare and the rest of his failed policies, scandals and deceptions, the GOP seems determined to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory — a victory not just for the GOP, but also for the American people. Instead of focusing on their common Democratic “enemy,” Republicans […]

Jack Phillips owns the Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood, Colo., about 10 miles from downtown Denver. In July 2012, two gay men, Charlie Craig and David Mullins, asked Phillips to provide the cake for their wedding celebration. Though same-sex marriage is not allowed in Colorado — the Colorado Constitution states that “Only a union of one […]

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Tom Coburn, R-Okla., are about as opposite politically as two people can be. Nonetheless, last week they joined forces to introduce a bill to repeal the federal requirement to blend corn ethanol into gasoline. There’s something in the ethanol mandate for almost everyone — but corn farmers — not to […]

The Black Guerilla Family prison gang controlled the Baltimore City jail. According to a federal indictment, 27 correctional officers, along with 17 others, “were in bed with BGF inmates.” That would be literally and figuratively. Gang leader Tavon White impregnated no fewer than four female guards. One had “Tavon” tattooed on her wrist. Guards smuggled […]

During the Christmas season when many celebrate a unique and miraculous birth, what the late Pope John Paul II called “a culture of death” continues its march. Last week, the upper house of the Belgian Senate voted to extend a 2002 law legalizing euthanasia for adults so that it includes incurably ill children. The amended […]

Boy, do we need to get back to the basics in America – especially with our Christmas toys. Consider: In the basement of any kid’s home you’ll find once-trendy, dust-collecting gadgets that are no longer played with. So I was delighted to stumble across a Geekdad.com article by Jonathan Liu that ranked “The 5 Best […]

I’m a conservative and proud of it. But I’m also a realist who understands there’s a difference between how I want the world to be and how the world is. Disliking the current state of affairs is not enough. Change requires winning elections. That’s the reality Republicans and conservative groups need to grasp if they […]

The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ November employment report was its usual misleading statistical good news mish-mash that, when slapped together, came out as what the mainstream media called the most “encouraging” in months. Officially, the economy added 203,000 jobs and the unemployment rate dropped to 7 percent, its lowest level in five years. Official unemployment […]

A new study has come out that finds men and women really do think differently. According to The Independent, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania used a new and very precise brain-scanning technique, diffusion tensor imaging, to create a neural map of the human brain. The technique has found that male and female brains are […]

Like all certainties in life, rules in the Senate change. One of America’s most glorified political theatrics, the filibuster, now only exists should the majority party choose. It’s not likely any future majority should acquiesce. When Republicans during the Bush 41 administration considered changing the rules to eliminate the tradition established by duelist Aaron Burr […]

For five years, California state Sen. Alex Padilla has been pushing a bill to ban grocers and large retailers from giving away single-use plastic bags. In May, he came close; his SB 405 fell 3 votes short of the 21 needed to pass in the state Senate. On Thursday, Padilla announced that he will try […]

Amidst certain pollsters starting to question of Pennsylvania may be targeted by the GOP in 2016, came news that Israel’s Consulate General in Philadelphia will remain open, despite a previous decision by the Israeli government to close the office. “Pennsylvania represents the biggest promise–and biggest chunk of electoral votes–for Republicans in 2016. It has a […]

The whole world mourns Nelson Mandela. Rightly. But, as usual, some politically and historically challenged liberals have seen the passing of a great man of history as a chance to take more cheap potshots at Ronald Reagan. One human rights attorney, Gay McDougall, made a fool of herself on “Good Morning America.” She claimed that […]

The liberal mind, writes Dr. Lyle H. Rossiter, Jr. in his book, “The Liberal Mind: The Psychological Causes of Political Madness,” views the world through the prism of “pity, sorrow, neediness, misfortune, poverty, suspicion, mistrust, anger, exploitation, discrimination, victimization, alienation and injustice” for people who are “poor, weak, sick, wronged, cheated, oppressed, disenfranchised and exploited.” […]

Environmentalists and budget critics of California’s proposed bullet train may be breathing a sigh of relief. Throughout its brief but tumultuous history, the bullet train has suffered a series of setbacks. Until now, none of them have been fatal. But last week Sacramento Supreme Court Judge Michael Kenny ruled that the High-Speed Rail Authority could […]

Democratic National Chairman Debbie Wasserman Schultz says that Obamacare will be a vote-winner for Democrats in 2014. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says the same thing. Perhaps they really believe that. But the numbers in polls conducted since Oct. 17, when the end of the government shutdown put the spotlight on the rollout of Obamacare, […]

Earlier this week Congress tried to show that it is capable of tackling our chronic and dangerous debt problems. Despite the great fanfare I believe they have accomplished almost nothing. Supporters say that the budget truce created by Republican Representative Paul Ryan and Democratic Senator Patty Murray will provide the economy with badly needed certainty. […]

For more than 20 years, an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll has been measuring how voters feel about Congress. And “perhaps unsurprisingly,” writes Ezra Klein, “a majority of Americans — a new record — thinks the current Congress is one of the worst ever.” Klein, like many other liberal pundits, has written numerous pieces about how […]

The “S” in President Obama’s DHS doesn’t stand for “security.” It stands for “sleaze.” In the wake of Dirty Harry Reid’s sabotage of the filibuster, Democrats have rammed through the Senate nomination of a shady Chicago crony associated with dangerous Clinton corruption and at least two visas-for-sale schemes. The White House wants Alejandro Mayorkas to […]

“Obamacare was sold on a trinity of lies.” That ornate phrase, more suitable for the Book of Revelations or perhaps the next installment of “Game of Thrones,” comes from my National Review colleague Rich Lowry. But I like it. Most people know the first deception in the triumvirate of deceit: “If you like your health […]

If you have just returned from a space mission on a spaceship without Internet access and some Kool-Aid-drinking liberal has assured you the disastrous Obamacare problems are behind us, let me do my part to help deprogram you. The website problems were too numerous to count, and they are just the tip of the Obamacare […]

House Speaker John Boehner would not be House Speaker John Boehner if it were not for the tea party and the other conservative groups he now criticizes. He says that they “lack all credibility” and accuses them of “using our members [Congressmen] and the American people for their own goals.” Asked about the criticism leveled […]

Entering the world of official Washington is a bit like the mythical trip Alice took through the looking glass. Everything is upside-down and nonsensical. This was highlighted most recently in a Wall Street Journal article about how the American people have “a deepening distaste for all Washington institutions” and “angst over Washington dysfunction.” At the […]

“Our house is as quiet as a tomb.” So said a friend who’s at the same stage of life — that is, a mother of three with only one child still living at home. Her youngest, unlike mine, is an introvert, but like my Ben, he is exceedingly busy in his last years of high […]