Category: Column

The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) sent a letter to the United States Senate, urging members to ratify the actions of the House of Representatives and pass the FY 2014 Continuing Resolution, H. J. Res. 59, sponsored by Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.). The continuing resolution would end all revenue streams for the Affordable […]

This is priceless. Former Fla. GOP Gov. Jeb Bush, consummate politician and 2016 presidential aspirant, has now bitterly accused opponents of his federal education schemes of possessing “purely political” motives. Projection, anyone? Having previously suggested that critics of the so-called Common Core standards program are crazy, ignorant and lying, Bush piled on at a National […]

Chemical weapons are evil, but you could also say they’re a curse. They have a talismanic power to bend and distort U.S. foreign policy. You can ask George W. Bush or Barack Obama. In 2003, then-Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz gave a lengthy interview to Vanity Fair that caused a huge uproar, largely because the […]

The fascinating issue of America’s character arose in a “Ricochet Podcast” featuring the sagacious Norman Podhoretz. Hosts Peter Robinson, Rob Long and James Lileks interviewed Podhoretz on a range of issues, but primarily American foreign policy. Long lamented that President Obama has been making a consummate mess of America’s foreign policy, most recently in Syria, […]

After every mass shooting, I write a variant of the same column. Perhaps I’ll republish this one when the next attack happens. The increase in mass shootings over the course of the past several decades is not imaginary. In 2000, The New York Times analyzed 100 mass shootings between 1949 and 1999 and found that […]

It’s become common over the past year or two to note how well Wall Street is doing while Main Street is still struggling. Sadly, that tale of two economies has resulted from a conscious choice by those at the very top levels of our nation’s financial and political elites. The choice was inadvertently highlighted in […]

In a major foreign policy speech, Barack Obama called for Israel to return to its former borders prior to the 1967 “Six Day War” with Egypt, Syria and Jordan.:  In some places, those borders leave Israel less than nine miles wide.: As a result of that war — and in order to better defend itself — […]

For the last 70 years, American higher education was assumed to be the pathway to upper-mobility and a rich shared-learning experience. Young Americans for four years took a common core of classes, learned to look at the world dispassionately, and gained the concrete knowledge to make informed arguments logically. The result was a more skilled […]

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., after another mass shooting, predictably wasted no time in demanding still more gun control legislation. This week, a killer with a valid ID entered the Washington Navy Yard in southeast D.C., a military facility where 16,000 people — mostly civilians — work. He killed 12 people and wounded several others at […]

Next week, “The Book of Matt” by famed investigative journalist Stephen Jiminez, is slotted for release. The book tells the true story behind the murder of Matthew Shepard, who has become the angelic face of victimhood in the gay rights movement. Shepard’s murder in 1998 launched a national effort, spearheaded by President Clinton, to push […]

The Republican Party has it backwards: Don’t threaten to close the government down over Obamacare. But do threaten not to raise the debt limit unless welfare entitlements are ratcheted back. The debt limit fight is the right place to make a stand. The public does not like debt or borrowing and realizes that excessive debt […]

There is a tradition in politics that is similar to one in the legal profession: When evidence supports your position, make your argument based on the evidence, but when it argues against your position, ignore the evidence and appeal to emotion. The evidence is piling up that “climate change,” formerly known as “global warming,” is […]

Republicans have been getting a lot of advice on how they should change their party ever since Mitt Romney’s defeat in November 2012. They need it. They are in more than the usual disarray that afflicts parties out of the White House. Many members of their majority in the House of Representatives are out of […]

The Fed’s failure today to announce some sort of tapering of its QE program, despite the consensus of an overwhelming percentage of economists who expected action, once again reveals the degree to which mainstream analysts have overestimated the strength of our current economy. The Fed understands, as the market seems not to, that the current […]

The naïve advice of ardent activists can kill. Last spring, Paul Beckwith of Sierra Club: Canada: predicted that the Arctic seas would be ice-free ice this summer. (So did: Britain’s BBC network) This exciting adventure opportunity attracted a variety of yachts, sailboats, rowboats, and kayaks owners to try sailing the fabled: Northwest Passage. As a former sailboat owner I […]

When President Barack Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, he handed Americans one of the most sweeping pieces of social legislation in U.S. history.Now that the Supreme Court has upheld ObamaCare, it is imperative that the American people understand the overwhelming impact it will have on their lives.The Act totals more than […]

Forget gun control. America needs government control. Have you noticed the common thread among several mass killings and homeland security incidents lately? Time and again, it’s the control freaks in Washington who have fallen down on their jobs, allowing crazies, creeps and criminals to roam free and wreak havoc while ignoring rampant red flags. Let’s […]

What’s up with so many Democrats wanting missile strikes on Syria, while Republicans balk? I’m told Republicans are the war party. Is this just hypocrisy? Politicians change their position on military intervention when their own party controls the White House? Historian Thaddeus Russell says it’s not. He says it’s always been “progressive” Democrats who led […]

The new college academic year has begun, and unfortunately, so has student indoctrination. Let’s look at some of it. William Penn, Michigan State University professor of creative writing, greeted his first day of class with an anti-Republican rant. Campus Reform, a project of the Arlington, Va.-based Leadership Institute, has a video featuring the professor telling […]

Just when you think Washington politics couldn’t get dirtier, Congress finds a new low. To hold onto their illegal Obamacare subsidy that no other American earning $174,000 could get, members of Congress are trying to silence the subsidy’s chief critic, Sen. David Vitters, by dredging up a 2007 unproven accusation that Vitters patronized a prostitute […]

A survey of American economists found that 90 percent of them regarded minimum wage laws as increasing the rate of unemployment among low-skilled workers. Inexperience is often the problem. Only about 2 percent of Americans over the age of 24 earned the minimum wage. Advocates of minimum wage laws usually base their support of such […]

Salem Communications Corporation, a leading U.S. radio broadcaster, Internet content provider, and magazine and book publisher targeting audiences interested in conservative opinion content, announced that former Illinois Congressman Joe Walsh’s radio show will be expanding to three hours and moving up to: 5-8pmweekdays on AM 560 The Answer (WIND/Chicago). Walsh was elected to Congress in 2010 […]

Mitt Romney’s iPod playlist featured Johnny Cash, Frankie Valli, the Beach Boys and the Soggy Bottom Boys. Barack Obama’s iPod had, the president assured his fans, something for everyone — “Stevie Wonder, James Brown. I’ve got Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan,” Obama said. “And then I’ve got everything from Jay-Z to Eminem to the Fugees, to […]

Political crusades for raising the minimum wage are back again. Advocates of minimum wage laws often give themselves credit for being more “compassionate” towards “the poor.” But they seldom bother to check what are the actual consequences of such laws. One of the simplest and most fundamental economic principles is that people tend to buy […]

Last week, WCSC-TV reported that after Benjamin and Hope Jordan relocated to Charleston, S.C., they needed to find a baby sitter for their 7-month-old son, Finn, but what they found was a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Benjamin and Hope wanted a loving, nurturing baby sitter, just like any other concerned parents who work during the […]

New York Times columnist David Brooks argued on PBS’ “NewsHour” Friday night that “Sen. Ted Cruz and similar legislators” are obstructionists who care more about undermining the Republican establishment than advancing legislation. Note that I didn’t use “conservative” to modify “columnist” or “David Brooks,” though the Times and other mainstream media outlets routinely bill Brooks […]

In his speech to the nation on Syria last week, the president twice emphasized that America is not the “world’s policeman.” According to polls, most Americans agree. Unfortunately, however, relinquishing this role assures catastrophe, both for the world and for America. This is easy to demonstrate. Imagine that because of the great financial and human […]

Congressional Democrats have defected from President Obama on three key issues in recent weeks, a sure sign of his looming lame duck status. First, 111 House Democrats refused to fund the NSA surveillance program despite heavy pressure from the administration and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. It became evident then that Obama would suffer […]