Category: Column

Get this: Happiness among human beings peaks at age 23, tanks at 55, then peaks again at 69. So says a study by the Center for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics, as reported by the U.K.’s Daily Mail newspaper. The findings make sense to me. At 23, you are brimming with life. […]

Before you join Jay Leno and Susan Sarandon and sign an open letter to Gov. Jerry Brown to protest “solitary confinement” in California prisons’ security housing units, there are a few things you should know. Start with the criminal records of the leaders of the Short Corridor Collective — the four inmates who, despite their […]

Rush Limbaugh fielded a phone call the other day that even he couldn’t answer. “What’s happened to the country I live in?” asked the frustrated woman. “And what do we do now?” The Great Rushbo was understandably flustered. Coming up with a cure for what ails America after five years of Barack Obama and decades […]

Paul Ryan, U. S. Representative, Chairman of the House Budget Committee and former vice-presidential candidate recently declared that the federal war on poverty “has failed miserably.” No one argues. During the fifty years since President Lyndon Johnson first promised to end poverty, the United States has wasted $15 trillion; 46 million Americans live in poverty […]

In an interview with the president of Watchmen Broadcasting television network, international Christian broadcaster and journalist, Earl Cox, urged Christians, “not to abandon support for: Israel: as a result of recent actions by the Israeli government giving concessions to Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, to enter in to peace negotiations. Instead he is urging the tens of millions […]

The resignation of Florida Education Commissioner Tony Bennett couldn’t have come at a better time. His disgraceful grade-fixing scandal is the perfect symbol of all that’s wrong with the federal education schemes peddled by Bennett and his mentor, former GOP Gov. Jeb Bush: phony academic standards, crony contracts, big-government and big-business collusion masquerading as “reform.” […]

“I think she’s one of the most fascinating women of our time and this world,” confessed Bob Greenblatt, the chairman of NBC, as part of his announcement that his network is making a miniseries about Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, with Diane Lane in the starring role. Words are funny things. For instance, G.K. […]

Being neither a Catholic nor a religious scholar, I’m in no position to offer opinions on the Roman Catholic Church or its doctrine. Yet it seems to me that conservatives might learn a thing or two from Pope Francis when it comes to messaging and tone. The pope, it is widely reported, has “recast the […]

Of the many ironies accompanying President Obama’s reign of error, few are more perplexing to conservatives than the disunity and ineffectuality of the Republican opposition. From the beginning of his first term, Obama has been fulfilling his promise to fundamentally transform America — albeit in a way he didn’t fully disclose when he made the […]

After the Vietnam War, the Pentagon reflected on its wartime policies and military tactics and came to understand that they fanned public distrust in the military, which in turn limited public support of their actions. Our defense leaders grasped that they needed to modify their tactics and policies in order to rebuild public confidence and […]

Why are so many people so desperate to hold onto the idea that America is as racist as it has ever been? The phenomenon is apparent in much of the commentary on the George Zimmerman case. Facts were blithely ignored — the fact that Zimmerman is Hispanic, not white, by current standards; the evidence that […]

It should come as no surprise that the lessons that should be learned from the bankruptcy of Detroit, a city that once stood as the shining example of America’s industrial might, are being ignored by the American political establishment and its allies in the docile press corps. While the death spiral of the Motor City […]

It’s no secret that both political parties are struggling to connect with voters. Strategists dream up marketing plans to increase their party’s appeal to this constituency or that group. Sometimes they work, and sometimes they don’t. But they never establish a deep and lasting connection with voters. That’s because most of what the parties talk […]

Does anyone read anymore? I mean, besides tweets from Anthony Weiner? During his otherwise excellent commentaries on race in America, Bill O’Reilly, host of the No. 1 cable news show, claimed on Tuesday night that the one person who tried to help African-Americans more than any other was … Robert F. Kennedy! No one laughed. […]

Occupy Wall Streeters claimed that they were populists. Their ideological opposites, the Tea Partiers, said they were, too. Both became polarizing. And so far populism, whether on the right or left, does not seem to have made inroads with the traditional Republican and Democrat establishments. Gas has gone up about $2 a gallon since Barack […]

My unsolicited advice to Anthony Weiner is to drop out of the race for mayor of New York City. But since you insist on staying, hold a press conference: My fellow New Yorkers, The New York Times, among others, tells me to quit the race. Here’s my proposition. I’ll resign when the Times poses this […]

Egypt is in turmoil again. Syria is embroiled in civil war. Iran continues building a nuclear device. Militants in Iraq have killed more than 4,000 people so far this year, more than 800 of them in July alone, according to the aptly named Iraq Body Count (www.iraqbodycount.org). And what is Secretary of State John Kerry’s […]

John Pike — the University of California, Davis police lieutenant whom the university fired for pepper spraying Occupy protesters Nov. 18, 2011 — has filed a workers’ compensation claim based on a “psychiatric injury.” UC should change its motto from “Fiat lux” (“Let there be light”) to “Fiat meum” (“Where’s mine?”). The protesters got theirs […]

It’s good to be the king … of class warfare hypocrisy. While he lectures his political opponents about their neglect of middle-class America, President Obama is headed to Martha’s Vineyard. Again. Because nothing spells populist like a $7.6 million, 9.5-acre estate owned by one of Chicago’s wealthiest corporate financiers. The sprawling summer manse of David […]

Unfortunately, the fall of Rome is a pattern repeated by empires throughout history … including ours? A group of libertarians gathered in Las Vegas recently for an event called “FreedomFest.” We debated whether America will soon fall, as Rome did. Historian Carl Richard said that today’s America resembles Rome. The Roman Republic had a constitution, […]

If we put ourselves into the shoes of racists who seek to sabotage black upward mobility, we couldn’t develop a more effective agenda than that followed by civil rights organizations, black politicians, academics, liberals and the news media. Let’s look at it. First, weaken the black family, but don’t blame it on individual choices. You […]

House Republicans would like to vote for an immigration reform approach that hues to the amendment introduced by Senator John Cornyn, R-Texas. This would require that the border be sealed, with illegal immigration cut by 90 percent before any legalization or amnesty could begin for illegal immigrants already here. Border security legislation emerging from the […]

I never thought the Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman case deserved nearly the attention it got. But reasonable people can disagree about that. What strikes me as unconscionable, however, is the way the supposedly objective media have not only sensationalized a tragedy but at times appear to deliberately bend the facts to fit a desired story line. […]

Hillary Clinton is not that fascinating a person. According to those who have spent time with her, she’s harsh and demanding. According to those who haven’t — like her husband — she’s a delight. But Hollywood is going psycho for the former secretary of state, pumping out a veritable cornucopia of Hillary propaganda in preparation […]

In the 20th century, Western intellectuals’ two most dominant explanations of disparities in economic, educational and other achievements were innate racial differences in ability (in the early decades) and racial discrimination (in the later decades). In neither era were the intelligentsia receptive to other explanations. In each era, they were convinced that they had the […]

Sometimes life hits you like a roundhouse kick, reminding you about what really matters. That happened to me this past week with the life, bravery and fighting spirit of 35-year-old Jen Bulik. I was just about to continue my series on Thomas Jefferson and public education, when I read Jen’s story. (I’ll pick up that […]

The sexting scandal of Anthony Weiner, the disgraced former congressman and current New York mayoral candidate, puts into focus the importance of character to public service. Weiner’s texts, tweets and photos show not just a tawdry person but a risk-taking, deceitful individual who continued his serial texting and lied about it even as he prepared […]