Category: Column

The selloff in gold that captured the world’s attention in mid-April has revealed some truths about how the market trades and the sentiments of many of the investors who have piled into the trade over the past few years. While the correction does highlight a higher degree of uncertainty than many of the most ardent […]

There are many ways to describe the enormous gap between the American people and their elected politicians. Most in official Washington tend to think that their elite community is smarter and better than the rest of us. Many hold a condescending view of voters and suggest that the general public is too ignorant to be […]

The most puzzling part of the investment business is seeing how the vast and largely economically illiterate masses interpret any given piece of news. Take the recent gold selloff: many large players were motivated to sell by news that Cyprus will have to liquidate its gold stockpiles to pay off acute debt obligations. But just […]

You can tell the conservatives liberals fear most because they start being automatically referred to as “discredited.” Ask Sen. Ted Cruz. But no one is called “discredited” by liberals more often than the inestimable economist John Lott, author of the groundbreaking bookMore Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws. Lott’s economic analysis of […]

Since antiquity, the Middle East has been the trading nexus of three continents — Asia, Europe and Africa — and vibrant birthplace to three of the world’s great religions. Middle Eastern influence rose again in the 19th century when the Suez Canal turned the once dead-end Eastern Mediterranean Sea into a sea highway from Europe […]

Compared to the hell Jackie Robinson went through, Jason Collins is getting a ticker tape parade. Collins, a 12-year National Basketball Association player, recently wrote a column in which he announced that he is gay: “I didn’t set out to be the first openly gay (male) athlete playing in a major American team sport. But […]

There’s the story of a woman with five kids who was asked if she had to do it all over again would she have five children? “Yes,” she said, “just not these five.” That’s the way I feel about the immigration “reform” bill introduced by the Senate’s bipartisan “Gang of 8.” I’m all for an […]

“We’re eyeball to eyeball, and I think the other fellow just blinked,” Secretary of State Dean Rusk famously said during the Cuban missile crisis. Barack Obama has been doing a lot of blinking lately. On Syria especially. “There would be enormous consequences if we start seeing movements on the chemical weapons front or the use […]

Do you remember what happened last year on 9/14? Where are the White House phone calls for the families who continue to grieve? What is being done to prevent another fatal attack like the one on 9/14? And why is the full truth being withheld from the American public? Benghazi isn’t the only bloody disaster […]

Most Americans — even those who are legislators — know very little about the details of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act, so-called Obamacare. Next year, when it goes into effect, we will learn the hard way. Many people lazily assume that the law will do roughly what it promises: give insurance to the uninsured and […]

The liberal world vision and reality are often at variance, for example, with equal pay for equal work. I’ve often watched “Lockup,” a show that features California supermax prisons, including Pelican Bay and Corcoran. Often, a recalcitrant prisoner must be extracted from his cell through brute force. I’ve never seen female guards remove a prisoner. […]

In the new sci-fi movie “Oblivion,” Earth’s most precious resource is Tom Cruise. But running a close second (spoiler alert) is water. Aliens want it. All of it. This is old hat, science fiction-wise. In “The War of the Worlds,” H.G. Wells had Martians coming to Earth to quench their thirst. The extraterrestrial lizards (cleverly […]

Listen to the air going out of the economy; it sounds like an air mattress deflating. As Obamacare comes closer to reality, its drawbacks — or at the very least its growing pains — alienate more of its erstwhile supporters. President Obama’s failure to pass the gun control bill was more than a legislative reversal. […]

PARIS — In the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing, it’s only natural to ask why some terrorists are only caught after they’ve inflicted carnage on innocent civilians. What went wrong? Here are a few significant reasons why authorities still manage to miss terrorism until it’s too late: 1. It doesn’t help that U.S. Director […]

On Monday, former Washington Wizards center Jason Collins revealed to the world that he is gay, prompting a complete media meltdown. Collins appeared on Good Morning America; he made the cover of Sports Illustrated; he became the lead on Huffington Post. The president of the United States congratulated him at a press conference, and the […]

While it is not possible to answer all the e-mails and letters from readers, many are thought-provoking, whether those thoughts are positive or negative. An e-mail from one young man simply asked for the sources of some facts about gun control that were mentioned in a recent column. It is good to check out the […]

In 1787, when delegates at the Constitutional Convention were divided and at an impasse regarding how to build our government and frame the U.S. Constitution, 81-year-old Benjamin Franklin appealed to the other delegates to pray for divine intervention to help them out of their darkness: “In this situation of this assembly, groping as it were […]

PinocchiObama is at it again, using his weekly address to the nation to spin tall tales, demonize and scapegoat Republicans, misidentify the nation’s problems, and propose the exact wrong solutions. He opened up this week’s fiction with the umpteenth repetition of his empty claim that the nation’s top priority “must be growing the economy, creating […]

It is well known that most college students engage at one time or another in what is known as a “hookup” — an emotionless, commitment-less sexual encounter. Yesterday, I interviewed Donna Freitas, author of “The End of Sex: How Hookup Culture is Leaving a Generation Unhappy, Sexually Unfulfilled, and Confused About Intimacy.” In our dialogue, […]

The Pecksniffs of America had nothing but scorn for Congress’ vote last week to stop furloughs of air traffic controllers, which were ostensibly mandated under the 2011 Budget Control Act. Congress failed to act to stop cuts to Head Start and Meals On Wheels, critics sneered, but did stop the Federal Aviation Administration cuts largely […]

Addressing a meeting of Planned Parenthood last Friday, President Obama accused pro-lifers of wanting to “turn back the clock to policies more suited to the 1950s than the 21st century.” Like any decade, the ’50s had its problems — racism, discrimination, sexism — but I’ll defend the ’50s on other grounds, if the president will […]

Throwing basketballs is wrong and will get you fired – but blaming America for the Boston bombings is acceptable. That is what can be learned if one reviews recent behaviors. Recently, Rutgers University hired a major PR Agency, Hill+Knowlton as the result of the release of a leaked video showing Rutgers’ basketball coach Mike Rice […]

Since the Boston terrorist attack on 4/15/13 we’ve been learning a whole lot about the two Muslim morons who blew up little children and severely injured hundreds of innocent onlookers and merry marathon runners. Speaking of the Boston terrorist attack, how long do you think it’ll be before the Leftists and their co-belligerent: compadres, the Muslims, […]

To call the Tsarnaev family a “piece of work” is an insult to work. But they are a piece of something, something the editors won’t let me write here (just think of what last night’s dinner is now). Not only were Tamerlan, the Boston terrorist currently burning in Hell, and Dzhokhar, the Boston terrorist soon […]

Proms sure have gotten expensive these days. According to the San Jose Mercury News, high school kids spend nearly $4 billion annually for dresses, accessories, flowers, beauty products, limos and other prom-related items. The average couple spends upward of $1,000 for the one-time event. That got me thinking about my own prom in 1980. I […]

“What difference, at this point, does it make?” That was former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s angry response to a question about the State Department’s account of the attack on the Benghazi consulate where Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were murdered on Sept. 11, 2012. Her response was cheered by leftist commentators on […]