Category: Column

Unlicensed drivers are nearly three times likelier than licensed drivers to cause a fatal crash in California. Indeed, unlicensed drivers are likelier to cause fatal crashes than drivers who have had their licenses suspended or revoked. So found a new study released by the California Department of Motor Vehicles. The study recommended “the use of […]

HONG KONG — We read about famous people like French film star Gerard Depardieu, who moved to Belgium to avoid a 75 percent income tax on millionaires proposed by France’s Socialist government (a measure rejected last week by a French council, though French leadership has vowed to resubmit a similar proposal). Then there is Eduardo […]

Predicting events can be a dangerous game. That’s because some people simply project wishful thinking, allowing their personal biases to obscure reality. We see it repeatedly during election season. The key to making accurate predictions is absolute objectivity: observing patterns in a detached manner, drawing inferences and applying them to new developments in order to […]

As the clock winds down on 2012, the Fiscal Cliff is all anyone seems capable of discussing. Right now it appears that some sort of narrow deal has just emerged that will include raising tax rates on family income over $450,000 a year, increasing the estate tax rate, extending unemployment benefits for one year, and […]

There’s a natural human impulse to help people who need a hand. In the political world, that often translates to an impulse to have government help people who need a hand. Who wants to argue with that? But experience tells us that it’s not always easy to help. Individuals’ good intentions go awry. Government programs […]

It’s that time again — time to make resolutions we won’t keep, spend two weeks writing the wrong date on checks and to look back on the year we’re leaving. As for 2012, it can’t end quickly enough. It was an awful year for many reasons. Let me count just a few of the ways: […]

Senator Dianne Feinstein is queuing up come January 2013 to retable–yet again–an Assault Weapons Ban (AWB) in order to “severely mitigate the possibilities of another Sandy Hook atrocity.” Great idea, Dianne, as the first AWB that Clinton signed into law worked wonders in schools from 1994-2004. It was awesome. It panned out wonderfully aside from […]

With humble apologies to Ernest Lawrence Thayer, who wrote “Casey at the Bat,” which was published in The San Francisco Examiner in 1888. The outlook wasn’t brilliant for the GOP this year: The economy had tanked; hope and change had morphed to fear. The strong and swift refused to join the presidential race. So the […]

One of my New Year’s resolutions is to work harder to persuade ideological friends and foes alike that the way to reduce partisanship and maximize happiness in America is to embrace federalism — the view that we should push as many decisions as possible to the lowest local level feasible. Federalism reduces partisanship by shrinking […]

The reason President Obama and Republicans can’t come to an agreement on the fiscal cliff negotiations is that they don’t share the same goals. This is also the key to understanding why President Obama appears far less worried about going over the cliff. Republicans are focused on restoring the nation’s financial health by promoting economic […]

…Is Michael Moore going to give up his armed security guards? …Can celebrities like Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Tom Hanks and Lindsay Lohan get rid of their armed bodyguards? …When will Michael Bloomberg declare that he doesn’t want any armed protection? …Can Congress fire all its security guards and use the money to pay down […]

Is it just me, or does Kwanzaa seem to come earlier and earlier each year? And let’s face it, Kwanzaa’s gotten way too commercialized. A few years ago, I suspended my annual Kwanzaa column because my triumph over this fake holiday seemed complete. The only people still celebrating Kwanzaa were presidential-statement writers and white female […]

The year 2012 saw the triumph of cold reality over pie-in-the-sky dreams. Barack Obama in 2008 won an election on an upbeat message of change in the hope that the first black president would mark a redemptive moment in American history. Four years later, the fantasies are gone. In continuing dismal economic times, Obama ran […]

In combing through the results of the 2012 election — apparently finally complete, nearly two months after the fact — I continue to find many similarities between 2012 and 2004, and one enormous difference. Both of the elections involved incumbent presidents with approval ratings hovering around or just under 50 percent facing challengers who were […]

Abandon all hope, ye who watch the “fiscal cliff” drama. There has been serious pressure on House Republicans to buckle and pass the extension of the Bush tax cuts for 98 percent of income tax filers demanded by President Barack Obama. I would have cried, “Uncle.” Polls show that voters are predisposed to blame Republicans […]

Over at: the Corner, David French: made a brilliant point about something that has become one of the central problems of governing America in an opulent age of runaway partisanship, infinite niches and a fractured society. Over at the Daily Beast, Megan McArdle has a long, bleakly realistic piece explaining why there’s little we can do – […]

These simple common-sense steps are adapted from a post I published on my blog after the horrific Newtown, Conn., massacre. Our hearts ache, but we are not completely helpless or hopeless in the face of evil and the unknown. And we are not alone. This Christmas, cherish life, keep faith and practice self-empowerment. 7. Teach […]

Charity — helping people who have trouble helping themselves — is a good thing two times over. It’s good for the beneficiary and good for the donor, too. Stephen Post’s fine book, “The Hidden Gifts of Helping,” reveals that 76 percent of Americans say that helping others is what makes them most happy. Giving money […]

Here’s the first paragraph of my last year’s column “Democracy Is Impossible”: “After Moammar Gadhafi’s downfall as Libya’s tyrannical ruler, politicians and ‘experts’ in the U.S. and elsewhere, including French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe, are saying that his death marked the end of 42 years of tyranny and the beginning of democracy in Libya. Sen. […]

Random thoughts on the passing scene: When I was growing up, an older member of the family used to say, “What you don’t know would make a big book.” Now that I am an older member of the family, I would say to anyone, “What you don’t know would fill more books than the Encyclopedia […]

Imagine it’s Christmas Eve in your local church and the offering plate is passed to help a local orphanage build an addition because there’s “no room in the inn.” But just when you’re about to give generously to the cause, you recall that politicians in Washington recently voted to reduce tax deductions for charitable giving. […]

When I was 20, I spent my junior year in college in England. When classes let out for the last two weeks of December, I traveled to Morocco, where something life-changing occurred. What happened was that I felt a longing, even an emptiness, I had never before experienced. Something was missing from my life, but […]

Most people who haven’t finished their shopping are starting to worry about what gifts to give a friend, relative or spouse. Quick, what did you give or receive last year? How about two years ago? Most of us can’t remember, unless it was a big-ticket item. What if you could give a gift that mattered; […]

Last week, Republicans proved they are not a governing party. Next week we will see whether Democrats are. A governing party would have, reluctantly, passed Speaker John Boehner’s Plan B, which would have preserved the current tax rates on everyone with incomes under $1 million. Passage would have put Senate Democrats on the spot, since […]

Was there anything about the Sandy Hook massacre the media got right on the day it happened? In their rush to be first, they ignored their obligation to be right. Nearly every detail they disseminated Friday was wrong, even down to the name of the killer. Their desire to sensationalize had them shoving microphones in […]

When terrorists attack Americans, Washington should always follow this simple rule: Blame the terrorists first. Retired Adm. Mike Mullen stuck to that rule when he rolled out an independent review, led by former Ambassador Thomas Pickering, on the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. special mission in Benghazi, Libya, that led to the murder of […]

You’re sound asleep when you hear a thump outside your bedroom door. Half-awake, and nearly paralyzed with fear, you hear muffled whispers. At least two people have broken into your house and are moving your way. With your heart pumping, you reach down beside your bed and pick up your shotgun. You rack a shell […]

Pastor Saeed Abedini is an American citizen; a Christian who has been seized by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and is being held in the notorious Evin Prison.: : Abedini is a former leader of Iran’s house-church movement — and is being abused in Iran simply because of his faith.: : Iran refuses to release him. The American Center of Law […]

While it may not be a surprise that the Republicans are preparing to yield on their vow to oppose tax hikes, it should raise investor concerns the world over that an upcoming budget agreement will likely involve a Congressional surrender of its authority to set the federal debt ceiling. In exchange for this, it appears […]