Category: Column

Time for a postmortem on the race for the Republican presidential nomination. Yes, I know Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich are still out there saying interesting things. And that Rick Santorum says it’s only halftime and argues he can somehow overtake Mitt Romney by carrying his home state of Pennsylvania. But polls there show a […]

Why is the federal government under President Barack Obama arguably tougher on medical marijuana operations than it was under George W. Bush? That’s the question that anti-drug-war groups have been asking themselves for months. In 2008, antiprohibitionists thought an Obama administration would not tread on medical marijuana dispensaries in states where they are legal. Obama’s […]

Passover 2012, which started at sunset on Friday, April 6, will not be a particularly auspicious one for the Jewish people. Despite being superficially strong in many ways, Israel — the sole Jewish state — and Jews in general face more determined opposition than they have at any time since World War II. From terrorists […]

Marion Barry’s mouth set him up. The disgraced former mayor of Washington, D.C., who was caught on tape in a 1987 crack cocaine sting, made an even bigger disgrace of himself and his city on Tuesday. Celebrating a Democratic primary victory, the city councilman attacked small businesses owned by “Asians” in his district. Then the […]

In his speech before the Newspapers Association of America/American Society of News Editors Wednesday, likely GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney accused the president of changing positions to get re-elected. For instance, Romney charged that, “As president,” Obama “delayed the development of our oil and coal and natural gas. Now, as candidate Obama, he says he […]

Is President Obama such a die-hard leftist ideologue that he can’t get it right on judicial review, despite having time to reflect and regroup after his impertinent comments designed to intimidate the court? As everyone knows, Obama said Monday, “Ultimately, I’m confident that the Supreme Court will not take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary […]

MTV is now trying to lure young viewers with a saucy sex show in the “advice” category. They didn’t reach for Dr. Drew or God forbid Dr. Ruth or an actual doctor of anything. They turned to filthy sex columnist and gay activist Dan Savage. The new show is called “Savage U,” and it documents […]

2012 should prove to be an ideological election about the economy. Not all campaigns are so clear cut. Sometimes moderate Republicans raise taxes (like George H.W. Bush did); at other times, pragmatic Democrats cut spending (like Bill Clinton did). But this year, Mitt Romney, the likely Republican nominee, will run an ideological campaign calling for […]

Why did the Trayvon Martin case become such a huge national story? Is it because an innocent black teenager lost his life at the hands of a man, George Zimmerman, who “racially profiled” him? Is it that the victim is black and the shooter was not? Is it because the major media push the narrative […]

It’s not until the final book of “The Hunger Games” trilogy that Katniss Everdeen learns that Panem, the name of her country in the dystopian world, comes from the Latin phrase “Panem et Circenses.” The phrase “bread and circuses,” her mentor tells her, comes from a Roman writer who lamented that “in return for full […]

Next week the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans (www.horatioalger.org) will celebrate its 65th anniversary. I confess I did not know of its existence until I read their ad in an airline magazine. I am familiar with Horatio Alger, the man, who inspired generations of boys, and later girls, with stories of people overcoming difficult […]

Pssst. Want to buy some Stossels? They’re my own currency with my face on them. Why should you trust them? Because I promise to redeem them for gold. And I’m reliable. I have money in the bank and a job that brings in more than I spend. By contrast, the politicians who back American currency […]

How many times have you heard Barack Obama talk about “investing” in education? Quite a few, if you’ve been listening to the president at all. In fact, Americans have been investing more and more in education over the years, led by presidents Democratic and Republican. But it’s become glaringly clear that we’re getting pretty lousy […]

A few weeks ago, Obama senior adviser and seasoned Chicago operative David Axelrod joked on MSNBC about election corruption. Asked whether “vote early and often” scams had come to an end in his shady hometown, Axelrod snarked: “Well, certainly on the air.” Yuk, yuk, yuk. Behind the scenes, Democrats have been busy faking petition signatures, […]

Pssst. Want to buy some Stossels? They’re my own currency with my face on them. Why should you trust them? Because I promise to redeem them for gold. And I’m reliable. I have money in the bank and a job that brings in more than I spend. By contrast, the politicians who back American currency […]

Public misunderstanding, ignorance and possibly contempt for liberty play into the hands of people who want to control our lives. Responses to my recent column “Compliant Americans” brought this home to me. In it, I argued that the anti-tobacco movement became the template and inspiration for other forms of government intrusion, such as bans on […]

The conventional wisdom in Washington, D.C., is even more demented that usual in its confident prediction of an Barack Obama victory. The fact is that a careful analysis of the polling suggests that he faces the likelihood that his political base will underperform in the 2012 election, voting with their feet by staying home. An […]

One of the highly developed talents of President Barack Obama is the ability to say things that are demonstrably false, and make them sound not only plausible but inspiring. That talent was displayed just this week when he was asked whether he thought the Supreme Court would uphold ObamaCare as constitutional or strike it down […]

Anyone who’s had a casual conversation with his neighbors or is cognizant of reality TV should already be petrified of democracy. But if the Supreme Court — or, as Barack Obama likes to refer to them, an “unelected group of people” — overturns Obamacare’s individual mandate, the president says that the court would be taking […]

America’s constitutional structure is built on checks and balances. The idea behind these checks and balances is simple: We want interest counteracting interest, ego counteracting ego. We don’t want any one person to gain too much power — or any one faction or any one way of thought. Gridlock, for lack of a better word, […]

My fiancee insists on having our wedding at “THE most magical place to get married,” this beautiful lake resort. Her family’s well-off, but having it there creates a financial hardship for my relatives and our friends, who are working crappy jobs in a terrible economy. Our guests mostly live in our hometown, and the lake […]

It looks as if it’s going to be Mitt Romney after all. With Paul Ryan, Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush endorsing the former Massachusetts governor last week, there aren’t any white knights left to play the role of GOP savior. But that news hasn’t reached his competitors yet. Psychoanalyzing the remaining contenders for why they […]

All of us have awakened on a given morning not really “feeling” like going to work. Maybe a mild headache threatens, or we are fatigued from lack of sufficient sleep. Perhaps we are facing a difficult assignment. Being a responsible individual, however, we roll out of bed, head for the kitchen for a cup of […]

Last week, Mitt Romney described Russia as America’s “No. 1 geopolitical foe,” prompting Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to respond: “I think it’s somewhat dated to be looking backwards instead of being realistic about where we agree, where we don’t agree.” While Romney’s basic sentiment is correct, Clinton is also right in suggesting that Romney’s […]

A long-standing legal charade was played out again recently, when Federal Express paid $3 million to settle an employment discrimination case brought by the U.S. Department of Labor. Federal Express was accused of both racial discrimination and sex discrimination. FedEx denied it. Why then did they pay the $3 million? Because it can cost a […]