Category: Column

We live in a stressful world, and stress has been identified as a prime health culprit. It reduces productivity and often brings illnesses — including high blood pressure and palpitations of the heart. The experts tell us we should relax, but the question is: how? You might not be able to relax where you are […]

Whether the matchup between Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney is the final bout on the GOP primary card is impossible to know. The whole season has been more like professional wrestling than boxing, with weird characters sporting implausible hair appearing out of nowhere to talk smack and explain why they are the greatest in the […]

“Alice in Wonderland” was written by a professor who also wrote a book on symbolic logic. So it is not surprising that Alice encountered not only strange behavior in Wonderland, but also strange and illogical reasoning — of a sort too often found in the real world, and which a logician would be very much […]

Last week, I discussed how Occupy protesters are being directly aided by the mainstream media and indirectly aided by White House stimulus money, as well as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s and even Vice President Joe Biden’s households. I also detailed how the mainstream media are accelerating their progressive blitz not only to hasten the […]

Mark Twain famously wrote that “no man’s property or liberty is safe while the Legislature is in session.” The same could have been said for the deficit reduction supercommittee. Now that it has reached an impasse, we can all breathe easier! There is a deep, fundamental difference between the parties in Washington. Democrats want higher […]

President Obama’s cheerleaders are starting to peel away along with his approval ratings, and it’s a fascinating sight to behold. They offer different reasons, but they all boil down to one obvious thing — Obama is first and foremost about Obama — and one less obvious: He has been a failed president. Democratic pollsters Pat […]

Now it’s Newt’s turn. Having risen to the top in some opinion polls, the former speaker of the House is taking heat for large consulting fees paid to him by the government-sponsored mortgage company Freddie Mac for wisdom a New York Times editorial said was so simplistic it might have come from a fortune cookie. […]

Supercommittee members Sen. Pat Toomey and Rep. Jeb Hensarling are taking flak from some conservatives for proposing a deal including increases in “revenues,” and a Washington Post reporter had some fun insinuating that they were backing a tax-rate increase. As this is written, no one knows what the supercommittee will do (or not do), but […]

By Wednesday, Nov. 23, the Deficit Reduction Panel has to report on ways to cut the federal deficit by at least $1.2 trillion over 10 years. Democrats refuse to support spending cuts unless Republicans agree to tax increases. And there is an increasing chance that the Republican members of the commission — or at least […]

Now that Newt Gingrich’s candidacy is rising to the top, expect the brickbats to be aimed at his head. The first to fly is the charge that he was paid off by Freddie Mac to do its bidding while the company, in concert with Fannie Mae, flooded the world with funny money mortgages and brought […]

You can’t spell “accountability” without “A,” “C” and “T.” But in Washington, government officials routinely get away with “taking personal responsibility” by mouthing empty words devoid of action. Heads nod in collective agreement that mistakes were made. But heads never roll. The Obama administration has raised this accountability charade to an art form. At a […]

Congratulations, average American! It’s your turn to be blamed for President Obama’s — and America’s — problems. This is the biggest honor you’ve won since Time magazine named “you” the Person of the Year. Being the root cause of our dire national predicament puts you in some very august company indeed. You are joining the […]

It is open season for the liberal media on any GOP presidential candidate who displays the audacity to surge in the polls, the latest targets being Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich. A reasonable case can be made for some of these criticisms, and conservatives often concede the weaknesses, but there is no justification for this […]

Since the congressional super committee appears unable, or unwilling, to take a lesson from Indiana or Virginia — where Republican governors have made spending cuts and delivered budget surpluses without damaging the social safety net — members might wish to consider Puerto Rico and what its governor, Luis Fortuno is doing. Fortuno is Puerto Rico’s […]

Recently, an open mic caught French President Nicolas Sarkozy and American President Barack Obama jointly trashing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Sarkozy scoffed, “I cannot stand him. He’s a liar.” Obama trumped that with, “You’re fed up with him, but I have to deal with him every day.” In one of the most bizarre op-eds […]

I just interviewed MSNBC “Hardball” host Chris Matthews about his new book, “Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero.” You know things didn’t go well when, a few minutes after the interview concludes, Matthews’ booker emails my producer: “I wish you would’ve let me know that Larry was planning on attacking Chris. Chris is always up for a […]

When the Israeli government captured Nazi mass murderer Adolf Eichmann, journalist Hannah Arendt was struck by the fact that Eichmann appeared to be a nondescript accountant type. He was not highly intelligent, and he did not appear to be particularly vicious. This led Arendt to the conclusion that anyone could, under the right ideological circumstances, […]

Since the congressional super committee appears unable, or unwilling, to take a lesson from Indiana or Virginia — where Republican governors have made spending cuts and delivered budget surpluses without damaging the social safety net — members might wish to consider Puerto Rico and what its governor, Luis Fortuno is doing. Fortuno is Puerto Rico’s […]

A just released book, “Bowing to Beijing” by Brett M. Decker and William C. Triplett II, will change forever the way you think about China — even if, like me, you already have the deepest worries about the Chinese threat. As I opened the book, I was expecting to find many useful examples of Chinese […]

The election of Barack Obama, we were told, would bring new respect and friendship for America in the world. No longer would we be led by a Texas cowboy ignorant of and indifferent to world opinion. Instead, we would have a visionary leader sympathetic to the governments and peoples of the world. But Obama’s best […]

In advance of Tinseltown’s parade of Christmas insensitivities — they’ve already unloaded the marijuana movie “A Very Harold and Kumar 3-D Christmas” — let us stipulate that it’s not just seasonal. The manufacturers of pop culture thrive on offending every traditional value. Start with Pamela Anderson, the ridiculously surgically enhanced former Playboy Playmate, home-movie porn […]

As the debates accumulate, it becomes more and more evident that Newt Gingrich’s intellect, experience, articulateness and depth of knowledge elevate him to the top of the field. Anyone should be happy to pay admission to watch him duel with Obama in debate. Newt’s not as charismatic as Cain or as smooth as Romney, but […]

What do you get when you mix Democratic fat-cat donations, Big Labor favors, pharmaceutical lobbying and Beltway business as usual? Answer: another toxic half-billion-dollar Barack Obama-approved crony deal. Move over, Solyndra. Here comes Siga-Gate. This latest Chicago-style payoff on your dime involves a dubious smallpox drug backed by a liberal billionaire investor, along with a […]

“The FDA is responsible for protecting the public health.” That’s what the Food and Drug Administration tells us on its website. My intuition makes me grateful that the FDA is there to protect me — to make sure that every drug is proven both safe and effective — but “protection” kills people. Last week, I […]

Is not: doing something the same as doing it, and should government be allowed to force you not to do the thing you’re already not doing by making you do it so you don’t not do it anymore? That is just one of the perplexing legal questions the Supreme Court will likely find a way to […]

National Public Radio proved a long time ago it disdains black conservatives. Remember when NPR’s Nina Totenberg launched the unproven sexual harassment charges against Clarence Thomas? NPR doesn’t even like black liberals who appear on Fox News: They canned Juan Williams. The sexual harassment charges against Herman Cain aren’t ruining him as quickly as the […]