Opinion and commentary on news, politics, culture, and policy impact.
In a striking development, perhaps demonstrating the tremendous international pressure on Pakistan to crack down on terrorist groups within its borders, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has reportedly ordered the Pakistan army and Inter-Service Intelligence Directorate (ISI) to back the civilian government in reining in such groups. Rarely has any civilian government in Pakistan stood…
“When you’re going fishing, go where the fish are.” To William E. Simon Jr., that means strengthening community by starting with the life of the local Catholic parish. He wrote his new book, Simon explains, to help parishes become thriving places of worship and community, which in turn will influence the lives of millions of…
Hurricane Matthew is big, dangerous, and (if it makes landfall) something not seen in the continental United States for a decade. This, of course, means it will be linked to global warming. There will be a lot of “scientists say we can expect,” but little actual data. That’s because the data show for the last…
Members of Congress are back on the campaign trail, but before they left Washington, Republican congressional leaders released their list of “accomplishments.” See if any of these would make your list.
Congress is up to no good. Lawmakers passed a continuing resolution before the end of the fiscal year that will fund the government only until Dec. 9. This means Congress most likely will enact another spending package in a lame-duck session, with the strong temptation to bust the budget yet again. With a $600 billion…
Teenager Ryan Turk faces criminal charges for disorderly conduct and petit larceny for allegedly stealing a 65 cent carton of milk from his middle school cafeteria in Virginia. That’s right, the criminal justice system is utilizing the time, expense, and effort needed to adjudicate a criminal matter in a dispute over a carton of milk….
A new working paper by economists Emmanuel Saez and Stefanie Stantcheva purports to overturn a widely cited finding that capital should not be taxed; it fails. Rather than offering new insights on minimizing the distortion from taxation, the authors emphasize targeting taxes to achieve arbitrary goals for redistributing wealth. In the mid-1980s, economic theorists Kenneth…
Speculation about Russian interference in the upcoming U.S. presidential election is flowing fast in the U.S. media. Russia was widely believed to be responsible for embarrassing email hacks at the Democratic National Convention. Speculation abounds in the media that the Russian government might try to throw the U.S. election this way or that with a…
In the wake of the New York and New Jersey bombings, and coming on the heels of the 15th anniversary of Sept. 11 last month, security measures like bomb-sniffing dogs are getting a lot of attention. Bomb-sniffing dogs are an essential component of security, keeping Americans safe at home and especially as they travel. Yet bomb-sniffing…
The Obama administration is pulling on both ends of the rope in the tug-of-war over housing regulation. Heritage Foundation calculations found that the typical American household spends an extra $1,700 a year due to land use regulation. Households on both coasts pay much more. Joining Heritage on one end of the tug-of-war, the administration released…
Friends at the Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site near St. Louis tell me most visitors arrive with little knowledge of Grant—but leave with deep appreciation. In my biography of Abraham Lincoln, I wrote of Grant, the decorated Civil War general, but I now confess: I did not fully know the man. Grant’s rise to…
The Heritage Foundation was on the road in Africa last month with a message of economic freedom. The final stop was Ghana, whose capital is Accra. Ghana is the second most populous country in West Africa, after Nigeria, and has a population of nearly 25 million. Famed for its production of cocoa beans as well…
Friday marked the 40th anniversary of the Hyde Amendment—one of the nation’s most important pro-life laws, credited with saving the lives of millions of unborn children. Shortly after the Supreme Court invented a right to abortion on demand in 1973, leaders in Congress sought to at least prevent American taxpayers from being forced to pay for…
By virtually any measure, America’s freight rail system is one of the best in the world. In fact, rail transports a full 40 percent of freight moved in the United States. But rogue federal regulators may change that. Since 1981, when a bipartisan congressional effort largely deregulated the nation’s freight rail providers, Americans have enjoyed…
Earlier this week, The Wall Street Journal ran an interesting editorial critiquing the endorsement decisions of Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, with regard to the coming presidential election. Several months ago, I took issue with The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page for holding Donald Trump and Ted Cruz to different standards: understanding the anti-establishment appeal of…
President Barack Obama’s signature health care law is failing and his administration will go to seemingly any length to prop it up. You know the famous quote from “Animal Farm” that “all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others?” This was George Orwell’s attempt to point out the hypocrisy that many…
Three decades ago, then-Attorney General Edwin Meese III initiated a spirited national debate about the proper application of our most important governing document—the U.S. Constitution. His goal was to persuade judges, even Supreme Court judges, to agree they should respect the text of the Constitution and the intent of the Founders who wrote it. Meese,…
Russia’s invasion of eastern Ukraine and annexation of Crimea have left many wondering: Where next for Moscow? While no one can read Russian President Vladimir Putin’s mind, we can examine historical precedent to construct feasible scenarios for future Russian action. Here, we'll review six such scenarios, each reflecting three assumptions regarding how Putin sees Russia’s…
Reports that the Obama administration has gone into overdrive to process applicants for U.S. citizenship prior to the presidential election have a familiar ring. Twenty years ago, the Clinton administration engaged in exactly the same maneuver before the 1996 presidential election, and I was an unwitting beneficiary. Sens. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Ron Johnson, R-Wis.,…
In the early morning hours of June 12, an armed terrorist named Omar Mateen opened fire in a nightclub in Orlando, Florida. The next morning, Americans awoke to the news that 49 people had been murdered—the largest such massacre in American history. This heinous act left Americans, as well as the Orlando community, grieving and searching…