Opinion and commentary on news, politics, culture, and policy impact.
Maybe we need to start talking about the consequences of living in Mark Zuckerberg’s America. It’s easy to see Facebook as the new town square. Friends, family, and acquaintances may live far apart, but on the Facebook news feed, the mixture of personal updates and news stories allow conversations and exchanges of viewpoints to continue,…
Warning: Spoilers Loki, Ultron, Red Skull, and Hydra—moviegoers might be familiar by now with the list of Marvel Comics’ villains. But in “Captain America: Civil War,” the latest film in the Avengers series, Marvel introduces perhaps the most dangerous of them all—the United Nations. While the Avengers are well versed in handling enemies with powers like super…
Liberals, stop being so defensive. That’s the message of Harvard law professor Mark Tushnet in a new post at Balkinization, titled “Abandoning Defensive Crouch Liberal Constitutionalism.” The problem, according to Tushnet, is that liberals have been too defensive when it comes to advancing their agenda in the courts. Tushnet blames what he calls the “culture…
Now that the Obama administration is spiraling down to a sputtering end, the misguided architects of its disastrous Middle East policies are clamoring to defend what they see as Obama’s positive legacy in the Iran nuclear deal. The latest case in point is the disturbing article published last week in The New York Times Magazine…
The race for the GOP presidential nomination this year has been one of the most interesting in decades. Most candidates on the Republican ticket made a clear effort to cast themselves as outsiders, fed up with Washington’s failure to follow through on promises made in prior elections. The two finalists with the most electoral votes, Donald…
Congress is considering giving the Department of Homeland Security the authority to move around some of its funds to the beleaguered Transportation Security Administration as lines at airports grow. While this redirection might be a short-term solution (and maybe not even that as it will take time to hire and train these screeners), it is…
Kenyan police announced this week that they had arrested a man interning at a Kenyan hospital who was planning a major anthrax attack on the country. Police in neighboring Uganda arrested two alleged accomplices, and Kenyan police are still searching for two others they claim were involved in the plot. Authorities believe the man, Mohammed…
The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ April jobs report contained mixed economic news. The agency reported wages grew healthily, overall unemployment did not rise, and long-term unemployment fell slightly in April. At the same time, job growth slowed and labor force participation dropped. The labor market is not contracting, but it is not growing as quickly…
The federal government has wasted billions on energy projects promising to usher in a new energy future. All Washington can do is play favorites when picking energy options (think Solyndra). Why? Because revolutions don’t come from the government—they come from the people, and the same holds true for energy. Despite many attempts to force it,…
Chicago Public Schools announced on Monday that students and staff must be granted unfettered access to intimate school facilities based on their chosen gender identity. Because both transgender and non-transgender students have valid interests at stake, accommodation with private facilities is the sensitive and sensible solution, but advocates on the left say that’s discrimination. Put…
On Feb. 22, President Barack Obama requested an emergency supplemental appropriations bill to respond to public health concerns of the Zika virus. The request includes a total of $1.885 billion in additional funding in excess of the $518.491 billion in total base nondefense discretionary budget authority already available for fiscal year 2016. If the president’s…
In Ray Bradbury’s classic dystopian novel, “Fahrenheit 451,” a future society criminalizes the possession of books and burns them in order to suppress any dissenting ideas, opinions, and views. Today, we have state attorneys general trying to implement their own version of “Fahrenheit 451” to criminalize dissent over a disputed, unproven scientific theory: man-induced climate…
In 1992 Hillary Clinton sneered at the idea of being a homemaker, even as she was about to assume the unelected role of first lady. “I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas,” she said, “but what I decided to do was to fulfill my profession which I entered before…
The Obama administration’s decision recently to honor two former Navy SEALs, killed in the line of duty overseas, is so obviously the right one and should have been taken long ago. The case that brought the change in policy was that of Benghazi victim Glen Doherty, whose family has been clamoring for justice, or at least…
The New York Times has declared the first American climate refugees. The article, published on May 2, tells the story of families living in southeastern Louisiana on the Isle de Jean Charles who will have to relocate (apparently due to man-made climate change). The article begins by warning that, “Around the globe, governments are confronting the…
It is no surprise that “lawfare” attacks by the left on traditional American values have ramped up since President Barack Obama took office. What has been surprising, though, is how swiftly many major U.S. corporations have acted to support its radical agenda. Why has this happened? Is it simply a case of corporate cronyism? Or…
UnitedHealthcare’s decision to not offer Affordable Care Act exchange plans next year in “at least 26 of the 34 states where it sold 2016 coverage” may soon be followed by similar announcements from other health care insurers. At least that is one implication that can be drawn from the findings reported in a new paper…
One need look no further than the current presidential election to see how frustrated Americans are with both their government and the direction of the country. But many wonder what they, as average citizens, can do about it. Fox News analyst and military veteran Pete Hegseth says the answer to that question may lie in…
More than 1,000 girls and women die in honor killings in Pakistan each year. The United Nations estimates that there are about 5,000 honor killings around the world annually, including in the U.S. and Europe. Honor killings are murders or attempted murders generally carried out by male family members against female family members as punishment…
Last month, British Airways reported that a jet on final approach into London’s Heathrow Airport hit a small unmanned aircraft system, commonly known as a drone. Regulation-happy bureaucrats and headline-seeking media organizations seized the report as proof that drones are as dangerous to our skies as they would have people believe. But it seems those early reports…