Opinion and commentary on news, politics, culture, and policy impact.
The Independent Women’s Forum hosted the first Women LEAD Summit in Washington last week. More than 150 women representing a variety of policy, activist and student groups, diverse in age, color and background, came together because they shared a common cause: to reach more women with the message that conservative policy ideas will make their…
The term “net neutrality” refers to the principle that Internet service providers serving end users, such as Verizon and Comcast, should treat all communications that travel over their networks the same way. The concept is based on a network-engineering rule of thumb but never before had been enshrined in a governmental rule or regulation. In…
A recent report from the U.S. Trade Representative, titled “Leveling the Playing Field,” describes how the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership could reduce other countries’ trade barriers. There’s nothing wrong with that goal. But reducing self-destructive U.S. trade barriers also should be at the top of the priority list for U.S. negotiators. According to the report, the…
Every day there seems to be another article focused on how many individuals might lose their subsidies if the Supreme Court rules in favor of the plaintiffs in the King v. Burwell case. Yet, an even bigger group of individuals harmed by Obamacare has an equally good claim for relief that hasn’t gotten as much…
Since 2009, everyone has been waiting for a clear articulation of President Obama’s grand strategy. Indeed, careers have been made analyzing what this mysterious thinking might be. The administration has of course released documents like the 2015 National Security Strategy. But regrettably neither the military community nor the defense civilian establishment takes seriously such generic…
Facebook’s chairman and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, announced on social media he is currently reading “The Muqaddimah”—a book written in 1377 by the Islamic historian Ibn Khaldun about the history of the world. In less than 20 hours after posting this information, he had nearly 58,000 “likes.” Obviously, Zuckerberg is a very successful person, so it…
The special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom is a political creation that reflects underlying realities. To assess the future of that relationship, and how the EU will affect it, we need to know how it began. For the relationship to come into being, the U.K. and the U.S. had to meet…
Presidential historian H. W. Brands’ new biography of Ronald Reagan and his conclusion that modern American politics is best seen as “The Age of Reagan” has aroused liberals to circulate once again the hoariest myths about the man and his presidency, including the malicious charge that Reagan was deliberately indifferent to the lot of African-Americans…
What is China up to? It’s been building artificial islands in the South China Sea. Recently, two motorized artillery pieces were spotted on one of these artificial islands. Experts believe the Chinese may plan to use them as airstrips. On May 20 the Chinese navy challenged a U.S. surveillance aircraft flying near one of the…
The U.S. economy shrank by 0.7 percent last quarter, according to a revised estimate from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The contraction may be a temporary aberration, as it was last year. Or, it might signal the onset of a more troubling slowdown. But one thing is for sure: The Obama recovery is unusually lethargic. Since…
Earlier this month, the Obama administration released its latest blast on climate change: A cut-and-paste job from its own reports proclaiming that climate change has serious national security implications. This is embarrassingly shoddy stuff. But it’s shoddy for a reason. Now, nothing says credibility like a pile of old federal reports. But these reports do…
Utterly shameless. There really is no other way to describe what some unions are trying to pull when it comes to the minimum wage. The issue, of course, has been in the news quite a bit lately, especially in Los Angeles, with supposedly incensed workers waving their “Fight for 15” placards. It’s all perfectly packaged for the media,…
Dean Cheng, senior research fellow in The Heritage Foundation’s Asian Studies Center, has been in Singapore, where he was a guest at the region’s premier security conference, the Shangri-La Dialogue. With the close of the events here in Singapore, Southeast Asia and regional security analysts are busily mulling over this year’s Shangri-La Dialogue. The Dialogue…
If there was any confusion as to where Congress stood on Cuba, this week definitely put that to rest. From spending bills to legislation, a bipartisan coalition in Congress is pushing back against the Obama Administration. On Wednesday, the House passed the Commerce, Justice, and Science (CJS) spending bill which included a provision prohibiting either…
Monday was another “red letter” day for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA)—and not in a good way. Earlier this week, ABC News reported that undercover agents in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) successfully smuggled fake explosives and weapons through 67 of 70 checkpoints in a secret nationwide exercise. The agents, dubbed a Red Team…
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, May was a month of solid labor growth. The payroll survey found employers added 280,000 net new jobs, and the household survey found large numbers of Americans entering the labor force. Average wages also rose substantially. Over the past year average earnings have risen almost twice as fast…
Every American who buys gasoline pays 18.3 cents per gallon to the federal government’s Highway Trust Fund, which was created in 1956 to pay for the construction and maintenance of the interstate highway system. But in recent years, the Highway Trust Fund has expanded to spend motorists’ tax dollars on things that have little to…
Today, the second meeting of government experts for the U.N. “Programme of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons” wraps up in New York. In theory, the PoA, as it is known, is about controlling international arms smuggling. In practice, a lot of nations want to make it about gun control. So far, the U.S….
According to ABC News, the Transportation Security Administration failed to stop undercover agents in 67 out of 70 recent probes. David Inserra, who specializes in cyber and homeland security policy at The Heritage Foundation, wrote about the issue earlier this week: Importantly, it exposes the reality that government screeners are not necessarily the right answer…
De Beque, Colo., is little more than an outpost nestled along I-70 as it winds its way through the rugged hills of western Colorado. Clearly visible from the highway is the quirky façade of Kush Gardens, the first recreational pot shop to be approved in Mesa County. After the resounding passage in November 2012 of…