Opinion and commentary on news, politics, culture, and policy impact.
A woman is suing the Drug Enforcement Administration after an agent copied pictures from her cellphone in order to create a fake Facebook profile in her name–all without her knowledge or consent. Sondra Arquiett, the plaintiff in the suit, was arrested in 2010 on charges of possession with intent to distribute cocaine. Law enforcement officials…
What is the Pentagon trying to do with this new Ebola domestic response team? When called upon by other parts of the federal government (or state governors) for help in domestic emergencies (hurricanes, floods, etc.), the Defense Department provides support. It can be logistical, medical or related tosecurity and transportation. This mission, which is part…
Renowned author George Gilder recently told an audience at The Heritage Foundation that conservatives have a fundamental problem in their economic ideology when it comes to money. They’re all for free markets in other areas of the economy, but when it comes to this one topic, they want not just rules but rules that don’t…
“When I would pick her up almost every evening, she would wait until she got into the car and she would just start weeping.” That’s what Veronica, mother of Salima, who has Down syndrome, says in a powerful video about her daughter’s experience at her assigned public school. But thanks to a fairly new school…
September 4, 1839 Start of the First Opium War between China and Great Britain. Although some historians and figures at the time, including our sixth president John Quincy Adams, believed this war was over free trade, it has always been China’s position that it was unfairly waged over the right to let Britain sell opium…
“We are in a dangerous place in the world, perhaps more dangerous than in the past 10 years.” That’s what former Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff had to say when he visited the Heritage Foundation recently. With reports of terrorist groups such as the Islamic State, often referred to as ISIS, all over the…
Juan Seguín, José Antonio Navarro, Lorenzo de Zavala. Recognize any of those names? If so, you know your Texas history well. If not, you may be a victim of political correctness. That’s because these three men don’t fit into the standard historical narrative in Texas. All were war heroes, fighting for Texas’ independence from Mexico…
For years, those in favor of same-sex marriage have argued that all Americans should be free to live as they choose. And yet in countless cases, the government has coerced those who simply wish to be free to live in accordance with their belief that marriage is the union of a man and a woman. Ministers face…
“What is history but a fable agreed upon?” as Napoleon once put it, and never has that been more true than the story of the Great Depression and its aftermath. With liberals again pitching more government spending “stimulus” in Washington, it’s critical we get this history right. In a previous column I unmasked the historical…
The White House has declared Ebola to be a top national-security concern. That ought to worry Americans. The last time a president tried to make a disease a national-security issue, he helped trigger a global pandemic that killed 50 million people. Progressives like to expropriate the label of national security to help drive their agendas….
Francis Collins, chief of the National Institute of Health, recently blamed the lack of any cure for, or vaccine against, Ebola on budget cuts, stating, “Frankly, if we had not gone through our 10-year slide in research support, we probably would have had a vaccine in time for this that would’ve gone through clinical trials…
This month marks the 50th anniversary of the Free Speech Movement at the University of California, Berkeley. The student movement that sparked the rebellions of the 1960s is widely celebrated, particularly at Berkeley, which has hosted several dozen special classes, sing-ins and lots of “political” poetry over the past month. Berkeley’s embrace of the FSM…
Should "climate change" really be a top priority for America's military? >>> Hey, Defense Department: Focus on ISIS, not Climate Change
The naming of Ron Klain as the new Ebola czar leaves me with a couple of questions. Do we need a “czar” at all? And why is this guy who we picked? On the positive side, one of the biggest problems with the Ebola response so far is the poor communications effort, and lack of…
You’d be hard pressed to find a lawyer willing to defend the overly broad subpoenas that were issued by the City of Houston to a group of pastors in connection with a lawsuit that I discussed here. To recap this sorry tale: a number of pastors helped organize a petition drive calling for a referendum…
Ebola may be the only news you paid attention to this week (how could you not), but photo journalists all over the world captured everything from airstrikes to circus elephants. Check out some of their best work, and catch up on this week's news in the 18 photos below. Remember ISIS? A U.S.-led coalition is…
Fortunately for the interests of American democracy, the First Amendment and citizen advocacy, state prosecutors in Wisconsin have just lost another round in their outrageous attempt to criminalize political speech and silence the voices of conservatives in Wisconsin. On Oct. 14, federal district court Judge Rudolph Randa issued a temporary injunction prohibiting the Wisconsin Government…
The New York Times published a lengthy article Wednesday about chemical weapons found in Iraq. When it comes to chemical weapons, the New York Times charged that the culprits are the Bush administration and the Pentagon, which allegedly covered up the medical risks that the illegal weapons posed to American and Iraqi soldiers. It essentially…
Last week in Santa Monica, California, President Obama spoke of the achievements of the millennial generation—those of us born after 1980 and before the mid-2000s. He praised millennials for being the most educated, energetic, and tech-savvy generation ever, but he left out one important distinction: We are the most indebted generation in American history. And…
The Benghazi Accountability Coalition has called on Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, to depose former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta as soon as possible. Whether Gowdy agrees remains to be seen. Why call committee members back less than three weeks before the mid-term election, rather than wait for…