Opinion and commentary on news, politics, culture, and policy impact.
A second case of Ebola has Americans rightly scratching their heads. Does our government really know what it’s doing? From the way the U.S. government communicates “risks” sometimes, it’s hard to tell. The single most important tool the government has for responding to a public health threat such as Ebola is “legitimacy.” When Americans believe…
Among President Obama’s many high-profile health care promises, there is this gem from his 2009 address to Congress: “I will not sign a plan that adds one dime to our deficits–either now or in the future.” But according to Republican staff on Senate Budget Committee, those dimes are starting to pile up. The Senate staff…
As the Islamic State (formerly known as ISIS or ISIL) tightened the noose around the predominantly Kurdish Syrian city of Kobane in recent weeks, Turkey has remained conspicuously missing in action. Despite its professed opposition to the brutal ethnic-cleansing campaign mounted by the Sunni Arab Islamist extremists of the Islamic State, Ankara has done precious little…
The University of Chicago recently dealt a blow to the Chinese government’s aggressive efforts to spread overseas propaganda by refusing to renew its Confucius Institute on campus. Subsequently, Penn State announced it was following suit. Confucius Institutes parade as academic programs for the teaching of Chinese culture and language and are offered globally to universities…
A family-owned timber firm that operates the last significant sawmill in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest has won a momentous U.S. Forest Service contract: the Big Thorne Project, which will allow the harvest of nearly 150 million board feet of wood. The Obama administration's decision marks the transition away from old-growth timber and toward a sustainable…
Death and taxes are two of life’s certainties, but the tax on death itself should certainly be eliminated. A recent analysis by The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Data Analysis found that doing away with the federal death tax would provide a much-needed, long-lasting boost to the nation’s economy. Indeed, it would increase economic growth by…
New York City Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña and Milady Baez, the chief for “English-language learners,” are looking to increase dual-language programs, in which students receive instruction in both English and a second language. This is bad news for the kids and for New York City. I know from personal experience. Start with the big picture:…
The mid-summer clash between unarmed protesters and heavily armed police in Ferguson, Mo., sparked a renewed discussion on the militarization of domestic law enforcement. Critics were quick to lament the ubiquity of armored vehicles and semi-automatic assault weapons at the disposal of officers not just in Ferguson but throughout the nation. Why has militarization of law…
On November 15, open enrollment in the Obamacare exchanges begins again. Before the second act of our national healthcare drama commences, let’s review what we’ve learned in Act I. For starters, everyone now knows that federal officials are challenged when it comes to setting up a website. But they’ve demonstrated the ability to dole out…
No matter how adventurous your teenage years were, chances are you had nothing on Joshua Wong. Labeled “a threat” an “extremist” and “an infiltrate” by authorities in Beijing, the 17-year-old was arrested, assaulted and released last month for his role in leading the demonstrations underway in Hong Kong. It’s easy to shrug off the images…
Washington Post Supreme Court correspondent Robert Barnes claims that the Supreme Court has become more conservative during John Roberts’ nine-year tenure as Chief Justice. Such a characterization shows a misunderstanding of the role of courts. Rather than label the Roberts Court as “conservative” or “liberal,” it would be more accurate to describe the Court as…
This week, the Treasury Department releases the actual deficit figure for fiscal year (FY) 2014 which ended on September 30. At about half a trillion dollars, this year’s deficit adds more than $4,000 to the per-household national-debt burden. What’s worse, the 2014 deficit marks a low point in the ten-year projection. The total deficit over…
President Obama declared during a recent speech at Northwestern University that he has turned the economy around and that while he might not be on the ballot in November midterm elections, his “agenda will be.” Democrats across the country cringed when they heard that one. Right now Michelle is a lot more popular than he…
This year’s Nobel Peace Prize brings attention to long-standing tensions between India and Pakistan, which have flared in the last week due to heavy cross-border shelling between the two militaries that has killed at least 20 people. The Nobel Committee split the reward between Malala Yousafzai, a 17-year-old Pakistani girl shot by the Taliban for her…
This one will be hard to top when it comes to absurd lawsuits. Energy drink company Red Bull settled two class-action lawsuits over its claim that “Red Bull gives you wings.” It seems some consumers took the slogan literally, and when they didn’t actually grow wings, sued the company for misrepresentation. In the settlement, Red Bull agreed to…
The Nobel Peace Prize winner was recently announced, setting off all the hype that goes with it. The idea of the near-century-old award is to honor a person who has profoundly changed the world for the better by promoting peace and improving the state of humankind. The prize has gone to such giants as Martin…
“A blind student in Arizona gets about $21,000 a year,” says Marc Ashton, whose son, Max, is legally blind. That $21,000 represents what Arizona spends to educate a student such as Max in the public-school system. “We took our 90 percent of that, paid for Max to get the best education in Arizona, plus all…
From education to earnings, American women today enjoy unprecedented levels of opportunity. Yet too many candidates seem oblivious to the dramatic gains women have made. They're stuck in a time warp, channeling the problems and political causes of the '60s. Outdated policy prescriptions intended to help women, can actually work to hurt us. It's time…
Since the Affordable Care Act was passed in 2010, 28,476 pages of notices, proposed rules, and finalized rules containing the phrase, “Affordable Care Act” have been written in the Federal Register. This includes 843 notices, 222 proposed rules, and 234 final rules. Then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi had it right when she famously said,…
As the number of retailers accepting Bitcoin has increased, more and more people are asking: What is Bitcoin? Here’s an attempt to unravel the mystery. Imagine you have a type of money you can send directly to anyone anywhere else in the world, via the Internet. That’s Bitcoin. Bitcoin is both a digital currency and…