Opinion and commentary on news, politics, culture, and policy impact.
For years, there has been concern about the “string of pearls,” China’s range of investments in port facilities in nations along the Indian Ocean littoral. Gwadar, Pakistan; Chittagong, Bangladesh; Hambantota, Sri Lanka; the Maldives; and Seychelles have all seen a growth in such Chinese investments over the past decade. Although much of this has been…
China’s overreaction to legitimate demands for democracy in Hong Kong, where police are teargasing peaceful protesters asking for universal suffrage, leaves no doubt how the Communist Party sees its future. Regrettably, the Obama administration is saying it will “not take sides.” Beijing’s Communists are making their position clear — they are not interested in sharing…
On June 26 of last year, the Supreme Court struck down Section 3 of the federal Defense of Marriage Act in United States v. Windsor, and since then lower courts have issued a string of decisions redefining marriage in the states. This month, in a widely celebrated opinion written by Judge Richard Posner, the U.S….
Police tear gas, pepper spray and batons flooded the front of Hong Kong government headquarters Sunday afternoon as the authorities cracked down on thousands of protesters who refused to end their three-day rallies and street blockades across the city. The pro-democracy demonstration expanded to unprecedented levels over the weekend. According to the Associated Press, the…
President Barack Obama told the United Nations General Assembly that nobody would get a pass when it comes to climate change. The President was referring to developing nations and the need for them to make emissions cuts, but his words hold true for those here in the U.S. as well. Nobody is going to get…
Yesterday I attended the historic gathering of nearly 20,000 Indian Americans in New York City’s Madison Square Garden, where visiting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke about the accomplishments of the Indian American community and laid out his vision for India’s future. More than 30 Members of the U.S. Congress attended the speech, demonstrating the…
After nearly 3,000 confirmed deaths and with the possibility that between 550,000 and 1.4 million people could be infected by early next year, the current Ebola epidemic has severely undermined the West African economies of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. While the economic loss related to the outbreak is incomparable to the tragic human loss, serious…
It’s been a rough few weeks for one of America's most vociferous critics of missile defense. Ted Postol, Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor and longtime critic of U.S. missile defense, told National Public Radio just three days into the 2014 Gaza missile wars that Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system “doesn’t work.” He said it…
There is no sugarcoating it. With each passing year, on most cultural fronts, things have been getting worse. There is a coarseness to our society and a rending of real ties that bind us to one another. Only about half of Americans are currently married, and about half of the children in the U.S. will…
Despite promises to the contrary by members of Congress and even the president, Americans now know that Obamacare is entangling tax dollars with coverage of elective abortion. Last week, the Government Accountability Office released a report confirming that more than 1,000 Obamacare exchange plans cover elective abortion but remain eligible for taxpayer subsidies. But that’s…
It's been 50 years now since the federal government launched its "War on Poverty." But the numbers just released by the Census Bureau suggest we're in a losing battle. The poverty rate now stands at 14.5 percent. That's a drop from the previous rate of 15 percent. But don't celebrate too quickly. The new rate…
China is missing out on its biggest economic asset: its people. Economist Nicholas Eberstadt estimates that, even if Beijing were to eliminate its one-child policy today, Chinese economic growth would still decline in the 2020s, because the next generation’s working-age population is already so markedly small. Since implementation in 1979, the one-child policy has reduced…
First the bad news. When it comes to opening the doors to opportunity, a number of cultural trends are not heading in the right direction. The marriage rate is declining. Teen drug use has increased. In fact, a majority of the cultural indicators reported in The Heritage Foundation’s “2014 Index of Culture and Opportunity” are…
My seventh-grade son recently wrote a U.S. History paper extolling the virtues of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. “It ended the Great Depression,” he wrote with great certainty. He’s only 12 and parroting what the history texts and his teachers told him. That’s his excuse. What’s Ken Burns’? Mr. Burns’ docudrama on the Roosevelts—for those…
The U.S. military has officially begun airstrikes against terrorist targets inside Syria. It would be nice to think that this represents a different Obama and a more muscular foreign policy that is really serious about taking the fight to the enemy. But, there is no evidence yet that the president has turned the policy page….
In her speech to the United Nations this week, first lady Michelle Obama chose to highlight some of the negative things women face in the United States today. Successful women don’t have time to get sidetracked by gender-equality debates. “Women here are still woefully underrepresented in our government and in the senior ranks of our…
Nearly all parents (94 percent) surveyed by Pew Research three years ago said they wanted their children to go to university. But they might not be so anxious to send the kids to campus if they knew everything that gets taught on campus. Last week, for example, 10 major Jewish groups released a series of…
At the 2014 United Nations Climate Summit on Tuesday, President Barack Obama offered a stunning–in fact, deeply disturbing–insight into his views on threats to the United States and the American people. According to Obama, “For all the immediate challenges that we gather to address this week–terrorism, instability, inequality, disease–there’s one issue that will define the…
Attorney General Eric Holder’s announcement Thursday that he is resigning, effective when his successor is confirmed, is welcome news. As John Fund and I outline in our recent book, “Obama’s Enforcer: Eric Holder’s Justice Department,” every time President Obama has broken, bent, ignored or changed the law, the person at his side advising him how…
Earlier this year the Obama administration again delayed a decision about the Keystone XL pipeline. The 1,200 mile, $5.2 billion pipeline could increase North American energy security and create more than 15,000 jobs. But behind the White House's unwillingness to move forward are environmental groups that vehemently oppose the project. Groups like the Sierra Club…