Opinion and commentary on news, politics, culture, and policy impact.
The mission in Afghanistan has entered one of its most crucial periods. Now is not the time to pull back. The United States and its allies must finish the job. The U.S. has been involved in combat operations in Afghanistan for almost 16 years. To put that in perspective, consider that an 18-year-old soldier serving…
The Senate narrowly voted in favor of a motion to proceed to debate the health care bill Tuesday, giving Republicans one chance to get something done before Congress likely goes on recess in mid-August. The Senate will continue to participate in what’s called a “vote-a-rama.” The vote-a-rama process was described at length by health care…
“The history of intellectual growth and discovery clearly demonstrates the need for unfettered freedom, the right to think the unthinkable, discuss the unmentionable, and challenge the unchallengeable.” This quote, taken from the 1974 Woodward Report at Yale, summarizes the policy that was, for years, the gold standard of what free speech on campus should look…
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump announced that he was reversing an Obama-era policy that opened the military to people who identify as transgender. That policy, announced during the last year of President Barack Obama’s second term, was scheduled to go into effect earlier this month, but Secretary of Defense James Mattis announced a six-month delay…
Is it treason? This is the accusation some liberals and even legislators are throwing around regarding Donald Trump Jr.’s contact with a Russian lawyer who has a connection to the Kremlin. When a reporter recently asked about whether Trump Jr.’s attempt to obtain compromising information about the Hillary Clinton campaign from the pro-Russian lawyer, Sen….
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump tweeted that he wouldn’t allow transgender individuals to serve in the military: After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow…… — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017 ….Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the…
After almost two years, the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Inspector General released its report on the Gold King Mine disaster that dumped over a million pounds of metals into the Animas River, turning dozens of miles of the river orange. While inspectors general are tasked with finding out the truth and holding agencies accountable,…
Florida truck driver James Matthew Bradley isn’t the mastermind of the human smuggling ring that led to the grisly deaths of 10 illegal immigrants in his rig, which authorities found at a San Antonio Walmart over the weekend. He’s just a cog in the machine. Bradley may now face the death penalty for transporting up…
Bret Stephens devoted his New York Times column last week to admonishing me for my tweet from two weeks ago and critiquing my follow-up column last week explaining the tweet. The tweet reads, “The news media in the West pose a far greater danger to Western civilization than Russia does.” The news media in the…
Here’s part of President Donald Trump’s speech in Poland: The fundamental question of our time is whether the West has the will to survive. Do we have the confidence in our values to defend them at any cost? Do we have enough respect for our citizens to protect our borders? Do we have the desire…
Attorney General Jeff Sessions has had a rough few weeks. He already ran afoul of many conservatives last week when he announced that the Department of Justice would increase the usage of federal civil asset forfeiture. This controversial policy, justified as a law enforcement measure, often leads to property being seized from people neither charged…
Ransomware is a type of malware that locks computers until a ransom is paid. This form of cyberattack has become the weapon of choice for cybercriminals, and presumably nation-states. Whereas cybercriminals use ransomware to extract money, nation-states may be using ransomware as a means to test the United States’ cyber resiliency. In late June, Ukraine—along…
On Tuesday, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the District of Columbia’s law requiring applicants for a concealed carry permit to demonstrate a special need for self-protection “distinguishable from the general community.” The Supreme Court previously struck down D.C.’s ban on possession of handguns in the landmark case D.C. v. Heller (2008), and…
The Department of Justice announced the shutdown of “the largest criminal marketplace on the internet.” The site, AlphaBay, was launched in 2013 after authorities shut down a similar dark web marketplace known as the “Silk Road.” According to the Justice Department, AlphaBay has been hosting over 200,000 users and at least 40,000 illicit vendors. While…
The former two-term president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva, was sentenced July 12 to nearly 10 years in prison. It is the most dramatic chapter to date in the saga of public corruption scandals that has plunged South America’s largest country into political chaos. The crimes for which Lula was found guilty—including money…
The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Waesche recently offloaded 18 tons of cocaine, valued at $554 million, after a multinational counternarcotic operation in the eastern Pacific. This effort was part of Operation Martillo, an operation that has seized over 693 tons of cocaine since 2012. This is just one interdiction in what has already been a…
Perhaps too often, Americans take the findings of independent government agencies—whether executive or congressional—as fact. The Congressional Budget Office, which has impacted the health care debate, has consistently said that repealing Obamacare would lead to around 22 to 23 million Americans losing their insurance by 2026. This has been a frequent talking point for those…
During the presidential campaign, two things topped the list of things Donald Trump didn’t like: the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Trans-Pacific Partnership. One of Trump’s first actions as president was to pull the United States out of the partnership. Another was to announce plans to renegotiate NAFTA. Therefore, it was shocking that…
It would seem to be common sense that schoolchildren fresh off of learning the alphabet should not have to learn the alphabet soup of growing gender pronouns sprung from the laboratories of college campuses. But that is exactly what is happening in Minnesota. On Wednesday, the Minnesota Department of Education advisory council voted to implement…
The fight to save Charlie Gard, the British infant at the center of a worldwide debate about parental rights and medical treatment, is coming to a close. On Monday, Charlie’s parents, Chris Gard and Connie Yates, announced they are ending their lengthy court battle over treatment for their son. One month after his birth last…