Columns ‹ Opinion
On quarterbacks, singers and responding to the trials of life
Commencement addresses are a dime a dozen, and their shelf life is the time it takes most to reach an adult beverage after the formalities conclude.
But I heard a memorable one this past May, at the University of Colorado, Boulder, where the wonderful Julie Andrews stole the day and served up a message the grads and those watching won’t forget.
I was...
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The Obscenely Bloated White House Staff
A government shutdown could damage our economy but might serve one useful purpose: focusing attention on obscenely inflated staffing levels for the president and Congress.
The White House announced a shutdown would force the Executive Office of the President to use a “bare bones” staff of just 436—with some 1,265 employees sent home. But are all those...
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D-Day and Obamacare
An angry letter objected to a Wall Street Journal column in which I urged Republicans to fight for positive reforms rather than making doomed gestures with no chance of success. “It’s a good thing Michael Medved wasn’t advising General Eisenhower on D-Day, or he would have called off the attack,” one woman from Florida wrote.
Actually, the Normandy...
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GOP Shares Goals, But Not Priorities in Pursuing Them
Fortunately, all Congressional Republicans – yes, every single one of them – agree on two key goals for the party. They seek to block or roll back the destructive system known as “Obamacare” and also hope to win the Senate next year and the presidency two years later.
The only disagreement is the right order to pursue these goals. Many conservatives...
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A Response to Richard Dawkins
This past Friday CNN conducted an interview with Richard Dawkins, the British biologist most widely known for his polemics against religion and on behalf of atheism.
Asked “whether an absence of religion would leave us without a moral compass,” Dawkins responded: “The very idea that we get a moral compass from religion is horrible.”
This...
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Countdown to GOP Self-Destruction?
With most Americans undeniably dissatisfied with the direction of their government, why would some congressional conservatives insist on identifying Republicans as unyielding defenders of a broken status quo? Their implacable obsession with uprooting ObamaCare and their die-hard resistance to immigration reform all but guarantee near-term legislative defeats...
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Ted Cruz The Texas Tornado That Destroyed D.C.
Cries of anger and outrage from the Morning Joe panel early Wednesday suggested a horrible event had happened the night before.
David Gregory, Chris Matthews, Mia, Joe and more wailed and wailed in a long chorus of keening that would have been appropriate to a national tragedy of some sort.
But what had set them off was just a long, long speech by Texas Senator...
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Islamist War on Christians
I’m waiting. I am a Lebanese Christian, and I am waiting. Waiting for CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, or Time magazine to really tell the story. To finally run this headline: “War on Christians Being Waged by Islamists.”
I’m waiting for someone in the mainstream media to admit the facts.
Matt Lauer and NBC News made...
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America the Exceptional
During a recent visit to Berlin, I asked about the new Museum of German History. “Don’t bother,” my host advised. “We don’t have a good history.” After the Holocaust, two World Wars, and a Thirty Years War in the 1600s that killed a third of the population, who could disagree?
Other great powers suffered similar traumas: Russia and France with...
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The Only Way to Win
The internal Republican fight about the right strategy on a government shutdown plays into the hands of President Obama. You win in politics by uniting your side while dividing the opposition; now the GOP looks badly divided while Democrats solidly support the president.
Worst of all, GOP disagreements involve tactics, not principles: all Republicans in...
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Muslims Need to Confront Muslim Evil
With this weekend’s massacre by Muslim terrorists at a mall in Nairobi, Kenya, and Muslim terrorists killing about 80 Christians at a Christian church in Pakistan, most people wonder what, if anything in addition to a continuing war on terror, can be done to minimize the scourge of Islamic terror.
The answer lies with Muslims themselves. Specifically, it...
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Deadly Violence is Not a Game
The Washington Navy Yard shooter, like notorious killers at Columbine, Newtown and other massacres, was addicted to hyper-violent video games. Ironically, the day after his rampage a brutal new game set records as the fastest selling entertainment product of all time.
GRAND THEFT AUTO V generated a billion dollars in three days, beating any other game or film....
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Nairobi horror signals terrorism may now be an American export
As details emerge from Nairobi, especially on the identities and stories of the terrorists who are alleged to be American, the public in the United States is going to need clear answers to some very hard questions.
The families of the victims in Kenya will also want to know how America has turned into a jihadist-exporting country.
“We received permission to...
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Bravo Ted Cruz. Bob Corker, Sit Down.
Texas Senator Ted Cruz is drawing a lot of ire and fire from the Beltway GOP.
The eloquent and passionate Texas freshman has raised the hair on necks of the Republicans who sought a deal to avoid the unpleasantness of brinksmanship with the most incompetent president of modern times.
It is absolutely the case that the GOP will, in the end, have to vote for a...
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The Damaging Rise of Single Households
Perhaps the most puzzling social change of recent decades involves the dramatic upsurge in Americans living alone. In 1900, only 5 percent of households featured a single person; today, a stunning 27 percent of American households consist of an isolated individual.
Aside from the loss in intimate and communal connection, this situation contributes to our...
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Out-of-Focus on Syria—and Guns
The Obama administration’s out-of-focus approach to Syrian war crimes reflects its similarly misguided response to mass killings within the United States.
The president concentrates on weapons used to do evil, rather than the criminals who perpetrate the butchery. Even if the Assad regime renounces chemical weapons and promises to destroy them, then that...
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