Columns ‹ Opinion
Angry Gun Control Debate Does Collateral Damage
The Great Gun Debate shows American political discourse at its irrational worst, with both left and right promoting panic and hysteria that distracts attention from the nation’s truly menacing problems. Instead of addressing crushing deficits, economic stagnation, political gridlock, and the erosion of middle-class security, politicians and pundits...
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Will We Change the Times, or Let the Times Change Us?
Searching for catchy phrases among arid platitudes in Barack Obama’s uninspired inaugural, his media admirers focused on one brief, pithy formulation.
“Times change … and so must we.”
That statement seemed to reflect the president’s addiction to change as a goal in itself, rather than shaping current circumstances to reflect timeless values. Rabbi...
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The Department of Justice Now Designs Menus?
Does it make sense for the Department of Justice to dictate dining hall menus for a private university? The Civil Rights Division filed suit against Lesley University in Massachusetts to require hot-and-cold gluten-free foods in all dining facilities. The feds used the Americans with Disabilities Act to force a settlement, insisting on elaborate...
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The 2 Cent Fix
The president could break the logjam in Washington and move toward a solution of all budgetary problems if he merely asked every American to contribute 2 cents.
No, this isn’t some far-fetched science-fiction scheme, like beating the debt ceiling by minting two platinum coins valued at a trillion dollars each.
It’s a practical, patriotic, down-to-earth...
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‘Fiscal’ Conservatism Needs ‘Social’ Conservatism
For some years now, we have been told about a major division within American conservatism: fiscal conservatives vs. social conservatives.
This division is hurting conservatism and hurting America — because the survival of American values depends on both fiscal and social conservatism. Furthermore, the division is logically and morally untenable. A...
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Government Knows Best on Guns—and Everything
The passionate push for gun control demonstrates the liberal compulsion to tell others how to live. Callers to my radio show insist “there’s no reason to own assault weapons” or “a gun in the house will more likely kill a family member than an intruder.”
If these arguments make sense to you, you’re free to avoid guns altogether. But if the family...
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Paying Bills with Borrowed Money
President Obama insists Republicans must allow government to borrow more money so “America can pay its bills.” But Senator Marco Rubio insists “if you need to borrow even more just to pay your bills, then you’re headed for financial disaster.” Senator Rubio is right, of course: the phrase “paying your bills” usually means paying down debt, not...
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King’s Media Makeover
Listen carefully to all the celebrations of Martin Luther King Jr. this week. Listen very carefully. There is one aspect of King’s life that you won’t hear much about, no matter how hard you try: his devotion to his faith, his devotion to God, his devotion to Jesus Christ.
Listen carefully and you’ll hear endless mention of Doctor Martin Luther King —...
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Hugh Hewitt: A gloomy swearing-in
Attendance at Monday’s inauguration is expected to be down by almost a million from the 2009 swearing-in of President Obama.
Why? President Obama ran the most negative, content-free presidential campaign in modern American history, and since his re-election has worked to reinforce his partisan edge, not soften it.
His two press conferences since Nov. 6...
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The War Against Black Men
The date was January 12, 2013. You probably didn’t hear about this tragedy involving guns and two teenage boys. But this was the headline in the Chicago Tribune: “Boys, 14 and 15, killed in separate shootings Friday.” You didn’t hear about it because such events aren’t news in Chicago. They’re ordinary daily occurrences. As we continue to hear calls...
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Hollywood Hypocrisy on Guns
In the same week that A-list celebrities appeared in a painfully earnest video to “demand a plan” from President Obama to end gun violence, leaders of the industry that employs these stars told the White House and the world that they opposed any organized effort to curb glamorization of brutality in popular culture. The timing of the contradictory messages...
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What’s Happening in Williamsburg: The GOP “Retreats”
The welcoming remarks of an unidentified member of the senior GOP House leadership to the assembled Republican conference gathering for a “retreat” in Williamsburg have leaked:
Welcome to Williamsburg, Members of the House Republican Conference. We hope you enjoy your retreat.Perhaps we should begin with that age old tradition: Look to your left....
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The Atheist Response to Sandy Hook
Last week the New York Times published an opinion piece that offered atheism’s response to the evil/tragedy in which 20 children and six adults were murdered at the Sandy Hook elementary school in Connecticut.
What prompted Susan Jacoby to write her piece was a colleague telling her that atheism “has nothing to offer when people are...
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Hugh Hewitt: The milk carton Republicans
Bill Bryson’s “In a Sunburned Country” is a must-read for anyone headed to Australia. But, even if you aren’t headed Down Under, the story Bryson relates of the Aussie Prime Minister Harold Holt has some relevance this week.
Holt simply vanished into the surf in December 1967. His body was never recovered, and various wild speculations...
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Women Pols Won’t Fix Gridlock
Exhilarated by the record number of women elected to both the House and Senate in 2012, giddy commentators have begun suggesting that increased representation by females could cure the poisonous polarization in Washington and repair the broken institutions of our government. A more sober, comprehensive analysis, however, reveals no historical or logical basis...
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Get A Bill Passed, Mr. Speaker
Republicans are 1-4 against President Obama, having lost two elections and two big showdowns with him. The only time the GOP won a round was after the blowout of 2010, and that win was limited in time –a two year extension of the Bush era tax rates.
There are at least three more showdowns with the president ahead, one of them in the immediate future as the...
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