Columns
The First Line of Defense Against Crime
A Cuyahoga County Sheriff's deputy leads a dog through the neighborhood outside Ariel Castro's home in Cleveland, Ohio, May 10, 2013. REUTERS/Matt SullivanHorrendous crimes in Boston and Cleveland remind us that evil exists, but also highlight the significance of stable families as society’s first line of defense. Before the Tsarnaev brothers plotted their Boston marathon bombing, or Ariel Castro kidnapped and tortured three innocent victims in his Cleveland house of horrors, the families of the perpetrators experienced bitter marital breakups with chaos and recriminations at home. Shattered families don’t always produce criminality, of course, but they do...
Read MoreCelebrating the Gift of Biblical Rules
Starting May 14th, Jewish people around the world celebrate one of the most significant holidays in the Biblical calendar: Shavuot, or the Feast of Weeks, known to some Christians as “Pentecost.” This Festival ranks alongside Passover, and far above Hanukah, in importance, but it’s widely ignored, even by most Jews. The reasons? Unlike Hanukah and Passover, there’s no corresponding Christian celebration. Also, Shavuot commemorates revelation of the Torah and its commandments on Mount Sinai, and...
Read MoreAvoid the “I Word”
New revelations about the administration’s shameless distortions and epic incompetence regarding Benghazi make it clear this scandal won’t soon disappear. Some conservative commentators, and even talking heads on liberal MSNBC, have even begun to speculate about “the I word” – impeachment. It would, however, represent a catastrophic miscalculation for Republicans to launch Congressional action focusing on the president’s role: he can’t run again, but Hillary Clinton can, unless she’s...
Read MoreEasier to Win Elections than Revolutions
A disturbing new poll by Fairleigh Dickinson University showed that nearly a third of Americans agreed with the statement, “In the next few years an armed revolution might be necessary in order to protect our liberties.” Among Republicans, a shocking 44% agreed—suggesting that they must think violence could advance their cause more effectively than politics. This survey reflects ill-informed, apocalyptic speculation about new federal plans to disarm and subjugate citizens—even while defenders of the...
Read MoreThe Wealth Gap Is Really a Values Gap
Liberals insist that spending more on social programs and raising taxes on the wealthy will close painful gaps between rich and poor. How, then, do they explain why the poor have fallen further behind each year of Obama’s presidency, despite vast increases in welfare spending and, more recently, a sharp hike in taxes on the rich? The biggest distinction between poor and middle class has more to do with family structure than government policy. Children growing up in single parent households are more likely to...
Read MoreAn Unreasonable (and Ignorant) “Day of Reason”
The mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina undermined the recent National Day of Prayer by honoring demands of atheist activists and proclaiming that date an official “Day of Reason.” The proclamation by Anthony Foxx, who’s been named the new Secretary of Transportation by President Obama, seemed to dismiss religion by insisting that “the application of reason, more than any other means, has proven to offer hope for human survival.” Mayor Foxx apparently forgot about the most prominent historical...
Read MoreOnly One Guarantee on Latino Voters
Immigration supporters from Arizona attend rally in favor of comprehensive immigration reform while on the West side of Capitol Hill in Washington, April 10, 2013. REUTERS/Larry DowningThere’s no guarantee that passage of bi-partisan immigration reform would bring big GOP gains with Latino voters, but it is guaranteed that if Republicans block reform they’ll gain nothing—and probably lose even more ground—with America’s fastest-growing voter bloc. This means political suicide: Mitt Romney swept white voters by a 20 point landslide but lost the election because non-whites voted three-to-one against him. Immigration policy matters deeply to Hispanics and Asians, who together represent 20...
Read MoreBlurring the Line Between Hollywood and Washington
U.S. President Barack Obama speaks at the White House Correspondents Association Dinner in Washington April 27, 2013. REUTERS/Kevin LamarqueAfter a week of terror in Boston, Syrian use of chemical weapons, and devastating death tolls in West Texas and Bangladesh, the President of the United States entertained the glitzy crowd at the White House Correspondents Dinner with a series of well-crafted zingers. Mr. Obama competed with emcee Conan O’Brien in drawing hearty laughter and deftly teased the assembled celebrities. Yes, it’s good for a self-assured chief executive to display a sense of humor, but this particular occasion won’t help the...
Read MoreFalse Charges Regarding “Christian Terrorism”
March for Life 2013On a recent CNN appearance, I confronted the obscenely foolish liberal argument that insists that contemporary Christian terrorism represents even more of a threat than Islamic terrorism—citing the shameful slaying of a handful of abortion doctors as proof. First, the incidents of murder in the anti-abortion cause brought fewer than a dozen deaths in the last three decades, while victims of Islamo-Nazi terror—most of them Muslims, by the way—can be counted in the tens of thousands. Second, no nations or...
Read MorePalestinians Prefer Israel
While America, the European Union, and the UN give lip service to the notion of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, no one bothers to ask Palestinian residents of the Holy City what they themselves prefer. A little-noted but significant survey from the respected firm Pechter Middle East Polls found that only 30 percent of East Jerusalem’s 280,000 Palestinians would prefer to live in a new nation of Palestine in the event of a two state solution, while a full 35 percent would...
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