A reader wrote recently about his father, who has been a farmer, but is now ready to retire. His father figured on selling his land to get some money for his golden retirement years. But he found that he cannot get anywhere near the land’s market value because...
Readers sometimes ask why I occasionally write columns advising Democrats on how they could gain some political advantage by adopting certain policies. After all, as a Republican, don’t I want my party to win? Why am I helping the enemy? The answer is that...
It was gratifying news when fans around the country volunteered to donate their kidneys to basketball star Alonzo Mourning, who would otherwise have to cut short his career because of life-threatening medical problems with his own kidneys. However, the head of the New...
Recent criticism of the Bush administration has focused on the limitations of American intelligence in failing to predict September 11th, and the shortcomings current plans for homeland defense. In truth, however, these problems are only superficial. If anything, the...
We have so far discussed the aims of the war and the weapons used to fight it. Aside from pointing to the proper moral principles that ought to guide the selection of either, we have not said much about the formal process by which foreign policy decisions are to be...
The fundamental battle we face today consists not of bombs and rockets, but of ideas–the ideas of those who value human life on earth versus the ideas of those who oppose it.
It is presumptuous and impossible for civilian laymen to evaluate the intricacies of military policy. These are details best left to experts in military science. But civilians are in a position to evaluate the overall strategies of military policy, insofar as they...
In the preceding sections, we have evaluated the Bush administration’s approach toward America’s enemies, and the supporters of its enemies. In these categories, we have found that while the United States has taken some extremely limited steps to defend...
Stay the course — but change the course. That was the meaning of the sudden, sharp, and understated change in Washington’s Iraq policy earlier this month. After the American civilian administrator of Iraq, L. Paul Bremer III, made a hurried visit to the...
Last week’s column contained excerpts from my interview with Robert Spencer, author of “Onward Muslim Soldiers: How Jihad Still Threatens America and the West.” He makes the case that violent Islam stems from a straight reading of Islamic religious...
Many people are incensed that other countries pay less for American medications than Americans pay because that is “unfair.” Of course it is unfair — and all of us like fairness. But there are many other things we also like, and often in life one...
Pakistan’s relationship to terrorism parallels Saudi Arabia’s in virtually every respect. The government of Pakistan has in the past offered substantial indirect support to terrorists, but has now pledged support for the American war against terrorism....
In 1970, the telecommunications industry employed 421,000 switchboard operators. In the same year, Americans made 9.8 billion long distance calls. Today, the telecommunications industry employs only 78,000 operators. That’s a tremendous 80 percent job loss. What...
Random thoughts on the passing scene: Impractical men especially need to get married. The problem is that practical women may have better sense than to marry them. I hate old has-been hotels, stuffy over their former glory and usually inefficient. A careful definition...
We’ve loaded him with a lot of taxes And rules and codes but there’s something funny; In spite of the way his burden waxes The son-of-a-gun is making money! Whenever he’s given a boost to trade We’ve taken an extra tribute off it, But still the...
Can we finish our mission in Iraq? Or do we need to withdraw? It all depends on what the meaning of the word “mission” is. If our mission was to remove Saddam Hussein from power, then we’re done. If our mission was to remove Saddam Hussein and...
In many ways Saudi Arabia is the “elephant in the room” of American foreign policy: its role in the cultivation of terror is so central and so pervasive, and yet no one in the Bush White House is willing to acknowledge it openly. The story of Saudi...
With zero time remaining, the bill to expand Medicare had been short by two votes — yet, long after the clock had stopped, the Republican leadership maneuvered to change key conservative votes. Later, Rep. Butch Otter, R-Idaho, pleaded to the Associated Press:...
On Jan. 23, 1996, Bill Clinton told the nation, “The era of big government is over.” If so, it sure didn’t last very long. Today, the era of big government is back with a vengeance, ushered in by a massive new prescription drug entitlement, a...
In an op-ed, presidential candidate Howard Dean wrote with pride about how his small donation supporters are helping “take back our country.” Pat Buchanan used the same expression in his campaign back in 1992. However, Howard Dean is the probable nominee...
So far we have evaluated America’s policies toward its declared enemies, those governments which have openly announced their hostility toward the United States. But there is another category of nations, whose governments profess to support the American war, but...
After battling for months over two allegedly opposite versions of the bill to add prescription drug coverage to Medicare, members of the House and Senate announced Saturday they had reached an agreement. House Republicans managed to include in the bill a provision to...
Even though the current war has been deemed a “war on terrorism,” this is a misnomer. One does not go to war with a method of fighting, one goes to war with an enemy. And for this reason the current war is far wider than even a war against militant Islam....
Q: You really are hard on compassionate politicians like Howard Dean and what you call “the welfare state.” These programs, like Medicare and Social Security, are in everyone’s benefit. Why oppose them? A: These programs are not in my benefit. I work...
Adding prescription drug coverage to Medicare, as Congress is poised to do, is merely more socialism — it will neither help seniors nor is its passage likely to gain their votes.
In his Op-Ed column, “To arms,” Tony Blankley argues that the youth of America needs to be sacrificed for the greater good and hints that we may need the draft to do it. Referencing the last living veterans of this generation, Blankly writes: Just as the...
In his first State of the Union address after September 11th, 2001, President Bush alerted the world to the existence of an “axis of evil,” arrayed against the United States and its allies, consisting of three nations: Iraq, Iran, and North Korea. Since...
The Medicare II bill (my name for it) that Congress is about to pass is an unmitigated disaster. The bill contains provisions for the largest expansion of socialized health care in this nation’s history. It essentially nationalizes prescription drugs for the...
While the objectives of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan differed significantly, their shortcomings had much in common. Whereas the war with Iraq was justified by reference to evidence of a somewhat indeterminate WMD threat, the case for war in Afghanistan was based...
On Nov. 18, the Bush administration announced a decision to impose new trade restrictions on imports of some Chinese textiles. Although rationalized as a means of saving American manufacturing jobs, no trade expert thinks it will have more than a trivial effect in...
A “religion of peace,” says President Bush about Islam. But investigative journalist Robert Spencer, in his new book “Onward Muslim Soldiers: How Jihad Still Threatens America and the West,” argues that what we call “Islamic...
Despite the rapidity and efficiency of the American war in Iraq–and the glowing moments accompanying the liberation of Baghdad–the Bush administration has confronted a series of embarrassments since major combat operations were declared over on May 1st....
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