POLITICS

"The shift from personal autonomy to dependence on government is perhaps the defining characteristic of modern American politics. In the span of barely one lifetime, a nation grounded in ideals of individual liberty has been transformed into one in which federal...

America's war policy faces a deadly roadblock. The problem is partly the recalcitrance of our so-called allies, from the quavering Europeans to the increasingly hostile Saudis. Most of our "coalition" wants us to declare victory in Afghanistan and go home. They want...

Though he has pledged to defend America's freedom against terrorists, President Bush, in his State of the Union address, gave his unequivocal support to a different threat against our way of life: the "national service" movement. Adding his voice to the chorus of...

Time for a quick pop quiz. Can you identify the speaker? "Today, and for generations to come, America will benefit from this law, which expresses our national commitment to quality education for all children." President Bush, who just signed a highly touted education...

"But when I am the stronger, I shall persecute you; for it is my duty to persecute error." -- Lord Macaulay A scoop from Pat Buchanan: America has an established religion. No, it's not Christianity, to his excruciating frustration -- it's atheism. And not just atheism...

As if New Yorkers don't already have enough to deal with, they must now brace for the arrival of pie-throwing, critter-liberating, bomb-building, arson-setting, spell-casting, utensil-stealing cop-haters wearing giant puppet heads. This disruptive freak show will...

Over the coming weeks, eight congressional subcommittees will hold at least 10 hearings on the collapse of Enron. Rarely has there been such a profligate and irresponsible distortion of congressional priorities during a time of national crisis. Even in peacetime,...

I offer the following guide for those Americans who may be asked to speak on political issues but are confused about what to say. Since issues can be annoyingly fickle -- hot one day, dead the next -- I've tried to keep the commentary confined to the principles that...

"It's hard not to notice that political discussion over the last decade has increasingly degenerated into name-calling," Brian Anderson wrote in the Manhattan Institute's City Journal last year. "The insults most often come from the left: 'racist,' 'homophobe,'...

Some of the world's most offensive contemporary fiction is being produced by the government of Saudi Arabia. Consider the mainstream Saudi newspaper Al-Jazeera, which recently asserted that terrorism against the United States does not stem from Islamist extremism with...

There are good cops and there are bad cops. Sept. 11 has not changed that fact. We saw the best of the best sacrifice their lives for their fellow citizens when the World Trade Center crumbled. But while we honor the memory of heroic police officers, we must not turn...

A few days ago, Bill Gates received a rather malicious piece of hate mail singed, "Ralph Nader." It wasn't his first. Presumably, the infamous "Consumer Advocate" left his return address off of the envelope, because someone at Microsoft accidentally opened it instead...

I was in the university section of Pittsburgh for a meeting right after the attacks of September 11, just an hour after thousands of people had been burned alive or crushed to death or jumped to their deaths from the top of the inferno that had been the World Trade...

Imagine that your child comes home from school one day and announces that in his math course there are no textbooks, no teaching -- and no right answers. Instead, students form groups to construct their own math "strategies." They add fractions by folding paper...

The events of September 11 have intensified a long-standing debate: What causes Muslims to turn to militant Islam? Some analysts have noted the poverty of Afghanistan and concluded that herein lay the problem. Jessica Stern of Harvard University wrote that the United...

Basketball star Scottie Pippen played for some great Chicago Bulls teams and won multiple NBA championships. Then, as now, he also pulled down some hefty paychecks. This year, for instance, Pippen will make $18.1 million playing pro hoops for the Portland Trail...