The National Rifle Association has portrayed the eminently reasonable push for broader background checks as the first step toward the eventual confiscation of all firearms. That’s part and parcel of the NRA’s long history of ridiculous slippery slope-ism, where even small moves toward more sensible gun laws are portrayed as dangerous steps toward tyranny.
The eyes of Texas were upon the state’s high court when it reaffirmed an 1891 ruling that because pets are personal property, a bereaved owner of a negligently killed dog can seek only economic damages, not emotional damages.
A Senate report criticizes Apple for shifting billions of dollars in profits into Irish affiliates where its tax rate is less than 2 percent, yet a growing chorus of politicians call for lower corporate taxes to make the U.S. more competitive. The seeming contradiction is explained by the simple fact that global capital is gaining enormous bargaining power over nation states.
Does the IRS scandal go all the way up to the top? As of now, doubtful. It’s nearly inconceivable that anyone would be stupid enough to have given such a politically fatal directive from the White House (although admittedly the bar is rapidly falling).
Here’s the thing: As gay rights have become more approved and inevitable, it becomes less socially acceptable to oppose them as loudly and brazenly as some of us once did.
There is a dark underbelly to the surrogacy industry — and it is a business — including a burgeoning industry that preys on vulnerable women, commodifying them as “ovens.” Never mind repercussions for the children themselves.
The press can always be counted upon not just to speak up for itself, but to lavish attention on itself. And that’s fine. What’s not fine is the way so many in the press talk about the First Amendment as if it’s their trade’s private license.
Talk about India always begins with recognition that it’s one of Asia’s rising powers, a state with a fast-growing economy and burgeoning political influence on the world stage. But a closer look shows a dark underbelly that portends a sad time ahead. Put simply, the state is so badly neglecting its young that India is threatening its very future.
The Common Core standards are actually an attempt by governors — including many conservative Republican governors — to set some coherent standards on what children should know about math and English by various grade levels.
President Barack Obama’s scandals are interlocking and overlapping in ways that drain his authority. Everything he advocates requires Americans to lavish on government something his administration, and big government generally, undermines — trust.
When I graduated from college, I would not have believed that in my lifetime women would gain rights over their own bodies, including the legal right to have an abortion. Or that women would become chief executives of major corporations, secretaries of state, contenders for the presidency. Or that they’d outnumber men in college.
Overhyping Benghazi will only diminish the importance of the scandal if it doesn’t meet presidency-breaking standards. Third, focusing on the political effects simply plays into the hands of Democrats desperately claiming that this is nothing but partisan politics.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott has on his desk awaiting his signature — or, dare we hope, his veto — a piece of legislation called the Timely Justice Act, passed by his state legislature in the apparent belief that Florida is not killing people fast enough.
Americans accustomed to hating the media — a popular pastime of self-proclaimed “new media,” often meaning someone with an iPhone and a laptop — should stop hitting “snooze” on their wakeup call right about now.
Throughout his presidency, Barack Obama has set a very clear tone. He’s made it clear that people who disagree with him are fevered, illegitimate, weird, creepy, dangerous, stupid, confused, ignorant or some other adjective you might assign to a new version of the seven dwarves.
A great deal has been written about the miserable failure of the Iraq war. Much lost — 4,500 American lives and $2.2 trillion, 13 percent of the national debt — and little if anything gained. We traded one despot for another, and right now the nation is on the verge of civil war.
We need a federal government that is limited, respected and effective within its proper bounds. And none can call this the Obama legacy.
Jay Carney, whose unenviable job is not to explain but to explain away what his employers say, calls the IRS’ behavior “inappropriate.” No, using the salad fork for the entree is inappropriate. Using the IRS for political purposes is a criminal offense.
Many of our representatives in Washington profess to believe in “family values.” But their indifference and inaction in the face of what has happened to working families poses a clear and present danger to the American family.
President Barack Obama has backed himself into a corner: Be forced into a war he is firmly resolved to avoid, or lose credibility, which for a superpower on whose word relies the safety of a dozen allies is not just embarrassing but dangerous.
It is now theoretically possible for a mental patient to manufacture his own gun in the comfort of his aluminum foil-lined basement. That’s a sobering development with far-reaching implications barely considered, much less addressed, by lawmakers though this technology has existed for over a decade.
It is easy to believe that real-time mistakes in Benghazi were honestly made. No one thinks that any president or secretary of state would do less than everything possible to save American lives. But the mistakes made afterward, whether out of embarrassment or political survival, are less easily rationalized.
In the wake of Benghazi, the country endured an intense debate over how much free speech we could afford because of the savage intolerance of rioters half a world away. President Barack Obama and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton fueled this debate by incessantly blaming an anti-Islam video — as if the First Amendment was the problem.
Most Chinese simply aren’t happy with the status quo. Even rich people no longer trust the government. They’re sending their money out of the state — billions of dollars each year. So the question arises: How long can the Communist government survive in this atmosphere of withering public discontent?
Christianity is not just a matter of personal morality; it involves a view of social justice. That phrase, “social justice” — largely defined by the left — has taken on negative connotations in conservative circles. Rightly understood, it shouldn’t.
