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The Boston bombing
The Boston Marathon bombing is a rather peculiar act of terrorism. It seems likely, from the little we know about the suspects, that the motive was political. Bombing is, of course, a favorite tactic...
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Flight of the greybeards
For the third successive round of elections, 2014 is going to see some older, more experienced and – some would say – wiser members leaving the Senate. The attrition of experience is most dramatic in...
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Can the Democrats take the House next year?
Presidents have managed to be effective without controlling Congress. This seems to be beyond the skills of the current president. His excuse – that the Republican Party today is especially partisan –...
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Has Richard Nixon returned?
Organizations which apply for tax-exempt status have to meet certain criteria. It is not enough to be a non-profit. There are different types of non-profit. Charities, promoting some sort of social...
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Thoughts on Benghazi
Maureen Dowd, the consistently hyperbolic and partisan liberal columnist, said “the administration’s behavior before and during the attack in Benghazi . . . was unworthy of the greatest power on...
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What if the President is innocent?
Let us, for the moment, ignore Benghazi and Justice Department’s overreach in demanding phone records from AP and focus on the IRS. Let us imagine the president is telling the truth when he says he did...
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Is there a case for term limits
John Dingell has served more than 57 years in the House of Representatives as a Democrat from Michigan. This John Dingell has anyway. A John Dingell has represented largely the same district for more...
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Snowden vs Blackmun
We learned this month that the US government is collecting vast quantities of “meta-data” from phone and internet service providers. Actually, that’s not strictly true, the program dates to 2007 and...
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Time to free New York’s schools
How many people would send their children to private schools, if they could afford it? Polls usually suggest that a clear majority would do so. So, here’s a question, why not make it so everyone can...
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The court has decided
The Supreme Court rulings on gay marriage will not end the arguments. Their net result is to remit the arguments to the states. Same sex marriage will continue to be recognized in New York and not in...
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Thoughts on a fair trial
Fair trials are the jewel of Anglo-American governance. An independent judiciary is a necessary, though not sufficient, condition of good government. If courts could have established, impartially,...
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Paths to the White House
Virginia considers itself the home of presidents. Four of the first five presidents were associated with this state, though there has not been a Virginian president since John Tyler, the tenth. New...
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Free the Detroit 700,000!
We who advocate the free market as the sure path to peace and prosperity and decry the seeming never ending interventions of government often hear the response that the US economy has to get much, much...
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Celebrity in politics
Should celebrities get involved with politics? This is a question that greatly annoys celebrities. Surely, as citizens, they are as entitled to have political opinions as anyone else? As entitled,...
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An open letter to Mr. Obama
Dear Mr President, First, I should like to commend you for your steadfastness and strength in relation to the Egyptian crisis. However, I am deeply concerned that you are gradually giving way under...
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Enormous consequence
This was President Obama’s position in August 2012: We have been very clear to the Assad regime, but also to other players on the ground, that a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of...
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The sad case of Veronica
This is one of those particularly awful cases in which the courts have to adjudicate, despite the fact that none of the parties to the case – and quite possibly no-one involved even peripherally – has...
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A red line gets moved
We have heard a lot about red lines lately. No doubt the government of Iran has been paying attention. It will have noted – as almost no-one in the media has – that the red line which US policy places...
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The president needs to compromise
Let us suppose that I have given you ten dollars to spend next week. Let us also suppose that I have also said spend no more than eight dollars at Walmart and no more than eight dollars at Costco. Does...
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Is a compromise possible?
Having established last week that the president could have pursued a different policy – and is being disingenuous to blame congress for the mess – it is now worth exploring whether congress or the...
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