If America is to be equitable, with careers open to all talents and competent citizens capable of making their way in an increasingly demanding world, Americans must heed the warnings implicit in observations from two heroes of modern conservatism.
Distilled to a slogan, politics of late goes something like this: "I'm more fertile than you are."
In Syria, the Obama administration seems to be stumbling back to the future: An old-fashioned proxy war, complete with the usual shadowy CIA arms-running operation, the traditional plan to prop up ostensible "moderates" whose prospects are doubtful and, of course, the customary shaky grasp of what the fighting is really about.
What does the German language have to do with one of the most contentious environmental issues facing North Carolinians?
Where have all the liberals gone?
President Obama, who as a Democratic senator accused the Bush administration of violating civil liberties in the name of security, now vigorously defends his own administration's collection of Americans' phone records and Internet activities.
For years, I've argued with certain African-American people about their insistence upon using the so-called N-word which, to my ears, is, inalterably, a statement of self-loathing. They say I don't understand. They say the word no longer means what it has always meant. They say it's just a friendly fraternal greeting.
But doesn't the other NSA program -- the spooky-sounding James Bond-evoking PRISM -- give you the willies? Well, what we know thus far is that PRISM is designed to read the emails of non-U.S. citizens outside the United States. If an al-Qaeda operative in Yemen is emailing a potential recruit, it would be folly NOT to intercept it.
In these post-Snowden days, the notion of anonymity is ludicrous. But so it has been for some time, though recent disclosures bring pause even to the habitually inured. It is one thing for Mrs. McQueen and Mrs. Harry G. Brown, my elderly dowager neighbors from childhood, to spy on each other through their porch screen doors. It is another for the National Security Agency to compile records of one's phone calls.
In May 1918, with America embroiled in the First World War, Iowa's Gov. William Lloyd Harding dealt a blow against Germany. His Babel Proclamation -- that was its title; you cannot make this stuff up -- decreed: "Conversation in public places, on trains and over the telephone should be in the English language." The proscription included church services, funerals and pretty much everything else.
I went to last week’s Moral Monday protest to learn what all the rancor is about and gained some insights from the experience.
During the past year, North Carolinians have heard many things about Obamacare, Medicaid, and health care reform that turned out to be untrue.
The National Mall has monuments to heroism, freedom and sacrifice. Pretty soon it will also have a monument to failure. Drive on 17th Street NW, just south of Constitution Avenue, and you'll see concrete footings, a mound of dirt and jersey barriers -- all part of an oft-delayed project to build a flood wall to protect downtown Washington from a rising Potomac River.
The Supreme Court's ruling last week allowing police to compel DNA samples from persons arrested for serious offenses will solve cold cases around the country, putting dangerous criminals behind bars. But despite this clearly beneficial impact, the court's 5-4 ruling was wrong -- and may be more far-reaching than we can now imagine
It is reassuring that in the midst of so much government dysfunction, the IRS has resolved the question of when and whether to tax tanning beds under the Affordable Care Act.
