NRA should take a hit for gun deaths in schools
Oh, another week, another school shooting. Once again, America yawns. This one took place on April 1, when another mentally ill person secured use of a handgun and killed students at a private Christian university in East Oakland, Calif. At the time of this writing, seven were dead and three wounded... Read more
Will there be a fourth wave of feminism?
There's a lot of talk about a fourth wave of feminism. A New York Times article last week posed the following question: Who will succeed Gloria Steinem (leader of second-wave feminism) as head of the next wave of feminism? But I have a question that precedes the question posed by the Times: Will th... Read more
GOP foolishly turning off women voters
When will Republicans awaken to the dangers of alienating women, a growing number of whom now regard them as anti-female, not just anti-feminist? Maybe some GOP leaders, if there are any these days, already have seen the potential disaster such an image portends. But they seem helpless to avoid it i... Read more
GOP candidates get it wrong on Mexican border issues
What if we talk about Chinese instead of Mexicans as unauthorized immigrants? Would that make a difference in how the public thinks about the issue and what Republican presidential aspirants say? When it comes to "illegal" immigrants, the prevailing belief is that nearly all of an estimated 11 milli... Read more
Alabama's immigration law hurts in many ways
The arrest of 46-year-old Mercedes-Benz executive Detlev Hager in Tuscaloosa, Ala., on suspicion of being an illegal immigrant should not be taken too lightly. In mid-November, Hager was stopped by an officer in Tuscaloosa for driving a rental car lacking a tag. The officer asked for Hager's driver... Read more
GOP candidates needlessly belligerent on Iran
The whole thing may yet come crashing down like the proverbial house of cards, but President Barack Obama's "leading from the rear" strategy has appeared to pay off in Libya; we are on track to depart Iraq at the end of next month, and it's a good bet many Americans don't care what happens there aft... Read more
A new test for Down Syndrome
Two of my four children were born in my "advanced maternal age" years -- that is, over age 35. Though the babies I carried were at higher risk for several conditions, the one we hear about most being Down syndrome, I did not do any recommended prenatal testing of the babies besides a sonogram. In t... Read more
The ideas keep coming for Newt Gingrich
Newt Gingrich is notorious for being full of ideas. And back when he was House speaker, his top lieutenants, who later unsuccessfully sought to oust him, suggested it would be a good idea if he refrained from expressing most of them or, at least, thought about them before he did. Buoyed by his fron... Read more
What does Occupy Movement mean?
BEN BOYCHUK and JOEL MATHIS What is the meaning of the "Occupy Wall Street" movement? For about a month now, protesters have camped out in a park in New York's financial district, part of an "Occupy Wall Street" movement that has since spread to hundreds of other cities across the nation.They have a... Read more
Herman Cain might make good president
The wonder of America is that you can grow up in a time when there are separate water fountains in public parks for blacks and whites and years later anticipate the possibility of two black men vying against each other for president in the general election -- Barack Obama and Herman Cain. Another ... Read more
Attention, world: You've got the cash. We've got the houses
Longtime connoisseurs of the American political scene knew that the immigration problem would begin to be solved when enough people found a way to benefit and even profit from the problem.New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg was only half kidding, maybe not, when he proposed passing a law "letting immig... Read more
Time to rethink class in class warfare
When President Barack Obama recently proposed increasing taxes on wealthy Americans, Speaker John Boehner, Representative Paul Ryan, and Karl Rove, among other Republicans, loudly protested, "Class warfare!" Like it's a bad thing. The "warfare" part of the accusation is metaphorical. Nobody that I ... Read more
Is it time for a balanced budget amendment?
Is it time for a balanced budget amendment? One bit of fallout from the recent debt-ceiling fight is a renewed Republican push for a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. The current proposal -- introduced by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., -- would require the government t... Read more
Obama plans 'new chapter' in Mideast, North Africa
Speaking at the U.S. State Department Thursday, President Barack Obama promised to open "a new chapter in American diplomacy" in the Mideast and North Africa. He was responding to the "Arab Spring," the rolling series of mass demonstrations that have ousted longstanding regimes in Tunisia and Egypt,... Read more
My enemy's enemy is my friend: US-Pakistani relations looking fragile
It is reasonably widely accepted that Osama bin Laden was able to stay in the Pakistan town of Abbottabad because he had the protection of Pakistan’s military, in particular its powerful Inter Services Intelligence organisation. It would have been all but impossible for bin Laden to have stayed i... Read more
Why can't we keep guns from terrorists?
Guns don't kill people. People kill people. But homicidal tendencies are not evenly distributed throughout the general population. Criminals, crazies and terrorists pose a heightened threat.That's why even those of us who strongly support the Second Amendment also support federal laws prohibiting th... Read more
Republician challenger to Obama yet to emerge
When Donald Trump dropped his 2012 presidential run, the Republican race lost its most entertaining candidate, and when Mike Huckabee dropped out, and in doing so found "inexplicable inner peace," the party's social conservatives lost their standard-bearer.Trump was a novelty candidate who flared in... Read more
Debate - The death of bin Laden and the paradox of torture
What's the proper response when one's country pops a cap in an SOB like Osama bin Laden?A little involuntary exhilaration is appropriate -- I felt it! -- but the spontaneous demonstrations that developed outside of the White House and elsewhere were a bit unseemly. President Barack Obama suggests th... Read more
US must consider amnesty for some illegal immigrants
Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Hispanic Voter, the president loves you despite that big fence along the border and an additional 10,000 federal agents patrolling it as a sop to anti-immigration forces. With his campaign apparently already in full swing, President Barack Obama finally has decided it may be desi... Read more
Troubling aspect of Egyptian democracy push
Recent events in Egypt make one wonder whether that country is capable of building and maintaining a sustained, peaceful democratic system of governance, or if ongoing internecine and sectarian strife make that goal impossible.I was not one of those who lauded Egypt's peaceful revolution, not becaus... Read more
Iranian politics: Send in the djinns
Iran's ruling clerics and political leaders complain that their country doesn't get the respect it deserves from other countries, particularly in the West.Maybe one reason is because of stories like this one in the Guardian reporting that key allies of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad "have been accuse... Read more
Physically carrying out bin Laden hit clearly a job for men
Nobody was flooding the streets in my little Chicago suburb in the early-morning hours after news of Osama bin Laden's death. But the jubilation was palpable nonetheless.I'll leave it to others to sort out the implications of all this for our national security.I'm just grateful for the manly men of ... Read more
Bloomberg's ban on sodas part of bigger issue
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has bestirred a dustup over what one might think is a minor yet symbolic policy change. He wants to ban people on food stamps (a.k.a. the federal SNAP program) from using them to buy sugar-sweetened beverages in New York City.The Mayor's goal is clear: government-fun... Read more
White House cuts through the 'fog of war'
The White House is wise to correct its version of how Osama bin Laden died as additional facts come in. And there have been a lot of corrections. On Monday, in briefings about the successful U.S. raid on the terrorist's hideout in Pakistan, the White House and the Pentagon came perilously close to ... Read more
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