Column

There are a couple of important economic lessons that the American people should learn. I'm going to title one "the seen and unseen" and the other "narrow well-defined large benefits versus widely dispersed small costs." These lessons are applicable to a wide range of government behavior, but let's look at just two examples.

God bless Jake Tapper. The other day, NewsBusters reported: "CNN’s Jake Tapper Breaks Through Media Blackout, Covers Louis Farrakhan Controversy." Tapper noted that “despite the anti-Semitism and homophobia inherent in that clip, several leaders of the Women’s March were — are supporters of Farrakhan and have not condemned him” plus “[m]embers of the Congressional Black Caucus.”  

The “dog bites man” part of the annual Oscars telecast has arrived. The Oscar ratings for Sunday’s show, in which The Shape of Water won Best Picture, sunk yet again. How bad did they drop? Early estimates show 20 percent collapse, making it the least seen Oscars telecast ever.

CNN's six-part series, "Pope: The Most Powerful Man in History," debuts on March 11. It promises to be a comprehensive account of the history of the papacy, right up to the reforms of Vatican II. From the trailers posted online, the documentary will feature comments by such distinguished persons as Cardinal Donald Wuerl. But it also profiles strident enemies of the Catholic Church, such as Anthea…

Before we discuss violence with guns, I'd like to run a couple of questions by you. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, every day nearly 30 Americans die in motor vehicle crashes that involve drunk driving. What kind of restrictions should be placed on automobile ownership? Should there be federal background checks in order for people to obtain a driver's license or…

You wonder how these things begin. For Harvey Schmidt, co-writer of the longest-running musical in history -- who died last week at 88 -- and his collaborator, Tom Jones, it began when the two were students at the University of Texas. In a sense it really began in their romantic hearts. No one could have written what these men wrote, unless they had ever been deeply and passionately in love.

It is remarkable to see the headlines about presidential aides Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump in the liberal media. The son-in-law and daughter of President Trump are now getting routinely hammered in The Washington Post, The New York Times, on CNN and even in The Wall Street Journal editorial pages, the latter decidedly not in the “liberal media” category. But what is particularly noticeable is…

With the start of March, a family-oriented series teaching moral lessons never seen in most TV shows and a spinoff of an envelope-pushing lefty TV series highlight this new installment of winners and losers in the television industry. 

MIAMI -- The list of failures in the Feb. 14 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, are becoming legion. If any or all of those failures had been addressed, 17 students and teachers might be alive today. In addition to the several balls dropped by the local FBI office, it was later alleged that at least four Broward County sheriff's deputies, including armed…

In Florida, the Broward County Sheriff's office and Broward County school district are fighting to keep exterior surveillance video from the day of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School hidden from view. As journalists and citizens who've waged uphill battles against secrecy well know, government agencies too often invoke broad disclosure exemptions in the name of protecting…

A liberal-created failure that goes entirely ignored is the left's harmful agenda for society's most vulnerable people -- the mentally ill. Eastern State Hospital, built in 1773 in Williamsburg, Virginia, was the first public hospital in America for the care and treatment of the mentally ill. Many more followed. Much of the motivation to build more mental institutions was to provide a remedy for…

Editor’s Note: This piece has been cross-posted from AllenBWest.com and was originally published on February 24. I am the NRA, and I am freedom’s safest place. That isn’t just a cute commercial slogan, it’s how I feel as a Patriot Life Benefactor Member and Board Member of the National Rifle Association. Right now, I’m fuming with this insidious assault by the left and the pressure being levied…

Once upon a time I was nineteen. (No comments, please.) I have related part of this story in a speech a few months back at my alma mater, Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. In the wake of what has become a controversial CNN Townhall meeting on the Florida shooting, there is a media aspect of my tale that I neglected to relate --- and the reaction to the Florida CNN Townhall…

The Hollywood dream factory is the stuff of nightmares these days. That’s no reflection on the horror genre, on the rebound thanks to slick indies like It Follows, It Comes at Night and the highly anticipated Hereditary. Nor does it connect to the dwindling number of souls who line up to buy movie tickets these days. That’s a different kind of scary for industry bean counters.