Column

Semantics are important for how we communicate and define issues. One who controls words controls the narrative. So, take the words migrant and invader. Is there a difference? It's all in how they are perceived by some, and the effect their illegal border crossings have on the U.S. One definition of invasion should focus our attention: “The entrance or advent of anything troublesome or harmful…

Two weeks to slow the spread.  That was the original rationale for the lockdowns, masking and social distancing: Prevent transmission of the coronavirus so that Americans could be assured that we would not overwhelm hospital capacity, causing needless death. Wait until a vaccine is available. That was the next goalpost: an admonition to continue to take precautions to avoid spreading the…

“Why do I have to compete against a male body?” complains mountain bike racer Leia Schneeberger in my new video. She and others are upset because today, some transgender women, people born male but who identify as female, are winning sports competitions. Schneeberger regularly won bicycle races, until a former men's cyclist transitioned, competed as a woman, and rode away from her. “How did…

We have always had them among us: fortune tellers, diviners, readers of palms, tarot cards, tea leaves, stars, horoscopes, discerners of animal entrails, calling on gods of wood and stone, and all sorts of other “seers” who have attempted to convince the gullible that they have the power to predict the future. To some, climate change proponents are little more than modern-day soothsayers that…

Washington -- We at The American Spectator call it “Kultursmog,” and it is the only kind of smog of which our friends on the left approve. Actually, they not only approve of Kultursmog, but they contribute to it. Kultursmog is that aspect of American culture that is utterly politicized, and it is politicized by the politics of the left. Its leading centers of pollution are Hollywood,…

Have you noticed how our language is changing? At a congressional hearing on “Birthing While Black,” nearly every politician used the words “birthing people” instead of “women” or “mothers.” Asked why, Shalanda Young, President Joe Biden's budget director, said, “Our language needs to be more inclusive.” Activists have also changed “equality” to “equity” and “affirmative action” to “diversity…

This week, President Joe Biden was asked whether he had any message for social media amidst a dramatic rise in the number of diagnosed COVID-19 cases thanks to the delta variant. Biden immediately responded that companies like Facebook were responsible for murder: “They're killing people -- I mean, they're really, look, the only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated. And they're killing…

Most people sense that America is under assault by America-hating forces and worry that our freedoms are actually in jeopardy. Mark Levin's new book, “American Marxism,” confirms those fears, exposes the chilling aims and methods of these malicious groups, and provides a blueprint to restore America to a path of recovery. Levin has a gift for distilling abstract ideas into understandable terms…

In the 1950s there was a quiz show called “To Tell the Truth.” It has been reborn several times but retained its original format. A celebrity panel would try to discover which one of three contestants was telling the truth, as all claimed to be the same person with identical backgrounds. I thought of that show in relation to the conflicting stories and claims that have come from “experts”…

America has so many regulations that today, often the only way to do something new, to create something great, to prosper is to ignore rules. Minutes before SpaceX launched a rocket, the government told the company that the launch would violate its license. SpaceX launched anyway. CEO Elon Musk says that the Federal Aviation Administration has “a broken regulatory structure” and that…

This week, thousands of Cuban dissidents marched against the repressive communist tyranny that has subjugated the Cuban people for three generations. They chanted “Libertad!” and called for the end of the regime. And they carried aloft a symbol of freedom: the American flag. This isn't a rarity. It's a common sight among protesters for freedom worldwide. Before Hong Kong was turned into yet…

Retirement plans warn of a “penalty for early withdrawal.” Might that also apply to the withdrawal of American and NATO forces from Afghanistan? If you set aside the victory by coalition forces that expelled Saddam Hussein's overmatched troops from Kuwait in 1991, the U.S. has not won a war since World War II. Not in Korea. Not in Vietnam and now, says President Biden, Afghanistan is a war we…

As absurd, extreme and reckless as the American left has been on race, and despite growing public disapproval of their antics, they are doubling down rather than pulling back. On the Fourth of July, Utah's Black Lives Matter chapter described the American flag as “a symbol of hatred.” “When we Black Americans see this flag we know the person flying it is not safe to be around,” it declared. …

Politicians say they pass laws to “protect Americans from big business.” People like hearing that. Many don't like big business. Unfortunately, most people don't realize that those laws often help big business while hurting consumers. “Big business and big government are not enemies like a lot of people think they are,” says American Enterprise Institute fellow Tim Carney in my new video. “…