Column

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 “there is…

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. “…

This Independence Day, a poll from Issues & Insights revealed that only 36% of adults aged 18-24 said they were “proud to be American,” compared with 86% of those over the age of 65. This shouldn't be surprising. America's children have been raised in a system dedicated to the proposition that America itself is evil, a repository of discrimination and bigotry, a country founded in sin and…

Most of us recall as children getting into a dispute with another kid and then blaming him for starting a fight. When Mom approached you said, “he hit me first.” The other kid denies it and accuses you of hitting him first.

On a beautiful Sunday morning, I was out of town for a business meeting in the city of Santa Barbara, California, an affluent area where the rich and famous live. Demographically, it isn’t exactly Wakanda. Before getting on the 101 Freeway for the long drive back to Los Angeles, I pulled into a gas station to fill up. Just as I got out of my car, I heard a booming male voice shout, “Hey, want…

Would carrying a gun make you feel safer? Robert Nash and Brandon Koch thought so. But the state of New York denied them gun permits, saying they hadn't demonstrated a “special need.” Why did they have to prove such a “need”? The Supreme Court ruled more than 10 years ago that all Americans have a right to keep and bear arms, no matter where they live.

This week, heretofore nearly anonymous hammer thrower Gwen Berry made international headlines when, during the podium ceremony for winning bronze in an Olympic trial, she turned away from the United States flag as the national anthem played. The anthem wasn’t played for her, or for the other competitors in the hammer throw; every day during the trials, a pre-scheduled anthem went out over the…

All politicians tell lies, but the Biden-Harris administration is taking lies to a new level. They now want us to disbelieve what we can see. To paraphrase a quote attributed to the 19th-century British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, there are lies, damn lies ... and then there is Vice President Kamala Harris. More than 90 days after being tasked to stem the record flow of migrants into the…

Cover-ups of sexual misconduct, allegations of racism and intimidation of those who wish to speak their minds but can’t for fear of losing their jobs. It sounds like the dysfunctional ways of the world, doesn’t it? These are just some of the problems the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) will confront this week as their 16,000 “messengers” gather in Nashville. Instead of obeying their…

The Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, released findings in March that showed a rise of 149% in reported anti-Asian American hate crimes from 2019 to 2020. PolitiFact wrote: “The report doesn’t mention former President Donald Trump. However, it does show that Google searches found spikes for racist terms such as ‘China virus’ and ‘Kung…

In an era of political correctness, virtue signaling and woke-ness, wisdom is in such short supply that when discovered it stands out like a beacon in a storm. Wisdom should not be equated with information, of which we have plenty, though information is less informative than it is directive toward outcomes preferred by its providers.