Michael Barone: Government Shutdown Not a Train Wreck

Sometimes you get an idea of the way opinion is headed by the phrases you don't hear. Case in point: In all the discussion and debate these past weeks about a possible government shutdown if Congress and President Obama fail to agree on funding bills, I don't recall having heard the phrase "train wreck." I think that's significant, because back in the 1990s, when then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich's  ...  MORE

VIDEO: Walter E Williams - Public Employee Unions

Herman Cain: In Defense of American Exceptionalism

There is no denying it: America is the greatest country in the world. 
We are blessed with unparalleled freedoms and boundless prosperity that for generations have inspired an innovative and industrious people. America is exceptional. American Exceptionalism is the standard that our laws reflect the understanding that we are afforded certain God-given rights that can never be taken away.  ...  MORE

VIDEO: Will Net Neutrality Save the Internet?

Jacob Sullum: Mitch Daniel's Pot Luck

Experience taught him the importance of being tough on drug users.
Last week Mitch Daniels, Indiana's governor, told The Daily Princetonian that "justice was served" when he was arrested for marijuana possession during his junior year at Princeton. But like many pot smokers who became politicians, Daniels, a potential  contender for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination ... MORE

Steve Chapman: Zero Hour For Public Broadcasting

It's time for the government subsidies to end.
I am an American and a male, so you can easily guess the first thing I do when I arrive in a hotel room: pick up the TV remote and turn on ESPN. The second thing may not be so universal: tune the clock radio to the local public radio station. I have been happily addicted to the medium since 1979, when National Public Radio l  ...  MORE

VIDEO: Andrew Napolitano - The Blind Spot and the Abyss

Thomas Sowell: Is Democracy Viable?

Those who see hope in the Middle East uprisings seem to assume that they will lead in the direction of freedom or democracy. There is already talk about the "liberation" of Egypt, even though the biggest change there has been that a one-man dictatorship has been replaced by a military dictatorship that has suspended the constitution. Perhaps the military dictatorship will be temporary, as its leaders say, but we have heard that song ...  MORE

Michelle Malkin: Teachers Unions 101

If public school teachers spent more time teaching in classrooms and less time community-organizing in political war rooms, maybe taxpayers wouldn't feel as ripped off as they do. Before the Big Labor bosses start complaining about "teacher-bashing," let's be clear: An increasing number of rank-and-file teachers feel exactly the same way. Retired New York teacher Vinne Cusimano, who was required to pay forced ...  MORE

Michael Barone: Why Middle America Is Rejecting Big Govt

It's a question that puzzles most liberals and bothers some conservatives. Why are so many modest-income white voters rejecting the Obama Democrats' policies of economic redistribution and embracing the small-government policies of the tea party movement? It's not supposed to work out that way, say the political scientists and New Deal historians. Politics is supposed to be  ...  MORE

Walter E Williams: Public Employee Unions

With all of the union strife in Wisconsin, Indiana and New Jersey, and indications of more to come, it might be time to shed a bit of light on unions as an economic unit. First, let's get one important matter out of the way. I value freedom of association, and non-association, even in ways that are not always popular and often deemed despicable. I support a person's right to be a member or not be a member  ...   MORE

VIDEO: Mark Thornton - Hard Drugs for Little Kids


A look at the real world effects of drug legalization on little children.

Veronique De Rugy: The Truth About Obama's 2012 Budget

Separating economic myth from economic fact.
Myth 1: Under President Barack Obama’s 2012 budget, we will “live within our means”.
Fact 1: Debt and spending will continue to grow and deficits will continue to persist under the president’s Fiscal Year 2012 Budget Request. ... MORE

Robert Tracinski: Public Unions & The Socialist Eutopia

The Democratic lawmakers who have gone on the lam in Wisconsin and Indiana-and who knows where else next-are exhibiting a literal fight-or-flight response, the reaction of an animal facing a threat to its very existence. Why? Because it is a threat to their existence. The battle of Wisconsin is about the viability of the Democratic Party, and more: it is about the viability of the basic social ideal of the left.   ...   MORE