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“Barack Obama Better Be All In” on Afghanistan
At Contentions, the Commentary magazine blog, Peter Wehner assesses the prospects of success for David Petraeus, whom he calls one of the best generals “in our history”: What Petraeus also needs, apart from time, is…
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Obama’s Announcement on McChrystal Makes the Best of a Very Bad Situation
I share the gratitude Obama described for General McChrystal’s service. But what the hell was he thinking giving access to a reporter for Rolling Stone magazine? The threshold decision to participate in a story for…
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Zakaria Lays the Right Oily Blame at the Foot of the Wrong Target
It’s up to Obama to keep the media tail from wagging the presidential dog.
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Reaction to Obama’s Speech Reflects the Limits of Government Power
The President and the Left wing of his party believe that government is the answer to every problem. Obama now is being savaged from the Left over an environmental disaster that government is powerless to…
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Some Contrarian Thoughts on the Gulf Oil Disaster
I think my credentials as a critic of President Obama are fairly well established, but it’s absurd to blame him for the oil spill, or for the failure (so far) to stop it. And calls…
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Brush With “Greatness”: Following in Helen Thomas’s Footsteps
I have the (pick an adjective) distinction of being only the second journalist to interview Jimmy Carter after he left office in early 1981. The first, Carter told me, was Helen Thomas, the long-time White…
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Islam May Not Be the Enemy, But the Enemy Is Islamic
Ayaan Hirsi Ali has earned the right to be critical of Islam. She was raised as a devout Muslim in Somalia and Kenya. At the age of five, her genitals were cut in a barbaric…
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ObamaCare, How Do We Hate Thee? Let Me Count the Ways
Note to Congress: Avoid passing bizarrely complicated, economy-transforming legislation that you have not read, especially in the face of overwhelming public opposition. Americans now favor repeal by a margin of almost 2-to-1.
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Will the Oil Disaster be “Obama’s Katrina”?
In The Corner, Yuval Levin has a sensible take on the tendency to blame the government for anything that goes wrong. We who live in the 21st century West have the least messy, least dangerous,…
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Rand Paul: Giving Libertarianism a Bad Name
Taranto aptly called it “a rookie mistake” when newly nominated Republican Senate candidate Rand Paul told an interviewer that he was troubled by the fact that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 — which Paul…
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My Hero, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, on Islamic Death Threats
In the midst of the controversy over “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day” it’s important to keep in mind the nature of the man being mocked. The Prophet spread his message at the point of the sword,…
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“Everybody Draw Mohammed Day” May Be Better as a Concept than as Something Actually to Do
I have one quibble with the contest at Reason — they seem to have cropped out a couple of essential dots. If you enlarge the image, print it out and connect the dots, you’ll find…
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Surprise! “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day” Draws Threats
The theory behind “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day” is that the jihadis can’t kill all of us. Let’s hope there are no casualties at all.
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Faisal Shahzad: The Terrorist Next Door
Shahzad was living the American Dream. Somehow this well-educated, solidly middle-class family man was so affected by a poisonous ideology that he drove a car bomb to Times Square and tried to kill random people…
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Ajami Offers Wisdom on Islam and the Middle East
“We can be proud of what we have done in Iraq. America has midwifed a binational state — that means Arab and Kurd — and we have midwifed a democratic entity in the heart of…
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Brush With Greatness: Elena Elenadana Kagan
I’d like to be able to say that I knew she was destined for great things, but I had no such insight. I will say that years ago, when I read she had been named…
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The Coming Collapse of Employer-Based Health Coverage
I celebrated when it became clear the public “option” would not be part of the final health care bill. But even in the legislation that was passed, the incentives for companies to wash their hands…
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Devout Muslim Says Shahzad Should Be Tried for Treason
One of my all-time favorite Muslims, Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, president and founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, pulls no punches in condemning his co-religionist: “The actions of Faisal Shahzad a naturalized US…
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The Real Objection to Arizona’s Residency Law: It Will Work
Many of the people objecting to Arizona’s new law are doing so, consciously or otherwise, based on a belief that laws against entering the country illegally should not be enforced. That’s the only way to…
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Why Christie’s on the Right Track, in Three Paragraphs
New Jersey’s new governor is determined to reverse the state’s “failed experiment”, which consists of taxes chasing deficits in an ever-ascending spiral. A Barron’s article does the most concise job I’ve seen of explaining what…