Articles

While the domestic spying National Security Agency has been under the red-hot political spot light, another quasi-governmental agency has quietly gone about the business of collecting nearly 1 billion U.S. credit card records without consumer consent. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, CFPB, unlike the NSA, operates with no congressional oversight and with little public transparency, even as it demands complete…

Covering issues from Europe to terrorism and IT, the lesser known Bilderberg policy conference includes prime ministers, CEOs from banks, airlines, oil and the arms industry, and even George Osborne. As one summit closes, another opens. Thursday sees the start of the influential Bilderberg policy conference, which this year is being held in Austria, just 16 miles south of the…

Our culture longs for superheroes because our country lacks leadership. So we flock to see Ironman, or binge-watch Daredevil, to console and distract ourselves. Through most of our history, we educated our young people on epics and ancient chronicles, chivalric ballads and tales of saints. Real liberal arts education starts with stories, of Achilles’ passion for glory and Hector’s love…

Vice President Joe Biden said investing in the nation’s highways and bridges is a national security issue and Congress should quickly approve spending for new projects. Biden said Monday the government now spends less than 1 percent of the gross domestic product on infrastructure, down from about 4 percent. Businesses won’t invest if they don’t know they can get raw…

President Lyndon Johnson did not want his signature legislative achievement, the 1965 passage of the Medicare program, to be a means-tested (i.e., income-dependent) welfare program. And Johnson’s not the only one. In July 2011, AARP Senior Vice President Joyce Rogers released this statement after President Obama indicated he might be willing to consider expanding means testing in Medicare: “Medicare is…

Byron Barlowe—Eagle Scout, father of an Eagle Scout, veteran of 19 years of Scouting—is grieved by Robert Gates’ declaration that the BSA needs to end the ban on gay Scout leaders because Gates’s call violates the Scout law to be morally straight. Boy Scouts will now be subject to gay adult leadership if BSA (Boy Scouts of America) president Robert…

From the tea party to Occupy Wall Street to #BlackLivesMatter, America has spent much of this young century questioning its premises. And as the battles over federal spending, economic inequality and racial injustice continue, Charles Murray comes forward to identify another threat to the nation’s purpose and self-image: the rise of the regulatory state, a rapacious shadow government that has…

Over the weekend, a terrorist group with links to the Islamic State (ISIL) released a video, showing the beheading of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians in Libya. On Monday, Egypt and Libya launched warplanes in an air assault on Darna in eastern Libya, where the group is based. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said, “This wanton killing of innocents is just…

Third World immigration advocates Frank Sharry, Ali Noorani and Marc Andreessen aren’t shy about rushing to the press with pabulum quotes about how wonderful immigration is, but they don’t want to debate me, even to lie about all those benefits. They don’t want you to think about immigration at all. Although you will miss the lush analytical context of the…

Former Texas governor Rick Perry launched his second presidential race with the release of a slick video emphasizing his executive leadership (“We have the power to make our country new again . . . A lot of candidates will say the right things . . . but we need a president who has done the right thing”) and a high-energy…

VICTORY! Federal Court Grants Family-Owned, Faith-Based Car Dealership Permanent Relief from HHS Abortion Pill Mandate Federal district court judge grants permanent injunction, protecting Christian businessman from being forced to violate his religious beliefs—or pay crippling fines You wouldn’t know it from the media, but legal victories for religious liberty continue to pile up, despite a massive war raging across the…