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Reality Hollywood can’t change

We recall the catastrophic fires in Maui almost two years ago, then the horde of unusually violent hurricanes trashing Florida’s west coast. To the surprise of many, those storms unleashed cataclysmic flooding in western North Carolina, up there in the mountains. All these extreme weather events were tied in part to warming temperatures. As for wiping out large parts of an entire civilization, though, nothing can match the wildfires torching community after community in and around Los Angeles. But in the case of Los Angeles, the problem isn’t just climate change. It’s the climate ...

Dumbing down New Jersey schools

Among the many laws that took effect at the beginning of this new year is one in New Jersey that will astound and should anger people with children in the state’s public schools. It’s called Act 1669 and it removes a requirement that teachers pass a basic reading, writing and math test to be eligible to teach. The law was signed by Gov. Phil Murphy (D-NJ) last June. The rationale, if one can call it rational, is that New Jersey is not attracting enough teachers to the profession and so standards must be lowered so more will apply. This reminds me of what the Army has done for ...

Democrats aren’t democracy’s party

When Donald Trump is sworn in next week, America will have a president for the first time in four years. The Biden era hasn’t been a presidency but an interregnum, with seemingly no one in charge in Washington. The sign on Harry Truman’s desk used to say, “The buck stops here.” Where did it stop with Joe Biden in the Oval Office? Voters never asked for an experiment in leaderless administration, but the party that put Biden in power gave them one anyway. In the 21st century, Democrats are misnamed: They’re the less democratic of the two great parties, and their ...

Damn the acquiescence

It’s important in a democracy that the losing side grapple with its defeat and learn the right lessons for next time. A certain amount of reflection and self-criticism is healthy, but we’ve blown past that point and are in danger of over-interpreting the 2024 results. Despite headlines proclaiming the GOP won in a “rout” or declaring that “This is the collapse of the Democratic Party,” November’s election was actually quite close. Trump received 49.9% to Kamala Harris’s 48.4%, a difference of a point and a half. That’s a smaller margin than any winner since Richard ...

Oct. 7 remains brutal wake-up call

Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s mass murder of innocents in New Orleans on New Year’s Day, “inspired” by ISIS’ exhortations to wage war against “non-believers,” reminded Americans about the existence of evil. In our comfort, in our security, we don’t see evil up close all that frequently. Unfortunately for Israelis, they see it every day. Evil in the form of Hamas on Israel’s southern border and of Hezbollah on its northern one. Israelis experience evil in the form of thousands of rockets fired at its civilians from both directions and from others, in the form of bombs blowing ...

Why America is in so much trouble

Shortly before Milton Friedman’s death in 2006, I had the privilege of interviewing him over dinner in San Francisco. The last question I asked him was: What are the three things we have to do to make America more prosperous? His answer I have never forgotten: “First, allow universal school choice; second, expand free trade; third and most importantly, cut government spending.” That was long before Barack Obama and Joe Biden came along. There aren’t too many problems in America that can’t be traced back to the growth of big and incompetent government. It is notable that ...