Breaking News

National Columnists

Anti-socialism is GOP’s golden opportunity

The Democratic Party has come a long way since Bill Clinton was president – and not in a good way. But of all the issues where the Democratic Party has moved sharply to the left since the Clinton era, perhaps none is more notable than economic policy. During his 1996 State of the Union address, Clinton famously declared that "the era of big government is over." And he acted on that impulse too: Clinton signed the most transformative welfare reform law in a generation, deregulated Wall Street, slashed taxes on capital gains, and ended his presidency by presiding over consecutive ...

Bills shouldn’t be guided by lobbying ops

Congress loves to wrap legislation in the language of the public interest. This year's surface transportation reauthorization bill is no exception. Supporters describe the House Transportation Committee-passed package as a major safety bill designed to make America's transportation system more secure and efficient. If the bill is being driven by a coherent safety philosophy, why would legislators soften rules requiring the faster replacement of old hazardous-materials tank cars, despite repeated recommendations from the independent National Transportation Safety Board? ...

Dropping candidates gets to be bad habit

It's beginning to be a habit. It, in this case, is the messy business of center-left political jettisoning one leader suddenly deemed unelectable and, without resort to the usual rules or democratic procedure, designating a replacement. It's the process that came fairly close to giving ...

One revolution brought liberty

Two hundred and fifty years ago, men in powdered hair and knee breeches did what no colony had ever done successfully. They broke away from the most powerful empire on earth. Now look at the revolutions. Ours in 1776. France in 1789. Russia in 1917. China in 1949. Four attempts to tear down ...

Gorillas’ future depends on zoos’ cooperation

Two Western lowland gorillas just arrived at Louisville Zoo's Gorilla Forest from Zoo Knoxville in Knoxville, Tennessee. Obi and Andi are half-sisters and will hopefully create Louisville's next family group with 29-year-old male gorilla, Kicho. Their arrival piqued my curiosity about how ...

Observations made on busy news week

It's been a busy week news-wise. Here are a few of my observations (not likely to be popular) on some of the most notable headlines. 1. The U.S. men's soccer team should have declined the red card reversal. During the World Cup game between the USA and Bosnia-Herzegovina, star scorer Folarin Balogun got a "red card" for "serious foul play" from a referee after a collision with B-H player Tarik Muharemovic, resulting in a one-game suspension. This call was widely criticized, both because a red card typically requires intentional conduct (Balogun wasn't even facing Muharemovic, whose ...