Politics
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Commentary: Florida just picked the wrong kind of meat to ban
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey recently signed into law bans against cell-cultivated meat in their states. They apparently find meat grown in a lab rather than stripped from a factory-farmed animal so repellent that its production, distribution or sale ought to be a misdemeanor punishable with jail time. Indeed, when ...Read more
Beth Kowitt: Get ready bosses -- today's protesters are tomorrow's workers
Corporate America would very much like its employees to be quiet now.
Executives have had enough of the bring-your-whole-self-to-work and speak-up-at-the-office grand experiment of the pandemic era. Across the U.S., C-Suites are yearning for a return to business as usual — aka, you do what we tell you, we pay you for it, and you keep your ...Read more
Editorial: The rematch is set: Biden vs. Trump debates have the right balance
The last time the Democrats and the Republicans held a White House rematch with the same two contenders was 1956, when Ike beat Adlai Stevenson for the second straight time. Earlier, there were redos with William McKinley and William Jennings Bryan (McKinley won both in 1896 and 1900) and Grover Cleveland vs. Benjamin Harrison (in 1888, Harrison...Read more
Commentary: When it comes to Russia, containment still isn't enough
The document that largely defined American foreign policy through the Cold War years was written anonymously by a prickly and melancholic Midwesterner who spent much of the rest of his life disavowing the repercussions of his work.
George F. Kennan, a State Department expert on Soviet Russia, published an article in the July 1947 issue of ...Read more
Commentary: Here's the buzz on why you shouldn't eat cicadas
“Just … why?” That’s the question that is baffling friends I’ve talked to about the flurry of strange online articles offering instructions on how to catch, kill and cook cicadas. As scientists make a mad dash to gather as much information as they can during the few short weeks they’ll have with these fascinating animals whose lives ...Read more
Commentary: When Biden and Trump agree, consumers should worry
Joe Biden and Donald Trump agree on at least one thing. I know what you’re probably thinking: a little more consensus might be good for the country. But when we’re talking about both major presidential candidates calling to limit the flow of goods to U.S. consumers, shouldn’t we be worried? Each has been touting trade policies that could ...Read more
Editorial: Germany turns to coal power to keep the lights on
Even green Europeans would rather tap coal than face the reality of overdependence on unreliable renewable energy.
Late last month, Germany’s energy regulator said the country needs more coal power. That’s surprising news, because its leaders have long bought into global warming alarmism. But it again highlights the problems that arise when...Read more
Commentary: We need to invest in a high-speed rail future
Two and a half hours. That is how quickly one could travel from Chicago to St. Louis with new high-speed rail infrastructure.
That could cut travel time nearly in half from current levels, saving millions of riders something money can’t often buy: time.
For the first time in decades, there is a real opportunity and hunger for investments in ...Read more
Martin Schram: A new world order for Gaza
If Bibi Netanyahu and his right-fringe Israel regime didn’t exist, Yahya Sinwar and his sinful warmongers of Gaza’s Hamas probably would have had to invent them.
But as things have turned out, Netanyahu and his gang not only exist, they have proven to be painfully gullible and tragically manipulable. Bibi’s government has fallen into ...Read more
Editorial: You won't like Trumponomics 2.0
Whoever wins November’s election, inflation will present them with an immediate challenge. More than two years after the Federal Reserve started raising interest rates to alleviate a pandemic-era price spike, the so-called core consumer price index remains well above the central bank’s target. It’s a bit puzzling, then, that former ...Read more
Editorial: House antisemitism bill would stymie free speech and wouldn't make students safer
With campus protests against the war in Gaza as a backdrop, President Joe Biden last week rightly denounced incidents in which “Jewish students [were] blocked, harassed, attacked while walking to class.” Such actions are appalling even if they involve a minority of protesters.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Education released updated ...Read more
Will Bunch: Trump would sell your grandkid's future for $1 billion
Sometimes the movies that stay with you for decades aren’t the good ones, but the ones with an unforgettable ad or an utterly inane premise. That last category includes maybe the worst movie of Robert Redford’s long and distinguished acting career, 1993′s Indecent Proposal, in which a beautiful and desperately cash-strapped young wife (...Read more
Editorial: 'Grading for equity' leads to less learning
Liberals and conservatives hope to shrink the racial achievement gap. But they have very different approaches to doing so.
Real Clear Investigations recently looked into “grading for equity.” It’s a fad pushed by various education consultants. Dozens of districts have embraced this approach, including schools in Boston and Portland, ...Read more
Jackie Calmes: The Supreme Court's conservatives onstage, unplugged and unrepentant
It’s that time of year when the life-tenured denizens of America’s imperial court, otherwise known as the Supreme Court, come down from their bench to mix with the masses.
Just kidding. The justices limit their appearances to friendly audiences, to elite folks too well-mannered to ask them about matters like gifts from billionaires with ...Read more
F.D. Flam: It's officially hotter than anytime since the birth of Jesus
It’s one thing to say the Northern Hemisphere summer of 2023 was the hottest of the 150 years people have been making measurements. This well-documented claim is often dismissed by skeptics of global warming who point out that the Earth has a long history of temperature fluctuations. That’s why it’s important that a new paper shows last ...Read more
Robin Abcarian: 'Diaper Don'? Trump's supporters turn the tables on his puerile critics
The political ascendance and staying power of Donald Trump have forced this country to confront so many existential questions:
Can our democracy survive another Trump administration?
Can an American president really and truly be above the law?
And: Do real men wear diapers?
We won't know the answers to the first two questions for a while ...Read more
Commentary: Let's put suspension or expulsion back on the table for violent college students
Colleges are considering suspensions and expulsions for students who vandalized campuses and committed violence over the last month. These consequences are entirely appropriate, and overdue. School officials in North Carolina are even reallocating more funds to campus safety.
What took so long? The answer may help prevent violent riots on ...Read more
POINT: Parents must end the teachers unions' stranglehold on education
On May 17, 1954, the United States Supreme Court took a historic step toward ending injustice with its decision in Brown v. Board of Education. Politicians once stood in the schoolhouse door as a barrier to keep minorities out.
The new civil rights challenge is to break through the barrier that’s trapping minority children in failing ...Read more
COUNTERPOINT: Vouchers are not the 'civil rights issue of our time'
In 1958, three years after the Brown v. Board of Education order to integrate American schools, the Texas legislature debated a plan that would offer vouchers to parents who opposed the idea that their children would learn in diverse racial settings. Echoing similar efforts throughout the U.S. South, the Texas bill left no ambiguity about the ...Read more
Commentary: New data shows charter schools increase segregation
As we approach the 70th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, a crucial question arises: Why are our nation’s schools experiencing increased segregation despite progress in neighborhood integration? A new study by Sean Reardon of Stanford University and Ann Owens of the University of Southern California provides a startling answer — ...Read more