Syndicated Columns

SULLUM: New York continues bogus busts

JACOB SULLUM

Thirty-five years ago, New York’s legislature decriminalized marijuana possession. Numbers released last week show the New York Police Department continues to flagrantly flout that policy, wasting resources on a pointless, unjust and illegal...... Full story

SULLUM: Bogus busts: New York City continues its illegal crackdown on pot smokers

BY JACOB SULLUM

Thirty-five years ago, New York's legislature decriminalized marijuana possession. Numbers released last week show the New York Police Department continues to flagrantly flout that policy, wasting resources on a pointless, unjust and illegal...... Full story

CHAPMAN: Appeasement? Please.

Stephen Chapman

On April 1, 2001, a U.S. spy plane and a Chinese fighter collided over the South China Sea, forcing the Americans to make an emergency landing on Chinese soil. But the Chinese government said it would not release the crew until it got an apology....... Full story

SOWELL: The anti-Romney vote

A funny thing happened to Mitt Romney on the way to his coronation as the inevitable Republican candidate for President of the United States. Minnesota, Missouri and Colorado happened. Rick Santorum beat him in all three states on the same day...... Full story

ELAM: Oklahoma, meet Minnesota

Dennis Elam

As any producer in West Texas knows, all crude oil is not created equal. Saudi Sweet Light (no Virginia, there is really no such thing as sweet crude) flows freely and is perhaps the easiest to refine into products. As such, it fetches some of the...... Full story

WILLIAMS: Rising black social pathology

Walter Williams

The Philadelphia Inquirer’s big story Feb. 4 was about how a budget crunch at the Philadelphia School District had caused the district to lay off 91 school police officers. Through the years, there’s been no discussion of what has...... Full story

ESTRICH: What happened to Newt and Mitt?

Susan Estrich

Newt’s easy. While all of us on the Democratic side were playing “root for Newt,” Republicans were taking the proverbial second and third look — and getting scared by what they saw. Hello, Herman Cain. Oldest rule in...... Full story

CHAPMAN: False fears about a nuclear Iran

Stephen Chapman

“The stupidest thing I have ever heard.” — Meir Dagan, former head of Israel’s intelligence agency, the Mossad, on attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities. Stupid it may be, but it’s also the hottest trend since the...... Full story

CHAREN: Do you speak Conservative?

Mona Charen

Newt Gingrich knows the lingo. He makes conservative audiences roar with approval when he compares the efficiency of FedEx and MasterCard to the post office and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He never loses an opportunity to attack the press...... Full story

ESTRICH: Chasing equality in the U.S.

Susan Estrich

Last week’s ruling by a panel of three judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit holding unconstitutional the California ballot initiative that aimed to take the right to marry away from same-sex couples is hardly the...... Full story

CHAPMAN: Inoculating against freedoms

Stephen Chapman

A few weeks ago, Rick Santorum got some criticism for saying the Supreme Court erred in saying states may not outlaw contraception. The idea that Americans could legally be forbidden to buy condoms or birth control pills struck most people as a...... Full story

CHAREN: Drop the middle class talk

Mona Charen

In 1992, Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton built his campaign for the White House on doing more for the “forgotten middle class.” Calling it the “new covenant” (Democrats since Roosevelt have tried to work the words...... Full story

CHAPMAN: The flaws of Mitt and Newt

BY STEPHEN CHAPMAN

Newt Gingrich has an exquisitely sensitive moral antenna, and Mitt Romney’s remark suggesting indifference to the poor sent it quivering. “I am fed up with politicians in either party dividing Americans against each other,” he...... Full story

WILLIAMS: Economic chaos ahead

Walter Williams

Let’s think about the kind of mess that we’re in. Federal 2010 Medicare and Medicaid expenditures totaled $800 billion. The projected annual growth of both programs is about 7 percent. Social Security expenditures are more than $700...... Full story

ELAM: It’s a perfect storm

Dennis Elam

A peak in positive investing mood lies immediately ahead, but a similar spike in unrest and negative sentiment world-wide is also brewing. The latter is the result of repressive dictatorships, now no longer able to control the news citizens...... Full story