Jon Stewart has long been one of my favorite people in the news business. Yes, he’s a comedian. Yes, he’s a liberal who irks my conservative sensibilities. Yes, he’s often wrong, but he’s principled. This is a rare quality, particularly in the media world. I’ve had the opportunity to meet Stewart on three occasions, each [...]
One can be either socially liberal or socially conservative and still be a libertarian. On issues like abortion, gay marriage and drugs, how one views the state’s role, or non-role, in these matters, is usually what determines that individual’s libertarian credentials–not necessarily their personal views on these issues. But there are some libertarians who insist [...]
One can be either socially liberal or socially conservative and still be a libertarian. On issues like abortion, gay marriage and drugs, how one views the state’s role, or non-role, in these matters, is usually what determines that individual’s libertarian credentials–not necessarily their personal views on these issues. But there are some libertarians who insist [...]
These are by no means all the reviews of Sen. Rand Paul’s foreign policy speech at Heritage last week, but they are particularly noteworthy. I categorized the best I could. Glowing praise: The Washington Times editorial thought it was an important speech that stressed the desperate need to reexamine US foreign policy. The Washington Times [...]
Last week, I wrote about President Barack Obama’s gun-control executive orders, and in it, I said, “You don’t have to be a firearms enthusiast to know that this isn’t a final triumph for gun-control advocates. It’s only the latest chapter.” My argument was that any time you give the government an inch, they will always [...]
From about 2007 to 2012, I was constantly accused of being a propagandist for Ron Paul. It was true. I believed in Dr. Paul 100%. I had been waiting for a political figure of his type to emerge my entire life. For the 2012 campaign, he even hired me to be his official campaign blogger. [...]
Before President George W. Bush signed the Patriot Act in 2001, he said, “Today, we take an essential step in defeating terrorism, while protecting the constitutional rights of all Americans.” At the time, the Left cried out that their constitutional rights were being stripped away, but in the emotional post-9/11 environment, they were powerless to [...]
I’ve spent most of my political life on the margins. This was largely my fault. My brand of conservatism was considerably different from the big government Republicanism of the George W. Bush-era. And so my political existence throughout the 2000s was primarily that of a news junkie scouring the headlines for any morsel of hope [...]
If you ever needed a reminder of how worthless the Republican Party generally is, last week’s “fiscal cliff” vote saw a majority of Republicans joining with Democrats to increase taxes, push through pork-barrel spending, and add trillions to the national debt. This is what most Republicans do. It is what they have always done. They [...]
I have an aversion to conspiracy theories. It has little to do with whether they’re true. Indeed, some things we now consider common knowledge were once conspiracy theories. It has everything to do with the obstacles they create and political reform they undermine. The murky notion that President Obama is some sort of secret-Kenyan-Muslim-communist is a [...]