Needles used for shooting heroin and other opioids and other drug paraphernalia in a park in the Kensington section of Philadelphia, Pa., in 2017. (Charles Mostoller/Reuters) Fatal drug overdoses declined last year for the first time in decades, the Trump administration announced Wednesday. Overdoses resulting in death dropped 5.1 percent from 2017 to 2018, according

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi holds her weekly news conference on Capitol Hill, June 20, 2019. (Al Drago/Reuters) They mostly stick to what’s plausible, and that’s vital in polarized times Until Donald Trump’s Sunday tweets demanding that certain “progressive congresswomen” — almost certainly including Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, and Ayanna Pressley – go back

Recording events from public land shouldn’t be a crime. Yet when a woman in Utah, standing by a public road, filmed farmworkers pushing a cow with a bulldozer, the farmer drove up to her and said, “You cannot videotape my property.” Soon the police came and local prosecutors charged her with “agricultural operation interference.” They dropped the

President Donald Trump talks to reporters at the White House, June 26, 2019. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters) The remaining emoluments-clause case against Trump is as spurious as the first two. President Trump has won the second of three lawsuits alleging he violated the Constitution because foreigners and state officials patronize his businesses, such as the Trump Hotel

President George W. Bush leads a conversation on Social Security in Albuquerque, N.M., in 2005. (Jason Reed / Reuters) If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? If the federal deficit and federal debt are problems, but no one talks about them, do

GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan — Peter Meijer’s decision to run for Congress in Western Michigan was a surprise to no one who knows the 31-year-old Grand Rapids native. He is the great-grandson of Hendrik Meijer, who opened a tiny thrift store attached to his barbershop during the Great Depression, which has since grown into a chain

From left: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rep. Ayanna Pressley, and Rep. Rashida Tlaib at a House Oversight Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, July 15, 2019. (Erin Scott/Reuters) Since fighting Trump hasn’t gotten them very far, they’re now fighting one another. Among Democrats these days, it’s a Hobbesian war of all against all. No, that’s not quite

For the first time in my life, I did not root for an American team. Whatever the sport, I have always rooted American. But if those who called into my radio show were representative of my audience, many millions of Americans made the same sad choice. It takes a lot for people like me not

American flag and Oath of Allegiance at a naturalization ceremony in Washington, D.C., in 2013. (Larry Downing/Reuters) I appreciate Charlie’s response to my argument that immigrant citizens don’t owe a special debt of gratitude of to this nation — a debt over and above the gratitude that native-born citizens should feel for their home country.

1. An email in response (I think) to this post: “Before you condemn the death penalty, you should remember that one of the first Catholic saints, St. Dismas, was promised a spot in Heaven specifically for accepting the justice of his execution.” My response: I think you can oppose the death penalty on moral grounds

I’ve been a libertarian — note small “L” — since I got over childhood socialism in my teens, and I’ve never been a really devoted member of any party because I understood even in my 20s that big organizations always act like idiots. After a short flirtation with big-“L” Libertarian Party libertarianism, I’ve been a

(Pixabay) They risked everything for it, not for some idea or abstraction but for the piece of fabric itself. The American flag’s place in our culture is beginning to look less unassailable. The symbol itself is under attack, as we’ve seen with Nike dumping a shoe design featuring an early American flag, Megan Rapinoe defending

Amazon Echo Dot (Pixabay) Smart speakers and cameras are storing video footage and recordings of nearly every aspect of our private lives. The electronic “smart home” promises endless convenience and security. People will control the temperature of their home from their office. This fall, Walmart will launch a service that will let a delivery worker

1983—In a separate concurring opinion (in State v. Hunt), Judge Martha Craig Daughtrey of the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals offers her view that the Tennessee constitution is best read as protecting obscenity. Daughtrey recognizes, alas, that the state supreme court has rejected her reading and foreclosed the path she would pursue if the question

When I was in grade school, back before the turn of the century, it was somehow A Thing that my classmates would say “Ommmmmm” when presented with a scandal. “Ommmmmm, he kissed Cindy!” “Ommmmmm, he said a naughty word!” This was often followed by the proclamation that someone in authority would be told. I have

Anti-extradition bill protesters march to the West Kowloon Express Rail Link Station in Hong Kong, China, July 7, 2019. (Tyrone Siu/Reuters) Will Trump stand by while China devours this near miraculous city? Hong Kong — Most Americans do not know the name Carrie Lam, chief executive of the “Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the

U.S. national soccer team players celebrate winning the Women’s World Cup at Groupama Stadium in Lyon, France, July 7, 2019. (Lucy Nicholson/Reuters) A discussion of Biden, the U.S. women’s soccer team win, and much more. This is the transcript from Episode 155 of The Editors. Rich: What to make of Joe Biden after he gets schooled

Perhaps the most historic, in the sense of era-defining, moment in the history of the Academy Awards was that standing ovation Roman Polanski got when he was given Best Director honors in 2003. There they are, leading Hollywood liberals, leaping to their feet to cheer for a man who, at age 43, gave a 13-year-old

Perhaps the most historic, in the sense of era-defining, moment in the history of the Academy Awards was that standing ovation Roman Polanski got when he was given Best Director honors in 2003. There they are, leading Hollywood liberals, leaping to their feet to cheer for a man who, at age 43, gave a 13-year-old

Uber and Lyft drivers protest during a day-long strike outside Uber’s office in Saugus, Massachusetts, U.S., May 8, 2019. (Brian Snyder/Reuters) The companies are already unprofitable, and facing strict regulation. One of my favorite things to ask rideshare drivers is whether and how they calculate their earnings: Do they keep track of hourly wages, how

Can Google make people not join ISIS? Can Google make people join ISIS? Recently, there was an Op-Ed in the New York Times, “I Used Google Ads for Social Engineering. It Worked.”Now, ignoring for the moment that this really is using no known definition of “social engineering”, the point of the article is that Google

Planned Parenthood president Dr. Leana Wen speaks at a protest against anti-abortion legislation at the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., May 21, 2019. (James Lawler Duggan/Reuters) A recent poll conducted by the Washington Post and ABC News is receiving positive coverage from pundits and supporters of legal abortion. The survey found that 60 percent of

The tiff between Nancy Pelosi and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is interesting. And, for many on the right, surely delicious. Ocasio-Cortez and her crew have gotten under Pelosi’s skin. Pelosi was once the leftward edge of the Democratic House caucus. (Did you ever see this Saturday Night Live sketch, when Pelosi became speaker in 2006? One for

I’ve often wondered whether the internal contradictions of leftist ideology would eventually cause leftists to turn on one another. Perhaps we’re catching a glimpse of that in the feud between Nancy Pelosi and the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez quartet. Everything about modern leftist ideology is extreme. It is extreme in substance, and its practitioners are self-absorbed, sanctimonious,

Senator Rand Paul speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C., December 4, 2018. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters) Most of the immigration talk today has involved Elizabeth Warren’s new plan, which would deliberately scale back immigration enforcement and make it easier to come to the U.S. on the basis of “family reunification.” Senator Rand Paul’s idea is

There’s a saying in the wide world of sports, “the best defense is a good offense.” Adversaries who attack instead of fortify and wait have the advantage. Given the kind of man, and president, that Donald Trump is, you can bet that his campaign will adhere to that competitive philosophy. He will go on offense

It’s time for the Trump haters to ditch their “unfit” trope. From former CIA chief John Brennan on the left to the Never Trumpers on the right, Donald J. Trump is “unfit” to be president. Or so they insist. Somehow, they claim, a combination of incompetence, mental illness, and excessive fast-food … Read More

Commenting on Rush Limbaugh’s passionate denunciation of the spirit of anti-American leftism that is destroying the country, Lloyd Marcus, who blogs at The Unhyphenated American, agrees that the time has come to say “No!” He concludes, with Limbaugh, “It is time that we take action to take back our country. It is time that we

(Jonathan Ernst/Reuters) As we have reported, National Review has filed a petition for a Writ of Certiorari with the United States Supreme Court requesting that in its forthcoming term it take up Mann v. National Review, the nation’s most-pressing case for First Amendment rights which now has accumulated lower-court issues that, unless refuted, will have

Getting fact-checked cuts two ways. It means the fact-checkers pay attention to what I say. It also means I should expect liberal bias from the checkers. In a recent appearance on Fox News, I made the following assertions: Republicans did not own slaves. Democrats owned slaves; Democrats founded the KKK; Democrats opposed the 13th Amendment