Columns

With the Islamic warriors of ISIS having captured all the border posts between Iraq, Syria and Jordan, we may be witnessing the end of Sykes-Picot.

One of the joys of living in Florida is the diversity. We have every kind of exotic and invasive species imaginable, from the Burmese python to the liberal retiree.

WASHINGTON -- What philosopher Harvey Mansfield calls "taming the prince" -- making executive power compatible with democracy's abhorrence of arbitrary power -- has been a perennial problem of modern politics. It is now more urgent in America than at any time since the founders, having rebelled against George III's unfettered exercise of "royal prerogative," stipulated that presidents "shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed."

Nicol Gutierrezs call for an environmentally-friendly solution to Americas reliance on foreign oil is easily answered by the very policy he rails against (EPA Must Reform Bad Renewable Fuel Standard, June 16).

A few questions for President Barack Obama.At your press conference, you said, "It is in our national security interest not to see an all-out civil war in Iraq." If that is the case, why did you withdraw all U.S. forces from Iraq in 2011? Were you motivated by something other than U.S. national interests?

WASHINGTON -- Yes, it is true that there was no al-Qaida in Iraq when George W. Bush took office. But it is equally true that there was essentially no al-Qaida in Iraq remaining when Barack Obama took office.

Ronan Farrow, considered the "boy wonder" of cable hosts by MSNBC executives, interviewed his colleague Chris Matthews on June 11 over the stunning primary defeat of Eric Cantor.

As the Islamic warriors of ISIS rolled down the road from Mosul, John McCain was an echo of French Premier Paul Reynaud, when word reached Paris that Rommel had broken through in the Ardennes:"We are now facing an existential threat to the security of the United States of America," said McCain.

Polls show that most Americans wanted the United States to withdraw from Iraq. Barack Obama did indeed withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq, not troubling to negotiate a readily negotiable status of forces agreement that would have left a contingent of American soldiers there.

WASHINGTON -- About that stunning defeat. Conventional Wisdom, that self-righteous propagandist, has it that Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's trouncing by an academic, tea-sipping nobody marks the end of the GOP establishment.

Even for those who use public transportation or the relative few who use electric vehicles, gasoline affects everything we do from the price of food to the cost of goods that we purchase for our homes or businesses.

Not since a 42-to-1 underdog named Buster Douglas knocked out undefeated heavyweight champion Mike Tyson in 1990 has there been an upset like economics professor Dave Brat defeating House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in the Republican primary in Virginia.

"I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical."If Thomas Jefferson's benign reflection on Shays' Rebellion, that uprising of farmers in 1786 and 1787, is not the first thought that comes to mind today for his fellow Virginian Eric Cantor, surely it is understandable.

WASHINGTON -- The morning after, at breakfast at the Republicans' Capitol Hill Club, Virginia Rep. Robert Goodlatte was, as befits one of Washington's grown-ups, measured in his reaction to what 36,120 Virginia voters did the day before. It would, he says, be wise "to take a step back and a deep breath until we find out how everyone" -- meaning, especially, House Republicans -- "reacts to this." By "this" he indicates, with a wave of a hand, the one-word headline on Roll Call, a newspaper that covers Congress: "Stunner."

The Florida Sheriffs Association (FSA) announced Tuesday the launch of their Dont Let Florida Go to Pot Coalition, which is about educating the public on the dire impact if Amendment 2 is approved allowing medical marijuana.