Columns

WASHINGTON -- First order of business for the returning Congress: The No Bailout for Insurance Companies Act of 2014. Make it one line long: "Sections 1341 and 1342 of the Affordable Care Act are hereby repealed." End of bill. End of bailout. End of story.

WASHINGTON -- It was naughty of Winston Churchill to say, if he really did, that "the best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter." Nevertheless, many voters' paucity of information about politics and government, although arguably rational, raises awkward questions about concepts central to democratic theory, including consent, representation, public opinion, electoral mandates and officials' accountability.

Much has been written lately about whether U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson will jump into the governors race. While Ive thought for a long time that he would not do so, Ive recently changed my mind because of comments he's made about the race.

WASHINGTON -- America's capacity for optimism and hope has been boundless through much of our short history. The tangible returns of hard work; the ordered liberty sustained through community consent; and opportunity honed over time to apply equally to all men and women -- these were the currency of what we called the American Dream.

2013 will be remembered as the year President Barack Obama's halo went askew. It deserves to be remembered for some other things.

WASHINGTON -- This report on the State of Conservatism comes at the end of an annus mirabilisfor conservatives. In 2013, they learned that they may have been wasting much time and effort.

By their heroes shall you know them.In his eulogy, President Obama put Nelson Mandela in the company of three other heroes: Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and Abraham Lincoln.What did these men have in common? Three were assassinated, and all four are icons of resistance to white rule over peoples of color.

The New York Times published an unintentionally humorous headline on Dec. 23: "When '60 Minutes' Checks Its Journalistic Skepticism at the Door." The Times media columnist David Carr is suddenly stunned that "60 Minutes" has aired a puff piece on a serious political matter.

WASHINGTON -- Federal Judge John Gleeson of the Eastern District of New York says documents called "statements of reasons" are an optional way for a judge to express "views that might be of interest." The one he issued two months ago is still reverberating. It expresses his dismay that although his vocation is the administration of justice, his function frequently is the infliction of injustice. The policy of mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses has empowered the government to effectively nullify the constitutional right to a trial. As Lulzim Kupa learned.

Sometimes it seems like things are upside down.Barack Obama and his Obamacare administrators are continually making laws, through blogpost (suspending the employer mandate) and bulletin (suspending the individual mandate).

Most of what could be said about the "Duck Dynasty" flap has been said. My take is this: Liberals are all about rights, real and imaginary. Well, Phil Robertson had a right to express his religious beliefs. Liberals had a right to complain.

PRINCETON, N.J. -- In a scientific complex on 88 bucolic acres near here, some astonishingly talented people are advancing a decades-long project to create a sun on Earth. When -- not if; when -- decades hence they and collaborators around the world succeed, their achievement will be more transformative of human life than any prior scientific achievement.

WASHINGTON -- The lie of the year, according to Politifact, is "If you like your health care plan, you can keep it." But the story of the year is a nation waking up to just how radical Obamacare is -- which is why it required such outright deception to get it passed in the first place.

A postsecondary education is one of the best investments a person can make. Data available prove education creates a lifetime of opportunity and potential for success. People in the workforce, on average, earn almost twice as much with a bachelors degree than those with only a high school diploma. The pursuit of knowledge pays off!

WASHINGTON -- Congressional Republicans' long-simmering dismay about Barack Obama's offenses against the separation of powers became acute when events compelled him to agree with them that the Affordable Care Act could not be implemented as written.