Columns

The scores are in from the 2012 Program for International Student Assessment, which, every three years, tests 15-year-olds from the world's most advanced countries.For the United States, the report card is dismal. The U.S. ranking has fallen to 17th in reading, 21st in science, and 26th in math.

If President Barack Obama has entertained an economic insight that wasn't fashionable in 1933, I haven't heard about it. It's doubtless he's for recycling glass and plastic, but he's even more wedded to recycling ideas that were fresh and interesting during the New Deal era but have since been discredited.

I believe in a strong America; an America that is the definitive beacon of opportunity, an America that is the global leader in economic prosperity, an America that has the most competitive workforce in the world.

I am a longtime public school teacher and I have four main reasons for standing againstCommon Core. None of them have to do with Barrack Obama trying to take over our schools and turn our kids into socialists.

WASHINGTON -- Critics of the agreement with Iran concerning its nuclear program are right about most things but wrong about the most important things. They understand the agreement's manifest and manifold defects and its probable futility. Crucial components of Iran's nuclear infrastructure remain.

It might seem like another day in Tea Party Land when a conservative columnist accuses President Barack Obama's White House of "airbrushing history" like the Stalin-era Soviet Union. But the columnist isn't a conservative. It's Dana Milbank of the liberal Washington Post complaining about what's happened to White House news photographers.He's not alone. A New York Times photographer has publicly compared Team Obama to the Soviet Tass news agency. What is going on?

Washingtons empty promises dont end with Obamacare. Consider the new Common Core national standards and tests for K-12 education.

We conservatives are always on about the "unintended consequences" of government programs, but we didn't expect the Obama administration and congressional Democrats to provide such a vivid object lesson. If the tipsy, teetering debut of Obamacare invites a new skepticism about the capacity of government to run things, it will be the most welcome unintended consequence since Alexander Fleming left his staphylococci samples on a workbench over summer vacation.

Santa Claus can jingle all the way to Christmas, but integrating Christ into Christmas in the public realm has come under fire again.

The state of Florida takes in a lot of money every year. Unfortunately, legislators can't spend most of it.

WASHINGTON -- If you peruse the news on any given day, the farm bill/food stamp debate produces two general impressions: Republicans are heartless turkey thieves; Democrats are spendthrift welfare caterers. If only neither were a little bit right.

When, after the massacres at Newtown and the Washington Navy Yard, Republicans refused to outlaw the AR-15 rifle or require background checks for gun purchasers, we were told the party had committed suicide by defying 90 percent of the nation.

The first book I ever loved was Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone by J.K. Rowling, and since then I have been hooked on reading. Through the years, reading has been both my escape and my direct path to knowledge. But in order to read to learn, I first had to learn to read.

Millions of Florida families will gather together today around a table to share a feast of Thanksgiving. Among the many blessings we have to be thankful for are the farmers who work tirelessly to provide our nations bounty.

WASHINGTON -- We are tomorrow's past, so this Thanksgiving give thanks for 2013, a year the future might study more for amusement than for edification.