Columns

Ideological clashes over particular laws, policies and programs often go far deeper.

WASHINGTON -- What if the president gave a major speech and no one heard it?

In the early morning hours of Sept. 1, 1939, 72 years ago, the German army crossed the Polish frontier.

In the glossy pages of The New Yorker, in graceful prose and with good reporting, the dreams and nightmares of the admirers of Barack Obama and his policies lie exposed.

"Lenin is said to have declared that the best way to destroy the Capitalist System was to debauch the currency. By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens."

Sometimes to know where you are, and maybe where you might be headed, it is good to look back at where you have been.

Many in the media are saying how unusual it is for our economy to be so sluggish for so long, after we have officially emerged from a recession. In a sense, they are right. But, in another sense, they are profoundly wrong.

The August recess was a habit from back-in-the-day because at one time our U.S. Capitol didn't have the benefit of air conditioning. The Senate and House chambers are already full of hot air without Mother Nature adding to the problem.

Some of society's most intractable problems come not from its failures but from its successes. Often you can't get a good thing without paying a bad price.