Column

“Mental health is declining,” says psychologist Jonathan Haidt. This week, his book, “The Anxious Generation,” is number one on The New York Times bestseller list. His book has been a bestseller for more than a year. Haidt argues that smartphones and social media have “rewired childhood” and made kids more anxious and depressed. My son agrees. He brings Haidt’s argument to schools.…

Over the years, our government has expanded dramatically, all with the objective of improving our lives. Yet, with all of this, confidence that Americans express in our country and its major institutions has plummeted. Of 18 of the nation’s major institutions, per a recent Gallup survey, there are only three in which 50% or more now express a “great deal or quite a lot” of confidence.

Some parents abuse their kids. Child welfare workers are supposed to stop that to protect the kids. But bad things often happen while they watch. “Children have a right to safety,” says Tim Keller. “If home is a danger, we as a society have to step in and protect those children.” Keller, legal director of the Center for the Rights of Abused Children, is a libertarian. “It’s surprising to hear…

The much-publicized exchange between Bed Bath & Beyond chairman Marcus Lemonis and California Gov. Gavin Newsom is a lesson for the whole country. We shoppers look back fondly on the marketing acumen that, starting with one store in 1971, built Bed Bath & Beyond into a retail giant that once had 365 stores nationwide.

Everything has a political angle now. The left gets worked up by a jeans ad. The right gets worked up by Cracker Barrel removing both the cracker and the barrel from their logo. Red and blue, colors on the light spectrum and in nature, are now political. A 23-year-old transgender gunman killing children is political. The prayers offered are maligned as useless. It is all political.

At this point in his second term, President Donald Trump has higher approval ratings than Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama in their second terms. According to the Real Clear Politics average of presidential approval polls, Trump, on Aug. 13, 2025, had a rating of 45.8%. G.W. Bush on Aug. 13, 2005, registered a 43.2% rating. Obama, on Aug. 13, 2013, stood at 43.8%.

The economy can be both very complex and very simple. In simplified terms, consider two buckets. One is the public sector, and one is the private sector. As more money flows into the bucket of the public sector and fills it up, the private sector bucket does not fill up. However, the private sector utilizes money more efficiently and contributes to economic growth for its citizens. As the…

California Gov. Gavin Newsom is upset with Texas. There’s a reason he should be upset. California companies are pulling up in droves and moving to the Lone Star State and elsewhere. But that isn’t what’s bothering him. Newsom cares about politics and power, not markets and business. He’s upset that the Texas state legislature is moving to redistricting that could add up to five Republican…

Last week, I examined the reaction to and the consequences of a possible indictment of former President Barack Obama over “Obamagate,” the false claim that “the intelligence community” concluded a) Russians interfered in the 2016 election (which is not in dispute), b) they did so to help elect candidate Donald Trump, and c) Trump “colluded” with the Russians to get elected.

Before politics overwhelmed the word, the primary meaning of "liberal" was "generous." President Donald Trump and the Republican Congress have given political liberals a chance to take that meaning back — by opening their wallets to show just how much they value NPR, PBS and other programs defunded by the GOP. There’s no shortage of cash on the left: Laurene Powell Jobs, the mega-rich backer…

The Trump administration has been pursuing, on two fronts, the critical objective of fixing America’s broken education system. One, an executive order by President Donald Trump, issued shortly after he assumed office, is to dismantle the Department of Education. Outright closing of the department is only possible by an act of Congress. However, the president is moving to accomplish the same…

The West faces a series of serious economic challenges: a demographic collapse that undermines growth; a welfare state that sucks money from the future and dispenses it in the present; a regulatory structure that focuses more on redistributionism and top-down control than on innovation. But, we are told, there is one enormous hope for the future of the global economy: artificial intelligence.…

CBS canceled Stephen Colbert’s late-night show. Democrat Minnesota Gov. and failed vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz, who recently appeared on the show, said: “Stephen Colbert is the best in the business. He always told truth to power and pulled no punches. We need more of that, not less.” You might be forgiven for thinking Colbert’s job is to tell jokes. Some Democrats in full meltdown…

Remember former Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) who got censured for pulling the fire alarm in the Capitol Building as lawmakers prepared to vote to prevent a government shutdown? He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor, paid a $1,000 fine and lost the next Democrat primary. He’s back. Bowman, appearing June 25 as a panelist on MSNBC, said, “The reason why heart disease and cancer and obesity and…