Columns

IN-HOUSE: Our little piece of May has been stolen from us

Published on Wed, 05/22/2019 - 3:51pm
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We are used to it around here — the cold, wet springs and the stinging May snowstorms. But they usually come and go. 

However, this recent nearly monthlong spell of wintry conditions, the endless rain and snow, the temperatures in the low 30s, the gun-metal gray clouds hanging low and sullen on the mountains for weeks on end, the cold east wind, the invisible sun, is different — it has not been coming and going. Just coming.

No, abortion isn’t a constitutional right

Published on Wed, 05/22/2019 - 3:48pm

In the past several weeks, a bevy of states have passed extensive new restrictions on abortion. Alabama has effectively banned abortion from the point of conception. Georgia has banned abortion from the time a heartbeat is detected, as have Ohio, Kentucky and Mississippi. Missouri has banned abortion after eight weeks. Other states are on the move as well.

Bats in the belfry

Published on Tue, 05/21/2019 - 4:35pm

WASHINGTON — When author Mark Childress penned “Crazy in Alabama,” he wasn’t just whistling Dixie.

“I haven’t been quoted this much since Roy Moore,” Childress recently told me, referring to last week’s coverage of Alabama’s passage of a law banning abortion in nearly all circumstances. Moore, of course, was an Alabama U.S. Senate candidate who lost a 2017 race after accusations surfaced of past inappropriate sexual conduct with underage girls.

Winnowing is already at work

Published on Tue, 05/21/2019 - 4:34pm

WASHINGTON — “We’re cutting out some of this ear hair that you get when you get older,” said the 46-year-old manchild who is auditioning to be Skateboarder-in-Chief. Live-streaming his visit to an El Paso barbershop, Beto O’Rourke continued: “It grows out of your ears, and if you don’t get it cut, it can be nasty.”

Democrats’ (not entirely) ‘bleak prospects’

Published on Mon, 05/20/2019 - 12:00am
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In my line of work, I run into more than a few Democrats whose mood swings of late are frankly semi-wild. Last November, when their party won 41 Republican U.S.

A cap on interest rates charged consumers? Yes

Published on Mon, 05/20/2019 - 12:00am
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The Loan Shark Protection Act would limit the interest charged on credit cards to 15 percent. A 15 percent cap would be too low -- naively too low. Too bad

The big joke about privacy

Published on Fri, 05/17/2019 - 12:00am
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In 1967, Justice John Marshall Harlan (one of the greats) wrote a concurring opinion that, to this day, establishes the constitutional test that protects our privacy from the government. It

James Blaine paid a steep price for his bigotry, but children shouldn’t have to

Published on Fri, 05/17/2019 - 12:00am
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WASHINGTON -- Republican James G. Blaine (1830-1893) was a House speaker, senator and two-time secretary of state, but he is remembered, if at all, for this doggerel: “Blaine, Blaine, James

Engineered babies and not-so-good intentions

Published on Thu, 05/16/2019 - 12:00am
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Like the comedian in the first episode of the new “Twilight Zone,” Dr. He Jiankui seemed desperate to be famous. And like that comedian, he is confronted with the question

Biden faces a difficult challenge

Published on Thu, 05/16/2019 - 12:00am
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WASHINGTON -- Every so often, America’s party of the left is seized by the fear that its platform of anti-militarism, sweet reason and communal progress just can’t compete with the