Commentaries

Enjoy a selection of my commentaries below. To see the full listing of commentaries, please click here.

Senate debacle has silver lining

This is D-Day. If everything goes as planned, the Senate will vote tonight on the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court. The vote comes none too soon. Both Clarence Thomas (win or lose tonight) and Anita Hill are losers. Their reputations are sullied. Their veracity in doubt. One of them lied, under…

Clinton Budget Fakes Deficit Reduction

Every morning at 6:00 am I wake up to the mellifluous tones of National Public Radio’s Bob Edwards reading the morning headlines. Last week, Edwards opened my day with “President Clinton’s $500 billion deficit reduction package goes to Congress today.” A $500 billion deficit reduction package? This latest example of Washington, D.C., doublespeak — saying…

Fear subverts political stability

The character of the post-Cold War world is the subject of a sobering, doomsday cover story by editor Richard Kaplan in the February issue of The Atlantic Monthly. Kaplan doesn’t dwell on the usual post-Cold War themes: regional conflicts, the role of the UN, growth of trading blocs. Kaplan is a Malthusian and a pessimist, not…