The issue: People forget that for a couple of hundred years, we didn’t so much grow Americans as make them out of immigrants Our immigration debate has been backward. To our great loss, in science, medicine, engineering and academia generally, we have concentrated too much on the immigrants we don’t want and too little on […]

The issue: Congress should require disclosure of these breaches of confidentiality There’s an expression in Washington about politicians and agencies that find themselves in hot water: It’s not the crime, it’s the cover-up. IN THE CASE of the Social Security Administration’s massive breach of confidentiality, it wasn’t a crime, but incompetence, and not so much […]

The issue: Repeal of old restrictions on trade would be a nice calling card for new ambassador The Soviet Union was traditionally hostile toward emigration. If people left, it would belie the communists’ carefully constructed, if widely disbelieved image, as a paradise for workers and peasants. Besides, the people who did get out might describe […]

The issue: The implications of this Keystone Kops plot are highly alarming Even though an alleged co-conspirator has confessed to U.S. authorities the plot to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States by blowing him up in a Washington restaurant, there are still significant unresolved questions. THE WHOLE PLOT has a Keystone Kops quality, […]

The issue: Can human space flight continue in a nation weighed down by debt? Fifty-two years after recruiting its first class of seven “right stuff” test pilots, NASA is again putting out a help-wanted sign for astronauts. But why? The space shuttle fleet has been consigned to history, NASA’s program to develop a new orbital […]

The issue: Loophole allows robo-calls to cell phones for debts owed to the federal government It seems as if we only just got the telemarketer nuisance under control, unsolicited calls from insistent salespeople peddling magazine subscriptions, time shares, can’t-miss investment opportunities, mortgage refinancing and a whole cornucopia of sucker deals. Since the telemarketers wanted to […]

The issue: The U.S. may need to hammer ISI and Haqqani strongholds until they stop attacking us and our Afghan allies Perhaps because Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, retired Sept. 30, he felt no need to respect the feelings of Pakistan or the U.S. State Department. He bluntly said that […]

The issue: We can get on our high horse after we get our own country back on solid financial ground Americans have always been generous to other countries, and especially generous with advice — solicited or not. LAST WEEK, President Barack Obama observed that the 17 European nations in the eurozone had not only failed […]

The issue: These appetizing incentives don’t seem to be working The Russian army is having a hard time filling its ranks with draftees. About half of all potential recruits never show up for induction. Bribes to obtain medical deferments are common, and there is no real social stigma attached to draft dodging. In fact, it […]

The issue: 6,500 or so miles is a long way from home Remember those joint Russian-Venezuelan naval maneuvers of 2008? Hands? No? THE RUSSIAN FLEET consisted of a nuclear-powered missile cruiser, an antisubmarine vessel, a supply ship — and a tugboat, in case one of the other three broke down. The little fleet steamed around […]

The issue: It is not unrealistic to think that an al-Qaida weapons maker is working on devising a jihadi drone Drones — remote-controlled, pilotless aircraft — have become, to use that overworked phrase, a game-changer in fighting terrorists. They have taken away the terrorists’ greatest tactical asset: the ability to hide in ruggedly remote areas, […]

The issue: New census data paint a bleak picture for young adults For a mix of reasons — demographic shorthand, stereotyping, merchandising — we insist on labeling population cohorts of increments of 20 years or so as generations, moreover, ones with specific characteristics. THERE IS THE Lost Generation of World War I, the Greatest Generation […]

The issue: With changes ordered by presidential fiat, which way are we going? For a small-government conservative, President George W. Bush inexorably left behind more and bigger government. Now, President Barack Obama is subtly expanding the reach of the federal government in one of Bush’s signature initiatives, the 2002 No Child Left Behind Act. Although […]