L.A. Times - Jonah Goldberg

Winner take all on healthcare

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Trying to come up with bipartisan compromise is a a losing game. Let both sides place their bets -- and one will pay the price.

Ihereby forfeit my claim to a vast right-wing conspiracy decoder ring by offering two cheers for the Democrats. I congratulate them on their victory Saturday night in the Senate, and while I can't quite wish them continued success on the course they are following, I'm beginning to make peace with the possibility that they'll win.

It's no way to fight a war on terror

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Trying suspected 9/11 terrorists in civilian court is wrong on several levels.

I get where President Obama and Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. are coming from. They think that if we change our way of life, the terrorists will have won.

Sometimes, an extremist really is an extremist

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

If we act as if 'Islam is the problem,' we will guarantee that Islam will become the problem.

Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan demonstrated many things when he allegedly committed treason in the war on terror. For starters, he showed -- gratuitously alas -- that evil is still thriving.

True conservatives just want a turn

Tue, 3 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

George W. Bush didn't count, and Barack Obama may be proving the value of limited government.

If there's one thing liberal pundits are experts on these days, it's the sorry state of conservatism. The airwaves and the Op-Ed pages brim with more-in-sorrow-than-in-anger lamentations on the GOP's failure to get with President Obama's program, the party's inevitable demographic demise and its thralldom to the demonic deities of the right -- Limbaugh, Beck, Palin.

Fido, a.k.a. the climate criminal

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Some climate-change activists would take your dog away -- and spend trillions on other efforts -- rather than come up with solutions that could actually work to offset carbon levels.

Perotistas on the march

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Ross Perot tapped into a populist anger in the 1990s; Democrats may fall prey to those same forces.

One of the most macabre images I've ever heard described came in the aftermath of the Asian tsunami in 2004. Before the tidal wave crashed on shore, beach- goers stood around and idly gaped as the water drastically receded. Bewildered, they didn't realize they were looking at the prelude to a calamity.

Reading between the lines of Obama's poetry

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Are the words a prelude to decisions, action and progress, or are they another reprise of the 'New Politics'?

'All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling," Oscar Wilde once remarked.

We need a bigger House

Tue, 6 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Expanding Congress to as many as 5,000 representatives would ensure new blood and new ideas.

Watching the House of Representatives on late-night C-SPAN, you might have any number of reactions, including seppuku seppuku -inducing boredom. But, depending on who's talking and the quality of his or her chart-and-easel presentation, you might also feel disgust, rage, contempt or, in rare cases, inspiration. But whether you hail from the right, the left or the allegedly vital center, one reaction you probably won't have is: "Gosh, if only there were more of these jokers."

A pragmatic look at Obama's pragmatism

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The president may be showing a welcome open-mindedness on Afghanistan and Iran, or he could just be playing politics.

'When John McCain said we could just 'muddle through' in Afghanistan, I argued for more resources and more troops to finish the fight against the terrorists who actually attacked us on 9/11, and made clear that we must take out Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants if we have them in our sights," Barack Obama thundered as he accepted the Democratic nomination for president in Denver last year. "John McCain likes to say that he'll follow Bin Laden to the gates of Hell. But he won't even go to the cave where he lives."

The EPA is choking democracy

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The agency's sweeping new power to battle global warming is another example of the weakening of democratic controls.

One of the most important events of our lifetimes may have just transpired. A federal agency has decided that it has the power to regulate everything, including the air you breathe.