Tag Archives: Ricochet.com

The NFL, America’s Heroes in Uniform, and Traumatic Brain Injury | Ricochet |3.26.2015

I usually write about politics, economics, foreign relations and national security, law and the Constitution, and, occasionally, American history and culture. Today I am going to write about our armed services, professional sports and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI).  For the past month I have been immersed in understanding how TBI can be treated. Last week, […]
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Treating Traumatic Brain Injury — Telling a Mistold Tale | Ricochet |3.19.2015

In the last few weeks, I have been immersed not in an untold story but a mistold one. So far as I can see, the mistelling has nothing to do with politics, but here is what it is. War is hell. It is also a powerful catalyst for medical advances: penicillin in World War II; […]
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Selma Misses the Historical Mark — Dr. King, LBJ and America Deserved Better | Ricochet |1.19.15

On Friday evening I saw Selma, the Academy Award nominated film about the 1965 civil rights march that Dr. Martin Luther King led from Selma, Alabama, to the state capitol in Montgomery, fifty miles away. The film depicts the enormous courage of the marchers and the inspirational leadership of Dr. King. But it misses the historical […]
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How Thomas Jefferson Freed the Slaves | Ricochet.com | 07.14.14

It was William Faulkner who wrote, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” On the 4th of July weekend I found myself thinking about Thomas Jefferson and slavery. You know the derision directed at the author of the Declaration of Independence on this topic — and, in some quarters, at the legitimacy of […]
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Question to Ricochet: Is this a brilliant idea or what? | Ricochet.com | 03.08.14

In Southern California for the Pacific Research Institute’s annual Baroness Margaret Thatcher Orange County Dinner last night, I had lunch shortly after landing with a veteran of political communications in this state. Over our meal, he began to go on in the manner all of us go on about the cluelessness of Republicans in Washington. […]
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Is Money Too Easy…or Too Tight? | Ricochet.com | 01.11.14

Last week, I posted a summary to a New York Times op-ed by financial crisis expert Peter Wallison (“Nightmare on Elm Street: A Picture of the New Housing Bubble”). Wallison had argued that a new housing bubble was developing.  I included with my summary a chart that he circulated privately to back up his claim. In a comment […]
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Nightmare on Elm Street: A Picture of The New Housing Bubble | Ricochet.com | 01.06.14

No one has written as deeply and well on the financial crisis as Peter Wallison, once White House Counsel for President Reagan and now a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. His core analysis: Beginning in the late 1990s, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — driven by the Clinton Administration and Congressional policy (read: […]
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Midgame (Not Endgame) for Fighting Obamacare: Seeking Team Ricochet’s Reaction | Ricochet.com | 09.24.13

In response to Ted Cruz’s promised filibuster, critics are shouting “what’s your endgame?” I have a different question, directed in particular to GOP governors and gubernatorial candidates: What’s your midgame? Here is the key fact: We can’t repeal Obamacare until 1) the GOP wins the White House and both houses of Congress (the Senate by […]
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The Global War on US — What Should We Do About It? | Ricochet.com | 08.20.13

Egypt, Syria, Iran, Pakistan and all the rest: Since the Obama Administration disclaimed the “Global War on Terror,” every crisis has been addressed ad hoc. That may be one reason our foreign policy seems to stagger around blindly, knocking over tables, breaking plate and pots, ever more dumbly desperate. The Foundation for the Defense of Democracy’s […]
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Remembering Judge William P. Clark, Ronald Reagan’s Personal Emissary | Ricochet.com | 08.12.13

William P. Clark — Judge Clark, as he was known in Washington during the Reagan years — passed away on Saturday.  He was a deeply good man and an essential contributor to the successful resolution of the Cold War.  The obituaries will tell you the main parts of his story, but on one point all […]
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What is the Greatest Force Shaping Our Age? | Ricochet.com | 06.25.13

On the front page of Saturday’s Wall Street Journal, two unrelated articles pointed to a greater story. The first concerned a 15- or 16-year-old factory girl in Bangladesh. Her name was Mahinur Akhter. She survived five weeks of burial in the collapsed garment factory where she had worked. A seamstress, she had earned $90-100 a month, essential […]
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My Most Recent OMG National Security Moment. Does it Give You the Shivers, Too? | Ricochet.com | 5.10.13

OK now, Team Ricochet, here’s a riddle: You are the U.S. government. You know, the same government whose Secretary of State and her superior could not get it together to send rescuers to the aid of our ambassador to Libya. That aside, your top concern is, as your mission statement puts it, “to provide for […]
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