Author Archives: Heather Mac Donald

A little over a week ago, renowned pediatric surgeon Ben Carson electrified the Right by giving a speech at the National Prayer Breakfast that was widely deemed a critique of President Obama’s agenda on health care, taxation, and stimulus spending.  … Continue reading →

President Obama once again conflated the Sandy Hook massacre with chronic gun violence in last night’s State of the Union speech: in the two months since Newtown, more than a thousand birthdays, graduations, and anniversaries have been stolen from our … Continue reading →

The X Games—the extreme sport events broadcast on ESPN—just had their first death, reports the New York Times.  A snowmobiler trying to launch an airborne back flip was run over by his snowmobile, fatally injuring his heart and brain.  Such … Continue reading →

The current meme on right wing talk radio regarding gun control is that there are some rare unforeseeable tragedies—such as the Newtown massacre—that just occur as part of the random awfulness of life.  Government cannot prevent every last bad outcome, counseled … Continue reading →

You gotta love the NRA.  Anyone who was expecting Vice President Wayne LaPierre to break the NRA’s week-long silence after the Newtown massacre with an olive branch and some sensible proposals regarding better background checks, say, or restrictions on high-capacity … Continue reading →

At what point do we declare that the near saturation media coverage of the Newton massacre, however understandable initially, has become not just politically opportunistic on the part of a nearly unanimous gun control bloc but also voyeuristic?   Perhaps any … Continue reading →

It is depressing to see Fox News so desperately flogging the Benghazi attack in the last moments of the election.  Is that really the best that Romney and the Republicans have at this point?  It is a sideshow to the … Continue reading →

Hurricane Sandy has provided yet another reminder of our practical and psychological dependence on a steady supply of electricity.  Granted, the current devastation to the energy grid is a distribution, rather than a supply, crisis.  Nevertheless, utopian greens should take … Continue reading →

The election’s over.  My bets were on President Obama in any case, but the rightful suspension of campaigning in the aftermath of the hurricane catastrophe seals Romney’s fate.  Obama gets to look presidential, while Romney disappears.  Even if that suspension … Continue reading →