In 2005, I showed up at Camp Lemonnier, the American military base in the East African nation of Djibouti. As I joked in a column published that year, Djibouti is one of Earth’s hard corners few people can pronounce and still fewer visit. Located on the Horn of Africa, Djibouti’s neighborhood is violent. Ethiopia, Eritrea […]
opinion
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
The self-destruction of U.S. farmers
Not long ago, agriculture was a crown jewel of America’s export economy. Then President Trump happened. He launched his “easy-to-win” trade wars, and our trading partners hit back right where the farm belt hurts. Soybeans have been our biggest farm export and China their biggest foreign market. Last year, U.S. farmers sold almost $14 billion […]
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Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
Seeking peace and good will on earth
Not for a long time has the world seemed so removed from the angelic proclamation of 2,000 years ago: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” (Luke 2:14). Millions have died in countless wars over the last 100 years. People continue to die today as the result of […]
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
The huge 'if' of Medicare for all
Imagine a world in which the rosy assumptions Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., makes on behalf of his “Medicare for all” health-care plan turn out to be true. That is what Charles Blahous, a professor at George Mason University’s libertarian-leaning Mercatus Center, did in a paper released last month. He found that the government would expand […]
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
Don't ban Alex Jones
It’s just gotten a little easier for the government to control the weather. Social media sites moved en masse to ban Alex Jones, the self-parodic conspiracy theorist. Jones is a poisonous toad who leveraged his compellingly ridiculous persona and bizarre rants into considerable notoriety and a lucrative dietary supplement empire. He doesn’t represent anything new. […]
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
Intolerance can never be up for debate
Donald Trump is a man of famously definite opinions. Whether it be about Mexicans, Muslims or Mueller, he knows what he thinks and isn’t shy about sharing. So it was telling, one year ago this weekend, when he refused to take a stand. Meaning, of course, Charlottesville and the white supremacist rally that shocked that […]
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
If you want peace, prepare for war
WASHINGTON — Scholars have already debated for decades, and will debate for centuries, the role U.S. policies — military, diplomatic, economic — played in bringing the Cold War to endgame and the Soviet Union to extinction. One milestone was Ronald Reagan’s 1983 Strategic Defense Initiative proposal, a technological challenge that could not be met by […]
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
Democrats have their own foreign espionage problem
WASHINGTON — Imagine if it emerged that the Republican chairman of the House or Senate intelligence committee had a Russian spy working on their senate staff. Think it would cause a political firestorm? Well, this week we learned that Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif., had a Chinese spy on her staff who worked for her for […]
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
Advice for the president
Dear Mr. President, “Would you take this advice I hand you like a brother”? It’s a song lyric from the musical “The Pajama Game,” but fitting here. There is a way you can hang onto your base, keeping them engaged, energized, without the constant Twitter assaults on those who criticize you for attacking them. If […]
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
The Age of Malware
WASHINGTON — Welcome to the Age of Malware. It promises to be a huge downer and, possibly, a great tragedy. For years, we have regarded personal computers, the internet, smartphones and various digital devices as evidence that America continues to dominate the central new technology of our time. Just last week, Apple attained a stock […]