While my mom didn’t coin the phrase, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail,” she definitely liked expressing it while I was growing up. It was also a mantra of her parents on our family’s dairy farm. That’s where our future, as that of most farmers, depends on knowing what to do and how to do it.

For this reason, farmers and ...Read more

Sociology, the discipline that studies society, is not mainstream. It is rarely taught in the K-12 curriculum. And many youths are forgoing higher education, a space where people learn how to evaluate evidence for themselves. Sixty-two percent of Americans, hundreds of millions of adults, lack a college degree. Less than half of 18- to 24-year-...Read more

To explain the existential stakes of World War II, the U.S. government produced “Why We Fight,” a series of seven films from Frank Capra, who captured America so incisively in movies like “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.” Originally intended for U.S. forces, the films were soon viewed by the public, too.

Eight decades later, in its effort...Read more

When a former president speaks of “taking” a sovereign nation like Cuba or floats the idea as a serious proposition, it demands more than partisan reaction. It demands reflection. It demands moral clarity. And it demands that we, as Americans, ask ourselves a difficult but necessary question: How much more are we willing to carry?

We are a ...Read more

Here’s a quiz question on Tuesday’s primary elections: Who spent the most money in support of a single candidate?

If you answered the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, you’d be forgiven because that big-spending lobbying group got outsized attention as candidates without its largesse cast it as a millstone around the necks of the ...Read more

Wars truly let you tell friend from foe.

With U.S. airstrikes devastating Iran’s dangerous ballistic missile and nuclear capabilities, Iran and its proxies lashed out at American military bases, U.S. allies and sea lanes across the Middle East. Ukraine rushed to our defense. Russia, having enabled the ayatollahs for decades, continued to help...Read more

States rarely turn down financial aid from Washington. But several Democratic governors are now doing just that, and others may join them. What’s going on? Not surprisingly, the answer involves special-interest politics.

Last year’s omnibus spending bill included a tax credit for donations made to nonprofit organizations that grant ...Read more

Americans tend to ignore foreign policy. Living in a continent-sized nation bounded by two vast oceans allows for that dangerous self-deception. But when we’re attacked or the price of gas spikes, we’re rudely reminded that while we may not care about the world, the world cares for us.

Why did President Donald Trump order an attack on Iran?...Read more

President Donald Trump doesn't need the SAVE America Act to pass. He only needs the debate to continue. Every minute spent arguing about voter suppression repeats the underlying premise — that noncitizen voting is a real and widespread problem — until it feels like an established fact. The question is whether Democrats will contest ...Read more

Thanks goodness that Boston Federal Judge Brian Murphy has stopped some of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s vaccine insanity, reversing the Health and Human Services secretary’s dangerous and destructive effort to drop hepatitis A, hepatitis B, RSV, dengue, and two strains of meningitis from recommended immunizations for infants.

Monday’s ruling ...Read more

What to make of the sudden resignation of intelligence chief and onetime Washington congressional candidate Joe Kent?

Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, left the government on Tuesday after releasing a blistering letter condemning the war with Iran but somehow absolving President Donald Trump of instigating the debacle....Read more

The White House’s playbook for Cuba is now unmistakable: strip away the regime’s public face to secure a decisive strategic advantage while stopping short of outright regime change.

That’s the model the Trump administration followed in Venezuela after extracting Nicolás Maduro earlier this year, and the approach it now appears to be ...Read more

When asked in 1930s why he robbed banks, the famous criminal Willie Sutton is said to have replied, “Because that’s where the money is.” Today, Sutton might just as well have said the same thing about government welfare programs.

Fraud against the taxpayers has been in the news lately, particularly in Minnesota involving questionable ...Read more

Washington has begun to grasp a strategic reality that much of the world has long understood: Critical minerals are the foundation of modern power. From advanced weapons systems to electric vehicles and consumer electronics, the metals that underpin these technologies now carry the same geopolitical weight that oil did in the 20th century.

...Read more

A couple of years ago, a reporter asked Blackpool FC’s manager at the time, Mick McCarthy, about his team’s terrible form, saying, “One win in 17. It can’t go on like this, can it?” The Irishman took a beat, smiled grimly and said, “It can.”

U.S. air travelers know the feeling. No matter how punishing they might have thought ...Read more

In the wake of the Arab oil embargo in the 1970s, Congress responded by creating the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, an emergency stockpile designed to protect the nation from foreign coercion and sudden supply shocks. The reserve has provided an important tool during price spikes and temporary disruptions.

As we confront today’s mineral crisis ...Read more

Across the globe, Muslims, Christians, and Jews enter seasons of fasting, repentance, and remembrance. Together, the Abrahamic traditions represent over half of the world’s religious population. In their distinct ways, each tradition calls its followers to humility and a deep concern for others, whether through fasting, repentance or ...Read more

To hear his friends and family describe him, Lt. Col. Brandon Shah was the best of us. He loved his country and dedicated his life to its service. He met challenges with determination, integrity and a buoyant spirit. And he devoted his final years preparing young minds to tackle their futures head on.

His death in a shooting at Old Dominion ...Read more

State officials will soon have the power to label terrorist groups, placing an enormous amount of power in the hands of a few politicians. That should give Floridians pause — regardless of political party.

Last week, the Legislature passed HB 1471, which allows the state to designate groups as a domestic or foreign terrorist organizations. ...Read more

Three decades ago, I was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole in California. A lost, scared teenager, I found myself in a maximum-security prison: Pelican Bay Security Housing Unit. Stuck behind the cubic holes of a metal door, I was one of the many thousands of men sent to solitary confinement. Whenever I was taken out of the cell, ...Read more