Rapists’ rights defy reason
June 11, 2019By Kathleen Parker In Alabama, where a new law denies abortion to women even in cases of incest or rape, a rapist may still pursue custody rights of a…
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The Democrats’ fairy-tale campaigns
June 10, 2019By Robert Samuelson “And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.” John F. Kennedy’s…
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Terminate abortion, please
June 10, 2019By Kathleen Parker The abortion issue is more divisive than ever, thanks to extreme anti-abortion legislation recently passed in some states and, lately, to Democratic presidential candidates seemingly vying…
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The little-known number at the root of S.C.’s biggest problem
June 7, 2019By Richard Eckstrom S.C. Comptroller Seven and a quarter percent. That’s the official “assumed rate of return” for South Carolina’s retiree pension system. In other words, state officials tell…
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The nastiness of Trump’s Mexico tariffs
June 5, 2019By Robert Samuelson President Trump’s latest foray into trade policy is notable for its economic recklessness (it could tip Mexico into a recession, followed perhaps by the United States),…
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Swamp things storm the palace
June 4, 2019By Kathleen Parker If there was “great love all around” during President Trump’s state visit to the United Kingdom, as he tweeted Monday, the participants royal and decidedly otherwise…
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A living eulogy for Ollie Oops
May 31, 2019By Kathleen Parker CAMDEN, S.C. — Eulogies, it has always seemed to me, are best delivered while the subject is living and can enjoy hearing the best version of…
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The brave new world of trading blocs
May 31, 2019By Robert Samuelson We may be on the cusp of an upheaval in global trade. Since World War II, the international trading system has operated on the premise of…
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Don and Kim in 2020
May 28, 2019By Kathleen Parker As the 2020 election gears up, it seems apparent that Mike Pence’s days as vice president are numbered. Trump’s preference is obvious: Kim Jong Un. The…
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Will China dump dollars?
May 24, 2019By Robert Samuelson At last count, China held slightly more than $1 trillion in U.S. Treasury securities. One fear has been that, should China and the United States engage…
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Why are wage gains so weak?
May 22, 2019By Robert Samuelson After correcting for inflation, wage gains remain sluggish. In April, average weekly earnings for nonsupervisory workers were up 3% from a year earlier, to $785.55. Meanwhile,…
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Crazy in Colorado?
May 21, 2019By Kathleen Parker Driving along Colorado’s scenic byways, one might be distracted these days by a series of billboards promoting safe abortions or, depending upon one’s route, alternatives to…
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Twilight of the boomers
May 20, 2019By Robert Samuelson The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has just released its latest statistics on U.S. births. Boring, you say. Not so. Historic birth patterns tell…
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Bats in the belfry
May 20, 2019By Kathleen Parker When author Mark Childress penned “Crazy in Alabama,” he wasn’t just whistling Dixie. “I haven’t been quoted this much since Roy Moore,” Childress recently told me,…
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Are we losing the trade war?
May 15, 2019By Robert Samuelson The Trump administration is going about its trade war with China all wrong. Its strategy and tactics are muddled. If Trump were a general watching the…
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Que será, será
May 15, 2019By Kathleen Parker Growing up in the 1950s and ’60s, there was no avoiding the adorable Doris Day. She was cute as a bug, wholesome, winsome and adored, at…
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Women who run
May 13, 2019By Kathleen Parker Conventional wisdom in my inner circle of sorcerers and sources has been that the first female president will be a Republican. This is because America is…
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Economists’ ignorance gap
May 10, 2019By Robert Samuelson The most intriguing and indisputable thing we have learned about economists in recent decades is that they don’t know nearly as much as they thought they knew.…
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Single-payer is no panacea
May 9, 2019By Robert Samuelson The popular appeal of a single-payer system to solve the nation’s health care problems is no secret. Everyone would have insurance, recognizing — as Sen. Bernie Sanders,…
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The end of everything — or not
May 7, 2019By Kathleen Parker PAWLEYS ISLAND, S.C. — A new United Nations report projecting the extinction of one-eighth of all animal and plant species should rattle the cages of any…
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The $100 ‘trillion’ question
May 3, 2019By Robert Samuelson We live in an age obsessed with economic inequality. There is too much of it, most people seem to agree. After Donald Trump — his personality, behavior…
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Do we have a deflation problem?
May 1, 2019By Robert Samuelson There are times when it seems we’re worrying about things that aren’t worth worrying about. A good example these days is inflation. Amazingly, the complaint is that…
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Who’s afraid of robots — and why
April 29, 2019By Robert Samuelson An unsettling specter haunts the world economy: a future of ubiquitous robots that destroy millions of jobs. Sometimes this is called “artificial intelligence”; sometimes it isn’t. Either…
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The empathy factor in 2020
April 29, 2019By Kathleen Parker In 2008, when Sarah Palin entered the stage to debate her fellow vice presidential candidate, Joe Biden, she asked him first thing: “Hey, can I call…
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Not a vote-getter!
April 24, 2019By Robert Samuelson Just for the record, we ought to note that trustees for Social Security and Medicare recently released their annual reports. The two programs alone constituted 45 percent…
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Porch talk
April 23, 2019By Kathleen Parker CAMDEN, S.C. — With the arrival of spring and the advance of summer, American life shifts toward the porch — at least for those lucky enough…
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Can the Fed stay independent?
April 22, 2019By Robert Samuelson It’s unclear whether one or both, or neither, of President Trump’s selections for the Federal Reserve Board — Stephen Moore and Herman Cain — will win Senate…
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It is finished
April 22, 2019By Kathleen Parker Good Friday provided the language for a week that began with the terrible fire at Notre Dame Cathedral and ended with the long-awaited Mueller report: Jesus’…
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How long until we’re all happy?
April 17, 2019By Robert Samuelson To: David Brooks Columnist, The New York Times Dear David, We have met a few times over the years while covering the same events. I’m a big…
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Notre Dame and tankers of water
April 16, 2019By Kathleen Parker At least he recognized the urgency. As the world gasped in horror at the sight of Paris’ Notre Dame Cathedral burning in a cataclysmic moment, the…
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What really caused the financial crisis?
April 15, 2019By Robert Samuelson It is astonishing that, even though the global financial crisis occurred a decade ago, we do not yet have a clear and convincing explanation of its basic…
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The Julian Assange problem
April 15, 2019By Kathleen Parker They say that guests are like fish; after three days they become a bit whiffy. By this measure, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange smelled like an overladen…
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What killed inflation?
April 10, 2019By Robert Samuelson The Phillips Curve is dead; long live the Phillips Curve. One of today’s economic mysteries is: Why is inflation so low? The unemployment rate is a puny…
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Whither the philosopher-president?
April 7, 2019By Kathleen Parker In his most famous dialogue, “The Republic,” Plato, via Socrates, explored the idea that a just state would best function under the leadership of a perfectly…
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Can we fix the schools? (Maybe not.)
April 7, 2019By Robert Samuelson You can count on one familiar refrain in the 2020 presidential campaign: Fix the schools. Faith in education is one of the nation’s bedrock values. Better schools…
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Vets’ charities are a good way to say ‘thanks.’ But be cautious
April 5, 2019By Richard Eckstrom, S.C. Comptroller At first glance, they appear to be the noblest of causes. Their brochures feature images that tug at the heartstrings – perhaps a uniformed man…
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Has the market gone mad?
April 3, 2019By Robert Samuelson If you think you understand what’s going on with the global economy, you’re probably not paying attention. On the one hand, the stock market is powering ahead.…
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Kiss me, kiss me not
April 2, 2019By Kathleen Parker CAMDEN, S.C. – At a recent brunch here preceding the Carolina Cup steeplechase race, the host gave me a gift of hometown recognition and, though we…
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Can I call ya Jo(k)e?
April 1, 2019By Kathleen Parker It may be a truism-in-the-making that one’s political career is over when, as a candidate, you must first apologize for your sex and race, which can…
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Why Moore is less
March 29, 2019By Robert Samuelson The real reason that Stephen Moore does not belong on the Federal Reserve Board is not that he is unqualified for the job, though he is. Nor…
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Has the next bubble arrived?
March 27, 2019By Robert Samuelson There are still some economists who fear another crash. The latest is Eugene Steuerle of the Urban Institute, a liberal think tank in Washington. In a new…
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Requiem for an investigation
March 26, 2019By Kathleen Parker Cathartic, it was not. The relentlessly plodding Mueller report finally ended after a 22-month whodunit that climaxed to the sound of pffft. There is no evidence…
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Has America gone socialist?
March 22, 2019By Robert Samuelson We Americans are all socialists now. That’s news. Since at least 1906, scholars have contended just the opposite. What happened in 1906 was that Werner Sombart, a…
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Too rich to run in 2020
March 20, 2019By Kathleen Parker Donald Trump has given success a bad name. That is, the president’s much-boasted-about wealth has soured many Americans’ taste for even the Horatio Alger bootstrapping stories.…
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How to fix the college admissions scandal (warning: you may hate it)
March 19, 2019By Robert Samuelson We all know that “getting into the right college” is as traumatic for parents — or more so — as it is for their children. But who…
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The fate of Brexit?
March 18, 2019By Robert Samuelson Those of us who have always thought that Brexit — Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union — was a bad idea should be feeling self-satisfied and vindicated…
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Hasta luego, Beto
March 18, 2019By Kathleen Parker It must be a grown-up thing, but every time I see Beto O’Rourke, I want to fix him a hamburger. He’s precious. And, if my eyes…
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Thank you, Bubba and Tuck
March 14, 2019By Kathleen Parker Some days you wake up and think, “Nope, not getting up.” I call these column days. Then, there are those other times when you practically hurl…
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Trump’s fantasy budget
March 14, 2019By Robert Samuelson The good news about President Trump’s proposed 2020 budget is that it vividly illustrates the basic causes of large, chronic deficits — a mismatch between the government’s…
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Prescribed Fire: The Prescription for a Healthy Forest
March 11, 2019By Ryan Bean, Clemson Extension Governor Henry McMaster has proclaimed March 2019 Prescribed Fire Awareness Month in SC. Prescribed burning is a very important management tool in the Southeastern…
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