Archives

• By: Lawson Bader
• 11/12/2015

When in the course of social discourse I am asked, “And why did you ever leave California?” the response I give is often not the…

• 07/20/2015

From the show: What does whiskey have to do with encroaching regulation and bureaucracy? Fortunately, for most of history, the answer has…

• By: Lawson Bader
• 07/17/2015

Spartan mothers reputedly would tell their sons as they went off to war: "Come home with your shield, or on it!" I did not impart…

• 03/26/2015

From Reason: "The real reason we're doing this has nothing to do with Obamacare, that's just the vehicle," explains Lawson Bader, president…

• By: Lawson Bader
• 03/16/2015

It’s “Deja-vu all over again.” Yogi Berra’s famous quip well describes the controversy over Hillary Clinton’s private email account. It’s no surprise she would be…

• By: Fred L. Smith, Jr., Lawson Bader
• 03/09/2015

At a breakout session during the recent Conservative Political Action Conference, one of us posed a question to the audience: What do members of the…

• By: Lawson Bader
• 02/09/2015

“We all knew it was true, but it needs to be said: A groundhog is just a groundhog.” So began a recent news story about…

• By: Lawson Bader
• 02/02/2015

“It’s your kids, Marty, something has got to be done about your kids!” Doc Brown’s line at the conclusion of Back to the Future did…

• By: Lawson Bader
• 01/26/2015

A funny thing happened on the way to West Chester, PA. It doesn’t have the same ring as heading to the Forum, but it’ll do…

• By: Lawson Bader
• 01/12/2015

We all love cheap gas, don’t we? Well, maybe not everyone. Money magazine recently published an article with the head-turning title, “Cheap oil is…

• By: Lawson Bader
• 12/15/2014

If I had the choice, I’d rather hang out with Max. You know, that little mixed breed movie star with the antlers!? It’s that time…

• By: Lawson Bader
• 12/09/2014

Deserts are peculiar barren land areas with little precipitation and hostile living conditions. They often serve as dramatic settings of Biblical proportions—quite literally. In the…

• By: Lawson Bader
• 11/10/2014

This column was originally published at Human Events on November 10, 2014. As I watched last week’s election returns, my mind numbed to the…

• By: Lawson Bader
• 10/27/2014

“Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?” That phrase became seared in our collective memory, staring in 1985, with the release of the now-famous geography…

• By: Lawson Bader
• 10/20/2014

At the end of the film Amazing Grace, Lord Charles Fox honors William Wilberforce’s tireless crusade to abolish the transatlantic slave trade. “When people speak…

• By: Lawson Bader
• 10/13/2014

“Who you gonna call? Congress!” That hardly sounds like an inspiring thought, given our national legislature’s recent approval ratings. But given the way things actually…

• By: Lawson Bader
• 09/29/2014

At the end of Stephen Sondheim’s musical “Into the Woods,” the baker, now a single parent, tells the mysterious man who has been haunting him,…

• By: Lawson Bader
• 09/02/2014

Becoming a parent is life changing. And among the greatest changes are some surprising moments of great self-awareness. For example, the first time I sputtered…

• By: Lawson Bader
• 08/25/2014

Time has a way of blurring memories’ edges. Or in some cases obliterating them. We accuse younger siblings of revisionism when they incorrectly recount family…

• By: Lawson Bader
• 08/18/2014

Remember the days when children’s toys were just toys? You know, that long-ago age when parents didn’t expect playthings to turn their progeny into the…

• By: Lawson Bader
• 07/28/2014

I am fascinated by ripples  – whether from stones thrown into a pond or ocean waves crashing on a rocky seashore. If you’ve ever observed…

• By: Lawson Bader
• 07/07/2014

No one likes stereotypes. But seriously, what’s up with the French? I regularly travel overseas and know what it’s like for things to not quite…

• By: Lawson Bader
• 06/16/2014

The Central Intelligence Agency recently entered the 21st century with uncharacteristic humor. Its first foray into social media began, “We can neither confirm nor deny…

• By: Lawson Bader
• 05/19/2014

President Richard Nixon once committed an extraordinary egregious act that forever altered the interplay among the three branches of government. Even four decades later, the…

• By: Lawson Bader
• 05/10/2014

Several years ago, a work colleague instructed me to use the phrase “gaming” when discussing our organization’s work on federal gambling policy.  She believed that…

• By: Lawson Bader
• 04/28/2014

As I approached my 16th birthday, I faced an agonizing decision: Go to the California DMV and obtain my driver’s license or wait one more…

• By: Lawson Bader
• 04/14/2014

Last week, three seemingly unrelated events illustrated an important truth about our nation’s political debate. In Detroit, a 125-year-old mansion went on the market for…

• By: Lawson Bader
• 04/07/2014

A few years ago, a work colleague departed for a short-term political appointment with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. I told him he could…

• By: Lawson Bader
• 03/31/2014

As the economy has continued to falter under his watch, President Obama’s response has been to try to hang the albatross of the nation’s woes…

• By: Lawson Bader
• 03/24/2014

After many years in Washington, D.C., it’s hard not to notice how little it has changed since President Kennedy called it “a city of Southern…

• By: Lawson Bader
• 03/17/2014

Ostensibly, Spartan mothers, as their sons went into battle, would say, “Come home with your shield, or on it!” I did not say such encouraging…

• By: Lawson Bader
• 03/10/2014

Government spending—everybody’s talking about it. But unlike the weather, everyone wants to do something about it. Last week, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave…

• By: Lawson Bader
• 03/03/2014

I must confess that when asked to speak at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), I was reminded of Tom Lehrer’s classic satirical song,…