Voices from right field are explaining why they’re justified in threatening the United States with default if Congress does not defund Obamacare. The Wall Street Journal’s Kimberley Strassel said on Sunday chat TV, “There isn’t one poll that shows that Americans approve, as a majority, of this health care law.” That’s an interesting concept: repeal […]
Froma Harrop
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Froma Harrop: Violence rears its ugly head once again
To the rising pile of shooting rampages, Americans can now add the rapid-fire murder of 12 people at the Washington Navy Yard. It is a sign of our remarkable times that this horrid deed seems to pale next to the massacre of 20 schoolchildren in suburban Connecticut last December. Behind virtually every one of these […]
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Froma Harrop: China’s rich looking for cleaner countries
Thousands of Chinese are fleeing to the United States. We are not talking about impoverished peasants hiding in cargo containers. We’re talking about millionaires flying first class and buying condos in the choicest ZIP codes. A big reason for this relocation, real estate agents say, is a desire for America’s clean air, as opposed to […]
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Froma Harrop: Panhandling is not an answer to poverty
Indianapolis offers the full urban deal: great architecture, hot restaurants, famous museums and a walkable downtown. But it also has had one of the worst panhandler problems I’ve seen. At almost every street corner, it seemed, someone was squeezing you for money. This month, Indianapolis joined San Antonio, Portland, Ore., and numerous other cities in […]
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Froma Harrop: An NSA drama goes crackpot
Journalist Glenn Greenwald’s partner was detained at London’s Heathrow Airport for nine hours — no waterboarding or electric shocks, just pointed questions and confiscation of David Michael Miranda’s computer gear. That prompted Greenwald to threaten Britain with more of his writings. “I think they’ll regret what they’ve done,” he said. Miranda, meanwhile, accused British authorities […]
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Froma Harrop: GOP of two minds, at least, on immigration
On immigration, the Republican Party is trapped in two trains of thought, each speeding along the wrong track. At the tea party end, there’s absolute resistance to normalizing the status of illegal immigrants. On the cheap-labor side, there’s this big push to admit as many unskilled immigrants as possible. The first view, that putting millions […]
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Froma Harrop: America’s wilderness has gotten crowded
Ever since Yosemite National Park won fame for its natural Western splendor, it’s gone on many a register of things to see before one dies. It remains a bucket-list favorite, only nowadays there are millions, if not billions, more buckets. The park’s crowds have become such that officials there are struggling to find ways to […]
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Froma Harrop: Cheap labor is nobody’s right
The Declaration of Independence says nothing about a right to cheap labor, but not everyone has noticed. Companies routinely pay market rates for electricity, real estate and legal services. But many find great injustice in market economics, as applied to wages they must pay to attract unskilled labor. When companies can’t find people to work […]
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Froma Harrop: The pitfalls of public exercise
The most memorable scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s “North by Northwest” is Eva Marie Saint hanging from the side of Mount Rushmore in a perfectly tailored red suit, sheer stockings and pumps. The character hadn’t planned for that situation, but her dress was nonetheless deemed proper, circa 1959, for touring South Dakota’s Black Hills. In the […]
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Froma Harrop: Health reform will happen, and none too soon
Obamacare is going ahead. It’s happening, and concerted efforts by its foes to scare the public and otherwise delegitimize the health care reforms will be ultimately futile. That doesn’t mean that Republican opponents won’t try. The question is why, other than crude political posturing, would they want the Affordable Care Act to fail? Our health […]