In the aftermath of the Boston bombings, many are asking how someone who came to America at the age of 9, attended some of our best schools, captained the wrestling team, went to the prom and became a citizen could have inflicted such a devastating attack on our society. The emerging evidence suggests that part of the answer is that no one in the past decade taught…

The quiet dignity of Rosa Maria Paya was unmistakable Tuesday as she asked the international community to pressure Cuba’s government into allowing a plebiscite on democracy and for an investigation into the murder of her father, dissident leader Oswaldo Paya. Her poise also offered a sharp contrast to the spectacle unfolding in her country with a visit there by celebrity…

They used to say that the country had a Daddy Party and a Mommy Party. This no longer applies, and is, in fact, patronizing ... to mommies. Anyone taking a stand on continuing government support for Big Bird is not maternal, but infantile. If mothers know one thing, it's when to push the reluctant fledgling off the nest. And no, I don't charge infantilism because I…

There's a reason liberals have taken up Big Bird as the face of public broadcasting and not, say, Bill Moyers. Mr. Bird is feathery and cuddly, while Moyers likes to compare American flag lapel pins to Mao's Little Red Book. This is how the left undermines our institutions from within: make the effort appear homey and apple pie-ish. Show Big Bird, not Big Bill. …

Fact-checkers have become a fact of life, so logic dictates that it's time we checked them. It's the age-old conundrum: Who controls the meta-controller? Our system of government depends upon checks and balances, a system that has long frustrated controllers from both parties. With the fact checkers, however, there seems to be none. There are many issues that raise…

Lech Walesa was once a trade-union activist. He was often arrested for speaking his mind against Communist oppression behind the Iron Curtain in Poland and for defying the Soviet Union. He was an electrician who, with no higher education, led one of the most profound freedom movements of the 20th century — Solidarity. He became president of Poland and swept in reforms,…

Pope Benedict XVI’s trip to Cuba, later this month had the potential to greatly advance the cause of human freedom, which is, after all, the continuation of Jesus Christ’s work on this earth.  During this visit the pope could meet publicly with dissidents to offer them a measure of protection from their tormentors. He could speak clearly and loudly about their…

The tragic death of Cuban dissident Wilman Villar after a 50-day hunger strike should make clear that the Cuban people seek freedom and are increasingly willing to defy a repressive regime to get it.  They deserve outside moral support, which is best expressed by a repudiation of the regime that brutalizes them, not by establishing relations that would only…

There's something about Che Guevara that convinces older European men that they will become cooler through association with his "brand." We saw that again yesterday when Mercedes-Benz Chairman Dieter Zetsche launched a new car under a banner picture of Guevara. Years ago, an equally desperate Anglican clergyman tried to stem dwindling congregations with a poster of…