NATIONAL COLUMNS

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The newest federalism

When he came to Washington in 1981, Ronald Reagan made much of his commitment to the "new federalism," which in that case, like so many others, had very little to do with federalism.

Mississippi Voices: Cochran's tea party challenger

The race between Chris McDaniel and Thad Cochran for U.S. senator is crystallizing Mississippi's great political irony.

Leonard Pitts: Laughter and grief belong together

Eighty-three-year old Ron Kilmartin was in a hospice, dying of lung cancer. His daughter was at his bedside, cracking jokes about it. Here's one: "Last week, Dad coughed and said, 'choking.' I tried to give him water but he just wanted me to turn off the men's Olympic hockey game."

Kathleen Parker: The new SAT don't care 'bout no fancy words

When the going gets tough, well, why not just make the going easier? This seems to be the conclusion of the College Board, which administers the dreaded SAT college entrance exam. Recently announced "improvements" to the test are designed, say board officials, to better gauge what students study and learn in high school. Shouldn't take too long.

Susan Estrich: So much for the new Russia

It didn't take very long for the smiling sports fan cheering in the Olympic stands to revert to his true nature. I'm referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin, the former KGB leader whose idea of diplomacy is sending in the troops.

Froma Harrop: Who belongs downtown?

Many American cities now enjoy an amazing reversal of fortune. Once hollowed-out shells mainly for those too poor to move -- or those so rich they didn't have to deal with the poor -- cities are again filling up with educated and aspiring young people.

Thomas Sowell: Freedom is not free

There may be something to the claim that all people want to be free. But it is a demonstrable fact that freedom has been under attack, usually successfully, for thousands of years.

Froma Harrop: Take me to the Mardi Gras

This year, two big dress-up events fall in the same week. But the Academy Awards and Mardi Gras couldn't be more different. At the Hollywood party, the common people are supposed to venerate the stars. In Mardi Gras, the commoners are the stars.

Kathleen Parker: Obama's best hope for change

President Obama's new outreach initiative to help at-risk boys of color -- "My Brother's Keeper" -- is cause for cheer. It isn't that we haven't known for some time that minority boys are in trouble. Poor school performance, truancy, delinquency and, ultimately, high incarceration rates cannot be separated from the absence of fathers in many homes. Out-of-wedlock births are at 72 percent in the African American community and 53 percent among Latinos, compared with 29 percent among non-Hispanic whites.

Charles Krauthammer: Putin's Ukraine gambit

Henry Kissinger once pointed out that since Peter the Great, Russia had been expanding at the rate of one Belgium per year. All undone, of course, by the collapse of the Soviet Union, which Russian President Vladimir Putin called "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the [20th] century."

Kathleen Parker: Bobby Jindal comes out swinging

This town can get pretty wound up when a politician misbehaves. Given some of the reactions to Bobby Jindal's off-script remarks Monday, you'd think he'd been caught with a mirror on his shoe in the ladies' restroom.

Thomas Sowell: The 'fairness' fraud

It seems as if, everywhere you turn these days, there are studies claiming to show that America has lost its upward mobility for people born in the lower socioeconomic levels. But there is a sharp difference between upward "mobility," defined as an opportunity to rise, and mobility defined as actually having risen.

Rheta Johnson: Electile dysfunction in the Big Easy

NEW ORLEANS -- A security guard and a lawyer walked into a bar. Sounds like the beginning of a bad joke. It's bad, all right, but no joke. Everyone in this town, including two drinking buddies, was talking about the federal public corruption trial of former mayor Ray Nagin.

Kathleen Parker: Sex after drinking and the war on men

We've heard much about the Republican war on women. Exhaustingly. Lately, we've also heard about the war on men. The war on men-on-women-on-men . . . or something, as MSNBC's Alex Wagner described it recently, gained fresh traction with a controversial column by the Wall Street Journal's James Taranto about campus rape.

Susan Estrich: I'm not watching the Olympics

This is not exactly a newsflash in my house, where, before he left for college, my son had to teach me how to turn on the TV. The thing is, I really don't want to watch the Olympics, even though I spent many of my happier childhood hours watching figure skating on the black-and-white.

Leonard Pitts: White fear trumps black life

Froma Harrop: Hillary Clinton is too old for what?

The esteemed political writer Charlie Cook recently produced a column titled "Is Hillary Clinton Too Old to Run?" Despite couching his thoughts with a mention that if Clinton were to run, she would be the same age as Ronald Reagan when he was first elected president, 69, he did venture over the sexism line.

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