After all, [female genital mutilation is] a key pillar of institutional misogyny in Islam: its entire purpose is to deny women sexual pleasure. True, a lot of us hapless western men find we deny women sexual pleasure without even trying, but we don't demand genital mutilation to guarantee it. On such slender distinctions does civilization rest.

The spirit of the age is: Ask not what your country can do for you, demand it.

So-called "progressives" actively wage war on progress. . . . Ultimately, progressives are at war with mass prosperity.

Unchecked, government social programs are a security threat because they weaken the ultimate line of defense: the free-born citizen whose responsibilities are not subcontracted to the government.

For states in demographic decline with ever more lavish social programs, the question is a simple one: Can they get real? Can they grow up before they grow old? If not, then they'll end their days in societies dominated by people with a very different worldview.

Government health care changes the relationship between the citizen and the state, and, in fact, I think it's an assault on citizenship.

Long before they slump into poverty, great powers succumb to a poverty of ambition.