Steve Chapman is a columnist and editorial writer for the Chicago Tribune. His twice-a-week column on national and international affairs, distributed by Creators Syndicate, appears in some 60 papers across the country. Steve Chapman came to the Tribune in 1981 from the New Republic magazine, where he was an associate editor. Steve Chapman has contributed articles to several national magazines, including Slate, The American Spectator, National Review and The Weekly Standard. Born in Brady, Texas, in 1954, Steve Chapman grew up in Midland and Austin. Steve Chapman attended Harvard University, where he was on the staff of the Harvard Crimson. He graduated with honors in 1976 and later did graduate work at the University of Chicago. Steve Chapman has three children and lives in suburban Chicago. http://www.townhall.com/columnists/SteveChapman http://media.townhall.com/TownHall/icons/TH-feed-icon-128x128.gif http://www.townhall.com/columnists/SteveChapman TownHall.com, Where your opinion counts. 128 Copyright (c) 2013 Townhall.com, A Salem Communications Web. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED jim.dearras@townhall.com (Jim De Arras) Thu, 16 May 2013 04:01:00 GMT Thu, 16 May 2013 04:01:00 GMT http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss RSS.NET: http://www.rssdotnet.com/ When it comes to prosecutors' investigations of leaks, you can count on journalists to dispense with impartiality and scream bloody murder. Upon learning that the Justice Department had seized the phone records of its... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/SteveChapman/2013/05/16/plugging-leaks-the-right-way-n1597690 7ee98ff6-61a5-482a-b6f2-44dddfc78c41 Thu, 16 May 2013 04:01:00 GMT If rain is pouring and you don't want to get wet, you have a few choices. You can stay inside. You can put on a raincoat, grab an umbrella and brave the torrent. Or you can step outside and demand that it stop. This... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/SteveChapman/2013/05/12/facing-facts-about-illegal-immigration-n1592795 1383f42a-451b-4dce-92ff-155a31a60304 Sun, 12 May 2013 04:01:00 GMT For decades, Americans have been told of the evils of importing energy. It sends our money abroad, the argument goes, makes us vulnerable to supply disruptions, strengthens our enemies and weakens the economy. Now,... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/SteveChapman/2013/05/09/holding-energy-captive-n1591204 6fd31987-8237-44f6-b2c9-ae8165cc9a33 Thu, 09 May 2013 04:01:00 GMT Video surveillance cameras have been growing in popularity for years, but in recent weeks their advance has gotten a turbo boost. After helping to identify two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings, they went from... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/SteveChapman/2013/05/05/surveillance-cameras-are-not-all-that-n1586685 9551c3da-95b4-499d-9254-478a7c117f11 Sun, 05 May 2013 04:01:00 GMT With the Iraq war behind us and our departure from Afghanistan underway, the United States could be entering a well-earned respite from fighting. But even before peace can take hold, hawks are singing the old country... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/SteveChapman/2013/05/02/stay-out-of-syria-n1584484 8ea462c5-0712-45a9-8802-69dbac24c03e Thu, 02 May 2013 04:01:00 GMT Once in a while, a government agency adopts a policy that is logical, hardheaded, based on experience and unswayed by cheap sentiment. This may be surprising enough to make you reconsider your view of bureaucrats.... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/SteveChapman/2013/04/28/knives-on-a-plane-not-quite-n1580055 6d34a323-111c-4ac7-b4b8-d8a2117b145f Sun, 28 Apr 2013 04:02:00 GMT According to a 19th-century composer named Francis Scott Key, the United States is the "land of the free and the home of the brave." If he were writing those lyrics today, he might add an asterisk with the notation:... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/SteveChapman/2013/04/25/conquering-fear-to-protect-freedom-n1577660 6f9e6c9a-6aa9-46fc-9604-104adab79dbb Thu, 25 Apr 2013 04:00:00 GMT The autopsy gave a spare account of how the 52-year-old man died. He suffered blunt force injuries on his torso and legs, and abrasions on his left wrist indicated he had been tied or shackled down. One of his neck... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/SteveChapman/2013/04/21/torture-without-excuses-n1573316 84af1f8a-4ddb-44a5-9fc7-8c1586b311e3 Sun, 21 Apr 2013 04:01:00 GMT Our era is known as the Age of Terror, and no wonder. Twelve years ago, the United States suffered its worst terrorist attack ever, and since then, we have lived under the shadow of atrocities designed to frighten as... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/SteveChapman/2013/04/18/the-decline-of-terrorism-n1570922 9040aac7-7025-4259-82f7-e0594ccb1d2d Thu, 18 Apr 2013 04:01:00 GMT The communist regime in Cuba was just about to come tumbling down, ending decades of dictatorship and opening the way for freedom and democracy. But before that could happen, Jay-Z and Beyonce took a trip to the island.... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/SteveChapman/2013/04/13/beyonce-and-jayz-saving-communism-n1566322 8a044db0-4dda-4642-953a-70a0174be1fb Sat, 13 Apr 2013 04:01:00 GMT Democrats claim we have one party that upholds science and one that rejects it. When it comes to climate change, presidential polling, evolution and other topics, we are told, Republicans have no use for actual experts.... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/SteveChapman/2013/04/11/science-sex-and-birth-control-n1563928 e92bac74-9903-4fa1-8e73-d67e3c3debdc Thu, 11 Apr 2013 04:01:00 GMT When it comes to government action, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Hold down gasoline prices to help motorists, and you create shortages. Punish landlords to protect tenants, and apartments get harder... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/SteveChapman/2013/04/06/whats-worse-than-horse-slaughter-n1559247 ad04da7a-075a-402c-ad30-a33398efb2bb Sat, 06 Apr 2013 04:01:00 GMT After deciding to pursue the execution of the man charged with fatally shooting 12 people in a Colorado movie theater last summer, the prosecutor declared that "for James Egan Holmes, justice is death." By that... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/SteveChapman/2013/04/04/the-illusory-value-of-the-death-penalty-n1557061 dc70addf-b494-4700-a0cf-544a378da91f Thu, 04 Apr 2013 04:01:00 GMT Flying commercial can be a terrible hassle these days, but not for Steven Washburn. The people in charge of airport security have decided to spare him all the inconveniences. No taking off his shoes and belt, no putting... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/SteveChapman/2013/03/31/why-the-nofly-list-doesnt-fly-n1553054 a1b531e0-4c2b-4770-bc9a-7afb1368a5a1 Sun, 31 Mar 2013 04:01:00 GMT The New Yorker magazine once had a cartoon showing a storefront office with the company name on the window: "None of Your Damn Business Inc." If it were publicly traded, the corporation's stock would be down this mor http://www.townhall.com/columnists/SteveChapman/2013/03/28/is-privacy-going-to-the-dogs-n1550980 1788e40f-4c41-42a3-b70d-70b5c148707d Thu, 28 Mar 2013 04:01:00 GMT Some people should not be trusted with access to firearms. On that point almost everyone agrees, the only debate being where to draw the line. But no one thinks that if the Unabomber had his sentence commuted, the... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/SteveChapman/2013/03/24/no-blank-check-for-criminals-n1546644 8982190c-0e2f-4432-9cdd-b2702363f2f6 Sun, 24 Mar 2013 04:00:00 GMT Foreign policy is often a form of theater, with elaborate rituals and pretenses that no one takes too literally. But rarely have the gimmicks of stagecraft been as obvious as in the latest standoff between North... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/SteveChapman/2013/03/21/our-fruitless-quest-for-missile-defense-n1544301 5bb63dad-11ce-47c4-aadb-4272dc479690 Thu, 21 Mar 2013 04:01:00 GMT Ten years ago this week, Americans were about to be introduced to a strange new concept, as they awaited the U.S. war to bring regime change in Iraq. Coined by American military officers, it encapsulated a situation in... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/SteveChapman/2013/03/17/what-we-learned-in-iraq-n1535699 78a2fcbe-d47a-4b19-bb96-c26e4409ac2e Sun, 17 Mar 2013 04:01:00 GMT The first law of thermodynamics says that energy can't be created and can't be destroyed -- it can only be changed from one form into another. The same holds true of the puritanical impulse.Puritanism in the historical... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/SteveChapman/2013/03/14/the-tyranny-of-the-virtuous-n1532772 ca3db74c-6d24-4ed8-a9ad-6409ebd80f40 Thu, 14 Mar 2013 04:01:00 GMT A famous book on negotiation is called "Getting to Yes." Sometimes, though, the better achievement is arriving at "no." That's what Eric Holder and Rand Paul did the other day.It came in a letter from the attorney... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/SteveChapman/2013/03/10/deaf-dialogue-on-drones-n1529334 3b8a6da3-bc9d-48fb-8ed2-4cb2776155a7 Sun, 10 Mar 2013 05:01:00 GMT Lars Hedegaard is a Danish journalist who has made his name denouncing Islam, which he describes as "a totalitarian system of thought" whose adherents "rape their own children." Last month, someone showed up at his door... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/SteveChapman/2013/03/07/moderate-muslim-not-an-oxymoron-n1527319 238ee49b-467b-43ba-85c8-90297df8f118 Thu, 07 Mar 2013 05:01:00 GMT America is a much freer place than it was a few decades ago, and one way you can tell is that changes once considered unthinkable now occur almost unnoticed. A case in point came when New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/SteveChapman/2013/03/03/freedom-to-gamble-n1523948 f9e750d8-6023-4d16-a97a-8f948e338a57 Sun, 03 Mar 2013 05:01:00 GMT If you're a football fan, you've seen it happen. A coach bursts into prominence by using offensive or defensive innovations to produce victory after victory, championship after championship. For a long time, he's re http://www.townhall.com/columnists/SteveChapman/2013/02/28/communism-crime-and-the-republican-eclipse-n1522022 a0ecf723-2140-44b9-8d14-66f859f80c3c Thu, 28 Feb 2013 05:01:00 GMT Public policy is a lot like math: No matter what the problem, the wrong answers are far more numerous than the right ones. This is particularly true on the subject of mass shootings and other firearms violence, which http://www.townhall.com/columnists/SteveChapman/2013/02/24/the-right-way-to-combat-gun-violence-n1518283 be3175b5-3a65-481c-a511-abbb122b7c02 Sun, 24 Feb 2013 05:01:00 GMT President Barack Obama and Democrats in Congress want to raise the minimum wage to improve the lot of the working poor. But they've got the wrong idea. The problem is not that these workers earn so little; it's that the... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/SteveChapman/2013/02/21/the-minimum-wage-and-economic-reality-n1516710 e26b2dcb-dbc6-4e90-ac3a-4fdd728a79fa Thu, 21 Feb 2013 05:01:00 GMT The old definition of insanity is doing the same thing again and again and expecting a different result. The new definition, which applies only in the case of North Korea, is: doing something different and expecting a... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/SteveChapman/2013/02/17/steve-chapman-n1513576 ec8a8c5e-8e7a-40bb-984e-e4dc7fc54027 Sun, 17 Feb 2013 05:01:00 GMT The debate on gun control lately has been going like this: Liberals propose various restrictions on allowable firearms, acceptable owners and approved ammunition. Conservatives exclaim, "Second Amendment!" And the... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/SteveChapman/2013/02/14/the-complex-truth-about-the-second-amendment-n1511928 39322c27-e737-4da0-8d1c-70087671256a Thu, 14 Feb 2013 05:01:00 GMT I recently started Victor Hugo's novel "Les Miserables," which most people seem to prefer in movie or musical theater form if only because those take less time. You can get the story in under three hours instead of... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/SteveChapman/2013/02/07/in-praise-of-fat-books-and-slow-reading-n1506723 a31915ba-f5a1-418a-8be3-19ebb911bcd0 Thu, 07 Feb 2013 05:01:00 GMT Professional football is the most popular spectator sport in America, which is one reason the Super Bowl is expected to draw 110 million viewers. With its famous athletes, storied franchises and lucrative TV... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/SteveChapman/2013/02/03/a-game-the-nfl-cant-win-n1503416 059a250b-6cf9-4355-8949-daf2685f0d98 Sun, 03 Feb 2013 05:01:00 GMT To hear opponents tell it, you don't want to be standing along the U.S. border when an immigration reform bill becomes law. Millions of foreigners who were previously content in their native lands will hear about it,... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/SteveChapman/2013/01/31/false-alarms-on-amnesty-n1501559 c7ce5867-1fb0-450e-8a34-436a8697965b Thu, 31 Jan 2013 05:01:00 GMT Beijing has some seriously bad air. How bad? On a scale of 1 to 500, the United States Environmental Protection Agency says anything over 100 is unhealthy and anything above 400 is an emergency. Recently, the pollution... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/SteveChapman/2013/01/27/the-cloud-over-china-n1498022 6b613a41-a498-4d8b-a8b8-ba6063f5d329 Sun, 27 Jan 2013 05:01:00 GMT Midway through his inaugural address, Barack Obama proclaimed, "A decade of war is now ending." A cynical listener might respond: "And a new decade of war is about to begin." Obama sounded pacific notes Monday. But it... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/SteveChapman/2013/01/24/will-obama-shun-perpetual-war-n1495946 31114574-3337-4b91-bb02-65e5565cf086 Thu, 24 Jan 2013 05:01:00 GMT As recreational drugs go, marijuana is relatively benign. Unlike alcohol, it doesn't stimulate violence or destroy livers. Unlike tobacco, it doesn't cause lung cancer and heart disease. The worst you can say is that it... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/SteveChapman/2013/01/20/the-war-on-pot-not-a-safe-bet-n1492607 d9d01096-5270-4acc-9efa-bca95164c98e Sun, 20 Jan 2013 05:01:00 GMT Political trends come and go in response to events. Gun control was the rage during the Clinton administration, but over the past decade or so it became an obsolete cause. After the horrific crimes in Newtown and... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/SteveChapman/2013/01/17/gun-controls-potemkin-village-n1490886 67d39897-d194-4127-b212-086e5836ce74 Thu, 17 Jan 2013 05:01:00 GMT Recently, after a couple of days of feeling a bit run down, I groused to my wife that I didn't feel bad enough to miss work, just bad enough to make work a lot harder than usual. "It might be nice to feel bad enough to... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/SteveChapman/2013/01/13/how-i-spent-my-sick-days-n1487483 e90e48f1-27c8-4982-88d3-c07f4cf02f8a Sun, 13 Jan 2013 05:01:00 GMT When it comes to serious, lasting budget constraints, our leaders in Washington have the escape talents of Houdini. The ominous approach of the fiscal cliff put Democrats in a position to extract a lot more revenue and... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/SteveChapman/2013/01/06/an-exercise-in-fiscal-evasion-n1479286 dd18a2c9-8fd3-4a56-afb7-e1fac88827bb Sun, 06 Jan 2013 05:01:00 GMT Editor's Note: Steve Chapman is on vacation. The following column was originally published in August 2009. The American medical system has the latest technology, the greatest variety of new drugs and unparalleled... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/SteveChapman/2012/12/30/steve-chapman-n1475432 b63f1457-08b0-4191-9582-61c090c00b95 Sun, 30 Dec 2012 05:01:00 GMT Meteorologists know seasons are predictable. In the weather world, spring is always followed by summer. But the political world is different. Spring can proceed to summer, or it can lead to a sudden onset of winter.... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/SteveChapman/2012/12/23/2012-from-arab-spring-to-early-winter-n1472368 0c078b26-0168-4d07-b2c8-31fa2555aad0 Sun, 23 Dec 2012 05:01:00 GMT The film "Casablanca" has many famous lines, but none more immortal than Capt. Renault's order after seeing a Nazi officer shot by Humphrey Bogart's character, Rick Blaine: "Round up the usual suspects." He issues that... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/SteveChapman/2012/12/20/wrong-answers-for-mass-shootings-n1470662 ab2928f5-2368-42aa-9a10-94c74d4555f8 Thu, 20 Dec 2012 05:01:00 GMT