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Two weeks ago, air raid sirens and tweets of an incoming attack resounded throughout Pearl Harbor and the Hawaiian Islands. The last time such an alert was issued in earnest was 76 years ago when Japanese bombers struck battleship row and other U.S. military facilities early on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941. This time, for nearly 40 minutes, the threat of North Korean missiles destroying Honolulu, possibly with nuclear warheads, was no longer remote. Fortunately, no missiles had been launched. It turned out that human error caused the alert and the subsequent outright fear of many who understandably believed the end was in sight. The lesson from this erroneous [...]

The United States has weathered and survived a revolution, a civil war, two world wars, one cold war, economic depressions, and the perils of a government too often paralyzed in gridlock because of the extreme polarization of its politics. Yet, unintended dangers to the nation have also arisen as consequences of profoundly misguided actions by its government. During the 20th century, despite laws and policies that discriminated on the basis of sex, race or political involvement, I would argue that the single most destructive piece of legislation was the 18th Amendment, which prohibited the sale and consumption of alcohol. The 18th Amendment produced widespread contempt and disregard for the law [...]