Archive | March, 2004

A couple of weeks ago, heading down to George Mason University, I pulled into my favorite Wawa gasoline station just off the Bel Air, Md., exit on I-95 South. At each of the 20 gasoline pumps, there was a sign posted that Wawa would no longer dispense free coffee to its gasoline customers. Why? The [...]

With the Federal Reserve holding official overnight interest rates at 1.00%, the yield on the typical money-market fund is about one half of one percent, after management fees. With yields this low, you’ve got to be tempted to do something — anything! — to get more. That’s just what Alan Greenspan wants you to think. [...]

Random thoughts on the passing scene: The old adage about giving a man a fish versus teaching him to fish has been updated by a reader: Give a man a fish and he will ask for tartar sauce and French fries! Moreover, some politician who wants his vote will declare all these things to be [...]

Osama bin Laden’s capture or death, the focus of renewed American military attention, would greatly help the war on terror — but not in the way you might expect. It would not do that much to prevent jihadist violence. True, in some cases, seizing a terrorist leader leads directly to a reduction in threat or [...]

America’s swing toward religion is about to be fully affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court, judging by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist’s comments regarding the Pledge of Allegiance phrase ‘under God’. “You may disagree that it’s ‘under God,’” Chief Justice Rehnquist said during the first week of arguments. “You may disagree that it’s

On St. Patrick’s Day, I wore no buttons that read: “Proud to be Irish.” While I’m of Celtic stock, I’m neither proud or ashamed to be Irish, but indifferent to this fact — as I would be if I were of any other ethnicity or race. Instead, I’m proud to be an individualist and an [...]

Like many doctors in today’s medical profession, I am the victim of a violation of individual rights. While I continue to practice medicine, many others do not. Personally, I can testify: the assault on doctors is real, it matters, and it is getting much worse. I chose to become an American citizen in 1981, though [...]

For years we have been hearing about a water shortage in the western states. To most people, that might suggest that there just is not enough water for all the people in those states. But, when an economist hears the word “shortage,” it has an entirely different meaning. What specifically is a shortage? It is [...]

Last week, I became a whistleblower. (According to Merriam-Webster, a whistleblower is someone “who reveals wrongdoing within an organization to the public or to those in positions of authority.”) This is not a role I expected or sought, but I felt compelled to go public when the U.S. Institute of Peace, in Washington, D.C., the [...]

Richard Clarke, President George W. Bush’s former “counterterrorism czar,” accuses the Bush administration of seeking a tie between Iraq and 9/11, and pushing America into an ill-advised war in Iraq. Clarke claims that Bush attempted to “intimidate him” into finding evidence — which Clarke maintains doesn’t exist — to establish a connection between Saddam Hussein [...]