Archive | August, 2008

It’s the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the savage storm that inundated the Mississippi Delta in late August 2005, leaving more than 1,800 people dead and causing widespread property damage. Disasters can sometimes shock a nation into questioning entrenched practices. But Hurricane Katrina, one of the worst natural disasters ever to befall America, has failed [...]

As parents pack their youngsters off to college, they might ask themselves whether it’s worth both the money they will spend and their children’s time. Dr. Marty Nemko has researched that question in an article aptly titled “America’s Most Over-rated Product: Higher Education (www.martynemko.com/articles/americas-most-overrated-product-higher-education_id1539).” The U.S. Department of Education statistics show that 76 out of [...]

Random thoughts on the passing scene: If you took all the fraud out of politics, there might not be a lot left. The reason so many people misunderstand so many issues is not that these issues are so complex, but that people do not want a factual or analytical explanation that leaves them emotionally unsatisfied. [...]

A little noted federal court ruling has found the enemies of the U.S. not guilty of knowingly attacking the U.S. Our feckless judiciary has handed the Islamists another legal victory, one which, given the employment of non-objective law, will be difficult to reverse. A brief Wall Street Journal item caught my eye, “Court Rules Saudi [...]

By taking a couple of courses in economic theory, we could immunize ourselves from nonsense spouted by politicians and pundits, but in the meantime check out Professor John R. Lott’s “Freedomnomics: Why the Free Market Works.” His first chapter is “Are You Being Ripped Off?” It addresses myths about predation where it’s sometimes alleged that [...]

When amateurs outperform professionals, there is something wrong with that profession. If ordinary people, with no medical training, could perform surgery in their kitchens with steak knives, and get results that were better than those of surgeons in hospital operating rooms, the whole medical profession would be discredited. Yet it is common for ordinary parents, [...]

What is happening in the republic of Georgia is all too reminiscent of what happened back in 1956, when Russian tanks rolled into Hungary– and the West did nothing. An argument might well be made that, realistically, there was nothing the West could have done– then or now– that would have forced the Russians out. [...]