Oceania was at war with Eastasia. Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia. And a moment before, in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, Oceania had been an ally of Eastasia, and at war with Eurasia.1. It would be deemed a thoughtcrime to know and think otherwise. And it’s a virtual thoughtcrime today to say [...]
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NSA, Obama and The Loss of Trust
Amid all the heated cross-currents of debate about the National Security Agency’s massive surveillance program, there is a growing distrust ...
Unasked and Unanswered Questions
Intellectuals argue that diversity is necessary for academic excellence, but what’s the evidence?
Abstract Immigrants
Anything we try to do as regards immigration laws has to be done in the context of a huge welfare state that is already a major, inescapable fact of life.
Tackle Tough Long-Term Issues with Three Pages a Day
In Thinking Tactics, I teach a set of thinking procedures that each take under 10 minutes. They can be used to clarify most confusion, resolve most conflicts, and figure out the next step on most projects. But not everything. Sometimes you face a bigger issue–one that cannot succumb to a few minutes of targeted thinking. [...]
Why the Tea Party’s Failure is Not Political
Some polls show support for the Tea Party increasing in the wake of the IRS scandals, in which the Tea Party was singled out by the Obama administration for special questioning because of their political views. While this might seem like good news to those with a limited government perspective, it really isn’t, not all [...]
“Islam’s Reign of Terror”: An Excerpt
The following is an excerpt from my essay, Islam’s Reign of Terror, published last month by Voltaire Press.
Obama vs. The New York Times?
In a scathing editorial published late in the afternoon on Thursday, the New York Times editorial board said, “Mr. Obama is proving the truism that the executive branch will use any power it is given and very likely abuse it. That is one reason we have long argued that the Patriot Act … was reckless [...]
Unnecessary Tragedy
Last week a federal judge ordered Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to allow 10-year-old Sarah Murnaghan, who suffers from cystic fibrosis, to be moved to the adult lung transplant list. That gives her a better chance of receiving a potentially lifesaving transplant. Sarah Murnaghan’s fate should force us to examine our organ [...]
Economics vs. ‘Need’
One of the most common arguments for allowing more immigration is that there is a “need” for foreign workers to do “jobs that Americans won’t do,” especially in agriculture. One of my most vivid memories of the late Armen Alchian, an internationally renowned economist at UCLA, involved a lunch at which one of the younger [...]
The Fatal Fallacies and Foibles of Race: A Review of Intellectuals and Race by Thomas Sowell
With the calm, objective, and nearly disinterested panache he is noted for, in Intellectuals and Race* Thomas Sowell dissects a broad range of fallacies that have surrounded the touchy and often contentious subject of race. In this latest volume he doesn’t miss a trick, and covers as succinctly as possible the whole gamut of why [...]
The Education of Robert Mueller
Imagine for a moment that I have been elected a U.S. Senator for the state of Virginia, replacing one of the two roll-with-the-punches Democrats who vote the straight Party line, and I am on the Senate Judiciary Committee which is holding a special hearing on the reported misconduct of FBI Director Robert Mueller over a [...]
Does Opposing Obama Make You a Racist?
The most frequent thing I have been called for opposing Barack Obama’s policies is a “racist.” Many of my readers tell me the same thing. What is a racist, exactly? One definition I found cited by Wikipedia strikes me as a good one: “Racism is usually defined as views, practices and actions reflecting the belief [...]
Sex and the Military
The headline on the front page of the New York Times said it all: “Women in the Senate Confront the Military on Sex Assaults.” In a triumphalist article showcasing the growing numbers of women on the Senate Armed Services Committee, “one of the Senate’s most testosterone-driven panels,” the story line presents female Senators attacking male [...]
Understanding Liberals and Progressives
In order to understand the liberal and progressive agenda, one must know something about their world vision and values. Let’s examine some of the evidence. Why the 1970s struggle to ban DDT? Alexander King, founder of the Malthusian Club of Rome, wrote in a 1990 biographical essay: “My own doubts came when DDT was introduced [...]
Obama Exploits a Compliant America
“You can’t have 100 percent security and also then have 100 percent privacy and zero inconvenience. We’re going to have to make some choices as a society.” So says Barack Obama, in defense of his administration’s policy of monitoring the phone records of private citizens, just because he can. This is like saying: “You can [...]
Alan Dershowitz vs. Ben Franklin
The collection of millions of Americans’ phone records by the National Security Agency is a necessary compromise on privacy —but should be monitored to keep it from being abused, renowned civil rights attorney Alan Dershowitz says. “Even Benjamin Franklin was wrong when he said those who would give up any privacy or rights in the [...]