Reform the Pennsylvania Medical System By Upholding the Rights of Medical Providers
Evan Madianos (2003.01.24 )
An acute disruption in vital health care services in Pennsylvania may have been prevented for now by Gov.-elect Ed Rendell’s and Gov. Mark Schweiker’s “stop-gap” economic intervention. However, the recent threats issued to all the state’s physicians regarding their licensing and practice privileges in the state by the Secretary of the Commonwealth sent an ominous […]
Guns: A Loaded Argument
Paul Rosenzweig (2003.01.24 )
The language of the Second Amendment seems straightforward: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” Yet the debate rages on: Does each American citizen have the right to own firearms or not? Last year, the […]
Abortion Rights are Pro-Life
Leonard Peikoff (2003.01.23 )
Thirty years after Roe V. Wade, no one defends the right to abortion in fundamental, moral terms, which is why the pro-abortion rights forces are on the defensive. Abortion-rights advocates should not cede the terms “pro-life” and “right to life” to the anti-abortionists. It is a woman’s right to her life that gives her the […]
End the Double Taxation of Dividends
Daniel J Mitchell (2003.01.23 )
President Bush’s critics reacted in predictably uniform fashion to his latest economic proposal: Playing the class-warfare card. Good luck making that charge stick. America isn’t France. The politics of hate-and-envy doesn’t resonate here like it does in Europe. We want more freedom and opportunity. Consider the president’s call to end the double taxation of dividends, […]
PC Migration Tools: A Bad Idea
Alan Luber (2003.01.23 )
In chapter 4 of my book, PC Fear Factor, I provide a step-by-step process for transitioning from your old computer to a new computer. The process includes all of the steps required to migrate your data from your old machine to your new, and how to install all of your applications on your new machine. […]
The Truly Dismal Science
Don Luskin (2003.01.22 )
In science, you start with a hypothesis. Then you conduct an experiment to see if your hypothesis is true. If the experiment proves the hypothesis wrong, you throw it out and come up with a new hypothesis based on what you’ve learned. I guess economics must not be a science. Because in economics you stick […]
The Iraq Charade
Robert W Tracinski (2003.01.22 )
The headline of an Associated Press report from Tuesday declares, “Gaps Appear to Widen over Iraq within UN Security Council.” The wording is, perhaps unintentionally, precise: the gaps only appear to be widening. The report informs us — to no one’s surprise, I hope — that France, Russia and China are opposed to a U.S. […]
Marxist Molly Ivins Flunks Economics
Ralph R. Reiland (2003.01.21 )
Upset with President Bush’s tax cut plan, columnist Molly Ivins warns that America’s more well-to-do taxpayers might go out and doing something unproductive if the government seizes a smaller portion of their incomes. “There’s no guarantee,” Ivins writes, “that rich people will do anything economically productive with more money.” There’s also, of course, “no guarantee” […]
Europe vs. America
Daniel Pipes (2003.01.21 )
Things looked so clear in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, when the forces of civilization stood on one side and the barbarians on the other. The very evening after the attack, President Bush announced that “America and our friends and allies join with all those who want peace and security in the world, and we […]
Learn to Earn: Investment Newsletters and Investment Books
James K Glassman (2003.01.21 )
For the past 20 years, a newsletter based in Annandale, Virginia called the Hulbert Financial Digest (866-428-6568) has been keeping track of the performance of other newsletters. Of the original ones it monitored, only 17 remain, and, at last count, the model stock portfolios of only three of them beat the market as a whole […]
Dogs of the Dow
James K Glassman (2003.01.20 )
When I heard that President Bush was proposing to eliminate the double taxation of dividends, I immediately exclaimed, “Arf!” I was thinking of the Dogs of the Dow, those high-yielding blue chips that gained notoriety nearly a decade ago. If it becomes law, the White House plan should significantly enhance the value of companies that […]
An Idea Not Worth Drafting: Conscription is Slavery
Peter Krembs (2003.01.20 )
Since the attacks on 9-11, the issue of the draft has sat simmering on the backburner of American politics with intermittent bouts on the front pages of political news. Its latest proponent is Congressman Charles Rangel, a left-darling from New York, whose entire professional life has been spent in Washington. Quoting Mr. Rangel, “I believe […]
The “Diversity” Fig Leaf
Jeff Jacoby (2003.01.19 )
As a justification for racial preferences, “diversity” is one of the great fig leaves of modern American academia. It first appeared in 1978 — well after affirmative action had degenerated into the practice of admitting students on the basis of color. That was the year of the Supreme Court’s Bakke decision, in which Justice Lewis […]
Clinton-Era IRS Regulation Threatens Economy and Financial Markets
Daniel J Mitchell (2003.01.19 )
Three days before President Bill Clinton left office, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) proposed a regulation (No. 126100-00) that would have forced American banks to report the interest they pay on the deposits of nonresident aliens. The IRS openly admitted that the information collected would be forwarded to foreign governments and that the regulation was […]
