Cameras in the Courtroom
It is fascinating to watch special interest groups seeking privileges for themselves in the guise of protecting the rights of other people. A recent issue of Editor & Publisher magazine — the trade journal of newspapers — argued for allowing the use of cameras in federal courtrooms, including the Supreme Court. “The public’s right to […]
Road Map to More Terror in the Middle East
The US-sponsored “road map” to peace between Israel and the Palestinians is not a very challenging document. The text, which is posted at the State Department website, is only 4-1/2 pages long, and most of it is written in reasonably clear English. Anyone willing to invest 15 minutes in reading it can glean a pretty […]
Poland is Doing the Right Things
Poland, the fifth-largest country in Europe, is not one of the first places most investors look for opportunities. But maybe it should be. I returned full of enthusiasm a few weeks ago from my first trip to Poland in 40 years. Poland’s stock market is small — a market capitalization of about $30 billion, roughly […]
Hypocrisy, The Name is Rockefeller
Bleeding-heart liberalism for thee, but not for me. That is the expedient philosophy of the wealthy Rockefeller family. Last week, the Rockefeller rule was on full display at a little-noticed hearing in Arlington County, Va. There, Mrs. Sharon Percy Rockefeller vehemently objected to one of the Left’s trendiest pet government projects: publicly subsidized day labor […]
Islam’s Image Problem
Americans are increasingly negative about Islam and Muslims – or so found an important survey that the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press published last week. Perhaps the most dramatic change has been the jump in Americans who find that Islam, more than other religions, is likely “to encourage violence among its […]
Patriotic Farce: Losing Our Liberty in the Name of Fighting Terrorism
America may have reached a turning point on July 22, 2003 in the battle to restore and protect civil liberties threatened by the Patriot Act. On that day the House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to pass two amendments that restore the rule of law by denying the Justice Department the ability to sneak into private […]
Race Board Needed
The recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Grutter vs. Bollinger permits colleges to award a “plus” to black, Hispanic and American Indian student applications for admission. As sure as night follows day, we can expect racial fraud. You can bet the rent money that the number of white students identifying themselves on their applications as […]
George W. Bush: A Liberal Republican on Domestic Policies?
In recent weeks, George W. Bush has started to come in for the first meaningful criticism from mainstream conservatives during his presidency. While nascent, it could become the only real barrier to his re-election next year unless dealt with quickly. To be sure, there are those on the right who have been critical of Bush […]
Authentically Black: Essays for the Black Silent Majority
Black leaders in America have an unflinching allegiance to the political left and are part-and-parcel to the Democratic Party. They see no reason to change or reform existing race-based affirmative action programs. They are also out of step with the times. This is the premise of University of California-Berkeley Professor John McWhorter’s new book, Authentically […]
Treason, by Ann Coulter
Treason, by Ann Coulter, is a book of great value and great danger. For Objectivists, who are immune to its horrendous philosophical claims, its integration of the political events of the last 50 years will be of great value. But the excellence of those very points makes all the more dangerous the anti-man, mystical, religious […]
A Tale of Two Premises: California’s Deficit and Budget Crisis
The California legislature’s “solution” to the state budget crisis reeks with evasiveness and self-contradiction. Pretending that they were not raising taxes, the Assembly in fact raised automobile taxes around $5 billion. Pretending to leave local governments’ tax revenues untouched, the Assembly in fact pilfered $2.5 billion (to be made up, supposedly, with unspecified future spending […]
Investors Are Terribly Myth-Guided
Lord knows where these things come from or how they get started. Another one of those emails is making the rounds — the kind that everyone seems to get and forward on to everyone they know, so you end up getting a dozen copies of it. So maybe you’ve already seen this list of “market […]
