Like that of many Third World countries, California's electrical grid can now fail with little notice. Rolling blackouts leave households in the dark, university classes canceled, and families without essential appliances. The most elemental responsibility of a humane...

In April 2001, a "blue ribbon" commission of highly accomplished and nationally recognized scholars reported its findings after a year-long investigation of the evidence for a sexual relationship between Thomas Jefferson and his house slave, Sally Hemings. The...

President Bush has ordered all federal agencies, before they issue any kind of regulations, to consider their impact on energy supplies, and to expedite permits so that energy projects don't get "snarled in bureaucratic tangles as local governments or entrepreneurs...

Last month, in a response to President Bush's energy plan, Governor Gray Davis declared that the state of California is "in war with energy companies." By attacking the producers of energy, he has demonstrated a fundamental misunderstanding of the roots of the energy...

The SUV is under attack. Greens say they use too much gas, threaten air quality and contribute pell-mell to the desecration of the environment. So why would anyone build these horrible engines of death? They build them because SUVs have advantages in safety, cargo...

One needn't be a rocket scientist to create California's energy problems. According to the California Energy Commission, from 1996 to 1999 electricity demand, stimulated by a booming economy, grew by 12 percent while supply grew by less than 2 percent. Here's how...

On Friday, Secretary-General Kofi Annan met with congressional leaders to assuage their anger at America's ejection from the UN's Human Rights Commission. The meeting seems to have been a success; it looks as if Republicans in Congress will give up their attempt to...

Diane Ravitch research professor at New York University and holds the Brown Chair in Education Studies at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC and is author of the book Left Back: A Century of Failed School Reforms. Clowes: What prompted you to write Left Back?...

Dr. Thomas Sowell has just released his latest treasure -- it's title is "Basic Economics." Reading through the book reminded me of a 30-plus-year-old conversation I had with Professor Armen Alchian, one of my tenacious mentors during my graduate training at UCLA....

A jihad against some of America's best and brightest researchers continues unabated. Arsonists struck again in the Pacific Northwest this week, gutting a University of Washington horticultural lab in Seattle and burning down property at a poplar tree nursery in...

Politicians and pundits claim that the free market has had its chance and failed, calling for a government takeover of the electric utilities and power plants as the solution. The tragic irony is that California's energy nightmare would have been absolutely impossible...

One of the things we often hear about the stock market is that it is an anticipatory animal, meaning that bear markets begin when the economy is good but people fear that things will get worse in the future, and that conversely, bull markets begin when the economy is...

The hallowed waters that surround the sunken U.S.S. Arizona murmur gently like eternal witnesses to history. There lie 1,102 American crewmen who lost their lives during the Dec. 7, 1941, air raid on Pearl Harbor. Above the ship, like a floating tombstone, rests a...

The Texas Legislature is currently considering a bill that will mandate "volunteer" work for all college and university students in the state. The result of this bill will be to introduce "volunteerism" as a component of college education. The grave implications of...

For the third time in two days, I've received an e-mail from some well intentioned idiot warning me of an extremely destructive computer virus for which there is no cure. In each case, it took me about a minute to go to the Symantec web site and learn that the alleged...

In my past column, I explained why a telecom rebound is likely to occur faster than most people expect: the continued explosive demand for bandwidth, the reopening of capital markets courtesy of lower interest rates, increased telecom revenues resulting from price...

On May 14th, the US Supreme Court reached a verdict on the case of U.S. v. Oakland Cannabis Cooperative. By unanimous decision the Court ruled that manufacturers and distributors of marijuana cannot claim the medical needs of their customers as defense against federal...

Author's Note: This is the fifth in a six part series of personal finance columns on the subject of being the executor of an estate. These columns are based on my own personal experiences in this regard. Individuals should consult a professional advisor and take their...

President Bush's newly released national energy plan offers us more of what already threatens this country. No, I am not talking about the president's plans to allow oil drilling in Alaska, or to build more gas pipelines, or to license more nuclear power plants. All...

Last year a sophisticated Internet hacker took control of the University of Washington Medical Center's network and downloaded the admissions records of 4,000 cardiology patients. Among the thousands of pieces of private information he downloaded were names,...