Your Doctor is Now a Government Employee…Happy?
Obama and advocates of socialized medicine have won. But have they, really? I was talking with a waitress I know just today. She asked me, "Can you explain, in terms that I'll understand, what Obamacare actually means -- to me?" I told her: "Imagine if you went to...
European Leaders Play With Fire
The world economy today stands at the doorstep of great change. A gathering crisis looms in Europe, splitting the Continent into two competing blocs. While leaders there face off against one another in a high stakes game of chicken, the rest of the world powerlessly...
Legal Gimmickry Rescues Obamacare
Despite the celebrations among Democrats, yesterday a majority of Supreme Court justices ruled that the Constitution does not allow the government to force Americans to buy health insurance. However in providing the swing vote to uphold the Affordable Care Act (aka...
Free Trade with a Slave State?
Q: Should a free country trade with people who live under a dictatorship (e.g. China, Cuba)? And, if not, should the government of the free country restrict such trade with dictatorships? A: If you enjoy living in a free country, then you benefit from that freedom...
More Dads, Less Crime
"America's Greatest Problem: Not Crime, Racism or Bad Schools -- It's Illegitimacy," reads Chapter 5 from my book, "The Ten Things You Can't Say in America." Absentee, non-involved fathers are the primary reason behind recent Department of Justice statistics showing...
Black Students as Meal Tickets
THERE'S A STORY about a visitor to an Indian reservation who sees a Bureau of Indian Affairs officer uncontrollably crying. He asks, "Why are you crying?" The officer sobs, "My Indian died." The officer didn't give a hoot about the Indian, he was worried about his...
McVeigh: King of the Hippie Nazis
Q: You condemn Gore Vidal for claiming that Timothy McVeigh has a sense of justice. You're wrong. However unfortunate his target due to his ignorance of the presence of the day care center, remember that the Department of Justice and the FBI's HRT did know that there...
Fuel Cells: The Future of Energy?
Part 2 of 2 By Tom Koppel Ph.D. and Jay ReynoldsThere are six major types of fuel cells with potential for a variety of commercial applications. The first to be fired into space was the proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell, which was developed by GE and performed...
The Poverty Pimp’s Poem
MY FELLOW-ECONOMIST WALTER WILLIAMS has for years kept track of how much money it would take to lift every American man, woman and child in poverty above the official poverty level. That sum has consistently been some fraction of the money actually spent in...
New State Regulations During “Deregulation” are the Cause of California’s Energy Crisis
The attacks against deregulation of the California power industry by the enemies of capitalism are attacks against a straw man. Deregulation means that government removes onerous regulations that violate the rights of producers and consumers to trade freely (markets...
Small Business Owners Speak Out
A new national survey, sponsored by the National Association of Health Underwriters (NAHU) and co-sponsored by the Healthcare Leadership Council (HLC), National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), and U.S. Chamber of Commerce, reveals considerable support among small...
Self Confidence for Children
Q : My wife and I want to teach our four-year-old son to have self-confidence. How can we teach him? A: This is too vast a subject to appropriately answer in a short column. I can, however, give you some general principles. Here they are:Make sure you are confident...
SAT Spat Overlooks Real Admissions Barrier
In proposing to drop the SAT I from the University of California's admissions process, UC President Richard Atkinson implied it is the SAT that blocks most black and Hispanic students from entering the UC system. But even if the SAT I were dropped tomorrow, the vast...
Deciding Upon A Career
Finding a career to be passionate about is like finding the love of your life.
Fuel Cells: The Future of Energy?
In response to the critical need for a cleaner energy technology, invention kicked into high gear. Fuel cells generate energy with little or no harmful emissions. Drastic cost reductions have made them contenders to deliver stationary and portable energy for a...
California’s Crisis Means ANWR Should Be Opened
The Golden State is losing some of its luster, as energy prices soar, shortages become more acute, rolling blackouts disrupt lives and businesses, and utility companies confront bankruptcy. Meanwhile, many California residents cheered ex-President Bill Clinton's...
The False Promise of Renewable Energy
A cacophony of calumny has greeted suggestions that America begin drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Outer Continental Shelf, and other public lands, in search of oil and natural gas, to ease our spreading energy crisis and help rein in prices. The...
Shelve the Rebates and Bring on the Tax Cuts
In an effort to jumpstart our flagging economy, the Federal Reserve has just lowered interest rates yet again. Good idea. But now some in Congress think they can go the Fed one better and stimulate the economy by delivering the $100 billion they've set aside for...
California: Paradise Lost
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...
Scholars Overturn Case for Thomas Jefferson’s Relationship with Slave Sally Hemings
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...
News Flash to Broadband Service Providers: Internet Service is a Utility, Not a Game of Magic 8 Ball
I am a subscriber to the Angry Charter Users list server. This list server is intended for users in a different geographical area than my own, but I follow the postings because it helps me understand the extent to which my service problems are local, regional, or...
Kyoto is Dead
[CAPITALISMMAGAZINE.COM NEWS REPORT] The Bush White House rocked Washington, DC and the world on March 28 when it acknowledged it would take no action on the Kyoto Protocol, the global warming treaty negotiated in 1997 by the Clinton administration. State Department...
Regulating the Regulators
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...
Power at Any Price
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 American Dream: Why Environmentalists Attack the SUV
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...
Orchestrating Energy Disaster
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...
Nations United Against Rights
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...