Parents in Fairfax, Virginia, have succeeded in getting rid of one of the endless series of fad programs that distract American public schools from real education in real subjects. Like most fad programs, this one had a high-sounding name: The International...
It may be too early in this election year to determine which will be the biggest of the Big Lies in this political campaign. However, my feeling is that it may be "the working poor." While there are working people who are poor, most poor people are not working full...
Some readers objected to a statement in this column that black students usually do not perform as well in school as white students or Asian American students. These readers seemed to think that this was a personal opinion -- or even an immoral statement. It never...
One of the confusions that plagues discussions of equality and inequality is a confusion between the vagaries of fate and the sins of man. There are plenty of both but they need to be sharply distinguished from one another. The plain fact that there are large...
This is truly the age of dogma when it comes to differences between groups. Some will blindly deny that intergroup differences in performances are anything other than "stereotypes," "perceptions," or discrimination. At the other end of the spectrum, the dogma is that...
Those of us who believe in the brotherhood of man have to be able to accept the negative, as well as the positive, aspects of that belief. For example, a stupid and counterproductive idea that catches the fancy of one part of the human race in one part of the world in...
The issue of "weapons of mass destruction" is being played for all it is worth as a weapon of political destruction. In fact, it is being played for more than it is worth. The ultimate question is whether we should or should not have gone to war with the Saddam...
It is a sad but understandable fact that there are many places where the poor cannot afford to buy a house. California has the distinction of having many places where the affluent cannot afford to buy or build a house -- and it is not necessarily a slam dunk for the...
Once, after giving a talk, I was confronted by a lady in the audience who asked what some people regard as the ultimate question: "What is YOUR solution?" "There are no solutions," I said. "There are only trade-offs." "The people DEMAND solutions!" she shot back...
A new study shows that you need an income of about $104,000 to buy an average home on the San Francisco peninsula with a 20 percent down payment. Since the average price of a home in this area is more than half a million dollars, the 20 percent down payment itself...
This election year we are sure to hear a lot about "special interests." Candidates of both major parties, as well as candidates of third or fourth parties, are sure to denounce special interests both hotly and repeatedly. The secret of these verbal fireworks from all...
The so-called "debates" among the Democratic candidates in the primaries are not really debates -- and that is a real shame. In a real debate, opponents could question each other's statements -- and there have been a lot of questionable statements made already in this...
Those who vent their moral indignation over low pay for Third World workers employed by multinational companies ignore the plain fact that these workers' employers are usually supplying them with better opportunities than they had before, while those who are morally...
"Low-Wage Costa Ricans Make Baseballs for Millionaires." That was the headline on one of those New York Times "news" stories that continued its recent tradition of disguised editorials. The headline said it all but the story ran on and on anyway, with details and...
What do you do when you don't have as much of something as you need? One of the things you can do is stretch it out to make it last as long as it can. That is what the political left is doing with the poor. A lot of noise is made about how we are "running out" of this...
The headline story out of the Iowa caucuses is Senator John Kerry's surprising victory and the collapse of Governor Howard Dean's political bubble. This is all very well for those in the media who treat politics as the personal stories of politicians. But, for those...
Random thoughts on the passing scene: Some people's jobs will allow them to be important only by being a pain. Politics is the art of making your personal desires seem like the national interest. One of the people I am glad I trusted is someone who got angry and told...
"Manufacturing jobs" has become a battle cry of those who oppose free trade and are sounding an alarm about American jobs being exported to lower-wage countries overseas. However, manufacturing jobs are much less of a problem than manufacturing confusion. Much of what...
The British Broadcasting Corporation has made itself look ridiculous by issuing orders that its reporters are not to refer to Saddam Hussein as an ex-dictator. Apparently using the word "dictator" would compromise the BBC's neutrality and call its objectivity into...
If you wonder what has gotten California in such an economic mess, here is a recent sample: The state legislature has passed a law requiring landlords to give tenants 60 days' notice, instead of 30 days, before evicting them. In other words, if you are renting to a...
Within a week of each other, two earthquakes struck on opposite sides of the world -- an earthquake measuring 6.5 on the Richter scale in California and a 6.6 earthquake in Iran. But, however similar the earthquakes, the human costs were enormously different. The...
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