Last week, I bemoaned New York Times columnist David Brooks's eagerness to have government impose force on others. He was promoting programs like "National Service." Why are many conservatives so eager to wield force? Conservatives used to complain when so-called...
"Reviving the Hamilton Agenda." That's the headline the New York Times gave David Brooks's recent column honoring Alexander Hamilton, the Founding Father perhaps least interested in limiting political power. Unlike his rival Thomas Jefferson, Hamilton favored strong...
Dropping out of college didn't stop Bill Gates from making tons of money, but it kept him from classes where he might have learned about the beauty of spontaneous market processes. Never mind. I forgot that he attended Harvard. He might not have learned about markets...
Some people hate me because I defend free markets. Once someone accosted me on a New York City street and said, "I hope you die soon." Why the hostility to commerce? What could be more benign than the freedom to trade with whomever you wish? I suspect ignorance about...
The federal government keeps growing, as I pointed out last week, but the Bush administration has cut tax rates a few times since 2001. How can that be? The answer is simple: deficit spending. Some Republicans argue that deficits don't matter; that if you cut taxes,...
Bill Clinton once declared, "The era of big government is over." Both Republicans and Democrats applauded. What a joke. Government grew under Clinton, and grew even faster under his successor. Government is so big today that more than half the population gets a major...
Last Sunday was marked by an orgy of celebrations of Earth Day, the worldwide annual event intended to "to spark a revolution against environmental abuse." Even the Bush administration had an Earth Day website, which stated, "Earth Day and every day is a time to act...
Why do we let politicians name buildings after each other? I understand building monuments to honor leaders like Washington and Jefferson. But monuments to current members of Congress? Haven't we lowered the bar too far? Today all a congressman has to do to get his...
Spring is here, but you may have been too busy filling out tax forms to enjoy it. The unpaid job of gathering W-2 and 1099s, sorting through receipts, and tabulating deductions, credits, and exemptions takes a lot of time. Americans spent 6.4 billion hours complying...
For the past two weeks I've written about how the media -- part of the Fear Industrial Complex -- profit by scaring us to death about things that rarely happen, like terrorism, child abductions, and shark attacks. We do it because we get caught up in the excitement of...
Whenever someone is hurt in an accident, people say, "There ought to be a law!" Politicians rush to oblige them and then take credit for all the lives they saved. But shouldn't they also accept blame for the lives lost because of those laws? Lives lost? Yes. A joint...
We can scare ourselves stupid. Consider vaccines. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says the mercury in them has "poisoned an entire generation! It's causing IQ loss, mental retardation, speech delay, language delay, ADD, hyperactivity!" The news media love this kind of story....
The Democrats who now control Congress want to change President Bush's Medicare drug benefit to require government officials to negotiate drug prices with the pharmaceutical companies. Under the current program, competing insurance companies cut the deals and offer...
Schwarzenegger's Folly Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants all Californians to have medical insurance. So he's going to force them to have it. Schwarzenegger abandoned his opposition to mandated employer-based health insurance and embraced the idea as his own. "Everyone...
A few weeks ago, men working for an advertising agency installed light screens in cities to promote a Cartoon Network program. No one seemed alarmed by the signs featuring cartoon characters flipping the bird -- until suddenly, weeks after the promotion began, the...
Two weeks ago, U.S. drug agents launched raids on 11 medical-marijuana centers in Los Angeles County. The U.S. attorney's office says they violated the laws against cultivation and distribution of marijuana. Whatever happened to America's federal system, which...
I'm told to worry about the trade deficit. Commentators and populist politicians are wringing their hands. The trade deficit is a "malignant tumor in the intestines of the U.S. economy," says Pat Buchanan. Lou Dobbs is very upset that "We're borrowing about $3 billion...
Mary Baker and Ruth Neikirk love to cook. What's more, they love to cook for poor people. They do it frequently, preparing meals at home and bringing them to their church in Virginia. "I love it," Mary says. "I can take a little bit of something, like a soup bone? And...
In the first hundred hours of the just-started session of Congress, the new leadership promises to raise the minimum wage. The Democrats won't be opposed by many Republicans. President Bush says he'll go along with a higher minimum wage if it's coupled with tax and...
The motto at the popular Heart Attack Grill in Tempe, Ariz., is: "Taste ... worth dying for!" That's because it serves only artery-clogging food like big hamburgers (the biggest is called the "Quadruple Bypass") and "Flatliner Fries," which are boiled in lard. The...
New York City has ordered restaurants to stop selling food made with trans fat. "It is a dangerous and unnecessary ingredient," says the health commissioner. Gee, I'm all for good health, but shouldn't it be a matter of individual choice? A New York Times headline...
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