1. How many students are enrolled in public and private schools in the United States? According to U.S. Department of Education estimates, there are 47.6 million students in public schools and 5.9 million in private schools.[1] As many as 2 million children are...
POLITICS
The basic and crucial political issue of our age is: capitalism versus socialism, or freedom versus statism. For decades, this issue has been silenced, suppressed, evaded, and hidden under the foggy, undefined rubber-terms of “conservatism” and “liberalism” which had lost their original meaning and could be stretched to mean all things to all men. – AYN RAND
Rich Liberals
John Kerry and his wife, Teresa, are worth an estimated $500 million. Along with a $35 million private Gulfstream V jet and an $800,000 boat, they own five homes in the U.S. (Source: MSNBC.com) Just what we need: more guilty liberals. Much is made about...
Random Thoughts for April 2004
Random thoughts on the passing scene: A reader has suggested that elections be held on April 16th -- the day after we pay our income taxes. That is one of the few things that might discourage politicians from being big spenders. Just before France surrendered to the...
Buddha Bad for Business
Recently 115 corporate executives paid $100 each for advice from that repository of business acumen, the Dalai Lama. The Nobel Peace Prize winning Buddhist spiritual leader addressed the execs in Irvine, CA. Granted, attendees were probably attracted more by his...
Failure Looms at Fallujah
A turning point in what President Bush has called the War on Terrorism is at hand. How and whether the American military handles enemy confrontations in Iraq during the coming weeks will tell Islamic terrorists and their state sponsors everything they need to know...
J.F.K.: Jiggy Fly Kerry
Gotta give it to Democratic presidential contender John Kerry. He knows how to keep it real. In an MTV interview, the host asked, "Well, are there any trends out there in music, or even in popular culture in general that have piqued your interest?" Kerry said, "Oh,...
Bait-and-Switch Media
Readers sometimes ask why I am seldom seen or heard on television or radio. Mainly it is because I turn down 90 percent of the invitations I get. A recent radio interview shows why. I was invited on as a guest to talk about my new book, "Affirmative Action Around the...
Poor Education Prognosis
Drs. Abigail and Stephan Thernstrom's new book "No Excuses: Closing the Racial Gap in Learning" shows that the government education whites receive is nothing to write home about, but for blacks, it's no less than a disgraceful disaster. According to National...
Anti-Israel Terror Backfires
A day after Israeli troops killed its second leader within a single month, the Islamist terrorist organization Hamas put on a brave face. The Israelis "are dreaming" if they think this would weaken Hamas, announced Ismail Haniyeh to a crowd of over 70,000 mourners at...
Dealing with Investing Panic-mongers
"I am in a PANIC over this article, telling people to get out of stocks," said an impassioned e-mail I received last week from a nice, intelligent professional woman who is a friend of a friend. "Is he right???? I am 52 years old, and I really hope to retire SOME...
Watchout for Hillary “Health” Care
A huge headline on the front of a recent issue of the New York Times Magazine said more than they intended: "Now Are We Ready to Talk About Health Care?" Inside was an article with the same title by Hillary Clinton. The casual arrogance of that question is staggering....
Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs)
The mutual fund is the most successful investment vehicle the world has ever seen. But it has its drawbacks. Mutual funds are not sold on an open market like individual shares of stock, but by fund companies themselves -- either directly to shareholders or through...
The U.N. Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime: Disaster for America
The United Nations threatens to chip yet again from America's Constitution and its system of individual rights, as a 2000 treaty aimed at combating crime on the global level has reared its menacing head in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The U.N. Convention...
Conservation or Confiscation?
In April, the New Jersey Builders Association finally managed to muster an attack on legislation whose purpose it is said is to "conserve" a wide swath of northern New Jersey called the Highlands. In Congress, there's also a Highlands Conservation Act (H.R. 1964 &...
“Giving Back”: Involuntary Servitude for the Young
John Kerry keeps talking about young people "giving something back." Exactly what did young people take away and from whom did they take it? What is the factual basis for such an accusation? And why is it so general, applied to the whole population of young people?...
Big Times, Small Men
Q: I agree with you that President Bush is a conservative who embodies yesterday's liberals, as exemplified by his massive domestic spending, expansion of Medicare, campaign finance reform, etc. But don't you think this is just his political opportunism at work --...
Bush’s Religiosity Wounds the War Effort
The religious foundations of the new governments in Afghanistan and Iraq threaten to undercut the Bush administration's war on terrorism. Being a champion of religion, however, Bush sanctions these developments that aid and abet America's would-be destroyers. The...
America’s Compassion in Iraq Is Self-Destructive
The bloody siege in Fallujah and the standoff against a religious warlord, Moktadr al-Sadr, and his militia indicate that the war in Iraq is worsening. Things are going badly not because--as some, like Sen. John Kerry, claim--the United States is arrogant and lacking...
Gay Marriage
Is gay marriage a Constitutional, individual right?
Criminalizing Business, Part 2
Can you imagine being charged with murder for the death of someone you didn't even know was dead, when you were not even around when it happened? Only in California -- and only if you are in business. In a state where hardened criminals are coddled, and sometimes...
Fixing a Broken Tax System with a Flat Tax
America's complicated tax system needs a complete overhaul, not minor fixes. The large role that system plays in many of the political dramas dominating the daily headlines shows why. Republicans and Democrats, for instance, are fighting over the "outsourcing" of jobs...
Has the Bush Administration Trashed the Environment?
On the eve of "Earth Day," the Bush administration stands accused of trashing the nation's environment. The New York Times similarly indicted the administration in its recent Sunday magazine cover story: "Changing the Rules -- How the Bush Administration Quietly --...
Criminalizing Business
The recent conviction of Martha Stewart for lying to federal investigators looking into "insider trading" is one of the sad signs of our times. If you create enough laws, everyone will be a criminal. Perjury should of course be a crime, even when it is committed by a...
The Roots of Iraq’s Recent Wave of Violence
I therefore counsel the occupying forces quickly to leave Iraqi cities and then, when feasible, to leave Iraq as a whole
The People Who Brought You the Weekend
Another bumpersticker for you: "The Labor Movement--The People Who Brought You the Weekend." Not quite. Improved working conditions don't happen because a compassionate President signs them into law. If any given law would harm significant sectors of the economy, no...
Racial Profiling
What is racial profiling, and is it racist? We can think of profiling as using cheap-to-observe characteristics as indicators or proxies for more-costly-to-observe characteristics. A person's physical characteristics, such as race, sex and height, are cheap to...
Donald Trump and The Apprentice: Concretization of “The American Dream.”
I can now admit it. I was hooked on The Apprentice since the first time I watched, which was on the 5th week of the show (the episode concerning the flea market). I think everyone knows the show's premise: Donald Trump holds a competition at business tasks among 16...
Government by Emotion
Q: As you argue, the only proper role of government is to protect our individual rights against fraud and brutality, foreign and domestic. At what point does government intervention "cross the line"? One is not allowed to commit slander (or libel), but what about a...
Thrill of the Hunt
Q: What do you think of hunting and killing animals? And should it be legal? A: Frankly, I find it rather depraved to hunt and kill animals for the sake of sport.Don't misunderstand. Animals don't have human rights and human beings have a right to kill animals, either...
Prices, Halting Signals and Economic Interventionism
In a constitutional history class that I'm taking I recently heard an interesting idea. The class was studying the way the US Supreme Court changed its stance on economic interventionism during the years of the Great Depression. The case in point was Nebbia v. New...
Why Are CEOs Paid So Much?
Are America's CEOs paid more than they deserve? Many people's answer is a vehement: Yes. That view is reinforced anew every spring, when companies file their financial statements and we learn how much CEOs were paid last year. In 2003 the average pay for CEOs at 200...
Give War A Chance: On President Bush’s Televised Statement
There were many good ideas in President Bush's televised statement (April 13, 2004). He knows the stakes: "Iraq will either be a peaceful, democratic country or it will again be a source of violence, a haven for terror and a threat to America and to the world." He...
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