Ralph Nader may have performed a real public service by running for President again, despite the pleas and outcries of his liberal admirers. Oblivious to charges that his candidacy cost Al Gore the 2000 election, Nader has again put his own agenda first and foremost....
“Change is coming to America.” So says John Kerry, victorious in his quest for the Democratic nomination and anticipating victory against President Bush this fall. What change, exactly? President Bush expanded the welfare state a bit less than President...
According to Kenneth W. Starr in his Feb. 19 Washington Times Op-Ed column, “A stitch in crime,” the Microsoft antitrust settlement contains loopholes that allow Microsoft to avoid competing in the marketplace on the merits. Yet rather than attack...
The presidential hopefuls’ common promise to “repeal the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy” is the campaign trail one-liner garnering the most empty-headed applause. It’s simply false that only the rich benefit from the tax cuts, as any non-rich...
As the 2004 presidential election nears, Americans will increasingly hear the Democratic candidate and his supporters demand that we “narrow the gap” between the incomes of the rich and the poor. That gap, however, isn’t the injustice the Left...
I was watching Geraldo’s “At Large” program this evening and to my horror both he and Col. David Hunt hypothesized that the only reason we aren’t intervening in this third world mess in Haiti is racial prejudice from the White House. Huh? The...
Random thoughts on the passing scene: People who enjoy meetings should not be in charge of anything. My New Year’s resolution is to stop trying to reason with unreasonable people. This should reduce my correspondence considerably. Benedict Arnold was a war hero,...
Consider government-sanctioned or court-mandated same-sex marriage — somewhere, at some point — a virtual certainty. For the Massachusetts State Supreme Court recently advised its legislature that anything short of same-sex marriage constitutes a violation...
In Marcus Cook Connelly’s spiritual play, “Green Pastures,” God lamented to the Angel Gabriel, “Every time Ah passes a miracle, Ah has to pass fo’ or five mo’ to ketch up wid it,” and adding, “Even bein God ain’t...
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...
If you repeat a line over and over again, eventually people will start to accept it. In this case, the line is that we had a big intelligence failure in Iraq. Even Bush has caved in: he is appoint a “commission” to look into the problems with our...
How would you like to be penalized because you do your work too well–for example, for running your business so effectively that it attracts hoards of happy customers? Well, this is what is happening more and more frequently to Wal-Mart. Recently the West Covina,...
The conversation began harmlessly enough. Sunday morning, after breakfast, I walked out of the cafe and passed a gentleman sitting at an outdoor table. The man intently scribbled on a legal pad, engrossed in his subject. On the table among a stack of papers sat a book...
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...
Researching an article on outsourcing a week ago, I came across a remarkable list on the website of CNN’s Lou Dobbs. It was a sort of rogues’ gallery, touted nightly on the show. “These are companies,” says the Dobbs site, “either sending...
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...
The first concept an economics student learns is that for every benefit there’s also a cost — or, as my longtime colleague and friend Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman has put it, “There’s no free lunch.” While the person who receives the...
The California grocery strike has entered its fourth month–and there is no end in sight. Workers are still picketing stores, the shelves are under-stocked, and profits are dwindling. Talks between the grocery chains and the United Food and Commercial...
“Anyone concerned with what’s happening in our world ought to spend some time reading the Koran.” Andy Rooney, the famed CBS commentator, gave this advice shortly after 9/11, as did plenty of others. His suggestion makes intuitive sense, given that...
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...
In a huge breakthrough for medical progress, scientists from South Korea have finally created a cloned human embryo and extracted its stem cells–a feat that makes life-saving embryonic stem-cell treatments that much closer to reality. Instead of taking this...
Some people believe in the lost continent of Atlantis and in unidentified flying objects (UFOs). Others worry about an 18th-century secret society called the Bavarian Illuminati or a mythical Zionist-Occupied Government secretly running the United States. What if...
As Martha Stewart’s trial moves into a third week, an important question remains unasked: Why are the feds prosecuting someone for receiving inside information, anyway? Isn’t the criminal the corporate official who acts on knowledge that the public...
The time has long since passed when the United States should be referring to Saudi Arabia as an ally. It is our enemy and an unprecedented demand for the bank account records of the Washington, DC Saudi Embassy in November 2003 demonstrates that the National Security...
Antitrust laws are supposed to protect us little guys, right? Think again. Here’s the story of how PeopleSoft chief executive Craig Conway is using the antitrust laws to deprive his own shareholders of the opportunity to sell their shares at the best price....
Conversation at the Ronald Reagan Library, Simi Valley, Calif., Friday, Feb. 6, 2004: Larry Elder: Let me tell you what an honor this is. This is like meeting royalty. Nancy Reagan: Thank you very much. Thank you. Elder: Tell me what you consider your greatest...
I love markets. Just think of all the things they make possible. Whenever there’s a way for people to trade with each other, they always find ways to make money and reduce risk. So whenever market principles get applied in new ways, the world becomes a better...
Having been deserted by her husband, my mother worked. That meant that my one-year-younger sister and I often lunched by ourselves during our pre-teen years. Being bigger and stronger than my sister, quite often there wouldn’t be a fair division of the food,...
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...
With Martha Stewart going on trial this week, it’s a perfect time to take a look at insider trading. From what I can tell, Ms. Stewart is being railroaded. And whatever the merits (or lack thereof) of the case against her, investors shouldn’t be especially...
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