There's a little known law called the Davis-Bacon Act of 1931. It remains on the books today. Before saying what the law is and its effects, let me run by you some of the language used, in the early 1930s, to push the law through Congress. Rep. John Cochran of...
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
Howard Dean’s Anti-American Foreign Policy
Democrat presidential candidate Howard Dean has made a number of statements recently that give one a glimpse into the dark, multilateralist, socialist corners of his mind from his view that Bush May Have Been Tipped to 9/11 Attacks, to his apparent lust for...
Unhappy Birthday and Merry Christmas, Elian
Elian Gonzalez, who floated in Florida's waters four years ago on Thanksgiving, is ten years old on Saturday. The media spectacle that surrounded his arrival and departure has given way to obscurity; the world has forgotten Elian. Those who ignore Elian's legacy may...
Don’t Throw out the Mutual Fund Market, Because of a Few Bad Apples
Previously, I dared to suggest that maybe the mutual-fund industry isn't quite the "cesspool" that New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer says it is, and I criticized Spitzer and the Securities and Exchange Commission for panicking investors into dumping their...
Sacrifice, Price-Controls, and Statism vs. Self-Interest , Profit-Seeking, and Freedom
During the gasoline shortage that began in 1979, motorists were often waiting in long lines of cars at filling stations -- sometimes for hours -- in hopes of reaching the pump before the gas ran out. The ways that Ted Kennedy and Ronald Reagan proposed to deal with...
Medicare Expansion Backlash
Republicans think they are so clever, having rammed through a massive expansion of the welfare state by giving drug benefits to the elderly. They co-opted the AARP -- long considered to be in the pocket of the Democrats -- and left the Democrats with no real domestic...
Government Created Scarcity: California’s “Affordable” Housing Problem
One of the staples of liberal hand-wringing is a need for "affordable housing." Last year, the standard liberal solution -- more government spending -- was proposed in a televised speech at the National Press Club in Washington, in a report billed as a "new vision."...
Michael Jackson and the Race Card: “Don’t Leave Home Without It”
The Race Card -- "Don't Leave Home Without It." Michael Jackson, according to the Santa Barbara district attorney, allegedly molested a 12-year-old boy. But not long after the search of Michael Jackson's estate, and the issuance of an arrest warrant, Jackson defenders...
“Preserving Farmland” and the High Cost of Busybodies
A reader wrote recently about his father, who has been a farmer, but is now ready to retire. His father figured on selling his land to get some money for his golden retirement years. But he found that he cannot get anywhere near the land's market value because...
On Republicans and Democrats
Readers sometimes ask why I occasionally write columns advising Democrats on how they could gain some political advantage by adopting certain policies. After all, as a Republican, don't I want my party to win? Why am I helping the enemy? The answer is that I'm a...
Organ Donations, Egalitarian Envy, and the High Cost of Busybodies
It was gratifying news when fans around the country volunteered to donate their kidneys to basketball star Alonzo Mourning, who would otherwise have to cut short his career because of life-threatening medical problems with his own kidneys. However, the head of the New...
America’s Failing War Effort (Part 12 of 12): Conclusion
Recent criticism of the Bush administration has focused on the limitations of American intelligence in failing to predict September 11th, and the shortcomings current plans for homeland defense. In truth, however, these problems are only superficial. If anything, the...
America’s Failing War Effort (Part 11 of 12): International Law and Diplomacy
We have so far discussed the aims of the war and the weapons used to fight it. Aside from pointing to the proper moral principles that ought to guide the selection of either, we have not said much about the formal process by which foreign policy decisions are to be...
Terrorists vs. America: What America Stands For and Why the Terrorists Hate Us
The fundamental battle we face today consists not of bombs and rockets, but of ideas–the ideas of those who value human life on earth versus the ideas of those who oppose it.
America’s Failing War Effort (Part 10 of 12): Military Deployment and Readiness
It is presumptuous and impossible for civilian laymen to evaluate the intricacies of military policy. These are details best left to experts in military science. But civilians are in a position to evaluate the overall strategies of military policy, insofar as they...
America’s Failing War Effort (Part 9 of 12): Israel and the Palestinians
In the preceding sections, we have evaluated the Bush administration's approach toward America's enemies, and the supporters of its enemies. In these categories, we have found that while the United States has taken some extremely limited steps to defend itself, it has...
The Case for ‘Iraqification’
Stay the course -- but change the course. That was the meaning of the sudden, sharp, and understated change in Washington's Iraq policy earlier this month. After the American civilian administrator of Iraq, L. Paul Bremer III, made a hurried visit to the White House,...
America’s Failing War Effort (Part 8 of 12): Pakistan
Pakistan's relationship to terrorism parallels Saudi Arabia's in virtually every respect. The government of Pakistan has in the past offered substantial indirect support to terrorists, but has now pledged support for the American war against terrorism. Like Saudi...
Islam: A Religion of Peace, Part 2
Last week's column contained excerpts from my interview with Robert Spencer, author of "Onward Muslim Soldiers: How Jihad Still Threatens America and the West." He makes the case that violent Islam stems from a straight reading of Islamic religious texts, and that...
“Fairness” Fanatics
Many people are incensed that other countries pay less for American medications than Americans pay because that is "unfair." Of course it is unfair -- and all of us like fairness. But there are many other things we also like, and often in life one desirable thing must...
Jobs Come and Go
In 1970, the telecommunications industry employed 421,000 switchboard operators. In the same year, Americans made 9.8 billion long distance calls. Today, the telecommunications industry employs only 78,000 operators. That's a tremendous 80 percent job loss. What...
Random Thoughts for November 2003
Random thoughts on the passing scene: Impractical men especially need to get married. The problem is that practical women may have better sense than to marry them. I hate old has-been hotels, stuffy over their former glory and usually inefficient. A careful definition...
Just Anti-Social
We've loaded him with a lot of taxes And rules and codes but there's something funny; In spite of the way his burden waxes The son-of-a-gun is making money! Whenever he's given a boost to trade We've taken an extra tribute off it, But still the villain is undismayed,...
Our Mission in Iraq
Can we finish our mission in Iraq? Or do we need to withdraw? It all depends on what the meaning of the word "mission" is. If our mission was to remove Saddam Hussein from power, then we're done. If our mission was to remove Saddam Hussein and install an...
America’s Failing War Effort (Part 7 of 12): Saudi Arabia
In many ways Saudi Arabia is the "elephant in the room" of American foreign policy: its role in the cultivation of terror is so central and so pervasive, and yet no one in the Bush White House is willing to acknowledge it openly. The story of Saudi Arabia's role in...
GOP Renews Era of Big Government
With zero time remaining, the bill to expand Medicare had been short by two votes --- yet, long after the clock had stopped, the Republican leadership maneuvered to change key conservative votes. Later, Rep. Butch Otter, R-Idaho, pleaded to the Associated Press: "I...
Why Voters Like Gridlock
On Jan. 23, 1996, Bill Clinton told the nation, "The era of big government is over." If so, it sure didn't last very long. Today, the era of big government is back with a vengeance, ushered in by a massive new prescription drug entitlement, a pork-laden energy bill of...
Presidential Candidate Howard Dean: Fascist of the Left
In an op-ed, presidential candidate Howard Dean wrote with pride about how his small donation supporters are helping "take back our country." Pat Buchanan used the same expression in his campaign back in 1992. However, Howard Dean is the probable nominee of one of the...
America’s Failing War Effort (Part 6 of 12): The Breeding Grounds
So far we have evaluated America's policies toward its declared enemies, those governments which have openly announced their hostility toward the United States. But there is another category of nations, whose governments profess to support the American war, but which...
The Medicare Frame-Up: Republican “Free Market” Medicare Bill is Closet Socialism
After battling for months over two allegedly opposite versions of the bill to add prescription drug coverage to Medicare, members of the House and Senate announced Saturday they had reached an agreement. House Republicans managed to include in the bill a provision to...
America’s Failing War Effort (Part 5 of 12): North Korea
Even though the current war has been deemed a "war on terrorism," this is a misnomer. One does not go to war with a method of fighting, one goes to war with an enemy. And for this reason the current war is far wider than even a war against militant Islam. It is...
Almighty Government, Please Bless Us and Take Care Of Us
Q: You really are hard on compassionate politicians like Howard Dean and what you call "the welfare state." These programs, like Medicare and Social Security, are in everyone's benefit. Why oppose them? A: These programs are not in my benefit. I work hard and am both...
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