In 1997, George Zeliotis, a Quebec citizen, learned that he needed hip-replacement surgery. But his troubles were just beginning.As is standard in Canada for non-emergency surgery, Zeliotis was put on a waiting list behind everyone else in Quebec who needed the same...
POLITICS
What “Oil Crisis”, Part 2
Soaring oil prices have revived the old bogeyman that the world is running out of oil. Economics is a great field for nostalgia buffs because the same old fallacies keep coming back, like golden oldies in music. Back in 1960, a best-selling book titled "The Waste...
Israel’s Deadly Appeasement Process Continues
The Israeli withdrawal from Gaza is being portrayed as a wise (albeit unpleasant) move by Ariel Sharon. By addressing a longtime grievance of the Palestinians and their supporters--the presence of Israeli security forces and Jewish residents on the Gaza strip--we are...
Security or Hysteria?
Driving through downtown Washington, D.C., a few weeks ago, I asked myself: What's happened to the character of the American people? There were barricaded landmarks, armed guards and people waiting to be searched. Several weeks ago, I visited downtown Philadelphia in...
What “Oil Crisis”?
With oil prices passing the record-breaking $60 a barrel level and heading even higher, the word "crisis" is now being used and all sorts of political "solutions" are being proposed. Is there really a crisis? One of the dictionary definitions of a crisis is "the point...
U.S. Must Stop Iran from Developing Nuclear Weapons
Gerhard Schroder's suggestion to "take the military option off the table" in dealing with Iran's advancing nuclear program should be dismissed. No amount of "negotiations" and "incentives" will persuade the Iranian mullahs to give up their quest for nuclear weapons....
What Do Islamist Terrorists Want?
What do Islamist terrorists want? The answer should be obvious, but it is not. A generation ago, terrorists did make clear their wishes. Upon hijacking three airliners in September 1970, for example, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine demanded, with...
Civil Rights Today
When I think of the behavior of today's civil rights organizations, I often think of the March of Dimes. In 1938, President Roosevelt helped found the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis to fight polio, an epidemic that crippled thousands of Americans. The...
California’s Socialized Medicine Rising
This month, in a 73-page position paper, California's insurance commissioner, John Garamendi, proposed a government takeover of medicine. That the bureaucrat who would be governor prescribed more government intervention is not surprising. But, because the culture is...
Bright Children: Stepchildren of the American Education System
Bright children and their parents have lost a much-needed friend with the recent death of Professor Julian Stanley of Johns Hopkins University. For decades he not only researched and ran programs for intellectually gifted students, he became their leading advocate in...
Socialized Medicine: A Symbol of Canadian National Identity?
What if your doctor told you that you had to wait a year to replace your painful, arthritic hip? If you're an American with health insurance you wouldn't stand for such a delay; you'd switch doctors or hospitals and get the operation done quickly. If, on the other...
The “Animal Rights” Movement’s Cruelty to Humans
The "animal rights" movement has pulled off a deadly deception: promote a vicious, anti-human policy, while feigning benevolent, compassionate motives. The deception takes the form of opposing life-saving medical research--in the name of opposing cruelty to animals....
Why Iran Sneers
The "Washington Post" recently reported: "Iran resumes processing yellowcake uranium in Isfahan, rejecting a European deal and ignoring warnings of possible U.N. sanctions." (8/9/05, front page) What makes the Iranian government unique is that it shrinks from nothing....
Corporate Welfare at It’s Worst: Advanced Technology Program
Members of Congress will soon return home for August recess. While there, many will express outrage over the 33 percent increase in government spending since 2001, and the $400 billion budget deficit. They will offer vague pledges to rein in government.Taxpayers have...
It Takes an Individual
Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA) is challenging Senator Hillary Clinton's (D-NY) long-held liberal bromide that "it takes a village" to raise a child with the long-held conservative bromide that "it takes a family" to raise a child. Both should read my comments in Grow Up...
No Place for American Heroes — in the Media
Back in June, this column pointed out that it is impossible to fight a war without heroism -- but that you would never know that from the mainstream media. Nothing heroic done by American troops in Iraq is likely to make headlines in the New York Times or be featured...
The Axis of IP Evil
The U.S. commerce secretary, Carlos Gutierrez, last month took a ritual stroll through a Beijing market that teemed with pirated versions of "Star Wars" and "Seinfeld," along with bogus North Face windbreakers, Calloway golf clubs and Samsonite suitcases. "We would...
The Morality of Dropping the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Every August, there are some Americans who insist on wringing their hands over the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, so it was perhaps inevitable that such people would have an orgy of wallowing in guilt on the 60th anniversary of that tragic...
Shoving Government Health Care Down Your Throat
One of the few bright spots in paying for health care today has been the introduction of Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), in conjunction with low-premium, high-deductible insurance policies. In what is perhaps the most popular medical insurance reform in history, more...
Don’t Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth
Alan Greenspan had his "conundrum," and I've got mine. Greenspan's conundrum: why are long-term interest rates staying so low for so long? Mine is why stock-market volatility is so low despite a global economic background that, on the face of it, is fraught with risk...
Kant vs. Darwin: Creationism (“Intelligent Design”) vs. Evolution is Philosophical Debate
Evolution versus creationism, or Darwinism versus Intelligent Design, is not a scientific debate (that debate has long been settled) — it is a philosophical one.
Dealing with Terrorism
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, admitted that the problem of Iran's growing nuclear weapons capability has to be "dealt with." She didn't say exactly how or when, but later on in the interview she did comment,...
Transparency: Bad News for Big Labor?
If AFL-CIO chief John Sweeney considers the defection of the Teamsters and Service Employees International Union a "grievous insult," he'd better hold on. Even bigger news may be coming, thanks to revised federal rules requiring unions to be far more specific about...
No Apologies for Hiroshima and Nagasaki
America was not the aggressor in World War II, but the victim of a brutal attack.
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