In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's recent 5-4 ruling in Kelo v. New London, statements have been made about property rights that are demonstrative of the paucity of understanding among some within the legal profession. Carolyn Lochhead's July 1st San Francisco...
POLITICS
“Diplomacy” Aids North Korea’s Nuclear Weapon’s Program
North Korea threatens us, we respond with negotiations, gifts and concessions, and it reemerges with even greater belligerence.
Lessons From the Poker Table
Last month in Las Vegas, 5,619 contestants were vying for the 36th annual World Series of Poker's No-Limit Texas Hold-'Em Championship. The total prize pool was $52,818,610 -- by far the richest purse in the history of sports. Just think about what's at stake. $7.5...
Random Thoughts August 2005
Random thoughts on the passing scene: Sometimes I have so much to do that I don't do anything. As a result of "evolving standards" and "nuanced" judicial decisions, we no longer have clear-cut rights. We have a ticket to a crapshoot in a courtroom. That ticket is...
“Public Servant” Pickpockets, Pennsylvania Style
"Harrisburg is one of the sleaziest state capitals in the country," said Jake Tapper, Washington correspondent for Salon, and that was before he saw the sleaze that oozed from under the closed doors of the state Legislature at 2 a.m. one recent night after the...
The Need for an Active Supreme Court Justice
As the battle over John Roberts' Supreme Court confirmation begins, the one widely agreed upon measure of qualification is that he not be a "judicial activist." While conservatives have long railed against "activist" judges "making" law by legislating from the bench,...
The Foreign Policy of Guilt
In the aftermath of the bombings in London, Prime Minister Tony Blair has asked the British people to remain calm and maintain their daily routines; the terrorists win, he says, if one gives in to fear. This, you may remember, was also George W. Bush's response after...
Will We Defend Ourselves?
Much ado in our country and Europe has been made about alleged mistreatment and torture of suspected terrorist prisoners. First, there were stories and hand-wringing over the treatment of prisoners at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison. More recently, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.,...
G-8 Failure on a Global Scale
I'm fairly sure that the world leaders at the G-8 meeting in the UK were more disappointed being overshadowed by the Islamist terror attack in London than by the fact that their priorities and solutions were so misdirected and wrong the conference can best serve as an...
The Road From Live Aid: Paved With Socialist Intentions
The first time Bono and Madonna got together to save Africa, the unintended consequence was the death of perhaps as many as 100,000 people. That's aid expert David Rieff's conclusion in the July 2005 issue of the resolutely liberal American Prospect magazine regarding...
Fight the Root of Terrorism With Bombs, Not Bread
In light of the recent suicide bombings in London, and the general inability of the West to prevent terrorist attacks, there is much talk about fighting the "root cause" of terrorism. The most popular argument is that terrorism is caused by poverty. The United Nations...
The Terrorists’ Motivation: Islam
The continued attacks by Islamic terrorists against the West--most recently, the horrific suicide bombings in London--have led many to ask, what is the motivation of the terrorists? Commentators are eager to offer a bevy of pseudo-explanations--poverty, the...
Muddying the Waters Between Judicial Activism and Original Intent
Those who want to see judges who will apply the law instead of imposing their own policies face not only political obstruction to the appointment of such judges but also calculated confusion about the very words used in discussing what is at issue. Judges who impose...
Privatize Space Exploration
As NASA scrambles to make the July 31 window for the troubled launch of space shuttle Discovery, we should recall the first privately funded manned spacecraft, SpaceShipOne, which over a year ago shattered more than the boundary of outer space: it destroyed forever...
Coping with Aging
Q: Dr. Hurd, how can someone handle getting older? A: I'm not elderly myself, but here's what people I know who handle aging successfully have done: 1. Keep busy. A man in his mid-80's whom I know says that he never lets a day go by where he doesn't get out of the...
Europe’s Appeasing of Castro Prolongs tyranny
Last Thursday, the French embassy in Havana decided to invite Fidel Castro's communist cronies over to help celebrate France's Bastille Day -- a day similar in significance and symbolism to our Fourth of July.Shamefully, they expressly didn't invite any of Cuba's...
Slavery Reparations Shakedown Lobby
The slavery reparations shakedown lobby is gearing up for attacks on American industry. They've failed in the courts and Congress, so they're going after weak-kneed CEOs. At the NAACP's recent annual convention, Dennis C. Hayes, its interim president, said,...
English as a Foreign Language in the United States
A recent e-mail from a dedicated teacher illustrates a problem that has received far too little attention. In her kindergarten class was a little black girl who did well except for getting a very obvious question wrong. It turned out that the little girl had no...
Education Dogmas
There have been many bitter complaints from teachers and principals about the Bush administration's "No Child Left Behind" act -- and more specifically about having to "teach to the test" instead of doing whatever teachers and principals want to do. Now the results...
Letters to the Editor: July 2005
G8 Aids Terrorism Dear Editor: The G8 leaders' decision to give billions of dollars to the Palestinian Authority in the aftermath of the terrorist bombings in London will only encourage more terrorism. A large portion of this money will no doubt find its way into the...
Corporation for Public Broadcasting
While the nation debates the future of Corporation for Public Broadcasting, I have one question: Is it becoming increasingly obvious to anyone else that there are moral and practical flaws in a publicly financed media? Since its inception in 1967, the Corporation for...
The Destruction of “Social Security”
It is time Americans stop fearing self-reliance and start taking personal responsibility for their finances. It is also time the government stops patronizingly telling them they won’t survive on their own.
The Sex Education False Dichotomy
MSNBC.com is reporting, "a leading group of pediatricians says teenagers need access to birth control and emergency contraception, not the abstinence-only approach to sex education favored by religious groups and President Bush." I think both sides are wrong. It's a...
The Eradication of Polio and the Conspiracy-Theory Mentality
A worldwide campaign begun in 1988 to eradicate the polio infection was on the verge of success when, early in 2003, a conspiracy theory took hold of the Muslim population in northern Nigeria.
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