Random thoughts on the passing scene: Usually I like four-star hotels better than five-star hotels. The four-star hotels tend to be comfortable and attractive places with amenities, but without the pretentiousness and fussiness of five-star hotels. It is amazing how...
It's a heck of an offer. In an 11th hour bid to buy Unocal, China's state-run CNOOC Ltd. offered $19.6 billion, cash, for America's ninth largest oil company. That's a lot of yuan in anybody's book. For CNOOC, it's downright staggering. If accepted, the deal would put...
What's all the fuss? An energy company based in Hong Kong called CNOOC, Ltd. -- small by international standards -- a few weeks ago bid $18.5 billion in cash to buy another small energy company, Unocal, based in California. The bid was nearly $2 billion higher than a...
Nature and man have combined to make Africa the most tragic of the continents -- and the men who did this have been both black and white. The great French historian Fernand Braudel said, "In understanding Black Africa, geography is more important than history." Much...
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan's recent article in The Washington Post was a pathetic attempt to claim credit for political and economic developments in Iraq. It was an extraordinary re-writing of history that would have made officials in Orwell's Ministry of Truth...
British Prime Minister Tony Blair is pressuring the rich nations of the world to give more foreign aid to Africa -- to the tune of $25 billion a year by 2010. The U.S. already gave $3.2 billion last year. In the wake of this pressure, we might ask ourselves whether...
The official declarations coming out of the G8 meetings in Scotland, as well as the raucous demonstrations surrounding those meetings, talk about saving Africa. But, looking back over the decades and generations, Africa has been "saved" so many times that you have to...
The London bombings surprised most people. Not Sir Ian Blair, London's most senior police commander. Only five months ago, he declared that an attack on London was inevitable.Unfortunately, such a warning made sense. London historically has been a hotbed of support...
Why did stocks finish the day higher after Thursday's tragic terrorist bombings in London? There are several very simple reasons. To begin with, the market wasn't surprised. Ever since September 11, 2001, markets have been braced for terrorist attacks.London knows as...
For all their rhetoric about Israel's "vicious" and "brutal" occupation, Palestinian Arabs -- including their leaders -- sometimes let down their guard and acknowledge how they prefer Israel to the Palestinian Authority. Here are some recurring themes: Restraints on...
Israel's interior minister recently declared that after their release from long jail sentences, four Palestinian Arabs convicted of helping with suicide bombings in 2002, killing 35, will be expelled from Israel. They would, the Associated Press reported, "lose the...
China National Offshore Oil Corporation presumably chose the codename "Operation Bao Chuan" for its Unocal offer to conjure up national pride in its bid to buy America's ninth largest oil company. For bao chuan were the huge treasure ships that traveled across the...
In this era, when indignation has replaced thought for many people, it should not be surprising that the very title of my book "Black Rednecks and White Liberals" should have provoked angry reactions and bitter denunciations, even from people who never read it. Some...
In addition to the havoc wrought by the judiciary in our times, there is the havoc wrought on the judiciary itself by others. Some have blamed the murders of a judge not long ago, and the murder of another judge's family, on critics of judicial activism. But, in each...
The attack on London demonstrates, once again, that terrorists are not afraid. In order to understand why, you have to suspend all diplomacy and political correctness for a moment. Fanatical religious terrorists are people who are not afraid of dying because they...
The country had gone from safe haven to enemy camp.
When it comes to judicial nominees, especially nominees to the Supreme Court, you might think that the only thing that matters -- the thing that trumps all other considerations -- is whether the nominee is for or against legalized abortions. Many people are too young...
William Beach has just written a report for the Washington, D.C.-based Heritage Foundation titled "The 2005 Index of Dependency." Between 1962 and today, American dependence on government has more than doubled and shows little sign of abatement. The growth areas of...
In the tradition of modern celebrities, Bob Geldof has decided to lecture the world on the virtues of altruism and sacrifice. That lecture is Live 8. The website states that there are, "10 concerts, 100 artists, a million spectators, 2 billion viewers, and 1...
Our era might be described in the famous phrase used to describe the era of the French Revolution -- "the best of times and the worst of times." It is the best of times in terms of life expectancy and a level of economic prosperity exceeding anything our grandparents...
"Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 and the attacks and prepared for war; liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers." "Conservatives saw what happened to us on 9/11 and...
One of the ironies of our time is that economists have been discovering the importance of law, as such -- as distinguished from the specific merits of particular laws -- while judges seem increasingly to be losing sight of the rule of law. "I can hardly imagine any...
My reaction to Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's retirement was almost as positive as my reaction in 1981 was negative when the Reagan administration announced that they were going to appoint a woman to the Supreme Court. It wouldn't matter if all nine Justices of the...
The U.S. Supreme Court last week ruled that it's perfectly legitimate for a local government to seize private property, pay a below-market price and hand it over to another private citizen or company that claims it can do more with the property -- i.e., better develop...
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