A month ago, I wrote about the how the Fed led Wall Street bond traders into a billion-dollar trap, by promising to keep interest rates low virtually forever, and then just weeks later, hinting that it would break the promise. You’d think “once burned,...
POLITICS
Where Have You Gone, Isaac Newton?
More and more today, we are inundated with foolishness masquerading as science. Psychic hotlines proliferate, politicians consult astrologers, and people reject their doctor’s advice in favor of “alternative healing” dispensed by quacks. In the past,...
Mahogany, Peru and Poverty: US Firm Fights NRDC’s Eco-Libels
According to the website of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the Tahuamanu Rainforest of Peru is a tropical paradise that “until recently, has seen no human impacts beyond those of traditional, sustainable communities.” That is, according to...
An Open Letter to ESPN on Rush Limbaugh
ESPN Television ESPN Plaza Bristol, CT 06010 October 5, 2003 To ESPN, You forced Rush Limbaugh to resign from his job after his alleged racist comment, yet you routinely allow your other commentators to make race-related comments and champion unquestioningly what are...
P.C. Insanity at the Pentagon
If Osama bin Laden snuck into our country illegally, bought fake immigration papers and changed his name to Osmundo Ben Ladeno, could he join the U.S. military? You betcha! Last week, the Army announced that Pvt. Juan Escalante, a 19-year-old illegal alien from Mexico...
How to Prevent a ‘Quagmire’ in Iraq: End American Appeasement
Voices on the left argue that Iraq will become a “quagmire” because of U.S. “arrogance” and “unilateralism.” They are actually half-right: disaster may indeed be looming–but only because of a lack of self-assertiveness by the...
Israel’s Fence and the Return to the Barbaric Past
Israel’s proposed border fence, a necessary physical separation between a lawful nation and its homicidal neighbors, is a powerful symbol of the political gulf separating the West from the Arab world. When Israel was founded, its inhabitants established the only...
Take Back Your Time Day and the Lump of Labor Fallacy
It’s hard work being a left-wing kook these days. On top of anti-globalization demonstrations and antiwar protests, there is always some new issue to organize. This month, it is “Take Back Your Time Day,” scheduled for Oct. 24. Originated by the...
Trashing the Rule of Law
For most of our history, we followed the British system of common law, including laws dealing with tort liability. This heritage has been attacked by courts and plaintiff attorneys so much that it is barely recognizable. One such doctrine of tort liability is the...
Health By Government: Even Worse than Death and Taxes
It is insulting enough when the government celebrates your death by taxing away your wealth or your business. Much more damaging are the taxes on the money you need to stay alive. Medicare legislation now pending before a conference committee in Washington would...
The Best Defense is a Superior Offense
Some say our “War on Terror” should consist mainly of bolstering security here at home, not military action abroad. But “homeland security” is no more the answer to Islamic terrorism than smoke alarms is to arson. Fighting back– not...
Campaign Finance Limits Violate Free Speech
Earlier this year President Bush risked the lives of American military personnel to end Iraq’s tyrannical regime–a dictatorship that not only restricted the actions of Iraqis but also silenced them from speaking their mind. It is ironic that President Bush...
Rush Limbaugh and Racial Censorship
It is one of the sad signs of our times that a furor was created because Rush Limbaugh expressed an opinion as to why a particular quarterback seemed to him to be over-rated. In his view, it was because the powers that be in professional football were anxious to have...
Saving Mideast Studies
“Intellectual thugs,” huffed Rashid Khalidi, now of Columbia University. “Cyber-stalking,” whined Juan Cole of the University of Michigan. “Crude McCarthyism” sniffed David Bartram of the University of Reading....
Who’s to Blame? Who Do You Think???
At a dinner for local writers who gathered at the home of the president of Seton Hall University, a noted Catholic institution of higher learning, the conversation turned to terrorism and once again I was treated to the “blame America” version of what is...
Find Stocks with Low Price-to-Sales Ratios
If you’re skeptical of what businesses report as “earnings” — their official profits — you have a right to be. Earnings are an artifice of what are called generally accepted accounting principles, and, while GAAP earnings are universally...
Heroism and Doing Your Job
I once argued with my former coworker about firefighters. She didn’t consider them heroes, as they were widely and properly called after September 11, 2001, because on that day, like any other, “they were just doing their jobs,” she said. Obviously,...
The Trouble with Islam: A Wake-up Call for Honesty and Change
“You will sooner or later pay for your pack of lies,” read one threatening message last week to the author of The Trouble with Islam: A Wake-up Call for Honesty and Change. In that book, just released in Canada, Irshad Manji, 34, explores such usually...
Pentagon Jihadis
Islamists who despise America have penetrated U.S. prisons, law enforcement, and armed forces.
What is Poor?
The Census Bureau recently released its annual report on poverty in the United States. It was widely reported that the number of people officially defined as poor rose by 1.7 million, raising the poverty rate from 11.7 percent of the population to 12.1 percent. None...
Watch Out for the Pander Bears
I hate to say it, but it’s looking like my technician friend Fred Goodman was right when he issued a sell signal a couple of weeks ago. Yes, earnings are surging and the economy-wide recovery is accelerating, with the technology sector leading the way. But in...
Silly Letters: Myths and Realities on the Rise of Blacks Out of Poverty
Most of the letters and e-mails I receive are a pleasure to read and my only regret is that I cannot answer even one-tenth of them. However, there are certain e-mails and letters that repeat the same fallacies again and again. Let me try to answer one of those...
Is It Permissible?
We all can agree that having money to pay our mortgage or rent on time is very important. Since some people are spendthrifts and don’t manage their money well, what about a congressional mandate whereby mortgage or rent money is deducted from our paychecks each...
P.C. Religious Police vs. America’s Military
There’s something terribly wrong when an American soldier overseas can’t receive Scriptures in the mail, but a Muslim chaplain can preach freely among al Qaeda and Taliban enemy combatants at Guantanamo Bay. This is a story of two soldiers, one Christian,...
Higher Productivity Creates Opportunity
The slow pace of job creation is clearly the most serious political and economic problem in the country today. Although Democrats and the press continue to focus on Iraq, President Bush and congressional Republicans know that the sluggish economy is a far greater...
Random Thoughts for September 2003
Random thoughts on the passing scene: If you have a right to respect, that means other people don’t have a right to their own opinions. My computer operating system is so out of date that people don’t even write viruses for it any more. If the debate among...
The Mounting Threat of Homegrown Terrorism
As we combat Islamic terrorism abroad, we must recognize the deadly threat posed by a homegrown source–one that since 1997 has been responsible for over 600 attacks and has inflicted more than $100 million in property damage. The attacks have become bolder,...
School Performances
Many of the pronouncements coming from those who run our public schools range from fallacies to frauds. The new book “No Excuses” by Abigail and Stephan Thernstrom exposes a number of these self-serving lies. You may have heard how hard it is to find...
Elia Kazan Should Be Honored Because of His Testimony
Almost without exception, the obituaries of Elia Kazan–while praising his enormous talent as a director–are critical of his testimony against Hollywood communists. According to some, Kazan, a former member of the Communist Party, should never be forgiven...
Does Capitalism need Civilizing?
QUESTION: “Do you think socialism was able to ‘civilize’ or ‘tame’ capitalism by 1914? Or do you think that capitalism did not need to be ‘civilized’ or ‘tamed’.” ANSWER: First we must define our terms....
Improving the Quality of Education
My son learned fractions and decimals when he was in the first grade. He learned them from me as I drove him to school on the Los Angeles freeways, where he became curious about the signs that said things like “Wilshire Boulevard 2 1/4 miles.” At the...
In Defense of Supply-Side Economics
In a recent column, I defended supply-side economics from an attack by Princeton economist Paul Krugman in the New York Times Magazine. One of the rare civil criticisms I got came from my friends at TAPPED, the web log of the liberal American Prospect magazine. Their...
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