I respectfully differ with my fellow New York Times-watchdog Andrew Sullivan, who says today “Good for the Times for correcting the record.” He’s giving them Good Journalism brownie points for a story reporting that former Enron CEO Kenneth Lay may...
POLITICS
Long Live the Death Penalty
Is the death penalty, by its very nature, “arbitrary and capricious” as the governor of Illinois and the Reverend Jesse Jackson have suddenly erupted into insisting? No. And they should be made to prove that it is. People cannot and should not be executed...
Truth is a “World Opinion” Away
When Colin Powell demonstrated to the United Nations that Iraq conceals its weapons of mass destruction, deceives inspectors, and collaborates with Al Qaeda, I was reminded of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. After his military entered Palestinian territories...
Dealing with Terror Regimes
It will not end with Iraq. The toppling of Saddam Hussein will make the Middle East a better place, free a nation that has suffered unspeakable cruelty, and shame the illiberal “peace movement” that even now counsels appeasement and willful blindness in...
The Worldwide Epidemics of Doctor’s Strikes
The outbreak of doctors’ strikes in America is spreading. So far, doctors in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Florida and New Jersey have held temporary strikes to protest the prohibitive cost of medical malpractice insurance. Now, doctors in Illinois have announced...
Iran’s Jihad Against Civilization Continues
“Iran’s Hardliners Renew Calls for Rushdie to Die”–headline, The Independent (UK), 2/15/2003 In 1989, the government of Iran sentenced author Salman Rushdie to death for writing arguments offensive to their interpretation of Islam in his book,...
War Chatter
The big news earlier this month was that a North Korean rocket can hit Hollywood. Two days before the chief of the CIA released that bit of newly declassified intelligence, Richard Gere was in Berlin saying there wasn’t “any sort of basis” for...
The FCC and the Science of Tyranny
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell seems to long for his days as an antitrust lawyer in the Clinton Justice Department. According to news reports this week, Powell directed FCC economists to devise “an objective scientific formula”...
After Saddam?
Outsiders wonder if the U.N. Security Council will endorse Washington’s goal of toppling Saddam Hussein. But policy insiders assume an American war and an American victory, followed by Iraq’s rehabilitation. For insiders, the main issue is the extent of...
It Is Time to Make A Martyr
Sheik Ahmed Yassin, spiritual leader of the Palestinian Islamic terrorist group Hamas, has called for Muslims to attack American and Western interests if the United States attacks Iraq. From the New York Times, February 7, 2003: In an open letter released today, the...
Denial About War
Mistake # 1: A debate is underway as to whether or not we should go to war. We’re already at war. On 9/11/01 this became abundantly clear. We are not merely at war with al Qaeda. We are not merely at war with terrorist organizations. We are first and foremost at...
The John Adams Family
President’s Day is the politically correct (and union-approved) way to celebrate the birthdays of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, America’s two defining presidents in the pre-20th century era. But while both men deserve much of the accolades they...
SUVs and Terrorism: Arianna Huffington Version 5.0
About a year ago, I was a regular on a Santa Monica radio program called “Left, Right and Center.” Arianna Huffington, the protean author and TV personality, was, if you can believe it, the center of our trio. I was the right. Bob Scheer, Los Angeles Times...
An Open Letter to Richard Perle
Richard Perle is the chairman of the Defense Policy Board, a Department of Defense advisory panel made up of leading figures in national security and defense; he is also a resident fellow of the American Enterprise Institute. In the Reagan Administration he served as...
How Will We Know We’ve Won?
We face an enemy that believes deeply that God is on their side. Our enemies fight both because they hate us and because they believe that, with God’s help, they will triumph over us one day soon. For our enemies, this is not simply a platitude, a statement of...
Questions About the War, Militant Islam, and Self-Defense
A reader asked the following questions, and since they’re asked politely and with seeming sincerity, I’ll answer them. Question 1: What is a ‘militant Muslim’, how do you suppose you round them up and how exactly do you get rid of them? More to...
Eyes on the Prizes
Contrary to the impression you may get watching all-day TV stock market shows, investing is not a sport. It’s a serious endeavor – specifically, a means to a better life for you and your family. If you invest wisely, you can acquire wealth for goals such...
Pacifist Ignorance About Intelligence
Never underestimate the unwillingness of a pacifist to give up on his dogma, no matter how much factual evidence is presented demonstrating the folly in his approach. And, so it has been in the weeks following Colin Powell’s intelligence exhibition on...
The Enemy Within
The day after 9/11, Texas police arrested two Indian Muslim men riding a train and carrying about $5,000 in cash, black hair dye and boxcutters like those used to hijack four planes just one day earlier. [The police held the pair initially on immigration charges...
Jenny from the Block
There is this song that has been on the airwaves for the past month where Jennifer Lopez, the current femme-fatal of the entertainment world sings the following chorus: “Don’t be fooled by the rocks that I gotI’m still, I’m still Jenny from the...
The Libertarian Anti-Manifesto
Susan Lee, a member of the Wall Street Journal editorial board, has an essay in Wednesday’s edition of that paper arguing in favor of “libertarianism.” Superficially, she makes a strong argument for the libertarian manifesto: [L]ibertarians are...
Hard Times for Envy
When driving down the highway with my car on cruise control and the stereo playing “Stompin’ at the Savoy,” I am in heaven. There are millions of later model cars on the road, and no doubt some better stereo systems, as well as more scenic highways....
98% of Economists Did Not Sign the Petition Opposing the Bush Tax Cuts!
The Economic Policy Institute, a left-wing advocacy group, has collected the signatures of 400 economists — including 10 Nobel prize winners — on a statement opposing President Bush’s tax cuts. It is running this week as a full-page advertisement in...
On Deterrence
In recent months, there has been much discussion of deterrence, much praise of the strategy which contained the Soviet Union for fifty years until its ultimate collapse, and many figures arguing that we should rely on deterrence to contain dangerous regimes. The key...
War and the Economy
What’s worrying the stock market? War. Sure, investors are disappointed that corporate profits have not rebounded vigorously and that the economy grew, just 0.7 percent in the fourth quarter of last year. But those problems, too, are linked to the imminent...
Bad Economics in One Lesson
On Tuesday, the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a left-leaning Washington think tank, published a full-page ad in The New York Times condemning the proposed Bush tax cuts. This pro-tax statement is signed by more than 400 economists, including 10 Nobel laureates...
Money, Wealth, and the Corruption of Government
It was hardly the end of an era, but the opening of the 108th Congress on January 07, 2003, brought the curtain down on the short tenure of Minnesota Senator Dean Barkley, a longtime ally of now-former Governor Jesse Ventura who obtained his Senate post two months ago...
The Mystical, Magical “Economy”
Many speak of “the economy” as if it were some mystical god we exist to serve: Tax cuts for the rich won’t help “the economy.” Will that plan boost “the economy?” A nation’s economy is not a cause but an effect: the...
Investing in Utilities
If President Bush gets his way, investors will soon be receiving their dividends tax-free. You’d figure that one sector to benefit would be gas and electric utilities, which through the years have offered consistently high dividends. Right now, the average yield...
Drexel University: A Modern Business?
Drexel University is very often accused by students and faculty of being “run like a business” while pointing to its shortcomings and ignorant “customer service” as proof of it. When one hears of so many bad experiences with the Drexel...
High Noon with Iraq
In his address before the United Nations Security Council, US Secretary of State Colin Powell made it absolutely clear: instead of dismantling its weapons of mass destruction in plain sight of the world, Iraq has engaged in a deliberate program of deceit and...
The United Nations Against Individual Rights
The American delegate put a brave face on it. “This is not a defeat for the United States,” US Ambassador Kevin Moley said after Libya was elected to the chairmanship of the United Nations’ highest human rights panel on Monday. “This is a...
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