The squabbling and finger-pointing surrounding the 9/11 commission only serve to obscure the fundamental lesson of that horrific day. Whatever errors or incompetence on the part of a particular individual or intelligence agency, what made September 11 possible was a...
POLITICS
Senator Kerry’s Problem: The Likability Gap
If Kerry goes down in the fall, trace the blame to . . . Butchy Cataldo. Kerry's critics point to his shifting stands on NAFTA, the war in Iraq, the No Child Left Behind Act and the Patriot Act. Kerry detractors expect the public to catch on when Kerry -- a fiscal...
Random Thoughts for March 2004
Random thoughts on the passing scene: The old adage about giving a man a fish versus teaching him to fish has been updated by a reader: Give a man a fish and he will ask for tartar sauce and French fries! Moreover, some politician who wants his vote will declare all...
The 10-Year Mistake
With the Federal Reserve holding official overnight interest rates at 1.00%, the yield on the typical money-market fund is about one half of one percent, after management fees. With yields this low, you've got to be tempted to do something -- anything! -- to get more....
Minimum Gasoline Prices
A couple of weeks ago, heading down to George Mason University, I pulled into my favorite Wawa gasoline station just off the Bel Air, Md., exit on I-95 South. At each of the 20 gasoline pumps, there was a sign posted that Wawa would no longer dispense free coffee to...
Capturing Osama Bin Laden
Osama bin Laden’s capture or death, the focus of renewed American military attention, would greatly help the war on terror — but not in the way you might expect.
Celebrate Individualism, Not Ethnicity
On St. Patrick's Day, I wore no buttons that read: "Proud to be Irish." While I'm of Celtic stock, I'm neither proud or ashamed to be Irish, but indifferent to this fact -- as I would be if I were of any other ethnicity or race. Instead, I'm proud to be an...
The Government Vs. Your Doctor: A True Story
Like many doctors in today's medical profession, I am the victim of a violation of individual rights. While I continue to practice medicine, many others do not. Personally, I can testify: the assault on doctors is real, it matters, and it is getting much worse. I...
Water Shortages: Subsidies Are All Wet
For years we have been hearing about a water shortage in the western states. To most people, that might suggest that there just is not enough water for all the people in those states. But, when an economist hears the word "shortage," it has an entirely different...
The U.S. Institute of Peace Stumbles
Last week, I became a whistleblower. (According to Merriam-Webster, a whistleblower is someone "who reveals wrongdoing within an organization to the public or to those in positions of authority.") This is not a role I expected or sought, but I felt compelled to go...
America’s a Safe Bet
Earlier this month marked an anniversary most investors would rather forget. On March 10, 2000, the Nasdaq composite index hit a high of 5049. The high for the benchmark Standard & Poor's 500-stock index came two weeks later at 1527. Despite strong rallies last year,...
The “Counterterrorism Czar”: Born-Again Critic of the Bush Administration
Richard Clarke, President George W. Bush's former "counterterrorism czar," accuses the Bush administration of seeking a tie between Iraq and 9/11, and pushing America into an ill-advised war in Iraq. Clarke claims that Bush attempted to "intimidate him" into finding...
Price Gouging
The Virginia Senate just passed the Virginia Post-Disaster Anti-Price Gouging Act of 2004, which now awaits Gov. Mark Warner's signature. In part, the act says, "During any time of disaster, it shall be unlawful for any supplier to sell, lease, or license, or to offer...
Rattling the Chains of Slavery
The president of Brown University has appointed a committee to look into the history of the connections of that institution to the slave trade. This is to be no academic exercise of scholarly research. There is obviously supposed to be a pot of gold at the end of this...
Outsourcing Foreign Policy and “The International Community”
Spain's decision to turn tail and run, in response to a terrorist bombing, not only tells terrorists how to get their way in the future, it should also tell us about the dangers of outsourcing our foreign policy to our allies or to the United Nations, as so many on...
The Purpose of an Iraqi Constitution
On December 15, 1791, 212 years ago, the American Bill of Rights was ratified. Thus ended a long and difficult process by which the American people first liberated themselves from tyranny and then established the first government in history founded on individual...
Politics Without Mirrors: The Culture War Between the Religious Right and the Secular Left
In a current Supreme Court case, Michael Newdow has challenged the constitutionality of reading the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools. Newdow, an atheist, argues that the Pledge's reference to America as "one nation, under God," constitutes governmental...
Get Ready for the Vitamin Police
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is now seeking to expand its considerable powers into the regulation of vitamins and nutritional supplements. The FDA has evidently discovered that Americans, after centuries of experience doing so, cannot now be counted on to...
Spain Decides to Run Away
The election in Spain that turned the government over to the Socialists sent a clear message to al Qaeda. Their bombing worked. Reportedly, much of the population did not want to join the US-led coalition to impose regime change on Iraq. Now they have decided to sit...
Answers for the “Swing Voter”
A moderate friend -- aka "swing voter" -- recently sent me a letter, in which he raised his objections about President Bush. Moderate Friend: Bush has made no major move to address environmental issues at all. The No. 1 thing a president could do environmentally is...
Why Do the Islamists Hate the West?
The idea that what goes around comes around applies not only to individuals but to nations and whole civilizations. It was just a few centuries ago -- not long, as history is measured -- that China had the highest standard of living in the world and the Dutch were the...
Saddam Hussein’s Weapons
Listening to the political and media rhetoric about the war in Iraq, you'd think that only President Bush thought Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. Here are just a few past statements made by Bush's critics. President Clinton (1998): "One way or the...
The Real Benedict Arnolds
Sen. John Kerry is fond of calling CEOs who employ foreigners "Benedict Arnolds," after the despicable Revolutionary War turncoat. But look at H.J. Heinz & Co., the family business of Kerry and his wife Teresa. Of the 79 factories that the food-processor owns, 57 (a...
“Outsourcing” and “Saving Jobs”
Every political campaign seems to have some buzzword, and this year's buzzword is "outsourcing." Since the economic recovery has not yet reached the stage when new jobs are being created to the extent expected and hoped, the idea that American jobs are being sent...
Subscribe for free.
Latest pro-Capitalism goodness sent weekly to your email box.
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.