At a time when more than 8 million Americans are unemployed, business investment has stalled and the recovery is still tentative, Congress is considering a tax hike. Even more surprising, the misguided proposal is sponsored by Republican Rep. Bill Thomas of...
POLITICS
Apply the Bush Doctrine to Saudi Arabia
Recent intelligence reports indicate that our desultory efforts abroad so far–and our fortress “homeland defense” mentality–will fail to prevent further horrendous attacks on the US. We’re losing because Bush has defaulted on the...
How Today Show’s Matt Lauer Patronized Charlton Heston
Is it me, or does “Today Show’s” Matt Lauer condescendingly give Republicans/conservatives the old “look-me-in-the-eye” treatment when asking questions? In an interview with President George W. Bush, for example, Lauer questioned the...
The Republicans Impotence and the Future of Our Freedom
According to an article in the Washington Post, the Bush administration has decided to distance itself from the term “privatization” at the request of the National Republican Congressional Committee, claming the word never accurately reflected the White...
Can’t Pin Fiscal Woes on W.
Facts often are the first casualty of any political battle, and never more so than during an election year. But sometimes the debate shifts from routine exaggeration and distortion and becomes flagrantly misleading. As with Al Gore’s recent fusillade, including...
Terrorism: The Second-Biggest Threat to America
Throughout the “war on terrorism,” we have all heard our nation’s leaders pay extensive lip service to “protecting America.” But if “America” is just a collection of people on a slab of land somewhere, then there’s no...
Investing: One to Grow On
Now in his 12th year, Will Danoff is running Fidelity Contrafund, and, as usual, he is running it brilliantly. In 1996, I conducted one of those exercises to which idle minds are often prone, attempting to find the best core mutual fund – that is, a fund that...
Guns for Rapists, But Not For Potential Victims
A picture on the front of The Boston Globe’s metro section last month showed a group of women waiting to apply for firearm identification cards at the District 14 police station in Brighton. They were in a line, the accompanying story noted, that stretched the...
Hollywood Actors: False American Idols
The singer. The actor. The empty vessel. Many pundits believe celebrities are frivolously easy targets unworthy of our scorn. They must realize, however, that a single voice of a celebrity reaches more common Americans than a busload of think tank intellectuals. The...
Bilingual Education’s Voluminous Failure
If I were a Hispanic American, I would feel humiliated every time an automated telephone-answering system prompted me to press 1 for English, or 2 for Spanish. I would wince every time an ATM machine invited me to conduct my transaction en Espanol. It would mortify me...
Mad Dogs of War
My dog Clancy was an oversized Irish Setter with a blockhead and big paws and strong jaws who our son had rescued from the Humane Society after his friend’s mom got rid of him because he had, as they say, some issues. One of Clancy’s issues was that he had...
Open Source Socialism
At a recent Stanford University lecture, open source proselytizer Bruce Perens encouraged students to get involved in the open source political movement. A few folks were enthused, but many seemed confused by how a method of software production and distribution can...
Iowa Electronic Markets: Vote Early and Often
In the good old bad old days of corrupt Chicago politics, the voters were urged by city bosses to “vote early and often.” Now that’s exactly what you can do — and you might even make some money at the same time. If nothing else, you’ll be...
The Canadian Government vs. Free Speech
There are two principles that taken together are the cornerstone of freedom. One is that an individual has a right to his life. The other is that an individual has the right to speak uncoerced. Today, the 2nd right is under threat in Canada. According to Ray Girn,...
Politicians Ignore Militant Islam–As It Keeps On Killing
Militant Islam keeps on killing, but politicians and journalists still avert their eyes. One terrible example comes from Pakistan, where a sequence of assaults on Christians, both local and foreign, has taken place over the past year: Oct. 28: an attack on St....
Snoop Dogg, Miss Piggy, and Macy’s
Close call, “Middle America.” The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Calvin Broadus, AKA Snoop Doggy Dogg, now sees himself as a mainstream commercial entity. That’s right, according to the rapper, who says he no longer uses drugs —...
Depression and Learned Helplessness
Depression has been defined as a persistent feeling of learned helplessness. For those who are depressed, this raises the questions: what do you feel helpless about, and why? What needs to change in order for you to feel less helpless? One area to work on is your...
Anti-Capitalist Demonstrators and Freedom of Speech
Last weekend’s anti-capitalist demonstrations in Washington were every bit what most observers expected them to be: sessions in idiocy, lunacy and general mayhem. As expected, portions of the city were significantly impacted by the demonstrations and despite...
Investing: High Price Ratios and Cheap Stocks?
At the top of the late great bull market in 2000 investors kept coming up with reasons why stocks weren’t really overpriced. I came up with a few juicy theories myself that will live forever in the Rationalizations Hall of Fame. But now, in the bowels of the...
Who Do Democrats Hate More: Saddam or Bush?
Talk about shooting yourself in the foot. Surely most Republicans observed in giddy delight as Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle did his best imitation of Jack Palance on the Senate floor, accusing President Bush of “politicizing” the debate over national...
Does waging war on a tyrant make one a tyrant?
Agitated reader: I just can’t stomach your narrow minded opinions anymore. What gives the United States moral authority to wage a war against not just a tyrant, but innocent people? Dr. Hurd: What exactly would broad minded opinions consist of? Treating the...
Crusading to Keep Kids Clueless: Public Education Monopoly Cracks Down on Home Schooling
The public education monopoly can’t stand the thought of “unqualified” parents teaching their own children. That is why they are cracking down on home schooling, even as a new study shows that thousands of public school teachers themselves are...
The Anti-Capitalist Mentality
Consider the following statement issued on September 27, 2002 at a press conference by the leaders of last weekend’s “anti-capitalist convergence” in Washington, DC after hundreds of protestors were arrested for acts of violence and disorder,...
The Bear Market Makes the Case for Privatizing Social Security
The market is in another slump, and investors’ savings have once again shrunk. So now is the perfect time to make the case for privatizing Social Security. This is not the conventional view on the subject. In the run-up to next month’s elections,...
Q & A on Going to war with Iraq
A reader from a major news network writes in: Reader: Going to war with Iraq is so stupid for so many reasons that I can’t take the time to address them all. Needless to say, there is NO evidence of weapons of mass destruction. Dr. Hurd: So it doesn’t...
The Purpose of a World Trade Center Memorial
Memorials proposed for the World Trade Center site include slabs of stone whose lines would correspond to the shadows cast by the Towers when they were attacked; a well 911 feet deep with two towers hovering above it; and a grass-covered mound 650 feet across. For...
Allowing Israel to Destroy the PLO Helps Defend the U.S.
It is time that the United States recognize the true nature of Yasser Arafat and his regime. The PLO has been engaged in a terror campaign against Israel for decades, and today supports fanatical suicide bombers, who deliberately target and murder innocent civilians....
Latest Version of Old Ploy
California’s Governor Gray Davis has gotten himself some front-page headlines, not only in California but across the country, by signing into law the first mandated provision for paid leave from work (at half pay) for people who say that they have family...
A Declaration of Independence…from the United Nations
Imagine the following scenario: if on the eve of American independence, the founders had asked the world’s permission before they revolted against the English crown. Imagine if the question of American independence rested not in the minds of the patriots, but...
Marketing 101 for Broadband Service Providers
Every day I’m bombarded with television commercials from broadband service providers in my area. Companies like BellSouth, Charter, AT & T, and Earthlink are competing relentlessly for my broadband dollars. And there isn’t a single thing in any of...
The Return of the Al Gore
If anyone had any doubts about whether Al Gore was going to try to run for president again in 2004, his speech in San Francisco on September 23rd should have put those doubts to rest. The former vice president was in top form, doing what he does best — making an...
The “Corporate Axis of Evil”: Patriotic Companies Crossing the Delaware
Just before leaving town for the August recess, both houses of Congress saw fit to declare war on the “Corporate Axis of Evil”–Bermuda, Barbados, Gibraltar and a number of other offshore tax havens. Speech after speech in the House and Senate decried...
Subscribe for free.
Latest pro-Capitalism goodness sent weekly to your email box.
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.