If sucking up to the House of Saud were an Olympic event, George W. Bush would be a contender for the gold. He was at his fawning best last month, when he hosted the Saudi Arabian ambassador, Bandar bin Sultan, for lunch in Crawford, Texas. The ambassador, who showed...
POLITICS
The basic and crucial political issue of our age is: capitalism versus socialism, or freedom versus statism. For decades, this issue has been silenced, suppressed, evaded, and hidden under the foggy, undefined rubber-terms of “conservatism” and “liberalism” which had lost their original meaning and could be stretched to mean all things to all men. – AYN RAND
“Sustainable” Development’s Unsustainable Contradictions
The U.N.'s "sustainable development" conference in South Africa has been characterized, so far, by what the press calls "divergent agendas," a confused contest of competing interests and an attitude of futility. One speaker summed up the expectations for the...
Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neil Confuses Tax Avoidance versus Tax Evasion
To his credit, in May 2001 Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill wrote an op-ed26 (and a private letter to the OECD) questioning some of its more punitive aims: I am troubled by the underlying premise that low tax rates are somehow suspect and by the notion that any...
The Purpose of the Draft is Not a Strong Military
Senior military officers are opposing bringing back the military draft. They point out that today's military is so high-tech and complex that an all-volunteer, trained force is superior. For years, in fact, many military leaders have observed that motivated recruits...
Saddam’s Rap Sheet
Consider the paradox: Almost every government agrees that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein is an appalling monster and shudders at the prospect of his acquiring nuclear weapons. Yet those same governments are also furiously signaling their disapproval of an American-led...
Olympic Boondoggle: Careful What You Wish For
The U.S. Olympic Committee made grown men and women cry last month when it eliminated Houston and Washington, D.C., from the running to host the 2012 summer games. Texas-sized tears rolled in both towns. D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams looked more crushed than Charlie...
9/11: Surrending the Domestic Front
After Osama bin Laden's hijack squadrons invaded our skies a year ago, America's military responded. Operation Enduring Freedom launched on Oct. 7, 2001. President Bush deployed thousands of troops to combat terrorist forces in the Middle East. By Memorial Day, dozens...
The Betrayal of The Bush Doctrine
In the days following September 11, we feared for our future. Would terrorist attacks become a fixture of life? Would we have to live the rest of our days with the knowledge that our work, our dreams, our loved ones, our lives could be obliterated at any moment? Was...
What Have We Lost?
One year later, the hole in New York's skyline where the World Trade Center towers once stood is a visual reminder of something else that is missing: the ideas and attitudes that make a vigorous war in America's self-defense possible. For many of us, the immediate...
Forgotten Heroes of 9/11
The American way of life is, fundamentally, a life of individual liberty.
Censorship on Campus? Time to Privatize America’s Universities
The terrorist attacks of September 11, according to many college professors, have claimed another victim: free speech on campus. They contend that a chilling climate has arisen, in which they hesitate to voice ideas critical of America for fear of reprimand by...
The Chief Executive Officer That Got Away
It is a little ironic, in this recent era of intense focus on CEO accountability and corporate malfeasance, that possibly the single greatest default of responsibility by a Chief Executive Officer in our history is going on today virtually without mention. Ken Lay,...
“Death to America”
America's war on terrorism did not begin in September 2001. It began in November 1979. That was shortly after Ayatollah Khomeini had seized power in Iran, riding the slogan "Death to America" - and sure enough, the attacks on Americans soon began. In November 1979, a...
Tax Competition: Enemy of the Welfare State
In addition to offering sanctuary to the world's tax-burdened, tax havens provide an indirect benefit to the tax-payers who remain pinned under welfare state tax burdens: they cause tax rates and tax burdens in those welfare states to be lower than they might be...
The Media and the Military
Vice President Dick Cheney's speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars on the need to end Saddam Hussein's terrorist regime in Iraq was a much-needed dose of cold, hard reality. Those who are wringing their hands over the possibility of a pre-emptive strike against Iraq...
“Play Ball” …with Taxpayer Money
"Stop us before we spend again!" Baseball owners, in effect, took this position in the recent game of chicken between baseball players and owners, a showdown that resulted in a settlement on the eve of the strike deadline. Texas Ranger owner Tom Hicks, who paid Alex...
America Is NOT Winning the War
As we pause on September 11 to remember the stockbrokers, policemen, firefighters and many other fallen Americans, it is vital also to reflect on the progress of the war. For it was precisely to prevent future September 11ths that America responded with force. How...
An America-free 9/11 Commemoration
Leave it to the folks at UC Berkley to make a muck out the upcoming 9/11 anniversary. According to the California Patriot, a student-run publication of the Berkeley Conservative Foundation, a university sponsored 9/11 "Day of Remembrance" will be devoid of any...
The Guilt of Defense Attorneys
Samantha Runnion was a victim of perverse ideas. Not just the ideas that drove Alejandro Avila to kidnap, sexually assault and strangulate her, but also those that lawyers use to get defendants off who they know are guilty. One such lawyer, Alan Dershowitz, who helped...
The Case in Favor of Tax Havens
Ironically, tax haven nations and territories achieve precisely the goals first set out by the OECD in the early 1960s. Here's how the OECD described (as it still, hypocritically, describes) its initial goals: To achieve the highest sustainable economic growth and...
Teachers Who Hate Tests: Part 3
While we ought to learn from our own experiences, it is even better to learn from other people's experiences, saving ourselves the painful costs of the lessons. In the case of the dominant educational fads of our times, many have been tried out before in other...
The Media’s Messed Up Priorities in News Coverage
On Aug. 12, CNN aired a "breaking" news conference to update viewers on a matter it considered of global importance: the medical condition of Jason Priestley -- a washed-up, 32-year-old former TV idol who sustained moderate injuries during a Kentucky auto race over...
Teachers Who Hate Tests: Part 2
One of the objections by the educational establishment to state-mandated tests for students is that this forces the teachers to teach directly the material that is going to be tested, instead of letting the students "discover" what they need to know through their own...
Teachers Who Hate Tests
Florida's school year has already started early, so that its students will have more preparation before the state-mandated tests that will be administered to them later in the school year. Meanwhile, there is much wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth because so...
Ireland’s Sin of Success: The EU’s Assault on Ireland’s Low Tax Policies
Exposing the real nature of its assault, the OECD has also condemned lower tax rates and tax shelters that exist within industrialized countries -- such as Australia, Belgium, Canada, Finland, France, Greece, Italy, Ireland, Portugal, Luxembourg, Sweden, Hungary,...
The Case for “Destablization”
The president returns to Washington this week after a month on vacation in Texas and three months seemingly on vacation from America's foreign policy. Since June, President Bush has been telling everyone who asks that he has made no decision on Iraq. Making that kind...
Taiwan is not China
The diplomatic storm that blew across the Taiwan Strait last month is over now, but it is only a matter of time until the heavy weather returns. Sooner or later, Taiwan's president, Chen Shui-bian, will again say something that suggests Taiwan ought to be regarded as...
Bush Bails out Brazil–and Wall Street
United Airlines, to stave off bankruptcy, wants $1.8 billion dollars in federal loan guarantees. With the exception of Southwest Airlines, all major airlines now lose money, with United -- one of the highest-cost airlines -- incurring losses of nearly a million...
America: A Sissified Nation
Benjamin Franklin warned, "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." But that's what the Bush administration and Congress have asked of Americans -- to give up essential liberty for safety that's...
Slaves to Words
In the old-time comic strip "Li'l Abner," one of the characters revealed that a new stranger in town had spent many years in reform school. Another character replied, "Well, he must be reformed by now." Unfortunately, the same gullibility about words occurs far too...
What’s Bugging the Environmentalists?
Whenever I head out for an early evening walk by the neighborhood lake with my husband and toddler, we follow the same routine. Put on our shoes. Take a trip to the Blue's Clues potty. And finally: Spray. We don't give a second thought to applying a small amount of...
The Alleged Harm Done By Tax Havens
Tax burdens imposed by the world's welfare states -- especially those imposed on the wealthiest, most successful entrepreneurs and shareholders -- have increased with every passing year. No wonder "Atlas is Shrugging." By accessing tax havens (or any other manner of...
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