So far we have evaluated America's policies toward its declared enemies, those governments which have openly announced their hostility toward the United States. But there is another category of nations, whose governments profess to support the American war, but which...
POLITICS
The Medicare Frame-Up: Republican “Free Market” Medicare Bill is Closet Socialism
After battling for months over two allegedly opposite versions of the bill to add prescription drug coverage to Medicare, members of the House and Senate announced Saturday they had reached an agreement. House Republicans managed to include in the bill a provision to...
America’s Failing War Effort (Part 5 of 12): North Korea
Even though the current war has been deemed a "war on terrorism," this is a misnomer. One does not go to war with a method of fighting, one goes to war with an enemy. And for this reason the current war is far wider than even a war against militant Islam. It is...
Almighty Government, Please Bless Us and Take Care Of Us
Q: You really are hard on compassionate politicians like Howard Dean and what you call "the welfare state." These programs, like Medicare and Social Security, are in everyone's benefit. Why oppose them? A: These programs are not in my benefit. I work hard and am both...
Why Medicare Expansion is Wrong
Adding prescription drug coverage to Medicare, as Congress is poised to do, is merely more socialism — it will neither help seniors nor is its passage likely to gain their votes.
The Draft Is Anathema To Human Freedom
In his Op-Ed column, "To arms," Tony Blankley argues that the youth of America needs to be sacrificed for the greater good and hints that we may need the draft to do it. Referencing the last living veterans of this generation, Blankly writes: Just as the country that...
America’s Failing War Effort (Part 4 of 13) The Cold War Against “The Axis of Evil”
In his first State of the Union address after September 11th, 2001, President Bush alerted the world to the existence of an "axis of evil," arrayed against the United States and its allies, consisting of three nations: Iraq, Iran, and North Korea. Since then critics...
Islam: A Religion of Peace?
A "religion of peace," says President Bush about Islam. But investigative journalist Robert Spencer, in his new book "Onward Muslim Soldiers: How Jihad Still Threatens America and the West," argues that what we call "Islamic extremism" stems from a straightforward...
The Republican’s Medicare Tyranny
The Medicare II bill (my name for it) that Congress is about to pass is an unmitigated disaster. The bill contains provisions for the largest expansion of socialized health care in this nation's history. It essentially nationalizes prescription drugs for the elderly,...
America’s Failing War Effort (Part 3 of 12): Afghanistan
While the objectives of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan differed significantly, their shortcomings had much in common. Whereas the war with Iraq was justified by reference to evidence of a somewhat indeterminate WMD threat, the case for war in Afghanistan was based...
Republicans vs. The Free Market: Tariffs and Trade Restrictions on Imports
On Nov. 18, the Bush administration announced a decision to impose new trade restrictions on imports of some Chinese textiles. Although rationalized as a means of saving American manufacturing jobs, no trade expert thinks it will have more than a trivial effect in...
America’s Failing War Effort (Part 2 of 12): Iraq
Despite the rapidity and efficiency of the American war in Iraq--and the glowing moments accompanying the liberation of Baghdad--the Bush administration has confronted a series of embarrassments since major combat operations were declared over on May 1st. The worst of...
Modern “Educators” vs. Reading
The results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a nationwide test to assess the abilities of elementary and middle-school children, are out. Though math scores showed some improvement over the last decade, reading scores did not. This should not be...
The New Medicare Program: A Prescription for Disaster
At a cost of $400 billion over 10 years, Congressional Republicans have agreed in Conference Committee--with the enthusiastic encouragement of a Republican President--to the greatest expansion of government in two generations. This new Medicare program can only result...
Harm’s A Two Way Street
The largest losers of America's anti-tobacco crusade aren't tobacco companies and smokers, it's the American people who are incrementally giving up private property rights. You say, "Hold it, Williams, I agree that people have the right to smoke and harm themselves,...
America’s Failing War Effort (Part 1 of 12): A Report Card
Two years after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, there are two leading evaluations of the Bush Administration's "war on terrorism." One side, generally right-wing and supportive of the war, is optimistic about its progress, and regards Bush as heroic. The...
How the Judiciary Effectively Repealed the 10th Amendment
Many years ago, someone did a study of the IQs of municipal transit drivers and their accident rates. Those with below-average IQs had higher rates of accidents, as you might expect. What was unexpected was the discovery that drivers with IQs above a certain level...
The Thinker
Back of the beating hammer By which the steel is wrought, Back of the workshop's clamor The seeker may find the Thought, The Thought that is ever master Of iron and steam and steel, That rises above disaster And tramples it under heel! The drudge may fret and tinker...
America’s European “Allies”: Liking Us When We’re Dead
In the days immediately following September 11, 2001 the outpouring of support from the governments and people of Europe was overwhelming. Americans living in or visiting Europe at the time remember the various Europeans hugging them on the streets and offering them...
Letters About Medical Care
Reader responses to the discussion of government-controlled medical care in this column raised questions that need answering. The most frequently raised question was why American pharmaceutical drugs sell for less in other countries. Some readers considered this proof...
Reverend Al Sharpton — The Democrats’ Moral Compass?
Democratic presidential candidate Reverend Al Sharpton, at the recent Democratic debate in Boston, took the front-runner, former Vermont Governor Howard Dean, to task. Dean's sin? Dean, in an interview with the Des Moines (Iowa) Register on Saturday, Nov. 1, stated,...
If a Flat Tax is Good for Iraq, How About America?
Few Americans would want to trade places with the people of Iraq. But come tax time next April, they may begin to wonder who's better off. That's because the Iraqis soon will enjoy something we don't -- a simple and fair tax system. Beginning in January, all Iraqis...
“Hate Crimes” Law Undermines Protection of Individual Rights
Leaders from both parties--Republican Senator Orrin Hatch and Democrat Ted Kennedy--have vowed to push through a new, wide-reaching federal "hate crimes" bill before the end of the current session. A "hate crimes" law would make crimes motivated by enmity toward...
The United Nations: A Totalitarian Appeasing Debating Society
The United Nations rose from the ashes of World War II, when the leaders of the victorious allies agreed to work together to prevent another full-scale war. They founded an organization aimed at maintaining security in a Cold War world. But now the world has been...
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