“Become a Muslim warrior during the crusades or during an ancient jihad.” Thus read the instructions for seventh graders in Islam: A Simulation of Islamic History and Culture, 610-1100, a three-week curriculum produced by Interaction Publishers, Inc. In...
POLITICS
Media Bias: Can They Still Deny It?
CBS’s Andy Rooney appeared recently on “Larry King Live.” King asked Rooney about “Bias,” the book by Bernard Goldberg that accuses CBS in particular and mainstream news in general of a liberal bias: “What did you make of Bernard...
Put Amtrak Out of Business
Q: I sure hope Amtrak will get all the money it needs to keep operating, don’t you? I can’t believe there are people who would be willing to let the nation’s rail system grind to a halt. A: And I can’t believe that David Gunn, Amtrak’s...
What About “One Nation”?
Last month, members of Congress leapt to the defense of the words “under God.” They shouted the phrase on Capitol Hill and in front of every available camera. But what about the two little words in the Pledge of Allegiance that come right before...
Which is Worse: WorldCom or Congress?
President Bush said he was “deeply concerned” about some of the accounting practices in corporate America and called “outrageous” the disclosure that WorldCom, which is $32 billion in debt, had hidden $3.8 billion in expenses. The president...
American History vs. Affirmative Action Hogwash
Bill O’Reilly of “The O’Reilly Factor” is one of the few major media figures who does not hesitate to criticize Jesse Jackson, so it was appropriate that the author of a critical new book about Jackson appeared on that program. The book is...
The Prerequisite to Peace
There are times, George Orwell is reputed to have said, when the first duty of an intelligent man is to restate the obvious. President Bush did his duty this week when he cut through the murk of the past nine years — the years of the Middle East “peace...
Hollywood Leftists: You Pay, We Insult
Winston Churchill, many say, once said, “A man younger than 30 who’s not a liberal has no heart and a man older than 30 who’s not a conservative has no brain.” But this fails to explain why so many Hollywood celebrities, even past their 30s,...
The Economics and Politics of “Affordable Housing” in California
While Senator Barbara Boxer is trying to get the federal government to declare more than two million acres in California off-limits to development, California’s other Senator, Diane Feinstein, has already brokered a deal that takes 16,500 acres off-limits....
Small-Time Crooks
Reporters, commentators and politicians have whipped themselves into a frenzy over the recent corporate accounting scandals, heaping abuse on corporate executives in general and demanding to see the perpetrators led away in leg-irons. But is this feeding frenzy...
Hillary’s Silence on Education Fraud
The New York Times reports that Senator Hillary Clinton is nearing completion of her memoirs. Well, not actually Mrs. Clinton. A small village of personal aides and professional hacks pitched in to research and write the $8 million book. No doubt Mrs. Clinton’s...
Murderer Not Guilty By Reason of “I Felt Like It”
Jurors in a Santa Barbara, CA, murder case recently found 20-year-old David Attias not guilty by reason of insanity for driving his high-powered Saab into a crowd of pedestrians, killing four. Here’s what his happy defense attorney had to say about the verdict:...
Judicial Ad Hocracy: The Right to Free Speech is Not the “Right to an Audience”
Maybe it was not the most important case before the Supreme Court of the United States. But still it was a galling example of the way some justices casually wave aside the rights of ordinary people for the sake of some special interest that they favor. The case...
Bush Rewards Terrorism
U.S. President George W. Bush has been adamant since Sept. 11 about stopping terrorism, but he took a firm step in the opposite direction in his speech at the end of last month. He should have told the Palestinians clearly and unequivocally that their 21-month...
Self-Interest Makes the World Go Round
If someone does something wonderful, but didn’t intend to, does it count? Should we see ourselves as blessed? You say, “Williams, what are you talking about?” Try this. In 1846, there were 735 U.S. whaling ships, 80 percent of the world’s...
The Altar of Death Worship
A video released by the militant Islamic group Hamas shows a proud Naima al-Obeid holding a rifle beside her favorite son, Mahmoud, a 23-year-old college student. Mrs. al-Obeid is saying good-bye to her son as he heads out to kill some Jews. The video starts with a...
The Moral Basis of Capitalism
With the fall of communism and the alleged end of the “era of big government,” many commentators and politicians grudgingly acknowledge the practical value of capitalism. The free market, they concede, is the best system for producing wealth and promoting...
How to Really Secure the Homeland
Put me down as an agnostic on the proposed Department of Homeland Security. Most of official and unofficial Washington is for it, but that is hardly a recommendation. I realize that ensuring the security of the homeland is critical, especially when we are at war with...
Stereotypes About Stereotypes
Vanderbilt University is one of a number of academic institutions that are making a special effort to attract Jewish students. The idea is that these students tend to have higher test scores, which will raise the average test scores of these institutions — which...
Objectivity vs. Marxism in Reporting: Tainted Facts from a Tainted Well?
One of the standard arguments we get at the Center is because we take stands that defend business and receive financial support from businessmen, we are somehow part of a grand conspiracy to suppress the truth. I don’t know how many times I personally have given...
Creating Poverty in South America
Several years ago, I was invited to deliver a lecture in Porto Alegre, a beautiful city in southern Brazil. Before my lecture, I did a bit of window-shopping and visited a couple of computer supply stores. Everything in the store sold for two and three times the...
America: The Secular Republic
On July 4, Americans will take a day to honor our Founding Fathers, who gave birth to the first nation dedicated to individual freedom. This day comes, unfortunately, at a moment when our politicians are united in their venomous attacks on a crucial element of the...
Rebuilding the WTC: The Greatest Tribute Possible
“To the glory of mankind, there was, for the first and only time in history, a country of money — and I have no higher, more reverent tribute to pay to America, for this means: a country of reason, justice, freedom, production, achievement. For the first...
Threats to the Rule of Law in America
Institutions — established law, custom and practices — matter and should not be ignored. How is it that Western Europe and the United States managed to amass unprecedented wealth while countries of the former Soviet Union, China, Africa, South America and...
Survey This! The Republican Party Census Document
Because I subscribe to some magazine or journal that sells its subscription list, I now receive a varying degree of fundraising letters from the Republican National Committee. By far the most frequent letters I receive are of the infamous “push-poll”...
Doctors Without Principles
The AIDS activists have based their campaign on a socialist agenda that is focused on bashing the drugs industry.
The Prudent Speculator: Frank Investing Advice
Al Frank, who died of cancer April 25 at age 72 in Carmel, Calif., was one of the very best stock pickers in America. He never sought the spotlight and few investors recognize his name, but he deserves a place in the investing pantheon with gods like Warren Buffett,...
Intel: Doomed by Moore’s Law
A seasoned Silicon Valley businessman — an older man of the pre-dotcom generation who’s seen his fair share of booms and busts — once told me that he had discovered the fatal weakness of the technology industry. It is that semiconductors are the most...
Tough Questions: The Enemy Within
Hardly a week goes by without at least one reader asking a really tough question. The latest tough question dealt with a recent column [Homeland Security and the Enemies Within] which said that, in a war for survival, the government has not only the right but the duty...
Fuel Cell Follies
The national news media recently became all warm and fuzzy over the news that a DaimlerChrysler fuel-cell vehicle completed a cross-country trip from San Francisco to Washington, DC. The 3262 mile journey took a leisurely 15 days (contrasting with the coast-to-coast...
An Ancient Fallacy: Price Controls
When Hawaii recently passed a law controlling how high the price of gasoline can go in that state, it was the first law controlling the price of gasoline since 1981, when President Ronald Reagan ended federal control over oil prices. What was unusual about the...
Bush’s Vision For Peace for the Middle East: A Prelude To War
As Israel reenters the West Bank in another attempt to drive out the terrorists, President Bush offers his vision for peace in the Middle East. Israel, he says, should withdraw to its pre-1967 borders and the Palestinians (under “new leadership”) should be...
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