Did anyone ever call Franklin D. Roosevelt a “Dutch American” or Dwight Eisenhower a “German American”? It would have been resented, not only by them and their supporters, but by Americans in general. These men were Americans — not...
POLITICS
Clearing the Way for Real Airport Security
Did you hear the one about the 87-year-old grandmother who had her knitting needles taken away by airport security? They were afraid she was going to knit an Afghan. That is just one of many jibes at the fraudulent airport security measures adopted since September 11....
Rebuilding the WTC: Anything Less Is Suicide
As both an architect and architectural historian–that is, as someone who cares about buildings nearly as much as I care about my friends and family–I felt like I lost an old friend on September 11 when the towers of the World Trade Center crumbled to the...
Wake Up, Mr. President!
George W. Bush gave a pretty good speech back in September, and also at the time of the State of the Union in January. In those speeches, he outlined a principled defense against terrorism. The question, of course, was always: Does he mean it? It’s not looking...
The Problem of Public Schools: In Search of the “Certified” Teacher
Most discussions of the problems of American education have an air of utter unreality because they avoid addressing the most fundamental and intractable problem of our public schools — the low quality of our teachers. There is no point expecting teachers to...
Eby-Brown Company: Guilty of the Crime of Charging Lower Prices to Consumers
If the Ninth Circuit has become a haven for rogue anti-patriotic judges, as many politicians claim, than the Seventh Circuit has become the refuge of the business-hating justices. Last month the Chicago-based Seventh Circuit found that companies could be found guilty...
Call Acts of Terrorism By Their Rightful Name
On the 4th of July, an Egyptian immigrant to the United States who believes in wild conspiracy theories about Jews, is known for his great “hate for Israel,” and has possible ties to al Qaeda, armed himself to the teeth and assaulted the Israeli airline...
Putting the War Effort on Defense
Congress has no problem shelling out $6.5 billion for mass-transit systems that fewer and fewer Americans use each year. It manages to fully fund Medicare, despite $23 billion in waste and fraud each year. It pays farmers — mostly mega-corporations, actually...
Airport Security: The Idiots Rule
We have no less than unadulterated idiots in charge of airport security. You say, “What is it this time, Williams?” Last month, while boarding a Midwest Express flight to Milwaukee, former Vice President Al Gore was pulled aside at the boarding gate. He...
Understanding the ‘Paradox’ Behind John Walker Lindh
It has been about seven months since the Marin County Taliban (John Walker Lindh) was apprehended in Mazar-i-Sharif, sporting an AKM rifle in support of the Taliban regime. Having made a plea bargain for a maximum of 20 years without parole, Walker avoided what would...
Glossary for the Liberal Media
Death tax vs. estate tax — preferred term: Estate tax. Republicans call the taxes assessed on an estate valued at a million dollars or more a “death tax,” while Democrats generally call it an “estate tax.” “Death tax” —...
Individual Rights & the Supreme Court
A proper government defines and protects the individual rights of its citizens. Under such a government, the courts play a crucial role; it is through the courts that men are able to settle disputes peaceably according to predetermined legal rules. It is these legal...
Random Thoughts
Random thoughts on the passing scene: A magician was asked what had happened to the lady he used to saw in half in his act. “Oh, she’s retired,” he said. “Now she lives in Chicago — and Denver.” Despite the rhetoric of the...
Real Patriots Support Corporate Inversions
Late last month, the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Select Revenue Measures held a hearing on corporate inversions–the process by which an American company avoids the tax bias against its overseas income by re-incorporating to a tax haven nation. The...
The War on CEOs
Just as the War on Terrorism dissipates into total inaction — the latest word is that we will not invade Iraq — our leaders have launched a new war to replace it: the War on CEOs. In reaction to a few cases in which corporate CEOs allegedly violated...
The Role of Profits in the Economy
Profits are misunderstood, seen as unearned and sometimes condemned as evil. Maybe that’s why people often reverently pronounce, with an air of moral superiority, “We’re a nonprofit organization.” Before people mount their moral high horse,...
Symbol and Substance: The Pledge of Allegiance
With all the rage over Wednesday’s 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in the public schools violates the religious establishment clause of the 1st Amendment, it’s pretty clear a lot of people are upset that they no...
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...
The Cutting Edge in American Education: ‘Become a Muslim warrior’
“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...
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...
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