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 "haves" and the "have-nots" that is so dear...
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 hearing...
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 existing laws...
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, they should remember that...
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 longer have...
"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 classrooms...
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 Goldberg's book," asked King,...
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 president, had the gall to...
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 "under God"? Who in...
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 added, "We will fully...
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 aptly titled "Shakedown," in...
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 process" -- to...
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, remain leftists. Hollywood...
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. That's...
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...
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 team...
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: "David...
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...
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...
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 whaling fleet. American...
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...
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 prosperity;...
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...
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 in...
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