New polls are showing increased support for banning the use of cell phones while driving. Here we go again. I have a better idea: why don't we simply hold people accountable for bad driving? If you drive poorly, then you should be held accountable whether you are...
POLITICS
South Korea Slips “Back To The Future”
Reminiscent of the "crony capitalism" that contributed to the 1997 Asian financial crisis, the South Korean government has recently bailed out several financially strapped chaebols, violating its own bailout agreement with the International Monetary Fund. But the...
Psst! Liberals, the ABM Treaty is Dead
A funny thing is happening in the debate over a missile defense. The president is getting more cooperation from Russia than from liberals in Congress. Indeed, a number of nations that for years pleaded with the United States to retain the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM)...
Hyping America’s Monopolistic, Publicly Owned Transportation Systems
To hear the American Public Transportation Association folks tout their latest report on ridership, you half expect to see shells of abandoned cars rotting on every street corner. Americans have spurned their cars in favor of mass transit, the APTA tells us. Mass...
How Microsoft Competes
Beside Bill Gates, what does Microsoft have that contributes to their success? The authors spent a couple of years trying to find out. Their conclusions: seven complementary strategies and a small set of basic principals of operation. First, find smart people who know...
Broadband Bruise
The other day, I became a victim of a broadband crime that apparently is becoming more and more common. Allow me to explain. I have three static IP addresses on my home network. I am not without concern for security -- I run a firewall on each of my computers, I...
Free Trade with a Slave State?
Q: Should a free country trade with people who live under a dictatorship (e.g. China, Cuba)? And, if not, should the government of the free country restrict such trade with dictatorships? A: If you enjoy living in a free country, then you benefit from that freedom...
Green Bigots vs. Human Beings
The red-legged frog is only the latest of many supposedly endangered species whose habitats may be kept off-limits to human beings, even if that means stopping the building of much-needed housing. We have grown so used to having the interests of millions of human...
More Dads, Less Crime
"America's Greatest Problem: Not Crime, Racism or Bad Schools -- It's Illegitimacy," reads Chapter 5 from my book, "The Ten Things You Can't Say in America." Absentee, non-involved fathers are the primary reason behind recent Department of Justice statistics showing...
Black Students as Meal Tickets
THERE'S A STORY about a visitor to an Indian reservation who sees a Bureau of Indian Affairs officer uncontrollably crying. He asks, "Why are you crying?" The officer sobs, "My Indian died." The officer didn't give a hoot about the Indian, he was worried about his...
McVeigh: King of the Hippie Nazis
Q: You condemn Gore Vidal for claiming that Timothy McVeigh has a sense of justice. You're wrong. However unfortunate his target due to his ignorance of the presence of the day care center, remember that the Department of Justice and the FBI's HRT did know that there...
Fuel Cells: The Future of Energy?
Part 2 of 2 By Tom Koppel Ph.D. and Jay ReynoldsThere are six major types of fuel cells with potential for a variety of commercial applications. The first to be fired into space was the proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell, which was developed by GE and performed...
The Poverty Pimp’s Poem
MY FELLOW-ECONOMIST WALTER WILLIAMS has for years kept track of how much money it would take to lift every American man, woman and child in poverty above the official poverty level. That sum has consistently been some fraction of the money actually spent in...
Self Confidence for Children
Q : My wife and I want to teach our four-year-old son to have self-confidence. How can we teach him? A: This is too vast a subject to appropriately answer in a short column. I can, however, give you some general principles. Here they are:Make sure you are confident...
Small Business Owners Speak Out
A new national survey, sponsored by the National Association of Health Underwriters (NAHU) and co-sponsored by the Healthcare Leadership Council (HLC), National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), and U.S. Chamber of Commerce, reveals considerable support among small...
SAT Spat Overlooks Real Admissions Barrier
In proposing to drop the SAT I from the University of California's admissions process, UC President Richard Atkinson implied it is the SAT that blocks most black and Hispanic students from entering the UC system. But even if the SAT I were dropped tomorrow, the vast...
Fuel Cells: The Future of Energy?
In response to the critical need for a cleaner energy technology, invention kicked into high gear. Fuel cells generate energy with little or no harmful emissions. Drastic cost reductions have made them contenders to deliver stationary and portable energy for a...
California’s Crisis Means ANWR Should Be Opened
The Golden State is losing some of its luster, as energy prices soar, shortages become more acute, rolling blackouts disrupt lives and businesses, and utility companies confront bankruptcy. Meanwhile, many California residents cheered ex-President Bill Clinton's...
Shelve the Rebates and Bring on the Tax Cuts
In an effort to jumpstart our flagging economy, the Federal Reserve has just lowered interest rates yet again. Good idea. But now some in Congress think they can go the Fed one better and stimulate the economy by delivering the $100 billion they've set aside for...
The False Promise of Renewable Energy
A cacophony of calumny has greeted suggestions that America begin drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Outer Continental Shelf, and other public lands, in search of oil and natural gas, to ease our spreading energy crisis and help rein in prices. The...
California: Paradise Lost
Like that of many Third World countries, California's electrical grid can now fail with little notice. Rolling blackouts leave households in the dark, university classes canceled, and families without essential appliances. The most elemental responsibility of a humane...
News Flash to Broadband Service Providers: Internet Service is a Utility, Not a Game of Magic 8 Ball
I am a subscriber to the Angry Charter Users list server. This list server is intended for users in a different geographical area than my own, but I follow the postings because it helps me understand the extent to which my service problems are local, regional, or...
Scholars Overturn Case for Thomas Jefferson’s Relationship with Slave Sally Hemings
In April 2001, a "blue ribbon" commission of highly accomplished and nationally recognized scholars reported its findings after a year-long investigation of the evidence for a sexual relationship between Thomas Jefferson and his house slave, Sally Hemings. The...
Power at Any Price
Last month, in a response to President Bush's energy plan, Governor Gray Davis declared that the state of California is "in war with energy companies." By attacking the producers of energy, he has demonstrated a fundamental misunderstanding of the roots of the energy...
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