The death of a distinguished scientist or a leading novelist usually attracts public attention. But the recent death of perhaps the most celebrated figure in academic philosophy--Harvard's Willard Van Orman Quine--attracted virtually none. This lack of reflection on...
POLITICS
Bring Back Justice
In John Ashcroft's confirmation hearings for attorney general, the United States missed a rare opportunity to remedy the disastrous decline in the truth-seeking and justice-dispensing functions of the criminal justice system. When the administration of justice goes...
Reagan May Not Have Been “Smart”, But He Was Very “Wise”
The 90th birthday of Ronald Reagan may be an appropriate time to reassess the role of his presidency in the history of the 20th century. Some presidents simply happen to be in office when historic events occur, but other presidents make history themselves -- like...
Random Thoughts
Random thoughts on the passing scene: Merit is its own reward, but it's also nice to get a pay raise. The first big Washington scandal of the 20th century was the Teapot Dome scandal of 1921, which led three members of the Harding administration to commit suicide....
Beware of the Many Masks of Russia’s Putin
Russia is in the news: a crackdown on the media and the oligarchs; the Kursk submarine disaster; restructuring of the Federation, including the creation of seven federal superdistricts headed mostly by generals; and a change in the way members of the upper house of...
The Conservative Welfare State
In 1960, the novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand pronounced conservatism dead. The conservatives' refusal to challenge the fundamental ideas behind the welfare state, she argued, would doom them to a policy of appeasement and timidity. Sometimes it may seem as if her...
No Sense of Proportion in the Demand for Electric Cars
Mathematicians use the term "rational numbers" for numbers that can form a ratio. By this definition, there is a lot of irratioUality in California, where many people seem incapable of forming a ratio or proportion between different things. California's electricity...
In Search of…Civil Rights Violations
Racial charges by many black politicians, civil-rights spokesmen, self-appointed black leaders and guilt-ridden whites are just plain nonsense. They get away with them because we're ill-informed or are too timid to question their assumptions and assertions. Let's...
The U.S. Needs to Stop Arming and Training China’s Military
Part of the reason U.S. military leaders give away too much is naiveté, not disloyalty. Part of the explanation for such actions is this romantic sense of wanting to give China something in the hopes of developing a friendship. People do really dumb things.
Alan Greenspan: Puppet or Puppet Master?
Alan Greenspan's about-face on interest rates and tax cuts might have you wondering if he is simply reacting to his new Commander-in-Chief, or if he is seeing how much he can manipulate the economy. Under Clinton, he was an outspoken opponent of tax cuts--which was...
Bush Should Establish Missile Defense as a National Priority
President Bush should explain to Americans, Congress, and the world why a national missile defense system is urgently needed and how a global missile defense system will help to ensure that no country is held hostage by the threat of attack by missiles carrying...
Criminalizing Sex Ed
For decades, Planned Parenthood has been proselytizing that sex education is the answer to unwanted pregnancies and population control. The crusaders first breached the high schools, then poured into the elementary schools. Today, toddlers are taught the mechanics of...
Mel Reynolds and Bill Clinton: Bosom Buddies (The Scoop on the Clinton Pardons)
Johnny-come-lately liberals are in an uproar over former President Clinton's peddling of White House pardons: Clinton has no shame! He'll do anything for a quick buck! He disgraced the highest office in the land! This is news? Lost in the hoopla is Clinton's repugnant...
War: The Fruit of the Middle East ‘Peace Process’
Late in September 2000, the Palestinian Authority kicked off a campaign of organized violence meant to hasten the final "liberation" of Israel from the Jews. The fighting began with mobs throwing rocks and firebombs at Jewish civilians and vehicles. Soon it escalated...
Microsoft Assault is an Inept Stab at “Industrial Policy”
The federal government's persecution of Microsoft is a travesty--the worst combination of third-rate economics and special- interest politics. Last year's ruling against the company may be a victory for envy-driven bureaucrats at the U.S. Justice Department, but it...
The Politics of Evasion
There was a moment in the past weeks' confirmation hearings that reveals the root of what's wrong with our government. It was not in the most contentious or well-publicized hearing -- and indeed, it was a case where Senate Democrats, Senate Republicans and the new...
Race and the New Century
W.E.B. DUBOIS once said that the problem of the 20th century world was going to be the problem of the color line. Like many ringing predictions, it missed the mark by a wide margin. The biggest atrocity of [last] century against any people -- the Holocaust -- involved...
President William Jefferson Clinton: Good-bye, Good Riddance
"NOTHING in his life," one character in Macbeth says of another, "became him like the leaving it." It would have been nice to say of Bill Clinton that nothing in his presidency became him like the leaving it. Those of us who spent the last eight years amazed by the...
What is a Classical Education?
Classical education depends on a three-part process of training the mind. The early years of school are spent in absorbing facts, systematically laying the foundations for advanced study. In the middle grades, students learn to think through arguments. In the high...
America’s Egalitarian Army
Most people know by now that morale in the U.S. armed forces has dropped to a level not seen since the days of the Carter administration. Not to worry, say Army officials, we have a quick fix we're implementing later this year--allowing our troops to wear the black...
Basic Economics
One of the reasons for the confusion surrounding so many economic issues -- such as the current electricity crisis in California -- is an underlying confusion about what economics itself is all about. To many people, economics is about money. But economies and...
The Cause of the California Power Blackouts
Californians are not only seeing rolling blackouts, they are seeing chickens coming home to roost. They are learning the most elementary facts the hard way. Fact number one: You cannot go on obstructing the building of electric power generating plants for years on end...
America, The Republic
The recent presidential election revealed a serious misconception about the nature of America's government.Contrary to what so many said, including Al Gore, who claimed that "What is at stake here is the integrity of our democracy, making sure that the will of the...
Gun Shows Under Fire: Bureaucrats Attempt To Ban Gun Shows
Here's the thing about the Bill of Rights: It isn't an a la carte menu. You can't just pick and choose. But that's exactly what public officials in my neighborhood want to do in their brazenly unconstitutional attempt to ban gun shows. The Montgomery County (Md.)...
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