POLITICS

An Open Letter from Claire Lai, Daughter of Chinese Political Prisoner Jimmy Lai, to Eileen Gu, the American-born Star of China’s Winter Olympics Team

On Feb. 9, at the age of 78, my father was sentenced to 20 years in prison in Hong Kong for championing these freedoms through the newspaper he founded and published. I believe that you — a celebrated member of the Chinese Olympic team and someone deeply respected wit…

A Tangled Web: “Disparate Impact” Dogma (Part 2)

A Tangled Web: “Disparate Impact” Dogma (Part 2)

Much of the backlog of cases in our over-burdened courts has been created by the courts themselves, with adventurous judicial “interpretations” of laws that leave a large gray area of uncertainty around even the most plainly written legislation. Lawyers of...

Judge Sotomayor’s Relativism

Judge Sotomayor’s Relativism

While I usually write about regional issues here, today’s national issues are so crucially important that I’ll devote substantial space to the views of Judge Sonia Sotomayor, nominated for the Supreme Court. Empathy First recall what President Obama...

A Tangled Web: “Disparate Impact” Dogma (Part 1)

A Tangled Web: “Disparate Impact” Dogma (Part 1)

While the recent Supreme Court decision in the New Haven firefighters’ case will be welcome news to those who don’t think that a gross injustice is O.K. when those on the receiving end are white, the reasoning behind the 5 to 4 decision is a painful...

What Obama Should Say To Iran

Protests in Iran continue despite the theocracy’s attempt to crush them. As Tehran launches its usual accusations of “American interference,” could it be that America hasn’t “interfered” enough? Imagine what might happen–what...

Why a Bill of Rights?

Why a Bill of Rights? Why did the founders of our nation give us the Bill of Rights? The answer is easy. They knew Congress could not be trusted with our God-given rights. Think about it. Why in the world would they have written the First Amendment prohibiting...

Judge Sotomayor’s “Qualifications”

Judge Sotomayor’s “Qualifications”

For the fourth time in six cases, the Supreme Court of the United States has reversed a decision for which Judge Sonia Sotomayor voted on the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals. If this nominee were a white male, would this not raise questions about whether he should be...

Alice in Obama Medical Care Land

Alice in Obama Medical Care Land

Most political and media discussions of medical care have an air of unreality reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland. There is an abundance of catch-phrases but remarkably few coherent arguments. Let’s start at square one. Why is there alarm about American medical...

The Obama Health Care Plan: Hazardous to Your Health

On June 25 a town hall meeting was held in Rio Rancho, New Mexico to discuss Obama’s health care plan. The meeting opened with a televised study of the Canadian and UK’s health care plans. Afterwards, a factual report of the Obama plan was presented....

College Education: To Much of a “Good Thing”?

College Education: To Much of a “Good Thing”?

Even if the “stimulus” package doesn’t seem to be doing much to stimulate the economy, it is certainly stimulating many potential recipients of government money to start lining up at the trough. All you need is something that sounds like a...

Doctors: Stand Up to the Political Bullies

Physicians and other medical professionals have the power to bring down socialized medicine–socialized medicine as we know it, and as its expansion is being proposed. They can do so by simply saying, “Enough.” Government does not own my skills....

The Real Right to Medical Care Versus Socialized Medicine

The Real Right to Medical Care Versus Socialized Medicine

The health and the freedom of the American people now and in the future demand a new politics of progress: progress away from government interference and in the direction of individualism and capitalism. Let such progress begin here and now, with a fight for the right t…

Republicans in the Wilderness

Republicans in the Wilderness

A Gallup poll last week showed that far more Americans describe themselves as “conservatives” than as “liberals.” Yet Republicans have been clobbered by the Democrats in both the 2008 elections and the 2006 elections. In a country with...

Separating State and Church

Every human being needs a moral code in order to live. There is no choice about that. Morality is a requirement of man’s life. There is a choice of which moral code you accept. You might accept the moral code identified by a philosopher. Or you might accept the...

Sonia Sotomayor: Equality or Pay-back?

Sonia Sotomayor: Equality or Pay-back?

Back when I was on the receiving end of racial discrimination, it was to me not simply a personal misfortune, or even the misfortune of a race, it was a moral outrage. But not everyone who went through such an experience sees it that way. When it comes to subjecting...

Live Free or Die

“Live Free or Die” is the title of author and columnist Mark Steyn’s speech at Hillsdale College, reproduced in Imprimis (April 2009), a Hillsdale publication that’s free for the asking. Canadian born, now living in New Hampshire, Steyn has had...

Thug Worship in Iran and in America

Looters took over downtown Los Angeles the other night following a professional basketball victory. A news radio reporter and several policemen were attacked, stores were looted, and, as far as I can tell, police stood down and allowed the looters to do the damage....

Ayn Rand and the Financial Crisis

In this time of financial crisis and the Democrats’ irrational response to it, Americans are showing a growing interest in Objectivism, the philosophy of Ayn Rand. Increasing sales of her masterpiece, Atlas Shrugged, have been reported around the United States....

Punishing Google for Its Success

The Obama administration’s Department of Justice recently announced that it will dramatically increase enforcement of antitrust laws against successful, dominant companies who allegedly harm competition by wielding too much “market power.” What sorts...

Politics Supersedes Public Health

Politics Supersedes Public Health

Public health authorities in California have for years spent many millions of dollars on television commercials that are supposed to help people quit smoking. Perhaps that is better than spending income from tobacco settlements and taxes intended for that purpose on...

Praise Your Child’s Thinking

Praise Your Child’s Thinking

Daily life offers us parents many opportunities to strengthen our children ‘s minds. One way to do that is by noticing and taking advantage of opportunities to praise our children’s thought. “Yes, that’s right.” “Very true,”...

America At A Crossroads

Today’s political mix includes liberal and conservative Republicans, and liberal and conservative Democrats. The Republican and Democrat tags no longer accurately identify political doctrine. The designations liberal and conservative have also changed from their...

David Brooks — A Modern Day Peter Keating

To plumb the depths at the NY Times: I think David Brooks is worse than Paul Krugman. Krugman is a cynical deceiver, who distorts every fact to fit his lust for dictatorship. Brooks, who represents the worst strain of conservatism, actually believes his views, and...

The Character of Nations

The Character of Nations

In an age that values cleverness over wisdom, it is not surprising that many superficial but clever books get more attention than a wise book like “The Character of Nations” by Angelo Codevilla, even though the latter has far more serious implications for...

Varieties of Nothing

Varieties of Nothing

Doing nothing might seem to be simple and easy. But there are many varieties of nothing, and some kinds of nothing can get very elaborate and complex. In courts of law, for example, “concurrent sentences” mean that nothing is being done to punish a...

The Fairness Doctrine

The Fairness Doctrine

The Fairness Doctrine is not a doctrine that supports freedom or individual rights or free enterprise. The only way to deal fairly with it is to prevent its reinstatement and to repeal it entirely.

Dumbest Generation Getting Dumber

The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) is an international comparison of 15-year-olds conducted by The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) that measures applied learning and problem-solving ability. In 2006, U.S. students...

Edmund Burke and President Obama

Edmund Burke and President Obama

The other day I sought a respite from current events by re-reading some of the writings of 18th century British statesman Edmund Burke. But it was not nearly as big an escape as I had thought it would be. When Burke wrote of his apprehension about “new power in...

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