Applauding the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold a ban on so-called partial birth abortions, President Bush called it a victory for “building a culture of life in America.” The idea of a “culture of life” has been a rallying cry for...
POLITICS
Murder at Virginia Polytechnic Institute
The 32 murders at Virginia Polytechnic Institute (VPI) shocked the nation, but what are some of the steps that can be taken to reduce the probability that such a massacre will happen again? A large portion of the blame can be laid at the feet of the VPI administration...
How About Economic Progress Day?
Last Sunday was marked by an orgy of celebrations of Earth Day, the worldwide annual event intended to “to spark a revolution against environmental abuse.” Even the Bush administration had an Earth Day website, which stated, “Earth Day and every day...
No Representation for Taxation
The citizens of Washington, D.C., do not pay taxes; they receive them.
Health Care Is a Business–or Should Be
Ultimately all health care is paid for by business activity. Business provides the wages, the return on investment, the insurance, the taxes that pay directly for health care, and the insurance and taxes that fund government programs. When the government manages to...
Exploiting Ignorance
So many Americans graduate high school and college having learned what to think as opposed to acquiring the tools of critical, independent thinking. Likewise, they have learned little about our nation’s history. As such, they fall prey to the rhetoric of...
The Edifice Complex
Why do we let politicians name buildings after each other? I understand building monuments to honor leaders like Washington and Jefferson. But monuments to current members of Congress? Haven’t we lowered the bar too far? Today all a congressman has to do to get...
Phony Science and Public Policy
The public has become increasingly aware that the science behind manmade global warming is a fraud. But maybe Americans like bogus science in pursuit of certain public policy objectives. Let’s look at it. Many Americans find tobacco smoke to be a nuisance. Some...
Springtime for Taxes
Spring is here, but you may have been too busy filling out tax forms to enjoy it. The unpaid job of gathering W-2 and 1099s, sorting through receipts, and tabulating deductions, credits, and exemptions takes a lot of time. Americans spent 6.4 billion hours complying...
Neither Liberals nor Conservatives Support Our Troops
Supporters and opponents of President Bush’s Iraq War are clashing in a furious debate over who truly supports our troops. The President’s critics say they are supporting our troops by setting a timetable to bring them home from an...
Worry About the Right Things
For the past two weeks I’ve written about how the media — part of the Fear Industrial Complex — profit by scaring us to death about things that rarely happen, like terrorism, child abductions, and shark attacks. We do it because we get caught up in...
The Shame of Higher Education
Many of our nation’s colleges and universities have become cesspools of indoctrination, intolerance, academic dishonesty and the new racism. In a March 1991 speech, Yale President Benno Schmidt warned, “The most serious problems of freedom of expression in...
In Defense of Income Inequality
The issue of income inequality reveals one of the ugliest aspects of today’s culture. The ugliness stems not from the existence of income inequality–but from the motives of those who denounce it. Income inequality used to be a rabble-rousing issue of the...
Repeal Sarbanes-Oxley
Imagine opening tomorrow’s newspaper and reading this: “Citing all-too-frequent child abuse and neglect, Congress has proposed the Parenting Reform Act. Under the proposed law, all parents must swear that they have not ’caused unreasonable physical...
Global Warming Heresy
Most climatologists agree that the earth’s temperature has increased about a degree over the last century. The debate is how much of it is due to mankind’s activity. Britain’s Channel 4 television has just produced “The Great Global Warming...
What to Do About High Gasoline Prices
In response to recent rises in gas prices, we are once again hearing calls for the government to “do something” to force prices lower. But no matter what the price of gasoline is, such calls are wrong. All market fluctuations in the price of gasoline, up...
Should the Veterans Administration Take Over All Health Care?
For years the advocates of a total takeover of health care by the government have pointed to the Veterans Administration as the model of efficient and caring health care by our government. It provides an ideal model, they said, for all health care. They must have...
Hazardous Safety Regulation
Whenever someone is hurt in an accident, people say, “There ought to be a law!” Politicians rush to oblige them and then take credit for all the lives they saved. But shouldn’t they also accept blame for the lives lost because of those laws? Lives...
Regrets for Slavery
Both chambers of the Commonwealth of Virginia’s General Assembly passed a resolution saying government-sanctioned slavery “ranks as the most horrendous of all depredations of human rights and violations of our founding ideals in our nation’s history;...
The Fear Industrial Complex
We can scare ourselves stupid. Consider vaccines. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says the mercury in them has “poisoned an entire generation! It’s causing IQ loss, mental retardation, speech delay, language delay, ADD, hyperactivity!” The news media love this...
Take a Stand for the Rights of Physicians
While Governor Schwarzenegger and California legislators are busy putting forward proposals to socialize health care, one element is profoundly missing: none of these politicians know or care what physicians think of the proposals. It should have occurred to them that...
Democracy or Liberty
Does democracy really deserve the praise it receives? According to Webster’s Dictionary, democracy is defined as “government by the people; especially: rule of the majority.” What’s so great about majority rule? Let’s look at majority...
Modern Politics as Modern Art
The mere allegation that the one side is “playing politics” is like a catch-all smear to stop any opposition in its tracks.
Profits Lower the Cost of Health Care in the Long Run
Advocates of medical socialism want to reduce the profits of pharmaceutical firms and put health insurance companies out of business completely. But who profits from profits–and exactly who profits when they are destroyed? Critics point to supposedly lower...
Stocks Look Cheap Historically, But They May Get Cheaper
With stocks at new highs, are prices too high for the value-minded investor to pay? I say no — although if you are a value-minded trader, the answer may be yes. The way I look at stock valuations is by comparing consensus forward earnings to current long-term...
No Drug Price Controls
The Democrats who now control Congress want to change President Bush’s Medicare drug benefit to require government officials to negotiate drug prices with the pharmaceutical companies. Under the current program, competing insurance companies cut the deals and...
Nonsense Ideas About Economics
There are some ideas and feelings that sound plausible but given just a wee bit of thought can be shown to border on lunacy. Let’s examine a few. Some U.S. companies have been accused of exploiting Third World workers with poor working conditions and low wages....
Social Security is a Monstrous Injustice
Throughout the nation, a fierce debate rages over Social Security. One side, led by President Bush, says the system is in crisis and must be saved via “partial privatization.” The other side says the system is basically sound and can be saved with a little...
Religion vs. Liberty
America’s war on terrorism is being undercut–by the administration’s efforts to inject religion into politics.
Universal Health Insurance: Schwarzenegger Terminates Good Government
Schwarzenegger’s Folly Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants all Californians to have medical insurance. So he’s going to force them to have it. Schwarzenegger abandoned his opposition to mandated employer-based health insurance and embraced the idea as his...
Multiculturalism’s Real Agenda
Back to school nowadays means back to classrooms, lessons and textbooks permeated by multiculturalism and its championing of “diversity.” Many parents and teachers regard multiculturalism as an indispensable educational supplement, a salutary influence...
Washington’s Make-Believe Policy on Iran
The Bush administration claims to have a way to deter the militant theocracy of Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons–and thwart its ambition to bring “death to America.” Washington’s plan aims to pressure Teheran, financially and...
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