Responsibility for the death of four United Nations observers in Lebanon falls primarily on Kofi Annan and the UN–not Israel. Leaving aside the obvious question as to why these observers remained in the middle of a battle area, a totally irresponsible decision,...
POLITICS
Creating Unemployment
Her’s a fantastic idea that will make everybody richer. Let’s pass a law setting a minimum price on used cars. How about, say, $15,000? If you’ve got an old beater you want to sell, and you were worried that you’d only get a couple thousand...
Truly Disgusting: Internet Gambling Prohibition Act of 1999
The House of Representatives voted 245 to 159 to pass the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act of 1999. Because of a rule requiring two-thirds approval, the measure didn’t pass. Its sponsor, Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., plans to introduce it again when only a majority is...
Then and Now
Those of us old enough to remember World War II face many painful reminders of how things have changed in Americans’ behavior during a war. Back then, the president’s defeated opponent in the 1940 election — Wendell Wilkie — not only supported...
Pacifists versus Peace
One of the many failings of our educational system is that it sends out into the world people who cannot tell rhetoric from reality. They have learned no systematic way to analyze ideas, derive their implications and test those implications against hard facts....
Hands Off My Net
The S&P 500 has more than doubled over the last 10 years — a decade in which the Internet came out of nowhere, and established itself as the technology platform of the new global economy. The Internet has been the greatest engine of economic growth the...
Western Leaders Provide Comedy to Iran’s Dictators
When the mullahs of the Islamic dictatorship of Iran are not chanting “Death to America” and “Death to Israel,” or not issuing money, weapons and orders to their global terrorist networks, or not monitoring the progress of their nuclear weapons...
The Indispensable Condition of Peace in the Middle East
As Israeli soldiers reenter Gaza and bomb Lebanon, and Israeli citizens seek shelter from Hezbollah’s missiles, the world despairingly wonders whether peace between Israel and its neighbors can ever take root. It can–but only if America reverses course. To...
Appeasing a Mortal Enemy: The U.S.-Israeli Suicide Pact
The Iran-Hamas-Hezbollah axis is fully responsible for initiating the war on Israel, but the Islamists’ aggression is the logical product of U.S.-Israeli policy. The longstanding commitment of Israel and America to “diplomatic engagement” with...
A “Cycle” of Nonsense
Now that Israel has responded to rocket attacks and the abduction of its soldiers by terrorists by making military strikes into areas controlled by those terrorists, much of our media are deploring another “cycle of violence” in the Middle East. For...
Freedom vs. Democracy: How The U.S. Government Created a Crisis in the Middle East
Hezbollah, which has been waging war on Israel, and America, for years, is the immediate cause of the current fighting in the Middle East. The broader cause, though, is the United States government. When Washington declared that freedom could be advanced by elections...
Israel: No Longer a Paper Tiger?
The blame for the current fighting falls entirely on Israel’s enemies, who deploy inhuman methods in the service of barbaric goals. While I wish the armed forces of Israel every success against the terrorists in Gaza and Lebanon and hope they inflict a maximum...
“Saving” What From Whom?
When conservationists talk about “saving” this and “protecting” that, a logical question might be: Saving it from whom? Protecting it from whom? And why should the government force what you want on someone else who obviously wants something...
Finding Alternatives to the Food and Drug Administration
Since the Federal Food and Drug Act came into law in 1906, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has had a century to develop their methodology for insuring drug safety. After expanding to an annual budget of $1.5 billion and a staff of 10,000, they continue to seek...
Why Peace Eludes the Middle East
Why does peace so elude the Middle East? A recent MSNBC.com news report provides the answer: “Hezbollah [whose attacks on Israel triggered Israel’s recent retaliation in Lebanon] is an Iranian-backed militant Shiite faction which has a free hand in...
The Pretense of Knowledge
One of the great contributions of Nobel Laureate economist Friedrich Hayek was to admonish us to recognize the insurmountable limits to human knowledge. Why? Not even the brightest minds, and surely not the U.S. Congress, can ever have the knowledge to shape an...
Presumed Guilty: How Biased Reporters “Honor Our Troops”
The same newspapers and television news programs that are constantly reminding us that some people under indictment “are innocent until proven guilty” are nevertheless hyping the story of American troops accused of rape in Iraq, day in and day out, even...
Keep Our “Addiction” to Oil, End Our Allergy to Self-Assertion
Politicians and commentators from both parties are decrying our “addiction to oil.” They exhort us to embrace costly programs to reduce our consumption of oil as quickly as possible. The primary rationale for this is national security. Our oil consumption...
A Victory for the Rule of Law
The Florida Supreme Court has just upheld an appellate court decision to throw out a $145 billion verdict in the case of Engle vs. Liggett Group. While the decision is being hailed as a major victory for tobacco companies, it is far more than that. The court...
Back From Vacation
There is nothing like returning home to recover from a vacation. They say traveling is broadening and that has certainly been my experience. My waistline broadens by about an inch a week when I am traveling. The most dangerous mode of travel is the automobile. Every...
The Poverty in Black Education is Not Due to Racial Discrimination or Lack of Money in D.C.
Let’s look at the recent “Nation’s Report Card,” published annually by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics. Nationally, in reading, only 13 percent of black fourth graders, and 11 percent of black...
Universal Freedom on the Fourth of July
It is precisely because our health care is so important to each of us that we need to be especially careful to preserve and protect the rights of physicians and other health care providers.
Bully Boy Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt
A special issue of Time magazine celebrates the historic career of Theodore Roosevelt and the implications of his presidency for the development of American society. In the phony familiarity of our times, where you call people by their first names when you have never...
Is Patriotism Obsolete?
On the eve of a holiday that used to stir patriotic emotions — the Fourth of July — it has been painful to see examples of how little remains of that glue that holds a society together. Perhaps the worst of these signs of national disintegration was the...
On a Deluded America
Diana West has written a fiery op-ed that, on its face, seems to provide a well-needed antidote to the moral platitudes that are preventing America from ridding the world of savage brutes (“Deluded America,” Washington Times, June 23, 2006). Certainly the...
Undermining the Rule of Law to Lynch an Unpopular Group
America is a nation that reveres the fact that ours is “a government of laws, not of men.” Under this principle, members of government can use their power only to enforce known and clearly defined laws. As a result, we do not worry about losing our...
Why I Refuse to Celebrate Canada Day
I refuse to celebrate Canada Day (July 1st)–as a matter of principle. While I recognize Canada as one of the better countries to live in, this relative evaluation doesn’t justify the gross injustices caused by the policies of our three levels of...
Focus Investing: The Warren Buffett Way
An excerpt from The Warren Buffett Way, Second Edition by Robert G. Hagstrom. Status Quo: A Choice of Two The current state of portfolio management, as practiced by everyone else, appears to be locked into a tug-of-war between two competing strategies — active...
Multiculturalism Breeds Terrorism
On June 2, 2006, seventeen Muslims, including five juveniles, were arrested in Canada for planning major terrorist attacks on Canadian soil against innocent people. Because these were “homegrown” Islamic terrorists, blame was rightly directed towards...
Diplomacy Only Encourages North Korea’s Belligerence
After decades of chasing nuclear weapons, North Korea is on the brink of success. Worse yet, it may already have the means of mounting an attack against us. According to news reports, North Korea is about to test-fire a powerful long-range missile capable of...
Economics and Statistics
An interesting question in economics is the proper role of statistics. Ludwig von Mises is my favourite economist, yet he held that statistics have no valid role in formulating or validating economic theory. It’s interesting to explore his reasons. First, Mises...
“Market Failure” Doesn’t Exist
In a recent column in Canada’s National Post (June 10, 2006), “economist” and author Mark Jaccard of Simon Fraser University argued that (alleged) manmade global warming represents a “market failure” that must be corrected by government...
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