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...
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...
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...
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...
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 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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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.
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
An unlikely political figure is willing to fight for lower gas prices. His name: Fidel Castro. He’s working with foreign investors, including China, to find oil off the Cuban coast, close to American waters. In contrast, American companies aren’t looking...
In response to the National Security Agency’s acquisition of private telephone call databases, a lot of politicians — even those who were given frequent briefings about the program for more than four years — claim to be deeply shocked about this...
Some see it as a NATO counterweight. Others call it a Club for Dictators – or at least near-dictators. Some consider it an anti-American stalking horse for Chinese and or Russian hegemony, with the potential to become “OPEC with nukes.” Whatever: The...
As the price of gasoline and the myriad products that utilize petroleum in their manufacture rises, Americans are going to ask why the Congress has resisted accessing the billions of barrels’ worth of oil and natural gas in our offshore continental shelf. As the...
I am, of course, delighted by the death of terrorist ringleader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Iraq. I’m glad that he apparently had a chance to suffer before actually dying. I have no illusions that al-Zarqawi’s death will have any major impact on terrorism in...
European Governments Have No Right To Take Over Apple’s Itunes Dear Editor: European governments have no right to force Apple to make downloads from iTunes compatible with the products of its rivals. If music listeners don’t like the limitations of...
On April 11, 2006, the University of Southern California Objectivist Club sponsored an event titled “Free Speech and the Danish Cartoons: A Panel Discussion” which was attended by more than 300 people. Many critics on the Left grudgingly uphold the right...
Random thoughts on the passing scene: When you have 90 percent of what you want, think twice before insisting on the other 10 percent. I have never understood stuttering. Once I heard a well-known economist who stuttered spend 45 minutes singing humorous,...
Fantastic news recently! It was widely reported Thursday that a diplomatic solution was finally found regarding the Iran nuke situation! Yes, the three years of apparently useless jibber-jabbering by Europeans has finally paid off big-time! (Shame on me for having...
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