Barack Obama and Sarah Palin on Taxing Oil Companies and Giving the Money to Others
POLITICS
Anti-Obamanomics: Reducing Taxes on the “Rich”
An analysis and critique of a major aspect of the views on taxation attributed to Obama.
Is College Worth It?
As parents pack their youngsters off to college, they might ask themselves whether it's worth both the money they will spend and their children's time. Dr. Marty Nemko has researched that question in an article aptly titled "America's Most Over-rated Product: Higher...
Random Thoughts: August 2008
Random thoughts on the passing scene: If you took all the fraud out of politics, there might not be a lot left. The reason so many people misunderstand so many issues is not that these issues are so complex, but that people do not want a factual or analytical...
Why the Free Market Works
By taking a couple of courses in economic theory, we could immunize ourselves from nonsense spouted by politicians and pundits, but in the meantime check out Professor John R. Lott's "Freedomnomics: Why the Free Market Works." His first chapter is "Are You Being...
Amateurs Outdoing Professionals
When amateurs outperform professionals, there is something wrong with that profession. If ordinary people, with no medical training, could perform surgery in their kitchens with steak knives, and get results that were better than those of surgeons in hospital...
Georgia on Our Mind: On the Russian Invasion of Georgia
What is happening in the republic of Georgia is all too reminiscent of what happened back in 1956, when Russian tanks rolled into Hungary-- and the West did nothing. An argument might well be made that, realistically, there was nothing the West could have done-- then...
Retire Social Security: Social Security Is Morally Bankrupt
August 14 marks Social Security's 73rd birthday--placing it eight years past standard retirement age. But, despite the program's $10-trillion-plus dollar shortfall, no politician dares to suggest that this disastrous program be phased out and retired; all agree on one...
Patterns of Black Excellence in Education
Most people know the tragic state of black education today. We know that billions of dollars are spent on federal government programs such as No Child Left Behind and the billions spent by state and local governments. If you were to ask an education "expert" to...
Whose “Special Interests”?
We take it for granted that a vote means a secret ballot but it was not always that way. Moreover, it will not remain that way for workers who vote on whether or not they want a labor union, if legislation sponsored by Congressional Democrats and endorsed by Senator...
Senator Obama and The Galbraith Effect?
Many years ago, when I was a college student, I took a course from John Kenneth Galbraith. On the first day of class, Professor Galbraith gave a brilliant opening lecture, after which the students gave him a standing ovation. Galbraith kept on giving brilliant opening...
A Nation of Thieves
Edgar K. Browning, professor of economics at Texas A&M University, has a new book aptly titled "Stealing from Each Other." Its subtitle, "How the Welfare State Robs Americans of Money and Spirit," goes to the heart of what the book is about. The rise of equalitarian...
Bad “News”
We have forgotten so much about the immediate aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that many people may not remember the deadly anthrax spores that were mailed to various prominent people in politics and in the media during that time. None of the...
The Gratingest Generation
If our era could have its own coat of arms, it would be a yak against a background of mush. This must be the golden age of endless and pointless talk. Every sports events seems to be preceded by all kinds of talk -- whether by athletes repeating cliches that we have...
Random Thoughts: July 2008
Random thoughts on the passing scene: Government bailouts are like potato chips: You can't stop with just one. Anyone who is honest with himself and with others knows that there is not a snow ball's chance in hell to have an honest dialogue about race. I wonder what...
Bankrupt “Exploiters”: Part II
We don't look to arsonists to help put out fires but we do look to politicians to help solve financial crises that they played a major role in creating. How did the government help create the current financial mess? Let me count the ways. In addition to federal laws...
Black Education: Hard Times at Douglass High
"Hard Times at Douglass High," is an HBO documentary that aired last June. It captured much of the 2004-2005 school year at Baltimore's predominantly black Frederick Douglass High School. The tragedy is that what is seen in the documentary is typical of most...
Bankrupt “Exploiters”
In one of those front-page editorials disguised as "news" stories, the New York Times blames "the lucrative lending practices" of banks and other financial institutions for helping create the current financial crisis of millions of borrowers and of the financial...
Autism Cures?
"New Ways to Diagnose Autism Earlier" read a recent headline in the Wall Street Journal. There is no question that you can diagnose anything as early as you want. The real question is whether the diagnosis will turn out to be correct. My own awareness of how easy it...
Are Facts Obsolete?
In an election campaign in which not only young liberals, but also some people who are neither young nor liberals, seem absolutely mesmerized by the skilled rhetoric of Barack Obama, facts have receded even further into the background than usual. As the hypnotic...
Stop Oil Speculation Now: The Airlines Disgraceful Political Agenda
Today I received a message from United Airlines pushing a particularly misguided political agenda. It is one of the most disgraceful public displays of incompetence and evasion by American business in recent memory. According to the airlines, speculators are to blame...
With or Without Nukes, Iran Is a Mortal Threat
Imagine that your neighborhood is overrun by a gang. These brutes are wielding crowbars, knives, and pistols in a frenzied spree of home break-ins and mugging and murder. Now suppose the police reveal that their grand strategy for dealing with this gang is to block...
In Defense of Oil and Gas Speculators
Despite Congress' periodic hauling of weak-kneed oil executives before their committees to charge them with collusion and price-gouging, subsequent federal investigations turn up no evidence to support the charges. Right now oil company executives are getting a bit of...
Republicans for Obama
A number of friends of mine have commented on an odd phenomenon that they have observed-- conservative Republicans they know who are saying that they are going to vote for Barack Obama. It seemed at first to be an isolated fluke, perhaps signifying only that my...
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