Last Thursday, the French embassy in Havana decided to invite Fidel Castro’s communist cronies over to help celebrate France’s Bastille Day — a day similar in significance and symbolism to our Fourth of July. Shamefully, they expressly didn’t...
POLITICS
Slavery Reparations Shakedown Lobby
The slavery reparations shakedown lobby is gearing up for attacks on American industry. They’ve failed in the courts and Congress, so they’re going after weak-kneed CEOs. At the NAACP’s recent annual convention, Dennis C. Hayes, its interim...
English as a Foreign Language in the United States
A recent e-mail from a dedicated teacher illustrates a problem that has received far too little attention. In her kindergarten class was a little black girl who did well except for getting a very obvious question wrong. It turned out that the little girl had no...
Education Dogmas
There have been many bitter complaints from teachers and principals about the Bush administration’s “No Child Left Behind” act — and more specifically about having to “teach to the test” instead of doing whatever teachers and...
Letters to the Editor: July 2005
G8 Aids Terrorism Dear Editor: The G8 leaders’ decision to give billions of dollars to the Palestinian Authority in the aftermath of the terrorist bombings in London will only encourage more terrorism. A large portion of this money will no doubt find its way...
Corporation for Public Broadcasting
While the nation debates the future of Corporation for Public Broadcasting, I have one question: Is it becoming increasingly obvious to anyone else that there are moral and practical flaws in a publicly financed media? Since its inception in 1967, the Corporation for...
The Destruction of “Social Security”
It is time Americans stop fearing self-reliance and start taking personal responsibility for their finances. It is also time the government stops patronizingly telling them they won’t survive on their own.
The Sex Education False Dichotomy
MSNBC.com is reporting, “a leading group of pediatricians says teenagers need access to birth control and emergency contraception, not the abstinence-only approach to sex education favored by religious groups and President Bush.” I think both sides are...
Random thoughts for July 2005
Random thoughts on the passing scene: Usually I like four-star hotels better than five-star hotels. The four-star hotels tend to be comfortable and attractive places with amenities, but without the pretentiousness and fussiness of five-star hotels. It is amazing how...
The Eradication of Polio and the Conspiracy-Theory Mentality
A worldwide campaign begun in 1988 to eradicate the polio infection was on the verge of success when, early in 2003, a conspiracy theory took hold of the Muslim population in northern Nigeria.
Not Strictly Business: China’s Bid to Buy Unocal
It’s a heck of an offer. In an 11th hour bid to buy Unocal, China’s state-run CNOOC Ltd. offered $19.6 billion, cash, for America’s ninth largest oil company. That’s a lot of yuan in anybody’s book. For CNOOC, it’s downright...
CNOOC Acquiring Unocal: What’s All The Fuss?
What’s all the fuss? An energy company based in Hong Kong called CNOOC, Ltd. — small by international standards — a few weeks ago bid $18.5 billion in cash to buy another small energy company, Unocal, based in California. The bid was nearly $2...
The Tragedy of Africa: Local Tyranny Subsidized by Western Paternalism
Nature and man have combined to make Africa the most tragic of the continents — and the men who did this have been both black and white. The great French historian Fernand Braudel said, “In understanding Black Africa, geography is more important than...
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan’s Delusions of Grandeur
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan’s recent article in The Washington Post was a pathetic attempt to claim credit for political and economic developments in Iraq. It was an extraordinary re-writing of history that would have made officials in Orwell’s...
Freedom, Not Foreign Aid, For Africa
British Prime Minister Tony Blair is pressuring the rich nations of the world to give more foreign aid to Africa — to the tune of $25 billion a year by 2010. The U.S. already gave $3.2 billion last year. In the wake of this pressure, we might ask ourselves...
The Tragedy of Africa: Foreign Aid and Debt Forgiveness
The official declarations coming out of the G8 meetings in Scotland, as well as the raucous demonstrations surrounding those meetings, talk about saving Africa. But, looking back over the decades and generations, Africa has been “saved” so many times that...
The Shadowy Network Suspected in the Bombing of “Londonistan”
The London bombings surprised most people. Not Sir Ian Blair, London’s most senior police commander. Only five months ago, he declared that an attack on London was inevitable. Unfortunately, such a warning made sense. London historically has been a hotbed of...
The London Terrorist Attacks and the Stock Market
Why did stocks finish the day higher after Thursday’s tragic terrorist bombings in London? There are several very simple reasons. To begin with, the market wasn’t surprised. Ever since September 11, 2001, markets have been braced for terrorist attacks....
Pro-Israel Palestinians
For all their rhetoric about Israel’s “vicious” and “brutal” occupation, Palestinian Arabs — including their leaders — sometimes let down their guard and acknowledge how they prefer Israel to the Palestinian Authority. Here...
Palestinians Who Cling to Israel
Israel’s interior minister recently declared that after their release from long jail sentences, four Palestinian Arabs convicted of helping with suicide bombings in 2002, killing 35, will be expelled from Israel. They would, the Associated Press reported,...
Operation Bao Chuan: Say No to China National Offshore Oil Corporation’s Bid for Unocal
China National Offshore Oil Corporation presumably chose the codename “Operation Bao Chuan” for its Unocal offer to conjure up national pride in its bid to buy America’s ninth largest oil company. For bao chuan were the huge treasure ships that...
Black Rednecks and White Liberals: Who’s a Redneck?
In this era, when indignation has replaced thought for many people, it should not be surprising that the very title of my book “Black Rednecks and White Liberals” should have provoked angry reactions and bitter denunciations, even from people who never...
Judicial Havoc, Part 3
In addition to the havoc wrought by the judiciary in our times, there is the havoc wrought on the judiciary itself by others. Some have blamed the murders of a judge not long ago, and the murder of another judge’s family, on critics of judicial activism. But, in...
Lessons for the Terrorist Attacks in London
The attack on London demonstrates, once again, that terrorists are not afraid. In order to understand why, you have to suspend all diplomacy and political correctness for a moment. Fanatical religious terrorists are people who are not afraid of dying because they...
London Terrorism: British “Covenant of Security” with Islamists Ends
The country had gone from safe haven to enemy camp.
Judicial Havoc, Part 2
When it comes to judicial nominees, especially nominees to the Supreme Court, you might think that the only thing that matters — the thing that trumps all other considerations — is whether the nominee is for or against legalized abortions. Many people are...
Live 8: Bob Geldof’s Immoral Sense of Entitlement
In the tradition of modern celebrities, Bob Geldof has decided to lecture the world on the virtues of altruism and sacrifice. That lecture is Live 8. The website states that there are, “10 concerts, 100 artists, a million spectators, 2 billion viewers, and 1...
Judicial Havoc
Our era might be described in the famous phrase used to describe the era of the French Revolution — “the best of times and the worst of times.” It is the best of times in terms of life expectancy and a level of economic prosperity exceeding anything...
Dependency on Government
William Beach has just written a report for the Washington, D.C.-based Heritage Foundation titled “The 2005 Index of Dependency.” Between 1962 and today, American dependence on government has more than doubled and shows little sign of abatement. The growth...
Diplomacy with Terrorists? Therapy for the Belligerent
“Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 and the attacks and prepared for war; liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers.” “Conservatives saw what happened to...
Foreign Law is Not Law
One of the ironies of our time is that economists have been discovering the importance of law, as such — as distinguished from the specific merits of particular laws — while judges seem increasingly to be losing sight of the rule of law. “I can...
Supreme Quotas?
My reaction to Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s retirement was almost as positive as my reaction in 1981 was negative when the Reagan administration announced that they were going to appoint a woman to the Supreme Court. It wouldn’t matter if all nine...
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