Well, it finally happened. The Financial Accounting Standards Board — the group that determines so-called “generally accepted accounting principles” for financial reporting — has ruled that companies must report the costs of stock options on...
POLITICS
The basic and crucial political issue of our age is: capitalism versus socialism, or freedom versus statism. For decades, this issue has been silenced, suppressed, evaded, and hidden under the foggy, undefined rubber-terms of “conservatism” and “liberalism” which had lost their original meaning and could be stretched to mean all things to all men. – AYN RAND
Property Rites
Two centuries ago, British Prime Minister William Pitt said that the poorest man in the country was so secure in his little cottage that the King of England and his men “dare not cross the threshold” without his permission. That is what property rights are...
Free Lunch “Safety”: Part II
The government will allow you to risk your life for the sake of recreation by sky-diving, mountain climbing or any number of other dangerous activities. But it will not allow you to risk your life for the sake of avoiding arthritis pain by taking Vioxx. There is no...
Free Lunch “Safety”
In the midst of all the alarms being sounded about the health risks from taking Vioxx and Celebrex, there is a story about National Football League players using less padding than in the past. What is the connection? The NFL players know that padding gives some...
The Joseph Goebbels Award
Events of this past year have shown the need for a special award in journalism for those who think that the purpose of reporting news is to cause the public to adopt the political views of those who do the reporting. Therefore this column announces the first annual...
Children Having Children: A “Badge of Honor”?
A few years ago, I visited a friend living in Cleveland ‘s inner city. As we sat on my friend’s porch, not one, but two teenage girls — visibly pregnant — walked by. My friend cheerfully called out their names. They smiled and waved back as...
A Huge Election in Iraq
The election coming up in Iraq may turn out, in the long view of history, to be even more important than our own recent election. Both elections represent a country at a crossroads, with a choice of very different paths to take — for many years to come —...
“Academic Freedom” vs. Accountability
In The New York Sun’s editorial of December 10, 2004, you correctly note that universities like Columbia will take no action against professors whose outrageous positions are deemed a matter of “scholarly belief” [“The Bollinger...
National Sales Tax?
Rep. John Linder (R-Ga.) has authored H.R. 25 “To promote freedom, fairness, and economic opportunity by repealing the income tax and other taxes, abolishing the Internal Revenue Service, and enacting a national sales tax to be administered primarily by the...
Green Bigots International
First they destroyed the gasoline station, so that you have to drive miles out of your way to get gas. Then they destroyed a parking lot. Now they want to destroy a dam and a reservoir that supplies more than 2 million people with water. No, these are not al-Qaeda...
The Scott Peterson Murder Trial: Law or Soap Opera?
The Scott Peterson murder trial is more than a single criminal case. It is a painful reflection on the media, on the law, and on where our society has gone. The 24/7 coverage of this case, which seems to have been going on forever, has been inescapable for anyone who...
Letters to the Editor: December 2004
December 15, 2004 The Real World of Child Placement Dear Editor, Thomas Sowell argues the case against the return (or reunification) of abused/neglected children to their parents (see The “Family Re-Unfication” Gamble: Angelo Marinda All Over Again?). As a...
Open and Accountable
On Capitol Hill next month it’ll be out with the old and in with the new, as the 109th Congress takes the oath of office. Of course, neither house will look much different. More than 95 percent of incumbents who ran this year were re-elected. Still, the...
Kofi Annan and the United Nations
Kofi Annan is in deep trouble. The aura of invincibility that has surrounded Annan in his six-year tenure as United Nations secretary general has been shattered, and it is increasingly likely that he will go in the next six to 12 months. The man who undeservedly won...
Ownership Has Its Privileges
If you’re reading this column, you’re probably an investor in the stock market. That makes you a member of the approximately 60% of American households that own stocks, either directly or indirectly. That also makes you part of what President Bush likes to...
A Professor That Shines
Good teaching takes hard work. A professor must be an expert on his or her subject, understand the what the audience already knows about it, and be able to present new knowledge in a compelling and informative manner. That might explain why so few professors are good...
Phony “Ethics”
Two apparently unrelated stories that appeared in newspapers on the same day are in reality not nearly as unrelated as they might seem. One story appeared under the headline, “High School Students Debate Steroid Ethics.” The other story had the headline:...
The “Family Re-Unfication” Gamble: Angelo Marinda All Over Again?
The most painful episode ever reported in this column — for me and for many readers — was the killing of little eight-month-old Angelo Marinda by his own father, two years ago. Little Angelo first came to the attention of the authorities when he was...
Higher Education in Decline
College costs have risen dramatically over the last several decades. In many cases, it’s difficult to find a college where per-student costs are under $20,000 each year. Most often, tuition doesn’t measure the true cost because taxpayer and donor subsidies...
Fear is an Investor’s Best Friend
Fear is an investor’s best friend. Fear makes stocks cheap, so that you can buy them at great prices. But, of course, to dare to do that, you have to be unafraid. It’s a bit of a paradox. Stocks have soared since the climax of fear this summer — a...
What Kind of Intelligence Needs Reforming
I don’t mean to minimize the concern over intelligence reform in this country. However, the kind of intelligence most desperately needed is the philosophical kind. For our government officials in the Pentagon, the CIA, and elsewhere, philosophical intelligence...
Dickens’ A Christmas Carol
Of all the works written about Christmas, perhaps the most influential, save Clement Moore’s poem, The Night Before Christmas, is Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Published in 1843, the story of the curmudgeon Ebenezer Scrooge has entertained millions...
Random Thoughts for December 2004
Random thoughts on the passing scene: The very people who were telling us to “get over it” and “move on” during the Clinton scandals of the 1990s have been completely unable to get over the 2004 elections — and some of them haven’t...
Stealing Elections in Ukraine
There are many ways to steal an election. On Nov. 21, the government of Ukraine tried them all. Busloads of hoodlums — armed with permission slips allowing them to vote away from home — cast ballots in successive polling places. Known supporters of the...
Dealing with Chronic Doubt
Q: Dr. Hurd, how can I handle my problems with excessive doubt? A: Doubt is sometimes logical — even helpful. For example, you might believe that somebody did something wrong to you, but the belief is based more on emotion than evidence. Your doubt about whether...
“Honoring” Our Troops
You cannot fight a war without many brave men taking risks with their lives in order to try to accomplish their mission. Yet can you name a single American hero in either of the two wars going on today in Afghanistan and Iraq? Chances are you can’t — not...
A Moral Killing in Fallujah
Last week, US Marines in Iraq stormed the hornet’s nest of Fallujah and dealt the anti-American insurgency a crushing blow, pacifying the mosques, murder dens and sniper holes used by the enemy to kill Americans and pro-US Iraqi policemen. They also found the...
A Taxing Experience: Cut the National Debt By Reducing Spending
When liberals in the media or in politics start being alarmed about the national debt, it means just one thing: They want higher taxes. The thought of reducing spending would never cross their minds. As we are endlessly reminded, the federal government’s debt...
When Liberals Play the Race Card
Former president Bill Clinton — during his last term in office — urged Americans to have “a candid conversation on the state of race relations.” OK. ABC’s “Monday Night Football,” in a silly attempt at cross-promotion, opened...
Attacking Condi
Dr. Condoleezza Rice, President Bush’s national security adviser and now his secretary of state nominee, has been the subject of nasty, demeaning and disrespectful cartoons and commentary. Some of the worst has come from people like Julian Bond, chairman of the...
Scary Treasury Bonds
Here’s and investment that’s such a rip-off that Eliot Spitzer ought to be investigating it. It ties up your money for five years and produces almost no profits. And then you have to pay taxes on the profits you didn’t make in the first place. Who...
“The Arms Race” and The Unlimited Enemy
Cats are supposed to have nine lives but fallacies must have at least ninety. Some notions will be believed, no matter how many times they have been refuted by facts. One of these seemingly immortal fallacies is the implicit assumption that our enemies have unlimited...
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