Year: 2013

Gold’s second quarter price plunge is now the largest on record, dropping 23% in the last three months to finish a little over $1,200. Wall Street is gloating that a new metals bear market is upon us. A Duke professor even forecast gold returning to its “fair value” of $800 or lower. Naturally, he was […]

The fundamental problem of the political left seems to be that the real world does not fit their preconceptions. Therefore they see the real world as what is wrong, and what needs to be changed, since apparently their preconceptions cannot be wrong. A never-ending source of grievances for the left is the fact that some […]

As we celebrate our nation’s 237th birthday, a crucial facet of American life has all but vanished. We have forsaken, in any systematic and deliberate public manner, one of our most fundamental duties: fostering civic virtue in each and every one of our citizens. What does it mean to be an American? Politicians in both […]

Many libertarians, outraged by how our government spies on us, call me a “traitor” because I’m not very angry. I understand that the National Security Administration tracking patterns in our emails and phone calls could put us on a terrible, privacy-crushing slippery slope. But we’re not there yet. Some perspective: We are less closely watched […]

The political left has long claimed the role of protector of “the poor.” It is one of their central moral claims to political power. But how valid is this claim? Leaders of the left in many countries have promoted policies that enable the poor to be more comfortable in their poverty. But that raises a […]

Recent opinion polls demonstrate a deepening distrust of the federal government. That’s not an altogether bad thing. Our nation’s founders recognized that most human abuses are the result of government. As Thomas Paine said, “government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil.” Because of their fear of abuse, the Constitution’s framers sought […]

You just can’t out-gloom an environmentalist. The Atlantic invited some luminaries to answer the question “How and when will the world end?” Some contributions were funny. Others simply plausible — a volcanic eruption from underneath Yellowstone National Park is frightfully overdue. But only an environmentalist like Bill McKibben could be a killjoy about the apocalypse […]

House Speaker John Boehner is very likely to pass an immigration reform bill. Its content is what is unknown. The Speaker’s desire to act on reform is based on a vocal consensus of the national Republican Party leadership that correctly advises him that the GOP cannot be the impediment that blocks reform. Stung by the […]

Last week, Chief Justice John Roberts blatantly ignored the Constitution and the law, and he purposefully rewrote Obamacare in order to rule it legal. He called Obamacare a “tax” instead of an individual mandate; he then proceeded to blithely expand the government’s power to tax to encompass a tax on breathing, which is what Obamacare […]

Ever since former NSA contractor Edward Snowden fled the job he held for three months, taking four laptop computers full of U.S. intelligence with him to Hong Kong and Russia, other countries have become “outraged” by the Snowden disclosures about American intelligence practices. What, exactly, is so alarming? Apparently, the fact that spies actually spy. […]