Category: Column

Rarely a day passes on the internet without another article being written that claims America is a “hegemon,” that we’re “like Rome,” or that we want to “create an empire.” Take it from a Conservative, ultra-nationalistic, America-first hawk: Americans on the whole would rather drive bamboo shoots under their fingernails than “rule the world.” To […]

Merriam-Webster defines “speciesism” as “prejudice or discrimination based on species; especially: discrimination against animals” and I have to admit that I am an enthusiastic practitioner of this form of prejudice. ‘ I don’t believe animals have any rights other than those that man gives to them. If animals want their rights, let them have a […]

Did you know that John Ashcroft has announced that he intends to put “U.S. citizens he deems to be enemy combatants” into camps? Well best selling author: Michael Moore: has heard about it and it reminds him of the Nazi concentration camps… “Meanwhile, Attorney General John Ashcroft proposed camps–and not the kind where you make ‘Smores over […]

Our republic as our Founding Fathers created it is under assault from extremists outside our country and anti-constitutionalists inside our country. Combine that with the flailing American economy and global markets and you see that Western civilization is on the brink, as experts and all the GOP presidential candidates agree. President Barack Obama has tried […]

It was the debate that was over in less than five minutes. Although the setting was more dramatic as the numbers dwindled down to a precious few, the Thursday Republican debate in Charleston was another meaningless discussion signifying nothing. Once again, all the candidates, with the exception of course of Ron Paul, essentially agreed on […]

When former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman exited the GOP presidential primary earlier this month, left-leaning columnists were bereft. Huntsman, after all, was the Republican most respected by non-Republicans. In December, New York Times number-crunching blogger Nate Silver laid out the case for “Jon Huntsman’s Path to Victory.” It turns out that path sustained itself through […]

The scope and scale of world poverty is titanic. In fact, the majority of the world could be fairly considered desperately poor by 1st world standards. So what do we do about it? Some people say we should forgive the debt of third world nations. Well we certainly can do that, but you have to […]

Europeans are always calling Americans ‘cowboys’ and saying that we think, ‘life is like a John Wayne movie.’ I wish they were right because it would make the entire ‘War on Terrorism’ a lot easier. Unfortunately, we seem bound and determined to play the part of the Lone Ranger while we force Israel to take […]

Acording to some non-American newspapers, the United States is responsible for most of the pollution in the world. We’re also to blame for floods in Europe, earthquakes in Afghanistan, and if global warming ever actually happens that’ll be our fault as well for not signing up for the totally ineffective Kyoto protocol. We’re regularly denounced […]

When you hear someone touting a conspiracy theory in politics, you can safely discount it without paying much attention because 999 times out of 1000, there will be nothing to it. Sadly, we’ve gotten to the same point with cries of “racism” in politics. There’s almost never any validity to complaints about bigotry or racism […]

Why does President Barack Obama enjoy a no-fly zone on gay marriage? The Republican presidential contenders, with the exception of libertarian Ron Paul, have never supported gay marriage. Barack Obama, on the other hand, in a span of 16 years, has gone from supporting it, to “undecided,” to opposition, to a position that he currently […]

Where did President Obama go after killing off thousands of Keystone XL pipeline construction and manufacturing jobs? Why, Disney World, of course. Sabotaging work is hard work for Goofy and his pals. _ _And where’d he head after that? Why, up to Manhattan for more high-priced campaign fundraisers charging up to $38,500 per partier. The […]

President Barack Obama should pardon the four Marines who were captured on video as they urinated on three corpses, presumably dead Taliban. After the video went viral last week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared that the wisecracking troops may have committed war crimes. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta called Afghan President Hamid Karzai to assure […]

“In the Treasury we do not speak of tons of silver. Our unit is the troy ounce.” That was the response from some bureaucrat when Leslie Groves, the man who oversaw the Manhattan Project, sought thousands of tons of silver to be turned into electrical wires. Groves got his silver. Why? Because completing the Manhattan […]

I wish Republican politicians would have faith in the largely conservative electorate and not behave as though they’ll make themselves unelectable unless they pander to Generic Moderate. Who is that guy, anyway? Have you ever met him? Recently, we’ve seen a few examples of the liberal narrative’s rearing its oppressive head and starkly different reactions […]

Late-night comedians historically have relished the opportunity to poke fun at politicians. Sometimes they savage them. In the Obama era, they haven’t been so enthusiastic about any of it. A recent study of political jokes on three late-night shows (Letterman, Leno and Jimmy Fallon) by the Center for Media and Public Affairs found that Barack […]

I saw an amazing little commercial the other day. The ad was for a service that delivered your pet’s drugs directly to your door. Now you may wonder, ‘what’s so amazing about that?’ Well consider how incredible this service is when viewed through the lens of how much of the world lives. First off, many […]

When you were a kid, do you ever remember your mother asking you, ‘if your friends jumped off a bridge, would you jump off too?’ The point of that question was to illustrate that you didn’t have to do something dumb just because your friends were doing it. When you apply this lesson to US […]

Have you heard of ‘Not In Our Name‘? They’re a group of B and C level celebrities, writers, politicos, & academics who are against the war. Their numbers include Edward Asner, Noam Chomsky, Tom Hayden, Casey Kasem, Edward Said, Susan Sarandon, Gloria Steinem, Oliver Stone, Gore Vidal, & Kurt Vonnegut. The general idea this organization […]

In Greek mythology, the prophetess Cassandra was doomed both to tell the truth and to be ignored. Our modern version is a bankrupt Greece that we seem to discount. News accounts abound now of impoverished Athens residents scrounging pharmacies for scarce aspirin — as Greece is squeezed to make interest payments to the supposedly euro-pinching […]

A group of conservative evangelical leaders met in Texas last weekend and endorsed a Roman Catholic for president. Given the history of evangelical antipathy toward the theological underpinnings of the Roman Catholic Church, that in itself signals a remarkable evolution (pardon the word), along with a considerable amount of political pragmatism. The blessing of what […]

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. — The crowd at the Fox News/Wall Street Journal debate in Myrtle Beach was feisty, with whoops and cheers for Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Rick Perry, though not so much for Ron Paul. But it wasn’t nearly as feisty as the crowd that forced the shutdown of the 1860 […]

Mitt Romney has spent more than 20 years in private enterprise, making thousands of business decisions affecting hundreds of companies that led to more than 100,000 new jobs and billions of dollars for employees and investors. So you can see why the left despises him. Among Romney’s thousands of business decisions, the one I gather […]

This war is about oil just like the Gulf War. Just because the Gulf War was primarily about oil doesn’t mean that every war is about oil. WW1, WW2, Vietnam, & the Korean War certainly weren’t about oil were they? No they weren’t, but Bush and Cheney are oilmen, so this has to be about […]

I received an email yesterday titled “Not In My Name” that read in part… “…People all over the world want peace. What I’d like to ask you is what is your agenda? I love the USA and all the liberties it provides me. I’d like to see it offered to other nations but I am […]

Well, isn’t this rich? And I do mean rich. President Obama, man of the people, will deliver his presidential nomination acceptance speech at the Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, N.C. — so that Democratic Party fundraisers can reward big donors with skyboxes and other lavish perks. As usual, the White House and its allies […]

Simple answers are so satisfying: Green jobs will fix the economy. Stimulus will create jobs. Charity helps people more than commerce. Everyone should vote. Well, all those instinctive solutions are wrong. As Friedrich Hayek pointed out in “The Fatal Conceit,” it’s a problem that in our complex, extended economy, we rely on instincts developed during […]

Last week, President Barack Obama, at a Capital Hilton fundraising event, told the crowd, “We can’t go back to this brand of you’re-on-your-own economics.” Throughout my professional career as an economist, I’ve never come across the theory of “you’re-on-your-own economics.” I’m guessing what the president means by — and finds offensive in — “you’re-on-your-own economics” […]