March 22, 2002 -- Amtrak’s financial hemorrhaging is so severe that it may be insolvent by summer. The railroad’s auditor, KPMG LLP, is holding back from declaring it a “going concern.” Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) has flatly declared, “Amtrak isn’t broken, it’s bankrupt,” and he’s right. The Amtrak Reform Council has found Amtrak incapable of surviving without continuing taxpayer subsidies and, following a 1997 law, sent a plan to Congress recommending Amtrak be reorganized. That finding triggered a requirement that Amtrak simultaneously submit a liquidation plan to Congress, which would choose among the plans or create a hybrid plan.
July 4, 2007 -- On July 4, 1776, America's Founders declared the country's independence from Britain, largely as a revolt against excessive and unfair taxation. So in our nation, which is much more overtaxed than it was over two centuries ago, it would be fitting if, in recognition of our Founding principles, federal, state and, local governments made July Fourth a totally tax-free day. Many cities already suspend sales taxes for a few days a year on items such as clothing and school supplies, usually to garner the favor of overtaxed parents struggling to raise kids and to give mom and pop an incentive to frequent overtaxed downtown enterprises struggling to make profits. So wouldn't this be appropriate for all of us, who struggle every day to be allowed to keep our money, on that day on which we celebrate our freedom?
March 6, 2002 -- Because I live in Warsaw, I get most of my TV news from the BBC. Recently I have watched, dumbfounded and amused, the outpouring of concern for the comfort of the al-Qaeda prisoners kept at Guantanamo Bay. They were transported shackled with bags over their heads! They sleep in open cages! Four of them have British passports! Have they all had their Miranda warnings? The fact that they are undoubtedly living in less discomfort than they freely chose to undergo in the field doesn’t seem to register. I often think that the most common error in reasoning is a kind of category error, the placing of an issue in a category in which it doesn’t belong. The classic example is the “no right to shout fire in a crowded theater” issue, often cited in a free-speech context when it clearly belongs in an implied-contract context.
December 4, 2001 -- In the coming months, ethicists will be variously defending or condemning human cloning and embryonic stem cell research. They will debate the potential benefits of the technology and discuss the social consequences of the advancing science. But in the end, the ethical question will turn on the issue of when a human life begins—i.e., the life of a distinct, individual human being, a person. There is no simple answer, because the different dimensions of a person's identity emerge at different points in a continuous and complex process of development. Genetic identity is present in the fertilized egg. Cognitive identity emerges later when the fetus acquires the neural basis for conceptual thought. Biological identity as a distinct organism begins to emerge at the point of viability, and is fully present at birth. The person's moral identity as a being capable of voluntary choice on the basis of knowing right from wrong, and his spiritual identity as a self-consciously differentiated personality, are both later developments of childhood and adolescence.
April 22, 2002 -- President Bush has declared the fourth week of April to be National Volunteer Week. This is a follow-up to his call for al
April 3, 2001 -- Last week, Congress began holding hearings on human cloning. Given the highly charged debate that human cloning is likely
June 12, 2002 -- In my Harvard University apartment, overlooking the serene Charles River, I grieve for the Israelis who were murdered last
February 2, 2004 -- Given the fact that the title of director Denys Arcand's previous film was The Decline of the American Empire, that his
September 10, 2004 -- On September 9, Frank Quattrone, a prominent investment banker formerly with Credit Suisse First Boston, was sentenced
October 18, 2001 -- “Manifest Destiny” is the term originally created by John L. O’Sullivan in the 1840s to describe America's westward...
October 18, 2001 -- The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded on October 10 to three economists whose work might have
October 16, 2001 -- As Congress prepares to pass a new security bill and America faces a terrible and insidious threat, there is no more
The U.S. Supreme Court is allowing a local government to kick 87-year-old Wilhelmina Dery out of the house in which she was born, along with
"Capitalism is a social system based on the recognition of individual rights, including property rights, in which all property is privately
Art is a selective re-creation of reality according to an artist's metaphysical value judgments. Man's profound need of art lies in the fact
Let’s imagine a woman who is getting pressure from some obnoxious sleazeball stud to cheat on her husband and commit adultery. She’s tempted
December 17, 2004 -- Christmas is a season of beautiful lights, parties, gifts, food, family, friends, songs, and sentiments. Among the
Greg Hitt and Jeanne Cummings wrote on the front page of the Wall Street Journal (September 26, 2001): "In just two weeks, the terrorist....
Inventions have long since reached their limit, and I see no hope for further development.....
October 9, 2001 -- As the full impact of the barbaric attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon unfolded, we realized that we were witnesses to the worst terrorist attack in history. And even for the majority of us who do not personally know anyone whose life was stolen, the reports out of New York and Washington left a painful spiritual wound. Events as horrific and terrifying as these attacks tear us from the normal context of our lives and throw us into a seemingly inescapable world of chaos and unknown terrors. These events destroy, at least temporarily, the connection we feel with reality. We feel lost, alone, and without a way to make sense of the world. It makes it hard, as many people experienced, to focus on mundane tasks and everyday activities. These lose their meaning and make our lives feel as if they are also without meaning.
March 22, 2002 -- Amtrak’s financial hemorrhaging is so severe that it may be insolvent by summer. The railroad’s auditor, KPMG LLP, is holding back from declaring it a “going concern.” Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) has flatly declared, “Amtrak isn’t broken, it’s bankrupt,” and he’s right. The Amtrak Reform Council has found Amtrak incapable of surviving without continuing taxpayer subsidies and, following a 1997 law, sent a plan to Congress recommending Amtrak be reorganized. That finding triggered a requirement that Amtrak simultaneously submit a liquidation plan to Congress, which would choose among the plans or create a hybrid plan.
July 4, 2007 -- On July 4, 1776, America's Founders declared the country's independence from Britain, largely as a revolt against excessive and unfair taxation. So in our nation, which is much more overtaxed than it was over two centuries ago, it would be fitting if, in recognition of our Founding principles, federal, state and, local governments made July Fourth a totally tax-free day. Many cities already suspend sales taxes for a few days a year on items such as clothing and school supplies, usually to garner the favor of overtaxed parents struggling to raise kids and to give mom and pop an incentive to frequent overtaxed downtown enterprises struggling to make profits. So wouldn't this be appropriate for all of us, who struggle every day to be allowed to keep our money, on that day on which we celebrate our freedom?
March 6, 2002 -- Because I live in Warsaw, I get most of my TV news from the BBC. Recently I have watched, dumbfounded and amused, the outpouring of concern for the comfort of the al-Qaeda prisoners kept at Guantanamo Bay. They were transported shackled with bags over their heads! They sleep in open cages! Four of them have British passports! Have they all had their Miranda warnings? The fact that they are undoubtedly living in less discomfort than they freely chose to undergo in the field doesn’t seem to register. I often think that the most common error in reasoning is a kind of category error, the placing of an issue in a category in which it doesn’t belong. The classic example is the “no right to shout fire in a crowded theater” issue, often cited in a free-speech context when it clearly belongs in an implied-contract context.
December 4, 2001 -- In the coming months, ethicists will be variously defending or condemning human cloning and embryonic stem cell research. They will debate the potential benefits of the technology and discuss the social consequences of the advancing science. But in the end, the ethical question will turn on the issue of when a human life begins—i.e., the life of a distinct, individual human being, a person. There is no simple answer, because the different dimensions of a person's identity emerge at different points in a continuous and complex process of development. Genetic identity is present in the fertilized egg. Cognitive identity emerges later when the fetus acquires the neural basis for conceptual thought. Biological identity as a distinct organism begins to emerge at the point of viability, and is fully present at birth. The person's moral identity as a being capable of voluntary choice on the basis of knowing right from wrong, and his spiritual identity as a self-consciously differentiated personality, are both later developments of childhood and adolescence.
April 22, 2002 -- President Bush has declared the fourth week of April to be National Volunteer Week. This is a follow-up to his call for al
April 3, 2001 -- Last week, Congress began holding hearings on human cloning. Given the highly charged debate that human cloning is likely
June 12, 2002 -- In my Harvard University apartment, overlooking the serene Charles River, I grieve for the Israelis who were murdered last
February 2, 2004 -- Given the fact that the title of director Denys Arcand's previous film was The Decline of the American Empire, that his
September 10, 2004 -- On September 9, Frank Quattrone, a prominent investment banker formerly with Credit Suisse First Boston, was sentenced
October 18, 2001 -- “Manifest Destiny” is the term originally created by John L. O’Sullivan in the 1840s to describe America's westward...
October 18, 2001 -- The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded on October 10 to three economists whose work might have
October 16, 2001 -- As Congress prepares to pass a new security bill and America faces a terrible and insidious threat, there is no more
The U.S. Supreme Court is allowing a local government to kick 87-year-old Wilhelmina Dery out of the house in which she was born, along with
"Capitalism is a social system based on the recognition of individual rights, including property rights, in which all property is privately
Art is a selective re-creation of reality according to an artist's metaphysical value judgments. Man's profound need of art lies in the fact
Let’s imagine a woman who is getting pressure from some obnoxious sleazeball stud to cheat on her husband and commit adultery. She’s tempted
December 17, 2004 -- Christmas is a season of beautiful lights, parties, gifts, food, family, friends, songs, and sentiments. Among the
Greg Hitt and Jeanne Cummings wrote on the front page of the Wall Street Journal (September 26, 2001): "In just two weeks, the terrorist....
Inventions have long since reached their limit, and I see no hope for further development.....
October 9, 2001 -- As the full impact of the barbaric attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon unfolded, we realized that we were witnesses to the worst terrorist attack in history. And even for the majority of us who do not personally know anyone whose life was stolen, the reports out of New York and Washington left a painful spiritual wound. Events as horrific and terrifying as these attacks tear us from the normal context of our lives and throw us into a seemingly inescapable world of chaos and unknown terrors. These events destroy, at least temporarily, the connection we feel with reality. We feel lost, alone, and without a way to make sense of the world. It makes it hard, as many people experienced, to focus on mundane tasks and everyday activities. These lose their meaning and make our lives feel as if they are also without meaning.