November 10, 2009—President Barack Obama marked the one-year anniversary of his election last week by delivering a talk at James C. Wright Middle School in Madison, Wisconsin . After patting himself on the back for all the good he thinks his administration has done so far, he focused in on the main topic of his speech: reforming education in America. It’s still too early to say for sure, but this might just be one of those rare cases in which this President matches his seemingly good intentions with actual good results.
February 25, 2009 - Here’s a question: How do you decide what to think about a controversial issue? Must you become an expert on the issue? Must you devote thousands upon thousands of hours to poring over the evidence, checking and rechecking every fact through firsthand research and experimentation? Clearly, this is impossible even for an expert, who must accept a whole slew of facts as given. And just as clearly, an expert is an expert in only one area. What about all of the other controversies? One option is merely to refrain from deciding. Sometimes this is perfectly feasible. But in the case of the purported link between childhood vaccines and autism, which was recently in the news again, sitting on the fence is not an option. At least for parents of young children, it is of the utmost importance to decide whether or not to vaccinate. Indeed, it is quite literally a matter of life and death. Vaccines prevent serious illnesses and save lives. But do they also cause autism?
October 3, 2009 – Hypocrisy has never been very inspiring. Anti-tobacco admonishments from parents who smoke always ring a little hollow, as does the promotion of public education by politicians who entrust their own progeny to private schools. Increasingly, U.S. President Barack Obama’s enunciated support for free and open trade is sounding a little disingenuous, too. As The Economist pointed out last week , when the President speaks, he sounds like a free trader, promising to refrain from raising trade barriers and saying he is committed to expanded trade. But his actions do not follow his words. In his first few weeks on the job, he opted not to veto the notorious “Buy American” provisions woven into the gargantuan stimulus bill. He then failed to act when Congress put the kibosh on a project to open the border to Mexican trucks , as was supposed to happen under NAFTA. Most recently, President Obama decided a couple of weeks ago to show just how much he promotes international cooperation by slapping a 35% tariff on imported Chinese tires. “Us” versus “Them”
June 12, 2009 -- Let me begin by congratulating you, the Class of 2009, on this, the day of your graduation. There were struggles along the way, but you persevered and overcame them. You made it! Today is your day to celebrate. Looking ahead, though, you might be forgiven for thinking that the future looks rather grim. The worst global recession in decades drags on month after month. Wars rage in the Middle East with no stable peace in sight. Nuclear weapons seem destined to fall into hands that should by all rights never possess them. And the planet itself, you are told repeatedly, has just about had it with the human race and its hubris. Today may be a day for celebration, but looking ahead, do you, the class of 2009, have any reasons to feel hopeful?
June 4, 2009--“Neither a borrower, nor a lender be,” Polonius cautions his son Laertes in Act I of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. “For loan oft loses both itself and friend,” he explains, “And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.” Does Shakespeare mean for us to understand that no one should ever lend or borrow money? Surely, this is too timid by half, but the ongoing financial crisis does demonstrate that the business of credit and debt is a risky one. Many people borrowed more than they could repay, and many lent too carelessly. Overall savings rates have plummeted, too. The savings rate in America, for instance, has hovered in the 0-3 percent range for over a decade. As the recession deepens and American icon General Motors files for bankruptcy restructuring this week, it is worth reflecting again upon how we got to this point. Why, exactly, did so many of us throw caution to the wind in recent years?
Originally published in The Australian on February 3, 2003. For the second time in 17 years we watched in horror as a space shuttle blew up, killing its heroic crew. Our shock will be followed by mourning and then questioning of the future of the US space program and man's future in space. But as we mourn, it's important to put this tragedy in perspective.
May 20, 2009—I have been meaning to write about the plight of women around the world since reading Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns a couple of months ago. In that powerful novel, we follow the lives of two Afghan women who struggle to survive through the 1979 Soviet invasion, the subsequent civil war, and finally the rule of the Taliban. The novel makes one feel, viscerally, the injustice that permeates societies in which women are not recognized as full human beings with inalienable rights. Why are women still treated like chattel in so many parts of the world? Even in the most advanced, most civilized nations on the planet, where women actually often get preferential treatment, are there some respects in which the liberation of women remains an unfinished revolution?
May 2, 2009 — The NBA playoffs are underway, and for a Boston Celtics fan like myself, it has been an exciting first-round matchup against the Chicago Bulls. As I write this, the Bulls have pushed the defending champs to a deciding seventh game in a series that has already seen an unprecedented four of the first six games go to overtime. In Game 6, which was only decided in triple overtime, the Celtics’ Ray Allen scored 51 points, including a playoff record-tying nine hree-pointers. Despite his hot hand, the Celtics lost by a single point.
April 1, 2003 -- The United States stands at a time of unparalleled military opportunity and danger. There is opportunity because the U.S. military substantially outclasses every other military force in its technology and its reach. The United States rivals the rest of the world in defense spending, yet the defense budget continues to consume little more than 3 percent of total U.S. annual income. America has great power without suffering great strains for it.
President Barack Obama swept to power last November on a wave of enthusiasm for his message of hope and change. That wave is now receding...
Countless articles and books have exposed the injustice of egalitarian policies, from affirmative action to "comparable worth" pay...
Stop me if you’ve heard this one: three mayors and five rabbis walk into a bar—no, excuse me, they’re behind bars. Actually, it’s no joke...
April 10, 2009-- Two years ago, at the age of 17, Eric Mohat committed suicide. On March 27 of this year, his parents filed a federal lawsui
October 1, 2003 -- Communism is dead; long live capitalism. Surely there is some truth to this claim, as even diehard advocates of communism
November 22, 2004 -- If one looks upon Thanksgiving as a harvest festival, then it can also be seen as a celebration of producers. But the..
Sidebar to Interview with Bob Barr Summer 2009 -- I am not surprised that Bob Barr, who has been a consultant for the ACLU, should take a litigious approach to the current financial crisis. But my own researches into post–World War II prosecutions of businessmen persuade me that such an approach to the crisis would sidetrack the needed investigation into what went wrong and substitute a witch-hunt against innocent people.
November 18, 2010 -- The first great post-election policy decision facing the lame-duck, Democrat-dominated Congress is whether or not to allow taxes to skyrocket. Usually referred to as the “Bush tax cuts ,” the rates that have been operative for most of this decade will expire at the end of 2010, reverting to much higher levels. Even President Obama and his Congressional allies agree that a return to the past rates would harm most Americans, forcing them to pay $150 billion or more annually in taxes as they struggle in a depressed economy. The debate is whether to allow higher rates to hit households making over $250,000 annually, a debate that reveals the sordid soul of the left.
Summer 2009 issue -- President Obama seems to have taken a page from Pastor Rick Warren’s playbook. POTUS is calling us
Summer 2009 -- Analogies, like fire, are useful servants but dangerous masters. Is the analogy with entrepreneurs a useful guide to the
August 30, 2002 -- Objectivism distinguishes between errors of ignorance and errors of morality, and libertarianism distinguishes between
November 10, 2009—President Barack Obama marked the one-year anniversary of his election last week by delivering a talk at James C. Wright Middle School in Madison, Wisconsin . After patting himself on the back for all the good he thinks his administration has done so far, he focused in on the main topic of his speech: reforming education in America. It’s still too early to say for sure, but this might just be one of those rare cases in which this President matches his seemingly good intentions with actual good results.
February 25, 2009 - Here’s a question: How do you decide what to think about a controversial issue? Must you become an expert on the issue? Must you devote thousands upon thousands of hours to poring over the evidence, checking and rechecking every fact through firsthand research and experimentation? Clearly, this is impossible even for an expert, who must accept a whole slew of facts as given. And just as clearly, an expert is an expert in only one area. What about all of the other controversies? One option is merely to refrain from deciding. Sometimes this is perfectly feasible. But in the case of the purported link between childhood vaccines and autism, which was recently in the news again, sitting on the fence is not an option. At least for parents of young children, it is of the utmost importance to decide whether or not to vaccinate. Indeed, it is quite literally a matter of life and death. Vaccines prevent serious illnesses and save lives. But do they also cause autism?
October 3, 2009 – Hypocrisy has never been very inspiring. Anti-tobacco admonishments from parents who smoke always ring a little hollow, as does the promotion of public education by politicians who entrust their own progeny to private schools. Increasingly, U.S. President Barack Obama’s enunciated support for free and open trade is sounding a little disingenuous, too. As The Economist pointed out last week , when the President speaks, he sounds like a free trader, promising to refrain from raising trade barriers and saying he is committed to expanded trade. But his actions do not follow his words. In his first few weeks on the job, he opted not to veto the notorious “Buy American” provisions woven into the gargantuan stimulus bill. He then failed to act when Congress put the kibosh on a project to open the border to Mexican trucks , as was supposed to happen under NAFTA. Most recently, President Obama decided a couple of weeks ago to show just how much he promotes international cooperation by slapping a 35% tariff on imported Chinese tires. “Us” versus “Them”
June 12, 2009 -- Let me begin by congratulating you, the Class of 2009, on this, the day of your graduation. There were struggles along the way, but you persevered and overcame them. You made it! Today is your day to celebrate. Looking ahead, though, you might be forgiven for thinking that the future looks rather grim. The worst global recession in decades drags on month after month. Wars rage in the Middle East with no stable peace in sight. Nuclear weapons seem destined to fall into hands that should by all rights never possess them. And the planet itself, you are told repeatedly, has just about had it with the human race and its hubris. Today may be a day for celebration, but looking ahead, do you, the class of 2009, have any reasons to feel hopeful?
June 4, 2009--“Neither a borrower, nor a lender be,” Polonius cautions his son Laertes in Act I of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. “For loan oft loses both itself and friend,” he explains, “And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.” Does Shakespeare mean for us to understand that no one should ever lend or borrow money? Surely, this is too timid by half, but the ongoing financial crisis does demonstrate that the business of credit and debt is a risky one. Many people borrowed more than they could repay, and many lent too carelessly. Overall savings rates have plummeted, too. The savings rate in America, for instance, has hovered in the 0-3 percent range for over a decade. As the recession deepens and American icon General Motors files for bankruptcy restructuring this week, it is worth reflecting again upon how we got to this point. Why, exactly, did so many of us throw caution to the wind in recent years?
Originally published in The Australian on February 3, 2003. For the second time in 17 years we watched in horror as a space shuttle blew up, killing its heroic crew. Our shock will be followed by mourning and then questioning of the future of the US space program and man's future in space. But as we mourn, it's important to put this tragedy in perspective.
May 20, 2009—I have been meaning to write about the plight of women around the world since reading Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns a couple of months ago. In that powerful novel, we follow the lives of two Afghan women who struggle to survive through the 1979 Soviet invasion, the subsequent civil war, and finally the rule of the Taliban. The novel makes one feel, viscerally, the injustice that permeates societies in which women are not recognized as full human beings with inalienable rights. Why are women still treated like chattel in so many parts of the world? Even in the most advanced, most civilized nations on the planet, where women actually often get preferential treatment, are there some respects in which the liberation of women remains an unfinished revolution?
May 2, 2009 — The NBA playoffs are underway, and for a Boston Celtics fan like myself, it has been an exciting first-round matchup against the Chicago Bulls. As I write this, the Bulls have pushed the defending champs to a deciding seventh game in a series that has already seen an unprecedented four of the first six games go to overtime. In Game 6, which was only decided in triple overtime, the Celtics’ Ray Allen scored 51 points, including a playoff record-tying nine hree-pointers. Despite his hot hand, the Celtics lost by a single point.
April 1, 2003 -- The United States stands at a time of unparalleled military opportunity and danger. There is opportunity because the U.S. military substantially outclasses every other military force in its technology and its reach. The United States rivals the rest of the world in defense spending, yet the defense budget continues to consume little more than 3 percent of total U.S. annual income. America has great power without suffering great strains for it.
President Barack Obama swept to power last November on a wave of enthusiasm for his message of hope and change. That wave is now receding...
Countless articles and books have exposed the injustice of egalitarian policies, from affirmative action to "comparable worth" pay...
Stop me if you’ve heard this one: three mayors and five rabbis walk into a bar—no, excuse me, they’re behind bars. Actually, it’s no joke...
April 10, 2009-- Two years ago, at the age of 17, Eric Mohat committed suicide. On March 27 of this year, his parents filed a federal lawsui
October 1, 2003 -- Communism is dead; long live capitalism. Surely there is some truth to this claim, as even diehard advocates of communism
November 22, 2004 -- If one looks upon Thanksgiving as a harvest festival, then it can also be seen as a celebration of producers. But the..
Sidebar to Interview with Bob Barr Summer 2009 -- I am not surprised that Bob Barr, who has been a consultant for the ACLU, should take a litigious approach to the current financial crisis. But my own researches into post–World War II prosecutions of businessmen persuade me that such an approach to the crisis would sidetrack the needed investigation into what went wrong and substitute a witch-hunt against innocent people.
November 18, 2010 -- The first great post-election policy decision facing the lame-duck, Democrat-dominated Congress is whether or not to allow taxes to skyrocket. Usually referred to as the “Bush tax cuts ,” the rates that have been operative for most of this decade will expire at the end of 2010, reverting to much higher levels. Even President Obama and his Congressional allies agree that a return to the past rates would harm most Americans, forcing them to pay $150 billion or more annually in taxes as they struggle in a depressed economy. The debate is whether to allow higher rates to hit households making over $250,000 annually, a debate that reveals the sordid soul of the left.
Summer 2009 issue -- President Obama seems to have taken a page from Pastor Rick Warren’s playbook. POTUS is calling us
Summer 2009 -- Analogies, like fire, are useful servants but dangerous masters. Is the analogy with entrepreneurs a useful guide to the
August 30, 2002 -- Objectivism distinguishes between errors of ignorance and errors of morality, and libertarianism distinguishes between