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Ecology as Religion: Faith in Place of Fact
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Increasingly Lost Property Rights
Most people probably think “wetlands” should be wet. But not in the view of federal bureaucrats. Land can be perfectly dry–indeed, never have the slightest…
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James Hansen: Ideologue or Scientist?
James Hansen of NASA is one of the leading climate alarmists, and possesses a scientific credibility lacking in the Goracle. But Hansen really has become…
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We’re Here from the Government to Hurt You (the Toymakers)
That old line about “we’re here from the government to help you” always garners a laugh. But small toymakers are crying. Investigative columnist Timothy…
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What NASA Thinks of James Hansen
James Hansen of NASA has become one of the leading climate alarmists. Quite simply, the world is about to end. That being the case, industry…
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Land of Liberty? No Longer in Belmont, California
I’ll confess that I’ve quietly applauded the spread of no smoking establishments. I don’t believe the government should ban smoking in restaurants, bars, and airplanes, but I’ve enjoyed…
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The Thrilling Feeling of Spending Other People’s Money
There’s nothing quite like using someone else’s credit card. No wonder the Washington Post headlined a front-page article today: “Stimulus Bill Sends Thrill Through…
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Shock, Shock–Politics Infects Federal Bail-Out
Who would have imagined that the honorable Barney Frank, head of the House Financial Services Committee and chief culprit in the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac disaster,…
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Waste Not, Want Not … Or Else!
The British government is looking after its people, in a motherly sort of way. It plans to send government officials door-to-door to tell people not to…
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President Barack Obama Already Dealing with Global Warming
Anyone who lives in the nation’s capital knows that it has been FREEZING, with well below average temperatures. Even today, inauguration day, started out with…
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We Can’t Afford Much More Stimulus!
The deficit for this year already exceeds that for all of last year. Reports Reuters: The United States racked up a record $485 billion…
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Traveling Eco-Friendly
Even most of us free market people like a clean environment. But I’ll admit that I also like the conveniences and comforts provided by advanced industrial…
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Bipartisanship Washington-Style
President-elect Barack Obama has received plaudits for reaching across the aisle. That includes appointing Republican Rep. Ray LaHood to be Transportation Secretary. But no budget…
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So What if We Wasted $350 Billion?!
Washington is so awful it’s funny. There really is nothing you can do but laugh. Consider the status of the second $350 billion tranche of “TARP”…
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Nannychusetts Fights Obesity
The paternalists continue on the march. But don’t worry, it’s for our own good! Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby writes: THE WORTHIES who govern…
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The Answer to Global Warming?
The Washington Post sponsors the weekly “Style Invitational,” officially deemed a humor contest but very often covering matters of great substance. This week the…
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Dishonoring the Heroic Passengers on Flight 93
We all should be thankful for the heroics of the passengers of Flight 93 on September 11. They prevented the hijackers from crashing another plane…
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Amazing How Many People in Europe are Sick
Europe has a very generous social welfare system--basically, just say you aren't feeling quite right, and you get paid. Surprise, surprise ... people take advantage…
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Next on the Bail-Out List: The Porn Industry?
It seems everyone in America is suffering. So obviously everyone is entitled to a bail-out. At least, that is the theory being advanced by America's…
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Nationalized Health Care: Growing the Nanny State
Advocates of the Nanny State have long been with us. What was Prohibition but an early manifestation of government treating everyone as children to protect…
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Expanding Government, Corrupting Business
Tossing money at most anyone who shows up in Washington touting a sob story in the company of a lobbyist is doing more than impoverishing taxpayers. The…
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Wasn’t Sea Ice Supposed to be Disappearing?
I’m totally confused. The world was supposed to be ending, and one alleged sign was the disappearance of sea ice. But the ice is back. …
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The EU Propaganda Machine
Government propaganda is always irritating, especially because that means politicians are taxing citizens to pay for a snow job for those same citizens. The European…
Op-Eds
Power politics over a chess board
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No Money in Washington, D.C.? No Matter!
Washington, D.C. is another world. Today the company newsletter, otherwise known as the Washington Post, had an article entitled “U.S. Debt Expected to Soar…
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Remember, the Government Wants to Manage Your Health Care!
Just think how wonderful it would be if government guaranteed everyone health care. Just like in Great Britain! Just ask Lynne Neilson what she thinks…
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The End of the Global Warming Frenzy
Sunday was a beautiful day in Washington. The temperature hit the high 60s and I wore shorts. I dreamed it was spring. But as the…
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Al Gore, Call Your Office: Climate Alarmist Says there’s no Alarm
Global warming is a tough issue for laymen. Learned people strut about saying that the science is conclusive, done, finished. The world is destined for…
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An End to the Good Times?
Egads. Even the New York Times isn’t sure that the good times of endless government spending can go on forever. Peter Goodman writes in…
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Legal Terrorists on the Loose
One can appreciate the difficulties faced by people with disabilities when they attempt to navigate streets and stores. But government legislation has unfairly turned a…
Op-Eds
Time to Send the Bushies Home
There’s nothing much to look forward to with the incoming administration. But I certainly won’t miss the current administration. It’s hard to…
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So Who is Getting All of the Taxpayers’ Cash?
Amazing. Not only are trillions of dollars being passed around to bail out any business with at least a couple congressmen on its side. But…
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Seeking Accountability–After Handing out $350 Billion!
Oops. Congress finally has bestirred itself after the administration used $350 billion in ways different from what it originally promised, and then required nothing of…
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A Christmas Present for the Labor Lobby?
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Killing Without the Smile
The National Health Service loves to save money. Too bad that means denying essential medical care and killing patients. But what’s a bureaucracy for? The…
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Weren’t We Supposed to be Making Money?
Let’s see … weren’t the government “investments” in failing firms supposed to pay off for the taxpayers? Alas, it’s not looking good so far. …
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Protecting Pets Before People
Why do advocates of socialized medicine prefer pets over people? It’s hard not to conclude that’s the way they think. After all, in Canada you…
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Socialism: It’s Already Here!
The candidates in the recent presidential election argued about whether one of them was advocating socialism. Actually, it looks like we’re already there. An ever-growing…
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Effective Health Care Cost Containment
With the Obama administration preparing to address the problem of health care, they should remember that the most effective form of cost containment is to…
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Physicist Richard A. Muller Endorses Lying for the Environment
It must be nice to be so certain of one’s moral purity and political correctness to believe that anything, including, well, lying, is fine and appropriate…
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The New Ice Age, Continued
The global cooling scare of a few decades ago is written off as a product of bad science, without much peer-reviewed support. But Maurizio Morabito went back…
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Bureaucrats are the Same the World Over
You’ve got to love the European Union. It took the federal government decades to become so extraordinarily bureaucratic, wasteful, and out of touch. The EU…
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The Wonders of Socialized Medicine, Part LXVI
The Daily Mail reminds us how government health care is compassionate and efficient; So imagine my shock when I saw how some nurses recently…
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Declining Market Power Means Fewer Limits on Government
With much of American finance and industry either on the government dole or desperately trying to get on it, market constraints on political abuses have…
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Federal Spending Without End
Heck, it’s only money, as a friend tells me when he uses his credit card to buy new collectibles which he can’t otherwise afford. That…
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The Dozen Auto Companies that Aren’t Going Bankrupt
The “Big Three”–which really should be called the “Broke Three”–have made their pitch for $34 billion in government aid. What’s a few (billion) bucks among friends?…
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The Obama Administration’s Regulatory Opportunity
Columnist Timothy Carney warns that the massive bail-outs now flowing out of Washington will give the incoming Obama administration an opportunity to impose a regulatory…
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Prepare the Money Bombing Raids!
The stock market continues to tank, but have no fear. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson Is considering new bail-outs! Reports the Wall Street Journal: Treasury…
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Health Care Bureaucrats Take Care of Themselves
For years observers have noted the phenomenon of public school teachers sending their kids to private schools–especially in cities with the worst and deadliest public…
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You’ve Just Got to Love Britain’s Health Care Bureaucrats
First the National (Un)Health Service said if you wanted a drug that it wasn’t willing to provide–too expensive for the purpose of saving your miserable…
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Imagine that: More Research Suggests that More Research is Needed
It seems that methane hasn’t been behaving as the climate models suggest. Hmmm … another problem for the alarmists who believe that the world is…
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Wasteful “Stimulus” Packages by Government Don’t Work
Only in Washington could politicians and bureaucrats dump more than $2 trillion into bail-out money holes and then claim that the federal government needs to…
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Filling the Federal Money Hole
The Onion explains Washington, D.C. to those Americans who still have a naive civics class view of government. Why is it important to continue filling…
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Load Up the B-52s with Dollars!
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Barack Obama Wants to Cut the Budget
Like, oh, maybe 40 of the presidents before him, Barack Obama says that he wants to cut out wasteful programs. At least George W. Bush,…
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World Toilet Day Passed Me By
I was traveling last week and missed World Toilet Day. You didn't notice it either? Too bad. The toilet is a humble creation, one that…
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Socialize Medicine, Kill Cancer Patients
Any American who travels to Europe as I just did is likely to get hit with the argument that the United States is inhumane because…
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Are We Socialists Yet?
The term socialist got tossed around a lot in the recent presidential campaign. But Robert Higgs of the Independent Institute says we’re already there. And…
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Brits Say Care More Expensive, Lower Quality than in Estonia
Ah, socialized medicine. Everyone is guaranteed care, right? And the government saves so much money that is wasted in America. Well, so much for the…
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Battling Bail-Outs: A Little Backbone at Last?
After having voted for or passively accepted some $2 trillion in federal bail-outs, a few congressmen seem be growing uneasy with the lengthening soup-line. The…
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Ugly Vegetables and Fruit Again to be Sold in Europe!
Amazing. The European Union actually responded to criticism. About one-fifth of European produce has to be dumped because it doesn’t mean minimum EU standards, which…
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Bail-Outs for Bonuses
You have to love the timing. The federal government gives Wall Street billions of dollars just in time for Wall Street to pay out billions…
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The More Government Loot Available, the More Looters Who Come to Washington
There are endless attempts to "clean up" politics--limiting campaign contributions, restricting lobbyists, and the like--as if the problem is a few self-interested individuals who want…
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The Boring EU: Sending Itself Into Space
If you go to Brussels you see how seriously the Eurocrats take their mission to bureaucratize the entire continent. It is as bad as Washington,…
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Market Health Care Reforms in Europe
While the U.S. seems to continue its slow slide towards socialized health care, patients currently suffering under such systems around the world are clamoring for…
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Imagine: Free Health Care Is Expensive!
Who would have thought it? Provide free health care and people drop their private coverage. It seems that politicians are uniformly slow learners. But after…
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Fighting Global Warming Amidst a Snowstorm
The Brits have quite a reputation. Stiff upper limit and all that. Which may account for the picture of parliament debating global warming legislation in…
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Why the Endless Bail-Outs are Making Things Worse
No surprise, argues Russell Roberts of George Mason University, the mindless, almost random federal bail-outs are going to leave us far worse off. Writes Roberts:…
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Depressed by Regulation in America? Look at Europe!
You’ve got to love the Europeans. They demonstrate that things always can get worse. For instance, think about the epidemic of stupid farmers who use…
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Turning Responsible Citizenship into a Sucker’s Game
Some people are hopelessly boring. They save money, live within their means, don't buy too much house, pay their bills, and contribute to the community. …
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Paying Dividends with Public Money
Normally corporate dividends--or executive salaries--should not be a matter of government concern. But how about when the feds are forking over taxpayer money to encourage…
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The More the Government Does, the More Harm it Does
At least, that appears to be the lesson of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's misnamed New Deal. New research by two UCLA economists suggests that it was…
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Where is all of the Warming that We’ve been Promised?
Every fall I pray for global warming to intensify. I realize it is supposed to mean the doom of the planet, but I keep thinking…
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We Should All Change Our Name to Fannie Mae
Arlo Guthrie takes on federal bail-outs in a new song. He plans on heading down to Washington, D.C. After changing his name to Fannie…
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National Debt Clock Out of Space
In 1989 Manhattan real estate developer erected the national debt clock near Times Square. The total was “only” $2.7 trillion.
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The New U.S. Economy
How do you find work as a financial wizard today? My friend and former colleague Radley Balko posts a video that captures the…
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Let Uncle Sam’s People Go!
One of most outrageous features of the federal social welfare state is that Uncle Sam doesn’t want you to be independent. For instance, if you would…
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British Health (Mis)Care: No Complaints Allowed
The British government has found the right strategy to cut down on complaints about the National Health Service–convince patients that nothing can be done. Then…
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The Swiss are Nuts … About Plants’ Rights, Anyway
I've visited Switzerland several times. I've always believe the Swiss to be rational, level-headed people. Far more sober than so many Europeans. They've managed to…
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The World is About to End … Again!
Climate alarmists are in good company. After all, for centuries at least, and probably since the beginning of humanity, some people have worried about the imminent…
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The Wonders of Socialized Health Care, Number 8,977
Ameirca’s health care system is messed up. Agreed. It is a bizarre amalgam of public and private, with government spending and tax policy creating counterproductive…
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Close Seven-Eleven! Save the Planet!
Japanese cities are dotted with Seven-Eleven stores, which typically are open 24 hours. They are wonderfully convenient. In September I attended a Mont Pelerin Society…
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Global Warming Alarmists Want Entire World to Become Cuba
If you looked around the world today, you probably wouldn’t say the top problem was people eating too much meat and drinking too much milk. …
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Shock, Shock … the Climate Catastrophe Lobby is Telling Fibs
This undoubtedly will shock readers, but the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has a tendency to shade the truth. And only in one direction. It…
Op-Eds
Card Check: Key to Union Control in US
Organized labor spent heavily to elect a Democratic Congress in America’s 2006 election. With the presidency at stake, unions are expected to spend up to…
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NHS Reform: A Few More Brits Might Survive
Great Britain’s Vaunted National Health Insurance won’t pay for necessary drugs to its patients, but it has refused to allow them to contribute their own…
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Socialized Health Care Feels Like it is … Socialized!
Want to nationalize American health care? Just compare what it’s like to be treated in America and in Britain. Writes F. Brinley Bruton: A…
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Eurocrats Push European Consolidation
Nothing horrifies the New Class of bureaucrats, intellectuals, politicians, and activists than an aroused public dedicated to defeating their plans. The Irish vote against the…
Op-Eds
Labor Goes for the Brass Ring
Organized labor spent tens of millions of dollars and untold man hours to help elect a Democratic Congress in 2006. So far the…
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Europe: The PC Paradise
People have a lot to say about advertising, much of it bad. Many ads are stupid, insulting, silly, nonsensical, counterproductive, etc., etc. Some are even…
Op-Eds
Card check: the key to union control
Organized labor spent heavily to elect a Democratic Congress in 2006. With the presidency at stake, unions are expected to spend up to…
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Going Blind Waiting for the National Health Service–So Sorry!
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The Nutrition Nazis are Back
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Stop the Presses: More Private Health Care in Canada?
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Want an Operation in Great Britain?
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Leaving Patients to Die–Literally
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Socialized Medicine Says: Let ‘Em Die
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Don’t Get Kidney Cancer in Great Britain
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Is Green Fanaticism on its Way Out?
Maybe so. At least, that’s what Alice Thomson argues in the Times of London: Julie Burchill can’t stand them. According to her new book,…
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