Op-Eds
The Ideas Marketplace — Sans Market?
WASHINGTON—The Jack Abramoff scandal has many individual players, but it’s also added fuel to an older and broader theme—the quest to purge politics of money.
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U.S. tech: Get to China
We once scorned the idea the Internet could be censored. Many politicians have tried to stop porn, but always to no avail. Spam still…
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WTO and Biotech Food: Who Really Won?
The long-awaited World Trade Organization decision on biotechnology applied to agricultural products, finally released earlier this month, elicited a great deal of buzz…
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The Kyoto Bubble?
It is one of the hallmark features of a capitalist economy that investors will react to changes in policy and regulation in order to…
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Weak Energy Week
This has been “Energy Week” for President Bush as he barnstormed around the country in follow-up to his State of the Union message that…
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Making a Meth of the PATRIOT Act
If you thought al Qaeda or Iraqi insurgents were the major threats facing America, Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.) says you’re wrong. According to Dent,…
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Unhappy Birthday
This week marks the first anniversary of the Kyoto Protocol's coming into force. It's an unhappy birthday. The one-year-old has been badly treated by…
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In the Interests of Stakeholders… and Steakholders
There was good news last month on both sides of our northern border: In response to confirmation of an isolated case of bovine…
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All the news that fits
Newspapers are often criticized for bias in their “news” articles. A prime example was Andrew Pollack's Feb. 14 New York Times piece on…
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Kyoto: A Quiet Anniversary
Global warming alarmists marked the Kyoto Protocol’s first anniversary in subdued fashion this week. The treaty so far has been a failure and its…
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The top ten reasons to cut corporate welfare
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” />The federal budget is too big. It's way too big. George W. Bush has called for total…
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Beware False Profits
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers,…
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Low-Fat Diet Myth Busted
The widely-believed notion that low-fat diets are good for your health went “poof” this week—although the busting of that myth shouldn’t be news to…
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‘Oil Addiction’ Talk Boosts Enviro Leftists
“<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />America is addicted to oil.”With these five words in his State of the Union speech, President…
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Three Cheers for WTO Decision on Biotech Food
What do an <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Iowa corn grower, a Thai rice farmer, and a Dutch grocery shopper have…
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Woodpecker Racket?
Last year’s reported sighting in eastern Arkansas of an Ivory-billed Woodpecker, long thought to be extinct, raised the hopes of bird-watchers everywhere.<?xml:namespace prefix…
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We Have It Coming
Americans are about to learn the hard way about the unintended consequences of over-regulation and flawed policy initiatives. Vaccination to prevent viral and bacterial…
The American Spectator
What Are Op-Eds For?
Ever since the Cato Institute fired syndicated columnist Doug Bandow over the revelation that disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff had asked and paid him to…
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Pot Calling Kettle Black?
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> In senior editor Dave Astor's article on syndicated columnists and their sources of…
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Gutting Kyoto
The worldwide press hailed the December negotiations in <?xml:namespace prefix = u1 /><?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Montreal over the Kyoto…
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FDA May Make Breathing Difficult for Asthmatics
The government may tell asthmatics to “take a hit” for the environment. But that “hit” won't be from their inhalers, which might be taken…
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I’m Proud to Be a Coal Miner’s Grandson
To hear Senators Byrd and Rockefeller speak, one would think that the coal mining industry in this country is one of the major sources…
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Open Federalism
The businessman puts the cash in an envelope. He leaves it on the agreed upon restaurant table. Another man, a government bureaucrat, walks over…
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What Does It Mean to Be a (Canadian) Conservative?
In yesterday’s Canadian election, the new Conservative Party swept into power for the first time since 1993. Paul Martin and the Liberals, it turns…
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Why Cable ‘A La Carte’ Won’t Roll
Americans love channel surfing, and many spend their evenings flipping through the vast ocean of inexpensive programming available through cable television packages. But…
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How Roe Destroyed Privacy
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Our Miserly Uncle
Although it may be heresy for a libertarian or a conservative to say, I really like living in Washington. I try to be grateful every…
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No Future in Kyoto Dreaming
In 1977, the punk rock band the Sex Pistols shocked England with their nihilist anthem “God Save the Queen,” where they declared there was “No…
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Starborn Society
Science fiction has long been stereotyped as a hardware-obsessed, techno-jargon laden refuge for computer nerds and outcasts. Especially on television, which lacks the geek…
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PETA: Cruel and Unusual
The FBI recently declared environmental and animal rights extremism its top domestic terrorism priority. The bureau is currently investigating over 150 cases of…
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Sarbanes-Oxley vs. the Free Press
Back in June, when New York Times reporter Judith Miller was about to go to jail on contempt charges for refusing to testify…
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A Boon for U.S. Consumers
Although Wal-Mart has been America's largest retailer since 1990, the company has only recently begun expanding into California, and the reaction from many quarters has…
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Some Hard Truths About Bird Flu
The issues surrounding the possibility of a pandemic of the H5N1 strain of avian flu are extraordinarily complex, encompassing medicine, epidemiology, virology and even…
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Plants Bad for the Environment? Celebrities Causing Frogs to Croak?
Could it be that celebrities are planting the forests that are causing the global warming that is growing the bacteria that are wiping out the…
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Fill the Moat, Lower the Portcullis
The issues surrounding the possibility of a pandemic of the H5N1 strain of avian flu are extraordinarily complex, encompassing aspects of medicine, epidemiology,…
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Flu pandemic prevention
This month's outbreak of H5N1 avian flu in Turkey—as many as 50 human cases and several deaths—looks very like what we might see…
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Russia’s Godfather Saga
“Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer,” was the lesson taught to Michael Corleone by his father Vito in the Godfather movies.
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Cruel and Unusual: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
On January 9, two employees of the group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) will appear in court to answer felony…
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Ominous Prospects for Aging
A recent article in the Wall Street Journal described “a growing backlash against the pharmaceutical industry that is already affecting the development and…
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CEOs Should Mind Their Own Business
President Coolidge once said the business of America is business. He might have added that the business of business is to pursue profits,…
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Security rules for chemicals are absurd
Writer and humorist P.J. O'Rourke once said, “Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.”<?xml:namespace prefix…
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Caveat Emptor: No, Really
One of the oldest maxims in commerce is caveat emptor: let the buyer beware. Sadly, this is often interpreted as a condemnation of businessmen, a…
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Black Gold: Syriana soars on substance, sinks on politics.
Syriana opens with a throng of Arab men quarreling over the right to board a bus. The camera peers at the scene through…
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Enviros Exaggerated Montreal Summit
A world historical event occurred in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Montreal in the hours before dawn on December 10. What? …
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Lives for Votes
December 15, 2005 — With his record, a call from state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer is enough to give even innocent defendants…
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Good Drugs, Bad Rap
These are turbulent times for the pharmaceutical industry and for its regulator, the FDA. Lately, both have focused increasingly on issues of safety.
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Point, Counterpoint: Wal-Mart on DVD
Documentary film has long been mired in debates about objectivity. Once strived for amongst serious documentarians, the notion of an objective documentary slowly degraded as…
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The Long REACH of the EU
The European Union's Council of Ministers is expected to vote soon on the proposed chemicals regulation called REACH, an acronym for Registration, Evaluation, and…
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Who Is Watching the Watchdog?
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Today in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, outspoken hedge fund manager…
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Corporate Social Concerns: Are They Good Citizenship, Or a Rip-Off for Investors?
Fred Smith debates CSR in The Wall Street Journal…
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Who’s afraid of big business?
Everybody agrees, it seems, that big business has too much influence in Washington. Most people are confused, however, as to what big business is doing…
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A Windfall of Bad Ideas
In the third-quarter of 2005, the major U.S. oil companies—ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, BP America, and Shell Oil Company—collectively earned almost $26 billion in profits, an…
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Video-game law lets parents shirk duty
Arnold Schwarzenegger acquired fame and fortune playing a slew of bloodthirsty meatheads. Now, as governor of California, he’s still trying to play action…
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Global Warming Blues
The 11th annual meeting of global warming enthusiasts in Montreal isn’t turning out to be a very happy event. Even though this is the…
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Privatizing the Inner City
In June the Supreme Court said that <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />New London, Conn. could force Susette Kelo and a…
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Dubai The Model?
Westerners who travel to the Middle East often pass through Dubai and sigh deeply. “If only the rest of the Muslim Middle East were as…
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Why the Top-Down Approach Has Failed
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — Another World AIDS Day has arrived (Dec. 1) and with it more HIV cases than ever before—over 40 million. The World…
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Climate Policy Needs a Stern Review
Tony Blair's admission that any international climate change treaty to follow <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 />Kyoto is unlikely to be based on the same model…
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An analog armageddon?
Hollywood movies are replete with bad guys nefariously plotting to control the world, but these days, music and movie industry associations are looking awfully…
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Cardiac arrest at the FDA
The photograph on your Tuesday front page headlined “Hillary health care” shows Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, New York Democrat, in Jerusalem holding a CardioPump—a device…
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U.S. Should Not Import European Laws
As globalization fosters economic growth around the world, Americans should be vigilant of an unintended consequence: the imposition on U.S. businesses and consumers of the…
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Do-It-Yourself Legislation
The aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita have proved a massive breeding ground for what former OECD Chief Economist David Henderson has termed…
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The UN’s War Against Innovation
The leadership of the United Nations is truly the gang that can't shoot straight. Even if the recent incidents of corruption and profiteering—exemplified…
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Making Sense of Drug Safety
Have you ever tried to read the official FDA-approved labeling for a drug? It's tough going even for physicians who are trying to…
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Is U.S. Embracing a Global Tax Scheme?
<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Melbourne, Australia—This week, a good number of liberal activists—when not engaged in trying to stop the…
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Pass the Whale Oil: Will Politicians Leave New England in the Dark?
One of the greatest features of our federal system is the ability of each state to act as a “laboratory of democracy”, to…
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Puts and Calls: Sarbanes-Oxley ‘reform’ harming economy
The Sarbanes-Oxley corporate governance act is one of the biggest expansions of government regulation in 70 years—and businesses say it’s more costly and complicated than…
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Europe’s OverREACH
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Between the stacks – Google book engine needs ingenuity
What bookworm doesn’t love the idea of Google’s new project, Google Library? The ability to search the entire contents of the world’s greatest libraries online…
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Congress Tweaks Patriot Act Provisions, Will Affect the Tech Industry
Congress is in the process of tweaking sixteen separate sections of the USA Patriot Act that were scheduled to sunset at the end of this…
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UNESCO to U.S.: Drop Dead!
Last Thursday, the United States was sucker-punched by an international organization. A majority of countries belonging to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and…
Ideas in Action
LordD have MerCIe Vpon Vs
In some places in London, you can find scratched on old walls the imprecation, LorD haVe MerCIe Vpon Vs. The curious arrangement of the capital…
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The World Wide Web (of Bureaucrats)?
Kofi Annan, Coming to a Computer Near You! The Internet’s long run as a global cyberzone of freedom—where governments take a “hands off” approach—is in…
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Energy security and natural disasters
Reps. Jim Saxton and Eliot Engel claim the destruction inflicted by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita “has been a jarring reminder of our over reliance on…
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Tobacco Ruling Erodes Charter
In Thursday’s ruling in British Columbia v. Imperial Tobacco, the Supreme Court of Canada gravely eroded the Charter of Rights and Freedoms by…
Ideas in Action
Build Resilience Into Society to Meet Environmental Crises (Letter to the Editor)
From Mr Myron Ebell. Sir, It is disappointing that you are unwilling to apply even a modicum of your newspaper’s extraordinary expertise in economic…
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Lord of War Fires a Dud
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West Nile virus fight best done by spraying
One California resident says she packed her bags and is ready to flee at a moment’s notice. Another lamented at a recent public meeting, “Do…
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Mad Science
I enjoy a spirited, well-argued political argument as much as anybody, but in “The Republican War on Science,” journalist Chris Mooney offers only a tiresome…
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Greens vs. Levees: Destructive river-management philosophy.
With all that has happened in the state, it’s understandable that the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Louisiana chapter of the…
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Big Tobacco Market Share Is Big Concern for States
In defending its settlement with Big Tobacco, the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) argues that “the states are not 'partners with the…
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Gouging? No Such Thing
For various reasons, I took a lot of trips to the local hardware store on Sunday. On my route there were two gas…
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On a Different Coast, New Orleans Jazz Plays On
“Well I had to come out and work, because there was housing.” That's what <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />New Orleans…
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Turning Science Into Hot Air
With America’s eyes fixed on Hurricane Katrina’s destructive force, we naturally look for an explanation or a cause. Eyes in times past would have roved…
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How Government Can Help: By Getting Out of the Way
When the initial rescue efforts wind down in the ravaged <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Gulf Coast area, the much longer…
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Politics Kills the Thriller
The Constant Gardener, Focus Features' new thriller, plays like the grim, dour counterpart to this year's earlier globetrotting adventure film,…
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The New Face of Organized Labor
Any student of socialism will recognize that organized labor and leftist politics have marched hand in hand since their inception. Early labor union organizers saw their…
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US Rejection of Kyoto at Heart of States’ Climate Pact
Sir, The Atlantic rarely seems a greater divide than when discussing climate change and the Kyoto protocol. This is increasingly apparent in the case of…
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Questioning the Authority of Scientific Journals
A Tufts University School of Medicine reporter has realized that a pretty large amount of scientific findings are, well, wrong. This work…
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Ignore Rumors; Teflon Proven to Be Safe
The uncanny ability of President Ronald Reagan to deflect public criticism won him the nickname “The Teflon President.” Ironically, now it is Teflon…
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Fuel Efficiency Trade-Offs
Monday's Page One article “Drumbeat grows louder for fuel efficiency” cites John Lichtblau's claim that Congress missed an opportunity in the recently enacted energy…
Ideas in Action
Natural Repellents Tell Mosquitoes to Buzz Off (Letter to the Editor)
Despite the way it was cast in the story (“Natural Repellents Tell Mosquitoes to Buzz Off,” Aug. 18), insect repellants containing DEET have the longest…
Ideas in Action
Natural Repellents Tell Mosquitoes to Buzz Off (Letter to the Editor)
Despite the way it was cast in the story (“Natural Repellents Tell Mosquitoes to Buzz Off,” Aug. 18), insect repellants containing DEET have the longest…
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Straight Scoop on E-waste
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Tobacco Deal-Breaker?
“No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, . . . enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State.” —- U.S. Constitution, Article I,…
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Suffocating Small Companies
The Washington Times is on target in pointing out the Sarbanes-Oxley Act’s strangulation of small public companies in even more layers of red tape (“Relief…
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Global Warming Doubt Dispelled? Not Really
Is the debate now over for skeptics of global warming hysteria? Readers of USA Today may certainly have that impression. “Satellite and weather-balloon…
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A Law Unto Themselves
It’s always an ambitious task to argue that a seemingly technical abuse of the Constitution is responsible for much of what is wrong with American…
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Are We in a Brave New World of “Personalized” Medicine?
BiDil, a new drug labeled for treatment of blacks with severe heart failure, has begun to arrive in pharmacies. Approved by FDA in…
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Competition and the Telecom Marketplace
Holman Jenkins addresses one of the many sticking points for broadband deployment — cities and localities. Indeed, in today's communications landscape dominated by…