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Misnamed Activists Are Thorns In Rose Of Agbiotech Foods
In a spin-dominated world where activists claim—often on the flimsiest of data—that this, that or the other thing causes cancer or threatens the…
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Erin Bode: Quite a Cover Girl
As I listen to the light and bouncy voice of Erin Bode, the young singer being positioned by the boutique jazz label MaxJazz…
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Dying for Regulatory Reform
Full article available in pdf format Congress has a long and ignoble history of exaggerated legislative responses to perceived health…
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Risks in the Modern World: What Prospects for Rationality?
Risk refers to the likelihood that something will go wrong.[1] People naturally fear such mishaps, and risk aversion is a basic survival trait. Only non-survivors…
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Global Tax; or Global Tax Reform?
Am I the only one who noticed that the Kyoto Protocol (imposing artificial constraints on energy use to regulate atmospheric carbon dioxide to…
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Green War Gets Radical
This book is a reality check for those who still view the environmental movement through rose-tinted glasses. While it does not sketch the rise…
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Science Goes Tabloid: In scientific journals, if it bleeds, it leads
In the United Kingdom, most of the respected broadsheet newspapers have cut costs and increased circulation by adding a tabloid edition. Some argue that…
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Kyoto Protocol Simply Wrong, Wrong, Wrong
The Kyoto Protocol on climate change, which comes into force this week, represents a massive act of folly by many of the…
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Travesties of Regulation: Harmful U.N. policies.
Former Federal Reserve Board chairman Paul Volcker, who heads the inquiry into corruption in the United Nations' defunct oil-for-food program, has just issued…
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One, Two, Many Broken Windows
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Albert Einstein is often attributed with defining insanity as doing the same over…
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New Agenda Fails to Address Problems
George Bernard Shaw once observed that: “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the…
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The Bill That Wouldn’t Die
You may hear the creak of a coffin-lid today as the alarmists' favorite domestic energy suppression measure rises from the grave. This particularly…
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Red & Green: Is the President Cutting Enough Environmental Fat?
If you believe the rhetoric from environmental activists about the Bush-administration budget, you would think that the world would come to an end if…
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Will the Real Hernando de Soto Please Stand Up?
Stop the presses! Hernando de Soto is harming the poor! So argues John Gravois, a reporter for the Chronicle of Higher Education, in a…
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Gas Emissions Trading Scheme (Letter to the Editor)
Sir, Anatole Kaletsky (Comment, January 27) suggests that Tony Blair’s agreement to support the US in Iraq should have been made conditional on American support…
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Different Technology, Similar Service
In the absence of competition, regulations serve to protect consumers against monopoly market power. This is, in theory, the reason why the telecommunications…
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Ideology vs. Health
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> You are correct about the heartbreaking disgrace of the purge of DDT…
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America Is Not Facing an Unavoidable Energy Shortage
The year 2004 will be remembered as a year of high prices for gasoline and natural gas, and Americans are understandably worried about…
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Six Tsunamis
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Imagine that every year the world suffered from six or more tsunamis producing…
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Consensus, Truisms and Straw Men
In a recent op-ed published in the Washington Post, science historian Naomi Oreskes, elaborating on her essay for Science magazine, argued…
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Stopping a Flu Pandemic
During the winter of 1918-19, only months after the end of World War I, much of the world was ravaged again, this time…
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Reef Madness
Full article available as a pdf. Now that <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Russia has ratified the…
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EU Warned Against Pursuing Its Climate Change Agenda
The chairman of the US Senate's environment committee, Senator James Inhofe, warned the EU against pursuing its climate change agenda—stalled to date in…
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Pew’s Parallel Universe
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> The “new biotechnology,” or gene-splicing, applied to agriculture and food production is here to…
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Not Your Father’s Republican
As governor of Maryland, Robert Ehrlich fought off trial lawyers, teachers’ unions, and a Kennedy – and signed a bill legalizing medical marijuana. What will…
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Stunting Corporate Growth
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Robert J. Samuelson [op-ed, Dec. 22] dismissed legitimate concerns about the effects of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act…
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Ultraviolet-B Radiation Fears Overblown
By relying too heavily on a few vocal alarmists, the article “Living under depleted skies” (World, Dec. 20) gave a very misleading impression…
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Science Fiction: Michael Crichton Takes a Novel Approach to Global Warming Alarmism
Michael Crichton's new blockbuster novel, State of Fear, begins with sex, violence, and oceanography. It's that sort of book all the way through,…
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FCC Is Ignoring Impact of Wireless, Other Rivals for Telephone Service
In the absence of competition, regulations serve to protect consumers against monopoly market power. This is, in theory, the reason why the telecommunications local exchange…
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The Danger of Too Much Caution
Congress has a long and ignoble history of exaggerated legislative responses to perceived health crises. They seem to be at it again.<?xml:namespace prefix…
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TCS COP 10 Coverage: Inuit All Along
<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — On Monday representatives from Iceland held a prime-time event announcing a study…
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TCS COP 10 Coverage: Who’s The Greatest?
BUENOS AIRES — British Prime Minister Tony Blair's Science Advisor Sir David King regularly calls climate change “the greatest threat facing mankind” and…
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Reid May Lead on Stock Options
In the discussion of winners and losers from Election 2004, one organization that may have suffered a big blow has been overlooked. This…
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TCS COP 10 Coverage: Premature Congratulation
<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Buenos Aires — “Post-2012”! is the mantra of thousands of bureaucrats and pressure group advocates meeting…
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Coal Is The New Gold
A report in the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />United States has found that coal is becoming ever more important as…
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A Chilling Tale
We know that nature can kill. What most people don't know is that stupid ideas about nature can kill, too.<?xml:namespace prefix = o…
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How lawsuits can kill
This year's flu-vaccine shortfall is just one of many dangerous shortages of essential vaccines—and it need not have happened. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns…
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Bigger, “Renewable” Boondoggle
In Washington, sometimes all you need to do to find out lobbyists’ latest schemes to bilk the unwary taxpayer is attend a public meeting. What…
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It’s the Infrastructure, Stupid: Amtrak, derailed
The news that the Department of Transportation’s Inspector General is deeply concerned about the dangerous state of Amtrak’s railroad infrastructure should come as…
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Environmentalists Becoming Less and Less Relevant
Environmental activists wanted two things to happen on Election Day—they wanted President Bush to lose and their cause to be a big reason…
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The Supermarket’s Unnatural Selections
Agricultural practices have been “unnatural” for 10,000 years. With the exception of wild berries and wild mushrooms, virtually all the grains, fruits and…
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Citizen Snoops Forever: The intelligence reform bill will turn car dealers into spooks, permanently
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Big Losers: Unions’ 2004 Electioneering Stuck in Florida 2000
Had Sen. John Kerry won the White House, the AFL-CIO and other union backers were poised to claim credit, regain control over the Labor Department…
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Will Reid Lead On Stock Option?
In the discussion of winner sand losers from Election 2004, one organization that may have suffered a big blow has been…
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Abusive Behavior
Recent months have seen some regrettable lapses by prestigious scientific journals. Some highly questionable claims have been made, but have been published anyway.
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The Fight for Telecom Reform
The good news is all the combatants realize it’s a war that needs to be fought. There’s good news and bad news in the wonky…
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Square Off: Is Cyberterrorism Being Thwarted?
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> YES: Businesses have re-examined continuity plans, and governments have addressed physical and Web…
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The Fight For Telecom Reform
Full document available in pdf format<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> There’s good news and bad news in the wonky…
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Margaret Thatcher: A Free Market Environmentalist
Full document available in pdf format <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Tracy Mehan’s account of Margaret…
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The Curse of Too Much Caution
The FDA is the nation's most ubiquitous regulatory agency. It oversees products that account for 25 cents of every consumer dollar, with a…
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Making the Desert Bloom
There is big news from the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Middle East that is unusual in several ways: It's positive,…
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What’s Wrong With Combat Pay?
American soldiers are risking their lives in Fallujah. No one would say that they don't deserve a special bonus for wearing <?xml:namespace prefix…
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Air Board’s Greenhouse Rule: Raw Deal for Dealers
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> On September 24, <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />California’s Air…
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Telecom Reform, Consensus Needed
In the Washington, D.C. policy world, regulatory change requires consensus building. With rapid market changes since the Telecommunications Act of 1996, Congress and the Federal Communications Commission are…
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Cooling Blair’s Climate Crusade
Tony Blair is, in a way, as polarizing a figure in the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />United Kingdom as President…
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Energy Policy or Anti-Energy Policy?
There was a lot a campaign talk about our nation's energy policy, and Bush and Kerry offered their own competing energy plans. With…
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Stock Option Expense Jousting
After hearing constant tirades about <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />U.S. foreign policy offending “the world,” a majority of American voters…
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Russia Takes “Final” Step, Again, But Not Really
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> For the third time in a month and fifth time in just…
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Science Loses Some Friends
The scientific world lost three important figures in recent weeks, as Francis Crick, Thomas Gold and Philip Abelson have all passed away. In…
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Ford Motor Plans for Energy-Poor Future
According to The New York Times (Oct. 4), “Ford's goal, according to its own internal projections, would require an improvement of about 80…
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The One Percent Solution
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Many of the scientific papers that have contributed to global warming alarmism over…
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Demonize – Then Pulverize
Ten years ago last May, a new type of lawsuit was filed against the tobacco industry. That industry was no stranger to lawsuits; since the…
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No to Kyoto Treaty
<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />USA TODAY's editorial fails to make an economic case for U.S. ratification of the Kyoto Protocol (“Global…
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Too Smart For Our Own Good
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A Green Light for More Broadband
The Federal Communications Commission—the traffic cop of the communications industry—just raised the speed limits on broadband. Its ruling on Thursday protects many of…
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Missing in Action
In a <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />US election campaign that has seen the presidential candidates attack each other with great…
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EU Adopts ‘Imperial Preference’
Commissioner Pascal Lamy’s announcement on 20 October that lesser developed countries that implement the European agenda of the Kyoto protocol and other international treaties on…
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Ebell Responds to Editorial “The Choice on the Environment”
Thursday, October 21, 2004; Page A28 <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> The Sept. 27 editorial “The Choice on the Environment”…
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Flights of Fancy
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> The current British hysteria over global warming, which has seen party leaders…
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Health, Wealth and Happiness
How do we know when we’re happy? Strange as it may seem, this philosophical question could come back to haunt you one April 15. Psychologists…
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Hockey Stick Reduced to Sawdust
Von Storch et al (ScienceExpress, Sept. 30) first looked at the likelihood of being able to get an accurate climate signal from historical…
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Vaccine Development Needs a Booster Shot
Every year in this country influenza kills tens of thousands and hospitalizes about a quarter-million. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” />…
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Tyndall Center Proposes Energy Rationing
Dr Kevin Anderson and Richard Starkey are developing a system called Domestic Tradable Quotas (DTQs). Under this system, every <?xml:namespace prefix = st1…
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The Toxic Politics of Biotech
How far does grass pollen travel? Ask someone who has hay fever, and the response is likely to be “much too far.” But…
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Medicine Could Reach For Stars, FDA Willing
When Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft in 1975, they shot for the stars and succeeded. More recently, Allen shot for the stars again.
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Carbon dioxide is your friend
Jeffrey Sparshott’s otherwise excellent article “Putin Cabinet approves signing of Kyoto protocol” (Business, Friday) unwittingly promotes the alarmist view that carbon dioxide emissions…
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More Crop for the Drop
Your morning espresso at Starbucks will soon be more expensive. Unless, that is, they find a way to make it without water or coffee, both…
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Greenpeace Seeks Greener Pastures
Recent reportage in one of Europe’s greenest publications, “The Ecologist”, cites internal admissions by the pressure group Greenpeace that it needs a face-saving exit strategy…
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A Green Push to Keep Projects Safe for Vermin
The next time you see rats roaming around public housing units in New York City, think of Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. He and a handful…
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Global Warming not a Cost-effective Target
There’s a scientific consensus, we’re often told, that global warming is a problem—despite the opinion of qualified experts ranging from the <?xml:namespace prefix…
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Fuel Economy Restrictions a Deadly Proposition (Letter to Editor)
In defending California’s new CO2 emission standard, Joan Claybrook claims that “size and design, not weight, are the critical factors” in auto safety (Letters, Sept.
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Mr. Rifkin’s Pipe Dream
Professional worrier Jeremy Rifkin's pronouncements always remind me of the characterization by one-time Speaker of the House of Representatives Thomas B. Reed of…
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Rolling in the Greenpeace: How to succeed in charity work without really trying
The IRS has announced that it will investigate the executive-compensation packages paid at 2,000 nonprofit organizations and charities. It could do worse than turning…
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Back to School for Pests
As students return to school this fall, parents will again worry about new illnesses as kids come in contact with more cold and…
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Kyotonomics Debunked
Pincas Jawetz’s argument that the United States economy would benefit by following the path of the Kyoto Protocol’s few adherents (Letters, Tuesday) is logically and…
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The Internet as Medical Adviser?
While the future of health care is heatedly debated in this presidential election year, something less obvious, but possibly much more important, is occurring behind…
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Journalistic Balancing Act?
A new study published in the journal Global Environmental Change (see here for a press report) argues that, by adhering to the…
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Taking the Scare Out of Biotech Crops
In the late 1990s, political scientist Gregory Conko had been studying food and pharmaceutical regulation as a fellow of the Competitive Enterprise Institute,…
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New York Summer Without New York Smog?
Summer is over, and it was a very good one for air quality in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />New York…
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New York’s Smog Free Summer
Summer is over, and it was a very good one for air quality. in. New York City. In fact, 2004 ranks as perhaps the cleanest…
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Global Jockeying over Global Warming
British Prime Minister Tony Blair's call for America to ratify the Kyoto Protocol this week tacitly acknowledges that Russian ratification, thought by then-Commissioner…
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Eco-Fascism Going Global
Full text available as pdf<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> We can say this for environmental…
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Antitrust: Sherman’s March Across the Globe
President Bush’s bipartisan Antitrust Modernization Commission held its first meeting in July. But after 114 years, America’s antitrust regulatory regime is overdue for burial, not…
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Lessons from the Gas Price Spike
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Labor Day weekend marked the end of summer and its high seasonal demand…
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Soso Whaley Interviewed in Brazil
Soso Whaley interview in O Estado de Sao Paulo, August 20, 2004 Soso Whaley followed the same…
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Biz-War and the Out-Of-Power Elites: The Progressive-Left Attack on the Corporation
Biz-War and the Out-Of-Power Elites: The Progressive-Left Attack on the Corporation by Prof. Jarol B. Manheim, George Washington University (Lawrence…
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Ratification Without Representation: Making a Joke out of the Constitution
“Why don't we just give them ours?” Jay Leno asked last summer as the Bush administration was helping <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns =…
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Nauseating Cases of Product Liability
Morning sickness –the nausea and vomiting that afflict more than half of pregnant women –can be debilitating. There once was…
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July Was Coldest Month in Four Years
The data show that the global temperature was 0.21°C (about 0.38°F) below the 20-year average for July. This followed on from a June…
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International Atomic Agency Regrets Lack of Progress on Kyoto
The relevant section reads, “From the viewpoint of the IAEA, ‘no progress was made in 2003 on the Kyoto Protocol, which would help…