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Picking on the Pickens Plan?
Billionaire oilman T. Boone Pickens’ camp responded last week to this column’s multi-part analysis of the so-called “Pickens Plan.” Focusing on…
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Gale Force Foolishness: Congress pushes for a federal windstorm insurance program.
AS CONGRESS WINDS down its current session, there’s little doubt that plenty of bad ideas will pop out of the woodwork as members…
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Toxic Arguments
A Review of “Poisoned Profits: The Toxic Assault on Our Children” by Philip and Alice Shabecoff By Iain Murray There’s…
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Fannie, Freddie Critic Ridiculed In 2000
It is now consensus that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are at the heart of the systemic meltdown we are seeing in the…
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It’s Paulson’s Own Mess
They said it was "too big to fail." This multi-billion dollar firm was now on the brink of bankruptcy. Although not a bank,…
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Ecuador Should End WFT Double-speak
In the midst of congratulating the Ecuadorian government on its landmark decision to eliminate the proposed 70 percent windfall tax on mining…
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Maybe the Banks Are Just Counting Wrong
In the year since the credit crunch began, reading the financial pages has become a bit like perusing a medical journal. Market…
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Be wary of insurance rate cut
Although it may seem like an early New Year’s present, North Carolina drivers have every reason to be wary of the 16.1 percent…
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Activists Hit the (Plastic) Bottle Again
Anti-chemical activists opened a new front in their jihad against the plastics chemical bisphenol-A (BPA) this week.
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CAFE Oh Nay, Standard Has Hurt
The Detroit auto industry is clearly a victim of CAFE. But it’s not the only victim, and it’s not even the most prominent one.
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No Compromise in this Energy Bill
There is very little in this bill that energy consumers can be glad about. But the environmental industry's lobby has reason to cheer.
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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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Government Meddling
Bryan K. Mignone isn’t telling the whole story when he claims that economically harmful climate-change-mitigation policies are necessary as an insurance against…
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Lehman bankruptcy: In capitalism, failure is not a dirty word
My reaction to Lehman Brothers’ declaring of Chapter 11 bankruptcy and the refusal of Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and…
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Green Shackles
Václav Klaus, president of the Czech Republic, chaffed for many years under the thumb of Soviet totalitarianism. In his new book, Blue Planet…
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Pickens’ Natural-Gas Nonsense
"Get this one," says billionaire T. Boone Pickens in his latest TV ad, "Iran is changing its cars to natural gas and we're not doing…
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EU’s Wrongheaded Climate Policy
Assuming that fighting climate change is desirable and that it can be effectively done by limiting man-made CO2 emissions, it is best achieved by making…
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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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Minot Line
Over the past decade, the Internet has given new life to one of the oldest forms of media: the urban legend. Sometimes an…
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Cholesterol Drug Scare Shenanigans
Why is the editor of the New England Journal of Medicine encouraging a cancer scare over the cholesterol-lowering drug Vytorin? Is he overcompensating for past…
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Gang Green
Excerpt: “A few weeks ago I was at the house of some friends, and I accidentally tossed a plastic Gatorade bottle into the glass recycling…
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Union Pension Funds Go Green — But It’s Not the Color of Money
Labor unions are endangering their members' retirement security by using their pension funds for environmental activism.
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What Big Labor Wants
In honor of Labor Day…
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Debunking Democrats on Drilling
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi last Tuesday dismissively referred to pro-oil-drilling demonstrators chanting “Drill here! Drill now!” as the “2-cents-in-10-years-crowd.” She may have to revise her…
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Soggy, slow-moving Fay offers lessons
Paying for insurance The Aug. 22 editorial, “Soggy, slow-moving Fay offers lessons,” contains a lot of common sense, but your call…
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Congress Should Develop Smart, Cost-Effective Natural Catastrophe Policy
Although it’s cold comfort to Florida residents dealing with the massive flooding that has resulted from Tropical Storm Fay, the slow moving…
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Sick Patients Need Cutting-Edge Drugs
The story of Anna Tomalis trying to recieve a compassionate usage exemption from the FDA to treat her cancer.
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Congress Should Develop Smart, Cost-Effective Natural Catastrophe Policy
Although it’s cold comfort to Florida residents dealing with the massive flooding that has resulted from Tropical Storm Fay, the slow moving…
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Oil Speculators ‘R’ Us
Those dastardly speculators! As well as oil company CEOs, traders in commodity futures have become convenient whipping boys for politicians of both…
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The Real Population Bomb
It's been 40 years since Stanford University population biologist Paul Ehrlich warned of imminent global catastrophe in his book "The Population Bomb." As it turns out, the…
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Sarbanes-Oxley Challenge Is Rooted in Law’s Flaw
Re: Jane Bryant Quinn’s column, “Accounting Cleanup Board Is Facing a Gutting’’ (July 16): In her attack on our constitutional challenge to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act…
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Environmentalists Prompt Nuclear Power Wake-Up Call
What did the nuclear power industry get for playing footsie with the "greens" on global warming? A knife in the back, it looks like. The…
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Oil Addiction
When cocaine prices shot up last year, White House Drug Czar John Walters touted it as "the best evidence" that the War on…
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In Defense of Early Termination Fees
If early termination fees reduce competition in the cell phone marketplace, then why is there so much of it?…
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The U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement Deserves a Vote
Free trade is in trouble, as protectionist politicians in the U.S. and elsewhere demagogue against it. Especially egregious is the U.S. Congress’s decision to delay—indefinitely—voting…
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Billionaires won’t keep Florida from fiscal disaster
On July 29, Florida’s State Board of Administration voted to spend $224 million in return for a billionaire’s pledge. Warren Buffett, the…
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‘Poisoned Profits’: Recycled Junk Science
Former New York Times environmental reporter Phil Shabecoff is so green he even recycles debunked health scares.
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Online marketing myopia
We are in the middle of an advertising revolution, driven by technology. Congress is up in arms over "behavioral advertising" online by…
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Global Warming: It isn’t a hoax and it isn’t a crisis
At The Chilling Effect, we like to discuss some of the issues surrounding the potential warming of our planet, and what (if anything)…
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A ‘Hidden Tax’ Of Rules Hits Economy
Regulatory compliance now costs of $1.16 trillion, higher than Canada's entire 2004 GDP—that's a knock-out blow to the economy…
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Flood Control Subsidies Soak the Treasury
Since the first comprehensive flood control legislation went into effect the early 20th century, America’s federal government has fought a never-ending battle to control floods.
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Barney’s Big Idea
A few powerful members of Congress have got it in their heads that it would be a good idea to shake up…
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Pickens Gives New Meaning to ‘Self-Government’
The more you learn about T. Boone Pickens’ plan to switch America to wind power, the more you realize that he seems willing to say…
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Law of Sea Treaty
The Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST), an omnibus treaty originally blocked by U.S. President Ronald Reagan, is back, supported by internationalist activists and profit-minded…
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North v South 2.0
In the seventies and eighties it became trendy to talk about the global gap between "North" and "South," in the sense that…
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LOST crosscurrents
The Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST), an omnibus treaty originally blocked by President Ronald Reagan, is back, supported by…
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Bailing Out Kelo
Of all the unintended consequences of the housing bill that passed the House on Wednesday, the most ironic and far-reaching may be this:…
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Is T. Boone Pickens ‘Swiftboating’ America?
Liberals have done a U-turn on conservative billionaire oilman T. Boone Pickens.
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Trust-Funding Fannie and Freddie
Almost every time Congress creates a "trust fund" for a certain policy issue, the money flowing into this "trust fund" is diverted to…
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Indefensible Biofuels
Advocates claim that ethanol mandates and subsidies protect our planet, enhance U.S. security, and ease our pain at the pump. In fact,…