Random thoughts on some issues that are currently floating about: *At the outset of the Reagan Revolution, which initiated the longest period of economic growth in U. S. history, Jack Kemp, one of its champions, said it well: “If you subsidize an activity, you get more of it; if you tax it, you get less.” […]
Archives for 2003
The Courts And The Pledge
Here are my thoughts on the ridiculous decision of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals prohibiting the use of the “under God” phrase in the Pledge of Allegiance and other assaults on the presence of religious and other faith-based symbols and practices in our public square: Neutrality as to the diversity of sectarian practices and […]
Finally Getting The Message
More and more I sense that black journalists and commentators are seeing the light, removing the racial blinders, and recognizing that the huge and seemingly intractable educational achievement gap between minority and white children isn’t a function of racism. People like syndicated columnists William Raspberry and Clarence Page as well as Andrea Georgsson of The […]
A Profile In Academic Courage
My hero of the month is Gordon Gee, Chancellor of Vanderbilt University. Recently he announced that Vanderbilt is eliminating the position of athletic director and replacing its traditional athletic department with a new body that is more connected to the mission of the university and more accountable to the institution’s academic leadership. As he said, […]
War, Peace, And Intellectual Honesty
For a brief, but compelling, chronological account of how we got where we are in the war on terror in general and Iraq in particular, I recommend the Special Editorial from the October 20, 2003 issue of The Weekly Standard. Anyone with an ounce of intellectual honesty cannot dispute the obvious strategic conclusions from the […]
Domestic Timidity
In my view, President Bush’s re-election prospects depend less on our success in Iraq than on his success on the domestic front, read broadly to include the economy of course, but also spending and other aspects of domestic policy. Frankly, although they have been relatively muted in their criticism, much of it so far has […]
Weaver Wisdom
From the outset, one of the underlying themes of The Texas Pilgrim has been the notion that “ideas have consequences”, and one of the thinkers who inspired that notion in me is Richard M. Weaver, whose book of that name, published in 1948, has been an invaluable source of the wisdom of that aphorism. Weaver […]
War, Nation Building, And Pathologies
A quick overview of my take on where we are in Iraq: (1) We are winning the war and we must and will pursue it to a final completion, provided we have the political will to do so, with or without UN support. (2) In fits and starts, trial and error, we are successfully building […]
From The Land Of Fruits And Nuts
As I write during the final days of the California gubernatorial recall campaign, we are yet to know the outcome and what it will mean for the political future of that state and its implications for the national elections. However, regardless of the results of the election (and incidentally, as a social conservative, I don’t […]
Editor’s Note
A note on admirable policy leadership: My friend and publishing mentor Sen. John Andrews of Colorado will be co-sponsoring legislation led by Gov. Bill Owens to ban race-based college admissions in that state. Congratulations and best wishes. We need one of these in Texas. I wonder who has the courage for such leadership?
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