If you had to select a point in time or an event that was the tipping point in the trend toward incivility and almost terminal dysfunction in our nation’s capital, the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on the nomination of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court in 1987 would be a good candidate. It was so […]
Archives for January 2013
The Higher Ed Mandate: Better and Faster
As we look to the opening of the Texas legislative session in January, the pressure is on all state funded colleges and universities to cut costs, improve productivity, and enhance student outcomes, all in a difficult state fiscal environment. According to the November newsletter from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB), Texas is falling […]
More Misguided Fed Policy
Monetary policy continues in disarray and the Federal Reserve continues to act as though it can micromanage the economy by fine-tuning interest rates. Following its October announcement that it expects to keep rates low until at least 2015, it recently announced adoption of a policy that it will not increase interest rates until unemployment falls […]
The Big Corporate Sell Out
One of my pet peeves is the often unprincipled posture of the large corporate community on matters of public policy. At the risk of over-generalizing, it is often totally self-interested and lacking in courage. A good example is the letter sent by the Business Roundtable, signed by 150 of its members, expressing its approval of […]
Steyn on the Election
One of my favorite commentators and essayists is Mark Steyn, who writes for National Review, The New Criterion, and others. Just before election day, he had a take on the presidential election that fit my sentiments pretty well in terms of the then potentially disturbing elements of the outcome, which were soon actualized: “It’s one […]
Syria: The Analogy with Spain
As the death toll in Syria’s civil war approaches 50,000 and the almost certainty that Bashar Assad will use chemical weapons and Scud missiles if necessary to keep himself and the Alawite sect in power, the conflict has become not only a religious war, but also has taken on some of the characteristics of a […]
Newtown
Aside from the horror of the evil in the act, what is most disturbing about the Newtown, Connecticut school shooting is the immediate reaction to want to understand “why?”, followed by the inevitable call for a political response centered on more gun control. As to the “why?”, we’ve been attempting to answer that question about […]
The “Cliff” Deal
What can I say that hasn’t already been over-hyped ad nausea? This was a bad deal, one I suppose was necessitated by the alternative, a much worse deal, and I’m not referring to the “over the cliff” alternative. And the final insult was the load of crony capitalist corporate welfare tacked on. But whoever thinks […]