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.” […]
Of Biases, Right And Left
One of my favorite liberal columnists, E. J. Dionne, Jr., wrote several months ago, “It took conservatives a lot of hard and steady work to push the media rightward. It dishonors that work to presume that—except for a few liberal columnists—there is any such thing as the big liberal media.” Aside from the fact that […]
Potpourri
As we close our third year, here are some thoughts on various events and issues that are floating about the public square: A TV debate between two journalism professors on the role of the media in the recent D. C. area sniper case produced this: “We have reached a consensus in this democracy that more […]
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“A country cannot have open borders and a welfare state. Even less can a country welcome multicultural immigrants whose loyalties reside elsewhere. Open borders for terrorists means a police state for citizens.” —Milton Friedman
The Shake Up We Need
The recent reorganization of the FBI in the wake of allegations and much evidence that it did not properly respond to serious warnings of terrorist activity last summer is long overdue, but probably not enough. I expect another round, possibly including much higher level terminations. These preliminary steps at the FBI are but the first […]
Defining The Century
In the April 2002 issue of The Atlantic Monthly, David Brooks wonders which grand themes will dominate the 21st century. He opines that 19th century America was about national union and the dominant 20th century theme here and elsewhere was about the size of government. He also suggests a few nominees for the 21st century, […]
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“Our society increasingly has a problem confronting evil (which, like good, is essentially a religious concept). It’s frightening to think that a sane person could ruthlessly slaughter five children, kill and cannibalize fifteen young men or murder six million strangers. It’s actually comforting to attribute such horrors to insanity. Mental illness can be treated with […]
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What the enemies of Israel and America really hate and fear is human creativity. Flourishing only under capitalism, creativity is our key endowment, in the image of our creator. Without the miracle of mind, expressed in the art and enterprise of a free society, human beings become mere meat. Without the word that breathes spirit […]
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“This much I think I do know—that a society so riven that the spirit of moderation is gone, no court can save; that a society where that spirit flourishes, no court need save; that in a society which evades its responsibility by thrusting upon the courts the nurture of that spirit, that spirit in the […]
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“Political commentator E. J. Dionne has written that Americans are fed up with politics and many among us just want politics to go away. A distaste for conflict is a distaste for politics. The great Frederick Douglass once remarked that you cannot have rain without occasional thunder and lightning. Yet that is what so many […]