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Wealth is the abundance of valuable resources or material possessions. The word wealth is derived from the old English weal, which is from an Indo-European word stem.^[1] An individual, community, region or country that possesses an abundance of such possessions or resources is known as wealthy.

The concept of wealth is of significance in all areas of economics, and clearly so for growth economics and development economics. Yet the meaning of wealth is context-dependent and there is no universally agreed upon definition. At the most general level, economists may define wealth as "anything of value" which captures both the subjective nature of the idea and the idea that it is not a fixed or static concept. Various definitions and concepts of wealth have been asserted by various individuals and in different contexts.^[2] Defining wealth can be a normative process with various ethical implications, since often wealth maximization is seen as a goal or is thought to be a normative principle of its own.^[3][4]

Although precise data are not available, the total household wealth in the world has been estimated at $125 trillion (USD 125 x10¹²) in year 2000.^[5]

About 90% of global wealth is distributed in North America, Europe, and "rich Asia-Pacific" countries (not including India),^[6] and 1% of adults are estimated to hold 40% of world wealth, a number which falls to 32% when adjusted for purchasing power parity.^[7]

Definition[link]

For definitions of "wealth," see also The Wealth of Nations and Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.

Adam Smith, in his seminal work The Wealth of Nations, described wealth as "the annual produce of the land and labour of the society". This "produce" is, at its simplest, that which satisfies human needs and wants of utility. In popular usage, wealth can be described as an abundance of items of economic value, or the state of controlling or possessing such items, usually in the form of money, real estate and personal property. An individual who is considered wealthy, affluent, or rich is someone who has accumulated substantial wealth relative to others in their society or reference group. In economics, net wealth refers to the value of assets owned minus the value of liabilities owed at a point in time.^{[citation needed]} Wealth can be categorized into three principal categories: personal property, including homes or automobiles; monetary savings, such as the accumulation of past income; and the capital wealth of income producing assets, including real estate, stocks, bonds, and businesses.^{[citation needed]} All these delineations make wealth an especially important part of social stratification. Wealth provides a type of social safety net of protection against an unforeseen decline in one’s living standard in the event of job loss or other emergency and can be transformed into home ownership, business ownership, or even a college education.^{[8][not in citation given]}

'Wealth' refers to some accumulation of resources (net asset value), whether abundant or not. 'Richness' refers to an abundance of such resources (income or flow). A wealthy individual, community, or nation thus has more accumulated resources (capital) than a poor one. The opposite of wealth is destitution. The opposite of richness is poverty.

The term implies a social contract on establishing and maintaining ownership in relation to such items which can be invoked with little or no effort and expense on the part of the owner. The concept of wealth is relative and not only varies between societies, but varies between different sections or regions in the same society. A personal net worth of US $10,000 in most parts of the United States would certainly not place a person among the wealthiest citizens of that locale. However, such an amount would constitute an extraordinary amount of wealth in impoverished developing countries.

Concepts of wealth also vary across time. Modern labor-saving inventions and the development of the sciences have enabled the poorest sectors of today's society to enjoy a standard of living equivalent if not superior to the wealthy of the not-too-distant past. This comparative wealth across time is also applicable to the future; given this trend((cn)) of human advancement, it is likely that the standard of living that the wealthiest enjoy today will be considered impoverished by future generations.

Industrialization emphasized the role of technology. Many jobs were automated. Machines replaced some workers while other workers became more specialized. Labour specialization became critical to economic success. However, physical capital, as it came to be known, consisting of both the natural capital and the infrastructural capital, became the focus of the analysis of wealth.^{[citation needed]}

Adam Smith saw wealth creation as the combination of materials, labour, land, and technology in such a way as to capture a profit (excess above the cost of production).^[9] The theories of David Ricardo, John Locke, John Stuart Mill, in the 18th century and 19th century built on these views of wealth that we now call classical economics.

Marxian economics (see labor theory of value) distinguishes in the Grundrisse between material wealth and human wealth, defining human wealth as "wealth in human relations"; land and labour were the source of all material wealth.

Buckminster Fuller defines wealth in the following manner: “Wealth is our organized capability to cope effectively with the environment in sustaining our healthy regeneration and decreasing both the physical and metaphysical restrictions of the forward days of our lives.” ^[10]

Economic analysis[link]

In economics, wealth in a commonly applied accounting sense is the net worth of a person, household, or nation, that is, the value of all assets owned net of all liabilities owed at a point in time. For national wealth as measured in the national accounts, the net liabilities are those owed to the rest of the world.^[11] The term may also be used more broadly as referring to the productive capacity of a society or as a contrast to poverty.^[12] Analytical emphasis may be on its determinants or distribution.^[13]

Economic terminology distinguishes between two types of variables: stock and flow. Wealth, as measurable at a date in time, is a stock, like the value of an orchard on December 31 minus debt owed on the orchard. For a given amount of wealth, say at the beginning of the year, income from that wealth, as measurable over say a year is a flow. What marks the income as a flow is its measurement per unit of time, like the value of apples yielded from the orchard per year.

In macroeconomic theory the 'wealth effect' may refer to the increase in aggregate consumption from an increase in national wealth. One measure of it is the wealth elasticity of demand. It is the percentage change in the amount demanded of consumption for each one-percent change in wealth.

Wealth may be measured in nominal or real values, that is in money value as of a given date or adjusted to net out price changes. The assets include those that are tangible (land and capital) and financial (money, bonds, etc.). Measurable wealth typically excludes intangible or nonmarketable assets such as human capital and social capital. In economics, 'wealth' corresponds to the accounting term 'net worth'. But analysis may adapt typical accounting conventions for economic purposes in social accounting (such as in national accounts). An example of the latter is generational accounting of social security systems to include the present value projected future outlays considered as liabilities.^[14] Macroeconomic questions include whether the issuance of government bonds affects investment and consumption through the wealth effect.^[15]

Environmental assets are not usually counted in measuring wealth, in part due to the difficulty of valuation for a non-market good. Environmental or green accounting is a method of social accounting for formulating and deriving such measures on the argument that an educated valuation is superior to a value of zero (as the implied valuation of environmental assets).^[16]

Sociological treatments[link]

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"Wealth provides an important mechanism in the intergenerational transmission of inequality."^[8] Less than 10% of the wealthiest people in America inherited family fortunes.^{[citation needed]} But the effect of inherited wealth can also be seen on a more modest level. For example, a couple who buy a house with financial help from their parents or a student who has his or her college education paid for; in both scenarios the participants are benefiting directly from the accumulated wealth of previous generations.^[8]

Wealth and social class[link]

Social class is not identical to wealth, but the two concepts are related (particularly in Marxist theory), leading to the combined concept of Socioeconomic status.

Partly as a result of different economic conditions of life, members of different social classes often have different value systems and view the world in different ways. As such, there exist different "conceptions of social reality, different aspirations and hopes and fears, different conceptions of the desirable."^[17] The way the various social classes in society view wealth vary and these diverse characteristics are a fundamental dividing line among the classes. According to Richard H Ropers, the concentration of wealth in the United States is inequitably distributed.^[18] In 1996, the United States federal government reported that the net worth of the top 1 percent of people in the United States was approximately equal to that of the bottom 90 percent.^[8]

The upper class[link]

Upper class values include higher education, and the wealthiest people the accumulation and maintenance of wealth, the maintenance of social networks and the power that accompanies such networks. Children of the upper class are typically schooled on how to manage this power and channel this privilege in different forms. It is in large part by accessing various edifices of information^{[clarification needed]}, associates, procedures and auspices that the upper class are able to maintain their wealth and pass it to future generations.^[19]

The middle class[link]

The middle class places a greater emphasis on income. The middle class views wealth as something for emergencies and it is seen as more of a cushion. This class comprises people that were raised with families that typically owned their own home, planned ahead and stressed the importance of education and achievement. They earn a significant amount of income and also have significant amounts of consumption. However there is very limited savings (deferred consumption) or investments, besides retirement pensions and homeownership. They have been socialized to accumulate wealth through structured, institutionalized arrangements. Without this set structure, asset accumulation would likely not occur.^[19]

The lower class[link]

Those with the least amount of wealth are the welfare poor. (see underclass) Wealth accumulation for this class is to some extent prohibited. People that receive AFDC transfers cannot own more than a trivial amount of assets, in order to be eligible and remain qualified for income transfers. Most of the institutions that the welfare poor encounter discourage any accumulation of assets.^[19]

Distribution[link]

Wealth in the form of land[link]

In the western tradition, the concepts of owning land and accumulating wealth in the form of land were engendered in the rise of the first state, for a primary service and power of government was, and is to this day, the awarding and adjudication of land use rights.

Land ownership was also justified according to John Locke. He claimed that because we mix^{[clarification needed]} our labour with the land, we thereby deserve the right to control the use of the land and benefit from the product of that land (but subject to his Lockean proviso of "at least where there is enough, and as good left in common for others.").

Additionally, in developed countries post-agrarian society (industrial society) this argument has many critics (including those influenced by Georgist and geolibertarian ideas) who argue that since land, by definition, is not a product of human labor, any claim of private property in it is a form of theft; as David Lloyd George observed, "to prove a legal title to land one must trace it back to the man who stole it."

Many older ideas have resurfaced in the modern notions of ecological stewardship, bioregionalism, natural capital, and ecological economics.

Anthropological views[link]

Anthropology characterizes societies, in part, based on a society's concept of wealth, and the institutional structures and power used to protect this wealth.^{[citation needed]} Several types are defined below. They can be viewed as an evolutionary progression. Many young adolescents have become wealthy from the inheritance of their families.

The interpersonal concept[link]

Early hominids seem to have started with incipient ideas of wealth^{[citation needed]}, similar to that of the great apes. But as tools, clothing, and other mobile infrastructural capital became important to survival (especially in hostile biomes), ideas such as the inheritance of wealth, political positions, leadership, and ability to control group movements (to perhaps reinforce such power) emerged. Neandertal societies had pooled funerary rites and cave painting which implies at least a notion of shared assets that could be spent for social purposes, or preserved for social purposes. Wealth may have been collective.

Accumulation of non-necessities[link]

Humans back to and including the Cro-Magnons seem to have had clearly defined rulers and status hierarchies. Digs in Russia have revealed elaborate funeral clothing on a pair of children buried there over 35,000 years ago.^{[citation needed]} This indicates a considerable accumulation of wealth by some individuals or families. The high artisan skill also suggest the capacity to direct specialized labor to tasks that are not of any obvious utility to the group's survival.

Control of arable land[link]

The rise of irrigation and urbanization, especially in ancient Sumer and later Egypt, unified the ideas of wealth and control of land and agriculture. To feed a large stable population, it was possible and necessary to achieve universal cultivation and city-state protection. The notion of the state and the notion of war are said to have emerged at this time. Tribal cultures were formalized into what we would call feudal systems, and many rights and obligations were assumed by the monarchy and related aristocracy. Protection of infrastructural capital built up over generations became critical: city walls, irrigation systems, sewage systems, aqueducts, buildings, all impossible to replace within a single generation, and thus a matter of social survival to maintain. The social capital of entire societies was often defined in terms of its relation to infrastructural capital (e.g. castles or forts or an allied monastery, cathedral or temple), and natural capital, (i.e. the land that supplied locally grown food). Agricultural economics continues these traditions in the analyses of modern agricultural policy and related ideas of wealth, e.g. the ark of taste model of agricultural wealth.

The role of technology[link]

Industrialization emphasized the role of technology. Many jobs were automated. Machines replaced some workers while other workers became more specialized. Labour specialization became critical to economic success. However, physical capital, as it came to be known, consisting of both the natural capital (raw materials from nature) and the infrastructural capital (facilitating technology), became the focus of the analysis of wealth. Adam Smith saw wealth creation as the combination of materials, labour, land, and technology in such a way as to capture a profit (excess above the cost of production).^[20]

References[link]

For Real was an American R&B and soul quartet, that formed in 1993.^[1] In the latter part of that decade they were nominated for a Grammy, Billboard Music Award, and Soul Train Music Award.

Biography[link]

For Real secured their recording contract by accident. "We were picking up our manager from the airport. So we decided to greet him with an acappella song. Someone from A&M Records just happened to be in the airport and heard them perform. Not long after, they were signed," said Latanyia Baldwin.^[2]

The band released their debut album, It's a Natural Thang, with production from Brian McKnight on A&M Records in 1994, and it became a critical success, including a rare four stars from Rolling Stone magazine.^[3] Their first single, "You Don't Wanna Miss" hit #28 on the Billboard chart, courtesy of a danceable new jack swing remix by Steve "Silk" Hurley, which was featured in the song's video. A second single, "Easy to Love", peaked at #65 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The album scored another chart hit with the a cappella love song, "You Don't Know Nothin'", which was written and produced by Mervyn Warren, and which peaked at #27. The song peaked at #54 in the UK Singles Chart in July 1995.^[4] The album sold over one million copies worldwide, and peaked at #80 on the Billboard 200.

In 1995, the band appeared in Italian Vogue, modeling men's suits. They toured alongside Stevie Wonder,^[5] and lent their voices to the Martin Scorsese film project Grace of My Heart. The foursome also forayed into acting with appearances in the film Shake, Rattle and Rock! starring Renée Zellweger and Howie Mandel^[6] on Showtime.

They also hit the US Top 20 with the single "Freedom (Theme from Panther)" featuring Aaliyah, TLC, En Vogue, BlackGirl, SWV, and Vanessa Williams from the film Panther. They also recorded a duet with Stevie Wonder called "Stubborn Kind of Fellow", which appeared on the Marvin Gaye tribute album, Inner City Blues: The Music of Marvin Gaye.^[7] For Real also recorded songs for the soundtracks of the films Waiting to Exhale and Fled.

After a label change from A&M to Dallas Austin's Arista imprint Rowdy Records in 1996, For Real struck again with the Austin-produced, 60s-leaning single "Like I Do", from their second album Free. "Like I Do" hit #10 on the Billboard singles chart. The video also earned a Billboard nomination for Best R&B Clip; the album made the Top 100, and sold nearly 400,000 copies in the US. The album's next and last single was the Diane Warren-penned pop ballad "The Saddest Song I Ever Heard" which hit #65 on the Top 100 singles chart. The band performed "Saddest Song" on the TV series All That. Free included production from top R&B/pop producers like Babyface, Mario Winans, and Jon B..

The band also recorded three songs ("I Do", "Born to Love That Boy" and "Unwanted Number") and appeared in the critically acclaimed film Grace of My Heart. The film's soundstrack won a Satellite Award in 1997.^[9][10]

In January 1997, the band won an American Music Award for their work on the Waiting to Exhale soundtrack, in Summer 1997, the group earned a Soul Train Award nomination for Album of the Year (By a Group, Band or Duo) for Free.

In 1999, Wendi Williams lent her voice to the Emmy-winning film Introducing Dorothy Dandridge with Halle Berry, in which Berry plays a singer but Williams is behind her singing voice.^[11]

In 2002, their song "Love Will Be Waiting at Home" appeared in the film Two Can Play That Game, which starred Vivica A. Fox and Morris Chestnut.

In 2009, CoryLavel began to work with Josina Elder on her new album.

Discography[link]

• It's a Natural Thang (1994)
• Free (1996)

Awards and nominations[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• SingingFool.com Streaming music videos for "Like I Do" and "The Saddest Song I Ever Heard"
• Allmusic^{[dead link]} Discography, biographies, and pictures
• IUMA Group photos, lyrics, message board, audio streams, and biography
• Google Album info, photos, and lyrics

Sam Seder
Born	Samuel Lincoln Seder (1966-11-28) November 28, 1966 (age 45) New York City, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, Comedian, Writer, Director, Producer
Years active	1995—present

Samuel Lincoln "Sam" Seder (born November 28, 1966) is a comedian, writer, actor, film director, television producer-director, and talk radio host. Seder was born in New York City, New York into a Jewish family, and raised in Worcester, Massachusetts.

His works include the film Who’s the Caboose (1997) as well as the television shows Beat Cops (2001) and Pilot Season (2004). He also appeared in Next Stop Wonderland (1998). Seder also made guest appearances on Spin City (1997), Sex and the City (2000) and America Undercover (2005).

Career[link]

In March 2004, Seder became co-host along with Janeane Garofalo on Air America Radio's The Majority Report. In July 2006 Garofalo departed the show, offering positive comments about working with Seder. Seder was later offered a new contract with Air America Radio, and his show moved from the 7-10PM (Eastern) spot to a 9AM-Noon spot, retitled The Sam Seder Show.

On September 1, 2004, Sam Seder was briefly detained by the United States Secret Service during his live, on-site coverage of the Republican National Convention at Madison Square Garden. Shortly after Zell Miller gave his speech, Seder began searching (with a sign in hand) on the convention floor for a willing homosexual Republican to interview live on radio. It was not long before he was physically removed from the floor and after brief questioning, was asked (or according to some, "strongly encouraged") to leave the convention. Seder later commented that his wearing of a lapel pin that he had been given by a Secret Service agent at the Democratic National Convention earlier that year had kept him from being ejected from the convention completely.

In the closing minutes of their Wednesday, March 9, 2005 show, Garofalo announced that Sam and his wife Nikki were expecting a daughter. This event in his life slightly colored and affected Seder's commentary. On more than one occasion he has voiced concerns about just how he was going to explain elements of this world to his daughter as she grows up, after witnessing actions by the Republican Party that Seder felt might adversely affect her future.

On August 9, 2005, Nikki Seder gave birth to a daughter, Myla Rae Seder.

On April 6, 2007, Air America Radio announced that the Sam Seder Show would end its run at the 9AM-Noon spot effective Friday, April 13, 2007, but that Seder would do a Sunday show, titled Seder on Sunday. The 9AM-Noon time slot was filled by Lionel, who hosted a late night radio show on the WOR Radio network.^[1] This change is part of what Air America President Mark Green called "Air America 2.0", his plan to transform Air America into a profitable leader in progressive talk radio.^[2] The final Seder on Sunday was broadcast on June 1, 2008.

Seder also occasionally would substitute for Randi Rhodes when Rhodes was on Air America (becoming the number one sub after KLSD morning host Stacy Taylor lost his job when the station changed its format), as well as Mike Malloy on The Mike Malloy Show on the Nova M Radio network. In 2008 he also began a collaboration with Marc Maron on Maron v. Seder, an hour-long video webcast. In January 2009, Maron v. Seder was renamed Breakroom Live with Maron & Seder.^[3] It aired live from the kitchen in the Air America offices weekdays at 3PM Eastern. Seder and Maron also hosted a post-show chat with viewers after each episode. Air America Media cancelled Breakroom Live with Maron & Seder on July 15, 2009.

In November 2009 Seder hosted a pilot for NBC of an American version of Have I Got News For You.^[4]

Seder was one of the first Air America personalities to make the official announcement that Rhodes had chosen to terminate her contract with the network^{[citation needed]}.

In November 2010, Seder began an independent online podcast, also called the Majority Report. The format closely matches the previous Air America program, with politically-oriented commentary by Seder and interviews with various guests. Seder plans to offer premium subscriptions to the podcasts, which allow subscribers access to expanded commentary not on the basic podcast, as well as DVDs of the 2004 TV series Pilot Season, produced and directed by Seder, starring Sarah Silverman and originally broadcast on the now-defunct Trio cable network. Seder has gained some popularity on the Majority Report for frequently taking instant messages from a conservative with a form of slight mental retardation who goes by the screen name "Primer."

In late 2010, Seder began occasionally serving as substitute host of Countdown with Keith Olbermann when Olbermann was on vacation. In December 2010, Seder also became co-host of the nationally syndicated progressive radio interview program Ring of Fire, co-hosted by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Florida-based attorney Mike Papantonio.^[5]

Filmography[link]

Working list of appearances in television and film:

• All American Girl TV actor (1994)
• The Show TV actor (1996)
• The Big Fall actor (1996)
• Who's the Caboose? actor director writer producer (1997)
• Spin City TV actor (1997)
• Next Stop Wonderland actor (1998)
• Home Movies TV voiceover (1999)
• Sex and the City TV actor (2000)
• Happy Accidents actor (2000)
• Endsville actor (2000)
• Home Movies (TV series) Voice of Fenton Muley and other smaller roles (2001-2004)
• Beat Cops actor writer producer (2001)
• Saddle Rash TV voiceover (2002)
• I'm with Busey director (2003)
• Pilot Season TV actor director writer producer (2004)
• America Undercover TV actor (2005)
• Lucy, the Daughter of the Devil TV voiceover (2007)
• Assy McGee TV voiceover & writer (2008)
• Bob's Burgers TV voiceover (2011)

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• F.U.B.A.R.: America's Right-Wing Nightmare, co-authored with Stephen Sherrill, 2006, (ISBN 0-06-084671-2)
• Wait! Don't Move to Canada: A Stay-and-Fight Strategy to Win Back America by Bill Scher, foreword co-authored by Seder and Janeane Garofalo, 2006, (ISBN 1-59486-396-2)

External links[link]

• Sam Seder Show
• Majority Report Radio
• December 12, 2005 appearance on CNN to discuss the "War on the War on the War on Christmas" (Transcript) (Video).
• Sam Seder at the Internet Movie Database
• F.U.B.A.R.: America's Right-Wing Nightmare
• Seder at the RNC

Michelle Malkin
At the RightOnline Summit in Dallas, Texas (2008)
Born	Michelle Marie Maglalang (1970-10-20) October 20, 1970 (age 41) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Residence	Colorado Springs, Colorado
Ethnicity	Filipino
Citizenship	American
Alma mater	Oberlin College - (B.A., 1992)
Occupation	Author, syndicated columnist, television personality and blogger
Religion	Roman Catholic[1]
Spouse	Jesse D. Malkin (1993–present)
Children	2
Website
Michelle Malkin

Michelle Malkin (née Maglalang; born October 20, 1970) is an American conservative blogger, political commentator and author.^[2][3] Her weekly syndicated column appears in a number of newspapers and websites.^[2] She is a Fox News Channel contributor and has been a guest on MSNBC, C-SPAN, and national radio programs. Malkin has written four books published by Regnery Publishing.

Early life[link]

Malkin was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Philippine citizens Rafaela (née Perez) – a homemaker and teacher – and Apolo DeCastro Maglalang, who was then a physician-in-training.^[1] Several months prior to Malkin's birth, her parents had immigrated to the United States on an employer-sponsored visa.^[4] After her father finished his medical training, the family moved^[5] to Absecon, New Jersey. Malkin has a younger brother.^[6] She has described her parents as Reagan Republicans who were "not incredibly politically active."^[1]

Malkin, a Roman Catholic,^[1][7] attended Holy Spirit Roman Catholic High School, where she edited the school newspaper and aspired to become a concert pianist.^[1] Following her graduation in 1988, she enrolled at Oberlin College.^[1] Malkin originally planned to pursue a bachelor's degree in music, but changed her major to English.^[1] During her college years, she worked as a press inserter, tax preparation aide, and network news librarian.^[8] While attending Oberlin, Malkin was hired to write for an independent, right-of-center student newspaper by fellow student Jesse Dylan Malkin. Her first article for the paper heavily criticized Oberlin's affirmative action program and received a "hugely negative response" from other students on campus.^[1] She graduated in 1992^[9] and later described her alma mater as "radically left-wing."^[1][10]

Career[link]

Malkin began her journalism career at the Los Angeles Daily News, working as a columnist from 1992 to 1994. In 1995, she worked in Washington, D.C., as a journalism fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute,^[11] a free-market, anti-government regulation, libertarian think tank.^[12][13] In 1996, she moved to Seattle, Washington, where she wrote columns for The Seattle Times. Malkin became a nationally-syndicated columnist with Creators Syndicate in 1999.^[14][15]

For many years, Malkin was a frequent commentator for Fox News Channel and a regular guest host of The O'Reilly Factor. In 2007, she announced that she would not return to The O'Reilly Factor, claiming that Fox News had mishandled a dispute over derogatory statements made about her by Geraldo Rivera in a Boston Globe interview.^[16] Since 2007, she has concentrated on her writing, blogging and public speaking, although she still appears on television occasionally, especially with Sean Hannity on Fox News and Fox & Friends once a week. In December 2009, Malkin began writing for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat.

In August 2004, following claims by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth that presidential candidate John Kerry had exaggerated his record during the Vietnam War, Malkin appeared on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews and stated that there were "legitimate questions" over whether Kerry's wounds were "self-inflicted." When host Chris Matthews asked her eleven times whether she meant Kerry had shot himself on purpose, she dodged the question,^[17] but ultimately said that other soldiers had made this claim.^{[citation needed]} Malkin criticized Matthews and the MSNBC staff in her blog the following day.^[17] Georgia Senator Zell Miller accused Matthews of "browbeating" Malkin.^[18]

Books[link]

Malkin has written four books, all published by Regnery Publishing.

• Her first book, Invasion: How America Still Welcomes Terrorists, Criminals, and Other Foreign Menaces (2002)^[19] was a New York Times bestseller.

• In 2004, she wrote In Defense of Internment: The Case for 'Racial Profiling' in World War II and the War on Terror,^[20] defending the U.S. government's internment of 112,000 Japanese Americans in prison camps during World War II, and arguing that the same procedures could be used on Arab- and Muslim-Americans today. The book engendered harsh criticism from several Asian American civil rights organizations.^[21] The "Historians' Committee for Fairness", a group of professors, condemned the book for not having undergone peer review and argued that its central thesis is false.^[22][23] As a result of the controversy, the Hawaii-based newspaper MidWeek dropped her column in August 2004;^[24] The Virginian-Pilot called her "an Asian Ann Coulter" and dropped her column in November 2004.^[25] Malkin responded: "I'm not Asian, I'm American," and described the comparison to Coulter as, "a compliment."^[26] Critics of Malkin's theory attempted to get the Manzanar National Historic Site, (a former relocation and internment camp), to ban her book from its' store, but failed.^[27]

• Malkin's third book, Unhinged: Exposing Liberals Gone Wild, was released in October 2005.^[28]

• Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies, Malkin's fourth book, was released in July 2009^[29] and was a The New York Times Non-Fiction, Hardcover Best Seller for six weeks.^[30][31][32] Malkin said she hoped the book would, "shatter completely the myths of hope and change in the new politics in Washington," described the Obama administration as run by, "influence peddlers, power brokers and very wealthy people," and called it, "one of the most corrupt administrations in recent memory."^[33] She later discussed chapter two of the book, "Bitter Half: First Crony Michelle Obama," on NBC's Today show. She described Michelle Obama as, "steeped in the politics of the Daley machine," and as having based her professional career on nepotism and "old white boy" network connections.^[34]

Blogging[link]

MichelleMalkin.com[link]

In June 2004 she launched a political blog, MichelleMalkin.com.^[35] A 2007 memo from the National Republican Senatorial Committee described Malkin as one of the five "best-read national conservative bloggers",^[36] and Technorati ranks MichelleMalkin.com consistently in its "Top 100 blogs of all types".^[37] The people search company PeekYou claims Malkin has the largest digital footprint of any political blogger.^[38]

After Malkin criticized hip hop artist Akon for "degrading women" in a Vent episode, Akon's record label, Universal Music Group, forced YouTube to remove the video by issuing a DMCA takedown notice,^[39] but decided to retract this notice^[40] after the Electronic Frontier Foundation joined Malkin and Hot Air in contesting the removal as a misuse of copyright law.^[41]

In an interview with BusinessWeek magazine in July 2007, Malkin said, "We’re doing what few other blogs can do. We serve up terabytes of bandwidth... I'm shelling out for gold-plated servers. That's expensive, and we want to be able to withstand huge traffic surges."^[42]

She continued to contribute frequently to MichelleMalkin.com, and in June 2007, she revamped it, moving it to a larger server on WordPress.^[43] With the new redesign, she re-enabled comments on her blog, which she said she had disallowed after February 2005 due to a high level of obscene and racist comments.^[44] Subscribed readers could once again post comments, although registration for the comments is rarely open. Malkin states her policy thus: "I may allow as much or as little opportunity for registration as I choose, in my absolute discretion, and I may close particular comment threads."^[45]

Jamil Hussein[link]

Malkin was one of several bloggers who questioned the credibility and even the existence of Iraqi police Captain "Jamil Hussein" who had been used as a source by the Associated Press in over 60 stories about the Iraq war. The controversy started in November 2006 when the AP reported that six Iraqis had been burned alive as they left a mosque and that four mosques had been destroyed, citing Hussein as one of its sources. In January 2007, Malkin visited Baghdad, and stated, "the Iraqi Ministry of Interior says disputed Associated Press source Jamil Hussein does exist. At least one story he told the AP just doesn’t check out: The Sunni mosques that as Hussein claimed and AP reported as 'destroyed,' 'torched' and 'burned and blown up' are all still standing. So the credibility of every AP story relying on Jamil Hussein remains dubious."^[46] Malkin has issued a correction for her denial of Capt. Hussein's existence.^[47]

Students Against War controversy[link]

In April 2006, Students Against War (SAW), a campus group at University of California, Santa Cruz, staged a protest against the presence of military recruiters on campus, and sent out a press release containing contact details (names, phone numbers and e-mail addresses) of three student leaders for use by reporters. Malkin included these contact details in a blog column entitled "Seditious Santa Cruz vs. America".^[48] Malkin claimed the contact information was originally taken from SAW's own website, but that later SAW had removed it and had "wiped" the "cached version".^[49] The students asked Malkin to remove the contact details from her blog, but Malkin reposted them several times^[50] writing in her blog: "I am leaving it up. If you are contacting them, I do not condone death threats or foul language. As for SAW, my message is this: You are responsible for your individual actions. Other individuals are responsible for theirs. Grow up and take responsibility."^[48]

SAW remarked: "Due to the continued irresponsible actions of some bloggers, members of the group have received numerous death threats and anti-Semitic comments through phone calls and emails."^[51] A blog war ensued. Malkin claimed that she received hostile e-mails^[52] then her private home address, phone number, photos of her neighborhood and maps to her house were published on several websites. The Santa Cruz Sentinel reported receiving an email from Malkin saying that this forced her to remove one of her children from school and move her family.^[53]

Another controversy involving private addresses began on July 1, 2006, when Malkin and other bloggers commented on a New York Times Travel section article that had featured the town where Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld owned summer homes. The article included a picture of Rumsfeld's long tree-lined driveway that showed a birdhouse and small portion of the housefront.^[54] Malkin declared that this story was part of "a concerted, organized effort to dig up and publicize the private home information of prominent conservatives in the media and blogosphere to intimidate them." In fact, the photos of Rumsfeld's house were taken with Rumsfeld's permission.^[55]

[edit] Hot Air

On April 24, 2006, Hot Air, a "conservative Internet broadcast network" went into operation, with Malkin as founder/CEO.^[56] She intended the blog to provide "content and analysis you can't get anywhere else on a daily basis–both on the blog and in our original video features".^[57] Her staffers included 'Allahpundit' and Bryan Preston, though the latter was replaced by Ed Morrissey on February 25, 2008.^[58] In February 2010, Hotair.com was bought by Salem Communications and is no longer administered by Malkin.^[59]

Viewpoints[link]

Citizenship[link]

Malkin believes that the custom of granting automatic U.S. citizenship at birth to children of foreign tourists, to temporary, foreign workers and to "anchor babies" delivered by illegal aliens on American soil undermines the integrity of citizenship. She argues that the custom of blanket birthright citizenship is supported neither by the U.S. Constitution's Fourteenth Amendment nor by American legal precedent.^[60]

Immigration enforcement[link]

Malkin also opposes sanctuary cities, in which local authorities do not enforce all national immigration laws or coordinate with agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Following the August 2007 execution-style murder of three college students in Newark, New Jersey, she repeated her criticisms of politicians' posture toward sanctuary cities. In particular, she criticized former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani's proposal for a tamper-proof identification card with this comment:

"What Rudy-come-lately fails to comprehend is that there are already multiple alien tracking databases mandated by federal law that have yet to be fully implemented, integrated and used. The reason they don’t work is because open-borders interests have sabotaged them by restricting funding for them, objecting to them on civil liberties grounds, and pushing local and state governments to forbid public employees from checking them to verify citizenship status. Ring a bell, Rudy?"^[61]

She supports coordination with federal authorities through the use of Section 287(g) of the IIRIRA to investigate, detain, and arrest aliens on civil and criminal grounds.^[62][63] Malkin supports the detention and deportation of some immigrants, regardless of legal status, on national security grounds.^[21]

Unemployment benefits[link]

During an appearance as a news analyst on the roundtable segment of ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos on August 2, 2009, she explained why she opposed another 13-week extension of unemployment benefits: "If you put enough government cheese in front of people they are going to just keep eating it and kicking the can down the road... people will just delay getting a job until the three weeks before the benefits run out."^[64]

Women's issues[link]

In a February 2012 column, Malkin called the "War on Women" a false narrative, arguing rather that, "It's the progressive left in this country that has viciously and systematically slimed female conservatives for their beliefs."^[65]

Personal life[link]

At Oberlin, she began dating Jesse Malkin.^[66] Jesse was granted a Rhodes Scholarship to begin study at Oxford University in 1991.^[67] They married in 1993, and have two children. Jesse worked as an associate policy analyst and economist focusing on healthcare issues for the RAND Corporation.^[68] In 2004, Malkin reported on her website that Jesse had left a "lucrative health-care consulting job" to be a stay-at-home dad.^[66][69]

In 2006, Malkin gave a lecture at her alma mater, Oberlin College, discussing racism, among other topics.^[70] She refuted allegations that she had been insensitive to the "plight of minorities" by listing several racial epithets that had been used against her, and by relating a lesson she learned from her mother for which she is "eternally grateful."^[70] When in kindergarten, Malkin went home in tears one day because her classmates had called her a racist name. But, her mother comforted her with the words, "....Everyone has prejudice."^[70]

The Malkin family lived in North Bethesda, Maryland,^[71] but relocated to Colorado Springs, Colorado^[72] in November 2008.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Michelle Malkin

• Malkin's official site
• Michelle Malkin Features at Creators Syndicate
• Hot Air
• Archive of Malkin's columns at Townhall.com
• "Columnist isn't smiling over swastika in rally photo". Rocky Mountain News. February 19, 2009.
• "Michelle Malkin: Grace, gratitude, and G-d". Jewish World Review. November 24, 2004.
• Archive of Malkin's columns at Jewish World Review
• Appearances on C-SPAN
  • Booknotes interview with Malkin on Invasion, December 8, 2002.
  • In Depth interview with Malkin, January 3, 2010
• Works by or about Michelle Malkin in libraries (WorldCat catalog)