TCS Daily : February 2007 Archives
So, How Insecure Do Americans Really Feel?
Editor's note: Economic insecurity is much in the news lately. Presidential aspirant John Edwards has made it a focal point of his campaign. Armchair populists such as Lou Dobbs talk about it on their TV programs. Karlyn Bowman, a senior...
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Following Al Gore's Example for Energy Use
There's a never-ending discussion on the Internets about Al Gore's massive consumption of energy while simultaneously traveling the world proclaiming that Earth is in the balance because man is using so danged much energy. The most recent iteration of...
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L'Eggo My Lego
Some Seattle school children are being told to be skeptical of private property rights. This lesson is being taught by banning Legos. A ban was initiated at the Hilltop Children's Center in Seattle. According to an article in the...
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How an Overabundance of Foreign Aid Is Killing Afghanistan
Since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, Non-Governmental Organizations have filled in the gaps left by an otherwise absent government—schools, health care, employment, and so on. After the American invasion in 2001, billions of dollars have flowed into..
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Why Giuliani Is Golden
NEWPORT BEACH -- Two surprises surfaced at the California Republican Party Convention a few weeks ago. First was the electric enthusiasm for Rudy Giuliani; second was the widespread ambivalence and, in many cases, even hostility towards John McCain. Giuliani...
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How Do You Solve a Problem Like Anna Nicole Smith?
Perhaps you've been shaking your head in befuddlement at the interminable tawdry court proceedings that have taken over your favorite cable news channel. Perhaps you've wondered to yourself: "Who is this odd, dead, clownish blonde woman whose ghost has...
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Two Americas, Indeed
With Democrats in control of both Houses of Congress for the first time in twelve years, economic inequality is back on the agenda. In his response to the State of the Union address, new Virginia Senator James Webb began...
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A Tale of Three Currencies
Today's international payment system is very much out of kilter. The clearest sign that this is the case is the fact that global payment imbalances between the United States and the Asian economies are now at their widest level...
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The Real News Behind "The Surge"
"More troops" isn't the most significant aspect of the military "surge" in Iraq. Since at least fall 2003, an increase of 5,000 to 10,000 troops over a three-month window has been an option for coalition forces. For example, deploying...
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Peak Performance?
Peter Odell, one of the most astute, life-long observers of global oil scene, calls them "peak-oilers." Some of them were quite unhappy when I pointed out (in Energy at the Crossroads, in these pages, and in Worldwatch in January...
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The Language of War and Warriors: Embrace the Slang
In his introduction to the published script of Full Metal Jacket, Michael Herr, the author of the Vietnam-era book Dispatches that partially inspired the movie, wrote that director Stanley Kubrick was notorious for not allowing any of his actors...
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Your Government Is Getting More Transparent. Why Not Take a Look?
Every April 15 we pay the IRS, but it's in February when we first see how the government plans to spend it. Excepting analysts and interest groups, few will visit the Office of Management and Budget's website, or follow...
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No Ear Ache: Let Sirius and XM Merge
If you want to understand whether or not to be worried about the proposed merger between satellite radio firms XM and Sirius, a little history lesson is in order. On November 18, 1906 the federal government filed suit to...
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The Trial of the Century
The trial of 29 people connected to the terrorist attacks that killed 191 people and injured 1,824 others three years ago in Madrid constitutes the first effort to bring to justice the al-Qaeda organization, as opposed to individuals linked...
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Religion, Government, and Civil Society
In public schools, which do you think is right? (a) teaching students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, including the words "under God"(b) teaching students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, without the words "under God" I say, "Neither." With...
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Putin's Attack Reveals Growing Clash of Values
Russian President Vladimir Putin began his February 10 speech at the Munich Security Conference by commenting that the meeting's informality "allows me to avoid excessive politeness and the need to speak in roundabout, pleasant but empty diplomatic terms. This...
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Iran Will Regret Its Nuke Program; Here's How
The Iranian people will regret their country's nuclear program. Instead of bringing them security or status, Iran's nuclear program will only bring Iran economic ruin, internal chaos, and possibly death on a massive scale. Iran's nuclear program is stimulating...
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Companies' Fair Share: Zero Percent
Conventional wisdom on taxes these days is that good taxes are progressive taxes. The more we earn, the higher our tax rate should be. And for nearly a century that logic has been etched into federal tax law, with...
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new who
Why ... in so shallow a cup! The Executive Board of the World Health Organization (WHO) is set to select a successor to Dr. J. W. Lee for the post of Director General. During the period November 6-8, thirty-four...
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Do You Have a Better Idea?
Conservatives frequently complain that when it comes to Iraq, all the Democrats want to do is to criticize without offering any useful suggestions. Yet now that the Bush administration has reached a tentative agreement with North Korea, it's conservatives...
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Hayek and Fusionism
"Fusionism" is the attempt to combine libertarianism and conservatism into a unified political philosophy and program. It has been controversial ever since Frank Meyer first defended it half a century ago, and every electoral cycle seems to generate another...
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Casino Royal, Gambling With Jobs
The Socialist candidate for President of France, Ségolène Royal, recently presented her Election Manifesto with 100 proposals. It includes an increase in the minimum wage, higher taxes, more regulations in the labor market, expanded public welfare contributions, s
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Not Unified, No Action
The Washington press corps has discovered the war -- the self-defeating tug of war between the Pentagon and virtually every other Washington government agency. Two recent articles in The New York Times portrayed the "interagency" struggle as primarily a...
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So, Did America Overreact to 9/11?
Did America overreact to 9/11? This is a question that is much in the air today. Consider, as one example, the essay that recently appeared in the Los Angeles Times written by David A. Bell, a professor of history...
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Barack Obama: America's 'Mixed Citizen'
The contrast between the way in which Barack Obama's presidential campaign is being perceived in other countries and the way in which mainstream America is treating it is fascinating. While mainstream America is discussing how acceptable the black candidate...
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'Just-in-Case': How to Think About Uncertainty and Global Warming
"Let's just say that global warming deniers are now on a par with Holocaust deniers, though one denies the past and the other denies the present and future." -- Ellen Goodman "Global warming is a false myth and every...
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Congressional Cures?
Editor's note: This is the second of two articles. Part 1 of this article series described the FDA's recent attempts to convince its critics that it takes drug safety seriously. In fact, no one who is familiar with the...
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The Price Is Wrong: Why Our Roads Are So Clogged
This week the Bush administration asked Congress for $175 million for state and local governments to reduce traffic congestion, in addition to the $105 million earmarked last year. One of the White House's marquee projects is congestion pricing, or...
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The Harmful Side Effect We Never Hear About
Editor's note: This is the first of two articles. The old saying in Washington that 'when something has been repeated three times it becomes a fact' has been applied lately to supposed shortcomings in the safety of prescription drugs....
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Stick-to-it-iveness
Long ago I read somewhere that there are two things that people—or perhaps it's just men—will never admit to being bad at: sex and driving. However, it may be time that Americans confess to an ongoing erosion of skills...
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Giving Incentives to Students
In the swarm of debates about education reform there is a clear belief that the solution lies with teachers and schools. Arguments of this type abound: Teachers are paid too little. Teachers need pay incentives to excel. Teachers are...
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You Say You Wanna Resolution?
The Senate and House are expected to pass resolutions this week condemning President Bush's plan to deploy an additional 21,000 troops in and around Baghdad. Congress, of course, has every right to take this step. But that doesn't mean...
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The Five Big Questions about Health Care
"...these proposals are like band-aids and fall far short of what our sick health-care system needs. "They build on what everyone agrees is a broken system. Ultimately, they prop up the sagging employment-based insurance system, with all its inefficiencies...
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Asian Patent Wars
The largest drug company in the world, Pfizer, has been in a bit of trouble lately. It recently announced it would fire 10,000 staff, close two factories and 5 research facilities. And the stock market has beaten up its...
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'Stros Gone Wild
When I first saw the story at a space website, I thought, "well, that's different." But I became more fascinated as the day went on at how it suddenly became the story of the day, everywhere. But on reflection,...
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The Blood Will Flow This Spring
"As I've said in the past, it will be a bloody spring." With that sentence, Afghanistan's ambassador to the United States, Said Jawad, acknowledged that the Afghan government believes the Taliban and its al-Qaida allies will launch a "new...
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A Better Way to Increase Access to Prescription Drugs
The new Congress spent much of its first month in office trying to increase patient access to costly prescription medicines. Their proposal would let the government try to bargain down prices paid for drugs by seniors enrolled in Medicare....
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As It Turns Out, Preemption Works
Until its last emperor, Haile Selassie, was overthrown in 1974, Ethiopia's constitution boasted that he descended "without interruption from the dynasty of Menelik I, son of the Queen of Ethiopia, the Queen of Sheba, and King Solomon of Jerusalem."...
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'I Want to Demand This Freedom for Future Generations'
In April of 1963 the legendary physicist Richard Feynman gave a series of lectures at the University of Washington in Seattle. The subject of the talks was "the impact of science on man's ideas in other fields." These fields...
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Putting the Tort in Tortilla
For half a century, Western guilt made the lives of the poor even worse by propping up despots and corrupt bureaucracies through foreign aid. A new form of Western guilt, environmental fundamentalism, is making the lives of the poor...
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Heart Stents and FDA Blockage
Is it another medical breakthrough gone unexpectedly bad? The drug-eluting heart stent is under increased scrutiny because of a complication that was not apparent when it was first approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). FDA hastily convened...
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Does the President Need to Be Commander-in-Chief?
President Bush recently raised a storm of controversy over his statement that he was "the decision-maker" about the conduct of the war in Iraq—a statement that has been challenged by Republican Senator Arlen Specter who has respectfully submitted that...
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Hillary Clinton and Recession of 2011
How predictable. The fiscal 2008 budget that President Bush put forward yesterday gets slammed for being unrealistic - if not downright mendacious. If the $2.9 trillion proposal actually got enacted as written - doubtful given that Bush is dealing...
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New York's Bizarre Housing Tax
The trail led to the Badlands. His name is Bill Golodner, private investigator. Along with partner Bruce Frankel he hunts down absentee tenants of rent-regulated New York City apartments. Golodner's subject was clearing a cool $1,500-plus every month by...
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Why Be a Conservative Libertarian?
"In short, if Democrats hope to continue appealing to libertarian-leaning voters, they are going to have to up their game. They need to ask themselves: Are we content with being a brief rebound fling for jilted libertarians, or do...
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The Morality of Rising Inequality
Is inequality rising in the US? Alan Reynolds thinks it isn't, at least not very much, and Paul Krugman thinks it is, a lot. That last point would normally have me insisting that inequality is decreasing given my views...
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My Own Private Foreign Policy
Have you ever been frustrated with your country's foreign policy? Since the creation of the modern nation-state system four centuries ago, the formulation and execution of foreign policy has been the province solely of each nation-state's national government. A...
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Law, Morality and a Just Wage
In a recent column, I discussed the theological requirement that faithful Catholics assent to the Church's Magisterium, that Catholics are obliged to defer to authoritative Church teaching on issues of faith and morals. This week, we turn to a...
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Sacking the Market
Editor's note: This article is part 2 in a series (part 1 is here). The Blind Side, Michael Lewis's excellent book on college and pro football, opens with a bang. Actually, it's more of a snap: the sound of...
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From Russia, a Shove
Army General Makhmut Gareyev recently discussed some of the thinking behind Russia's new military doctrine in a revealing interview with the RIA Novosti news agency. General Gareyev, president of the Russian Academy of Military Sciences, is one of the...
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Request for Ideological Comment
"As in a church, everyone has an opinion how things ought to run. Internet users express their opinions through meetings of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). The IETF is another volunteer organization... [Requests for Comment] RFCs are the...
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Sexile on Main Street
I don't want to sound soft on sex offenders, but... There's no particularly good way to end that sentence, is there? It's hard to maintain your street cred as a die-hard law-and-order bad-guy-bashing conservative when you allow your little...
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