The Threshold Effect
On January 20, the first news day after the Massachusetts election, the headline in my local paper, the San Diego Union-Tribune, was this: “Patient Access …
Permafrost
Since President Obama appears to be committed to spending as much as it takes – on “jobs” bills, investments in “green industries,” and pork of …
Upright and Locked Position
To me, one of the most disgusting things about the American media is their cheerful refusal to wonder about the human costs of government policies, …
Twice the Fool
I’m not a fan of Richard Cohen of the Washington Post, but in January he got something very right. He was addressing one of the …
Word Watch – March 2010
“What this country needs,” wrote Isabel Paterson in 1932, “is a lot less of all sorts of things.” She was thinking about laws – laws …
Land of Wonders
A friend and I are going out to dinner. I pick him up at his apartment house. On entering, I can’t help noticing a large …
There Goes the Neighborhood
You know those small, almost subliminal details, the things that you may not consciously notice when you walk through your neighborhood, but that you may …
Searching for Pyrrhus
On the morning after the election of November 2009, the one that put Republicans in charge of Virginia (by a landslide of 18 points) and …
The Muslim Myth
It was a typical libertarian conference. The hotel ballroom was packed with people eager to share ideas. The four-member panel was deftly fielding questions. But …
Joke’s on us
The morning it was announced that President Obama had won the Nobel Prize for Peace, I thought it was a joke. When I saw it …