Here is a question for you: why do you think a monopoly is illegal? Monopolies are not illegal because they are staffed with criminals, or because they are formed with criminal intent; monopolies are illegal because in the absence of competition, the monopoly ceases to serve any interest but its own. Always. We call our […]
As long as we are going to spend the next several months yelling at each other over who makes too much and who makes too little, I thought it might be helpful to talk a little bit about what people actually make and why. Let’s start with who makes the most money – according the […]
OK, now that Ann Romney has been savaged by the White House for breathing without permission can we quit pretending that Democrats care about women? Apparently the powers that be in the 21st century Democrat Party have determined that raising children and running a household is neither important nor difficult. Not to be compared with […]
Few Americans are old enough to remember the last time a sitting U.S. President – Franklin D. Roosevelt – publicly intimidated the Supreme Court over the outcome of a specific case under deliberation. Since FDR, Presidents Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, and Bush Dance Remix somehow all managed to make […]
I don’t know anyone – liberal, conservative, libertarian, or socialist for that matter – who believes that welfare is better than work. Do you? So if everyone agrees welfare is undesirable, why on earth are so many Americans on it? That question will answer itself at the end of this column. The dilemma of government-monopoly […]
There have been two moments of extreme clarity in my lifetime; watershed events that changed the fundamental assumptions upon which our worldview rests. The first date of extreme clarity is September 11, 2001. No thinking person could possibly look at issues of national security and foreign relations the same way before and after the attacks […]
A few hundred years into the Christian era, the merger of the Roman Empire and the Roman Catholic Church blurred the lines between church and state; it corrupted both, injured one and killed the other. Thomas Jefferson didn’t have to be genius to figure this one out; he just needed to be moderately well-read. The […]
Remember these from school? “Ask not what your country can do for you; demand it.” “The only thing to fear is buying our own stuff.” “Give me liberty or give me free stuff.” “One if by land, two if by sea; get off that horse and buy my stuff for me.” And who can forget, […]
For a capitalist country, we sure don’t know very much about money. It takes more dollars these days to buy the same amounts of oil, corn, wheat, copper, gold, silver, vacations, grapes, health care, timber, other currencies, ethanol and gasoline. And yet we forget about all that other stuff and blame the high gas prices […]
It starts and ends with one question: “Who owns you?” If you believe that you are owned by your society, that others are entitled to your person, your property, and your compliance with their beliefs, then your demand of the law is that it limits freedom in order to maximize equality. Conversely, if you believe […]
