Archive for the 'History' Category

The ‘government shutdown’

Monday, October 21st, 2013

My mom called me the other day to ask whether I thought the “government shutdown” would impact some state program or other. I can see how the thought arose, given that there are hardly any independent “state programs” any more (most having fallen victim to the siren call of “supplemental federal funding,” which leaves them […]

Margaret Thatcher, freedom fighter, at 87

Wednesday, April 10th, 2013

The discredited Left can find little to say, save that she was “divisive.” How refreshing, then, to hear the enthusiasm in the equally widespread reports that former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who died Monday at age 87, managed in her remarkable 11-year tenure at Downing Street to vanquish socialism and restore the free market […]

Taxing the poor, seizing the homes of accused ‘pimps’

Sunday, February 24th, 2013

It’s a well known doctrine of economics that what you subsidize you get more of, and what you tax you get less of. Thus, the United States government in its infinite wisdom subsidizes poverty and out-of-wedlock birth, along with unmarried women raising children without any man in the home, and gets more of all three […]

Desert tortoise shell-game continues

Saturday, September 29th, 2012

Sixty desert tortoises, each equipped with a radio transmitter and trailing a small antenna, were released Sept. 21 at the southern end of the Nevada National Security Site, 60 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Researchers plan to track the critters over the next year as part of a $100,000 study ultimately aimed at increasing the […]

If you knew about this stuff, you’d only cause trouble

Sunday, August 19th, 2012

We’ve been discussing topics where today’s Internet readers complain the Mainstream Media appear to report only one side — The Government Line. Last week we dealt with 1) the Sept. 11 attacks, and 2) childhood immunizations. Here are more: 3) Inflation is routinely reported as “slight; under control” in terms of consumer prices, when the […]

The lies just cain’t be true

Sunday, August 12th, 2012

I was raised in a Democratic home in New England in the 1960s. The Kennedys were our heroes. Jack was so handsome and virile, he and his lovely bride brought such class to the executive mansion, Why, they had cello recitals there by Pablo Casals! Such a far cry from that dowdie Mamie Eisenhower and […]

Si, se puede

Sunday, July 1st, 2012

In twin op-eds in the Las Vegas Review-Journal of June 22, Patricia Vazquez, a professor of English at the College of Southern Nevada, and Fatma Marouf, co-director of the Immigration Clinic at UNLV’s Boyd School of Law, argued that illegal immigrants should no longer be referred to as “illegal immigrants.” “Our country has a principle […]

Get a job

Tuesday, June 19th, 2012

Summer jobs for teen-agers are disappearing. Fewer than three in 10 American teenagers will hold jobs such as running cash registers, mowing lawns or busing restaurant tables from June to August, this year. The decline has been particularly sharp since 2000, with employment for 16-to-19-year-olds falling to the lowest level since World War II.

Better run for your life if you can

Thursday, May 24th, 2012

After a time, it became difficult for anyone to leave the Soviet Union or its captive slave states: You could be shot. Initially, though, Comrade Lenin’s Bolsheviks were somewhat more sweet-tempered: For a few years after 1917, greedy capitalists who owned things were free to depart — just as long as they left all their […]

A nation of thieves

Sunday, April 29th, 2012

Derek Thompson, senior editor at The Atlantic, wrote on April 16 (citing an analysis from the Joint Committee on Taxation) “Half of American taxpayers owe no federal income tax, and most of those filers actually net tax benefits from federal income taxes.” In fact, though, Mr. Thompson is at pains to point out “The majority […]