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2021-03-03
Opinions
02-28-2021
The Feds Cook the Books Once Again
But only an oddball cares about it.
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2020-11-24
Opinions
11-24-2020
University of Arizona Faculty and Staff Arrested
FBI agents and U.S. Marshals took them away in handcuffs for a scheme to defraud taxpayers of $435 billion.
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2020-08-16
Opinions
08-14-2020
The Massive Coverup about Black Lives
Two videos, one report, and one TV series get around the coverup and tell the rest of the story that today's media, academia and intelligentsia don't want you to know.
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2020-08-06
Opinions
08-06-2020
The National Rot Reaches Tucson
The Old Pueblo has not escaped the rot that has taken hold in American society, politics, government, K-12 schools, media, and academia.
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2020-08-06
Opinions
07-19-2020
Arrested by the Department of Homeland Conformity
"That's it, you're under arrest for racism," says the woman as she reaches for her handcuffs. "You've admitted that you've read Mein Kampf, which is all the evidence that the Social Justice Court will need to convict you."ld be colle
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2020-05-05
Opinions
04-29-2020
COVID-19 and Media Statistical Malpractice
The media herd has always committed an astonishing degree of statistical malpractice, but it has become even more acute in their coverage of COVID-19. Something is clearly amiss with journalism schools. Or is it a problem of reporters being too laz
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2020-04-24
Opinions
04-24-2020
James Comey, Robert Mueller, Robert Kennedy & Jimmy Hoffa
Because the virus has captured the news, the Mueller investigation into the fantasy of Trump colluding with the Russians now seems like ancient history. But the investigation was brought back to mind by a book that I recently read: In Hoffa's Shado
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2020-04-15
Opinions
04-15-2020
OMG! Great commentary on Sweden's handling of the virus
Holman Jenkins describes below how Sweden has a high degree of social trust compared to the USA and how that has resulted in different ways of handling the coronavirus. It's also why the social welfare state works better in Sweden with less governme
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2020-04-14
Opinions
04-14-2020
Goodbye, Frank and Francisco
Frank and Francisco's used to be my favorite breakfast joint in Tucson, especially on Tuesday's, when the $4.50 special was two eggs, two sausage patties or bacon, a big serving of fried potatoes, and either a muffin, biscuit or toast. It and ot
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2020-04-14
Opinions
04-14-2020
A Works Progress Administration Wouldn't Work Today
Sidewalks in a neighborhood near the University of Arizona in Tucson are stamped with the letters "WPA," which were the initials for the Works Progress Administration. Similarly, Forest Service facilities, bridges, trails, and flood-control stru
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2020-04-09
Opinions
04-09-2020
As Bloomberg Goes, so Goes the Nation
Ever since the start of the coronavirus crisis, my wife and I have been turning on Bloomberg News at 5:30 AM Pacific time to watch it during our morning exercise, even though watching it is bad for our indigestion and mental health.
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2020-04-03
Opinions
04-03-2020
Two Excellent Articles on the Coronavirus/Economic Crisis
The first article describes why the richest country on earth can't produce enough face masks...The second is a commentary by famous bond guru James Grant, who explains how the Federal Reserve's low interest rate policy has made the economic crisi
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2020-03-25
Opinions
03-25-2020
The Rest of the Story about S. Korea and the Coronavirus
It no doubt helps that their citizens are more obedient and less individualistic than Americans, due to their "rice" culture of working collectively and their Eastern religions of accepting what fate has dealt them.
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2020-03-25
Opinions
03-25-2020
Good News, Bad News from the Crisis
The world order is changing before our eyes. Some Americans will see it as good news that the USA will probably retreat to domestic issues, some will see it as bad news, and others will despair and have a psychological crisis over the USA losing pow
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2020-03-23
Opinions
03-23-2020
The Crisis's Impact on Budgets
Already strained by unfunded pension obligations, states now face a collapse in tax revenue.
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2020-03-21
Opinions
03-21-2020
How Many Unemployed Bartenders in Your Town?
If you're interested in knowing, you can go to the Bureau of Labor Statistics and find out how many people worked in these occupations the last time the data were compiled. From that number, you can make a reasoned guess as to how many are now out
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2020-03-19
Opinions
03-19-2020
A Different Nation Will Rise from the Coronavirus
It doesn't take a genius to realize that America will be a different nation when the coronavirus ends, just as it became a different nation after the Great Depression.
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2020-01-27
Opinions
01-27-2020
From Diversity to Racial Narcissism and Exclusion
A recent article in Inc. magazine, of all places, made me howl at the moon in frustration over the compulsion of a growing number of Americans to dwell on their own race and ethnicity, in a form of racial narcissism.
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2020-01-13
Opinions
01-13-2020
Wacky, Whiney, Warped Women in Arizona Highways
No doubt, the percentage of American women who are wacky equals the percentage of American men who are wacky, a percentage that seems to be growing by the day in this age of perpetual grievances, identity politics, virtue-signaling, and causes du jou
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2020-01-13
Opinions
01-07-2020
World Map of % of Single-Parent Homes - USA the Leader
The USA is the world leader in the percent of single-parent homes. Of course, there is a strong causal relationship between a high percent and income inequality, crime, school dropouts and low test scores.
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2020-01-06
Opinions
01-06-2020
The Most Powerful Commentary of 2020
It reveals the gross double standard and hypocrisy of many of those who preach tolerance and sensitivity towards minorities and then are silent about the anti-Semitism of elites and of the likes of Al Sharpton, or worse, give him a public platform.
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2019-12-23
Opinions
12-23-2019
Plutocrats Laughing at the Plebes
What do bigshot bankers at Goldman Sachs have in common with such celebrities as Leonardo Di Caprio, Paris Hilton, Jamie Foxx, Swiss Beatz, Busta Rhymes, Kate Upton, and Kanye West?
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2019-12-23
Opinions
12-23-2019
The Butchery of Christians This Christmas Season
The following commentary in the WSJ details what Islamic extremists are doing to Christians in Nigeria, where diversity doesn't seem to be working very well.
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2019-12-11
Opinions
12-09-2019
The Impeachment Theater of the Absurd
Whether I'm stupid or smart in that assessment, and regardless of your political affiliation, the chances are good that you agree that the impeachment hearings were the theater of the absurd.
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2019-11-20
Opinions
11-20-2019
Bloodshed in Black Communities
As with most problems in the nation, all the experts retreat to their ideological corners to blabber their long-held beliefs instead of coming together to look at facts and solutions.
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2019-11-11
Opinions
11-11-2019
Why Singapore's Healthcare Spending Is so Low
Left unsaid is the possibility that the Singapore population has different genetics than Americans, has a healthier diet, has less obesity and thus less heart disease and diabetes, and has far, far, far fewer hospitalizations and deaths from violence
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2019-11-01
Opinions
11-01-2019
Wisdom and Ignorance about Diversity
Wisdom is knowing how ignorant you are.
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2019-10-29
Opinions
10-29-2019
Racial Marxism Coming Your Way
When Karl Marx published Das Kapital 152 years ago, thinkers of the day had no inkling of the horrors that it would unleash. And if anyone had predicted the horrors, the person would have been ridiculed as an alarmist.
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2019-10-28
Opinions
10-28-2019
Tucson Resort Hosts "Nonprofit" Bigshots
The vision of the Alliance is to achieve "a thriving nonprofit sector that has the resources and influence to meaningfully change the world." Its mission is to "be the authoritative voice of nonprofits to promote, protect, and strengthen the p
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2019-10-21
Opinions
10-21-2019
The Middle Class vs. Élites à Deux Visages
Beginning in the early 1970s and continuing today, troubling socioeconomic trends have beset America's middle class. The trends include a declining percentage of children born to married parents, a declining percentage of children living with both
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2019-10-11
Opinions
10-11-2019
Teaming Up Against the Middle Class
Intellectuals have joined forces with the New Aristocracy
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2019-10-07
Opinions
10-07-2019
San Francisco, Hostage to the Homeless
The long article below about the shameful homeless crisis in San Francisco is another example of great journalism from courageous Heather Mac Donald, who is not afraid of being politically incorrect.
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2019-10-07
Opinions
10-07-2019
The Damage from Unprincipled, Greedy Colleges
Have you noticed that as more Americans have obtained college degrees, the nation has seen more divisiveness, more tawdriness and vulgarity, more asinine and sophomoric news coverage, more personal and governmental indebtedness, more herding behavior
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2019-09-12
Opinions
09-12-2019
Proof of America's Decline?
Are there any standards left in America of good taste, decorum and modesty?
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2019-09-08
Opinions
09-08-2019
The Airbnb Hotel Next Door
The op-ed below has a dateline of Scottsdale and mirrors my experience in living in a HOA in that city when a de facto hotel began operating in the townhouse next door to ours. "Hotel" guests with no concern for the community came and went at all ho
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2019-09-06
Opinions
09-06-2019
Wonderful Skewering of Google
Wall Street Journal columnist Daniel Henninger is spot on below about the Google culture and its corporate insanity of encouraging political message boards and political debates at work.
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2019-09-06
Opinions
09-06-2019
Kids as Guinea Pigs of Google
How many more times will children be used as guinea pigs by cruel and stupid school districts? Below is an infuriating article about districts going all-tech, resulting in lousy outcomes, angry parents, and huge amounts of money going to the tech in
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2019-09-06
Opinions
09-06-2019
France Teaches the U.S. about Free Markets
The following commentary might make your brain short-circuit. It claims that France has more market competition than the U.S., due to less consolidation of industry, which in turn is due in part to the EU being more aggressive about stopping market
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2019-09-02
Opinions
09-02-2019
Tax Nepotism to Close the Wealth Gap
Democrat presidential candidates and others on the left are proposing a wealth tax as a way of closing the wealth gap in America--a gap that is a serious problem, as this writer has documented many times.
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2019-09-03
Opinions
08-28-2019
The Latest Hypocrisies, Contradictions, Canards and Clichés
The more that the news media, the commentariat, the academy, the intelligentsia, the two political parties, and the unprincipled hawkers of goods and services spread misinformation, disinformation, propaganda, and baloney, the more I retreat to readi
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2019-08-25
Opinions
08-25-2019
A Politically-Incorrect History of Hispanics
A politically-correct (PC) version of the history of Hispanics in the United States and the rest of the Americas is in vogue today. Trigger warning: The PC version will be replaced herein with the correct history, which is politically-incorrect.
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2019-07-30
Opinions
07-30-2019
Madness and Society: The Power of Social Capital
I've written about the lack of social capital in my adopted home of Tucson and in much of the United States, as evidenced by, among other social ills, the cruelty of letting the homeless, most of whom are addicts or mentally ill, live and die in the
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2019-11-20
Opinions
05-10-2019
The Demise of Local News and Rise of Tech Oligopolies
Google, Facebook, and other tech companies have brought many economic benefits by eliminating middlemen, hierarchies and bureaucracies. But they've also caused harm by their control of more and more news and information
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2019-11-20
Opinions
04-16-2019
Trump and Bezos as Seen from Tucson
Tucson will only get poorer if poor immigrants keep crossing the border to live here while rich companies don't move their headquarters and highly paid executives here to improve the wage and tax base.
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2019-03-14
Opinions
03-14-2019
Who Will Overthrow the Hoity-Toity Hypocrites?
Regarding the college admission scandal, it's incomprehensible that parents would pay tens of thousands in bribes to get their kids admitted to elite colleges. Sure, once their kids are admitted, graduation is assured. And once they graduate, the
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2019-02-13
Opinions
02-13-2019
Heather Mac Donald on Racial Preferences for STEM Admissions
Below is another courageous article from Heather Mac Donald that will no doubt result in her being called racist in some quarters. This one is about admission preferences for certain racial groups to major in STEM disciplines---preferences that back
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2019-02-13
Opinions
02-13-2019
The Brilliance of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
It takes a certain brilliance to come out of nowhere and win a seat in Congress with only 16,000 votes and then instantly propel yourself to the national stage. Freedom lovers and free marketers, as well as those Republicans who are neither, should
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2019-01-22
Opinions
01-22-2019
A govt that can't solve this problem, can't . . .
The following article is about the homeless problem in San Diego, a problem that also exists here in Tucson. Understandably, it's of little concern to most people, because most people don't encounter it firsthand. But it's a blight on the entire na
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2019-01-16
Opinions
01-16-2019
Deadly Masculinity and Toxic Femininity
You're no doubt aware of Gillette admen cynically producing a commercial to sell more razors to younger men by appealing to their programmed desire to buy products from companies that pretend to support some social cause. In this case, the cause i
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2019-01-16
Opinions
01-16-2019
Why Does Tucson Lead in Poverty?
The following is a table of mine that shows how Tucson compares to El Paso, San Antonio and Albuquerque in population, in the percent of the population in poverty, in per-capita income, in median household income, in the percent of those 25 years and
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2019-01-16
Opinions
01-14-2019
If you're not enraged by this, you're comatose
The word "shocking" is overused. Not in this case. Not only are the details in the following shocking, but it's also shocking how political correctness contributed to the deaths of so many students (and to the stupid media covering up the truth).
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2019-01-16
Opinions
01-13-2019
Impact of Immigrants on Congressional Districts
The following explains that the more immigrants in a congressional district, the fewer votes it takes to be elected. I had not thought of this, although it no doubt affects congressional elections in Tucson. This is why Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was
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2019-01-10
Opinions
01-10-2019
My First Cannabis Litter
I sent a WSJ commentary around the other day on the supposed dangers of pot. My prefatory remarks said that whatever the facts of the matter, at least in my daily picking up of litter, I've never come across cannabis litter but do come across scores
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2019-01-09
Opinions
01-09-2019
Testosterone but not GMOs for Young Daughters
The following claims something that initially sounds as unbelievable as claiming that the moon is made of Styrofoam: that because gender dysphoria has become trendy, young women with minor gender confusion are asking for, and receiving, testosterone
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2019-01-09
Opinions
01-09-2019
Heather Mac Donald Hits Another Home Run
Mac Donald writes in the piece below about black kids being shot be black thugs, including in Ferguson, Missouri, the infamous suburb of St. Louis. Ferguson has nicer houses than the working-class suburb of St. Louis where I grew up. Yet it has exp
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2018-12-31
Opinions
12-31-2018
Professor Says There Is no Divide in America
n an op-ed in the December 27, 2018 Wall Street Journal, University of Southern California Professor Elizabeth Currid-Halkett claimed that there is not a divide between rural and urban America, when measured by homeownership, mortgage payments, house
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2018-12-26
Opinions
12-26-2018
Staggering stats on black v. white teen crime
The Trump administration is rescinding the Obama policy of using racial differences in school discipline and suspension as prima facia proof of discrimination. The article below cites statistics on the huge difference in crime rates between black an
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2018-12-26
Opinions
12-26-2018
Ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel
Now that Christmas has passed, it's safe to talk about religious zealots. The article below describes the problems caused by ultra-orthodox Jews moving to a tourist town in Israel and the growing numbers of the ultra-orthodox in Israel, where they l
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2018-12-21
Opinions
12-21-2018
Surviving Another Year of Self-Rule
Just as miraculously, I survived another year with a stick in my eye and beans up my nose.
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2018-12-13
Opinions
12-13-2018
How immigrants see America
America is friendlier to foreigners than headlines suggest
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2018-12-12
Opinions
12-12-2018
The Consequences of Unasked Questions about Capitalism
You've no doubt heard why Donald Trump was elected to the presidency, why French President Emmanuel Macron is facing a crisis, why the Brits voted for Brexit, why German President Angela Merkel is hanging on by her fingernails, and why there are po
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2018-12-10
Opinions
12-10-2018
Cherry-Picked Facts about Israel
I published a commentary on December 4, 2018, with the premise that the dissemination of fake news isn't the primary problem in the media and elsewhere today. Rather, it is the dissemination of cherry-picked facts to make a point while ignoring co
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2018-12-10
Opinions
12-10-2018
Pop Quiz about Migrant Caravans
Let's see if you're as smart as I think you are. Regarding the migrant caravans from Central America, why do you think the female migrants want to come to the United States?
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2018-12-10
Opinions
12-07-2018
Post Office delivered Amazon yesterday but no mail
Below is good journalism in yesterday's WSJ about Trump being right that the Post Office is subsidizing Amazon and other delivery companies. To add insult to government incompetence, there was no first-class mail service yesterday because of George
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2018-12-03
Opinions
12-03-2018
Cherry Pickers on the Left and Right
The American cherry-picking industry is thriving--not the industry that sells the small, round, red fruit with the stone inside, but the industry that deals in cherry-picked news and information about world affairs and domestic politics.
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2018-11-29
Opinions
11-24-2018
Question about E-Solicitations
On Black Friday and the two days prior to it, I received about 60 email solicitations from scores of companies offering Black Friday deals. How did they find me?
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2018-11-19
Opinions
11-19-2018
Politicization of People Being Burned Alive
Before all the bodies had been identified in the horrendous California fires, and while the known victims were being mourned by their heartbroken families, the tragedy was politicized by the left and right.
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2018-11-18
Opinions
11-18-2018
Great Journalism: 250,000 Dead and 37,400 Missing in Mexico
It's in our self-interest to help restore the rule of law and bring about prosperity in the country (Mexico). Equally important, as I wrote in a commentary yesterday, we have to reduce America's demand for illicit drugs, which are a major cause of Me
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2018-11-18
Opinions
11-18-2018
Sorry, Feminists, Men Are Better at Scrabble
I feel like a sissy compared to courageous Heather Mac Donald. I wish I had her gonads.
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2018-11-18
Opinions
11-18-2018
No More Racial Problems in America
If you were part of the equal rights movement decades ago, as I was, then take a bow. Due to your efforts, there is no longer any racism in America or significant differences between races in income, test scores, school dropouts, crime, incarceratio
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2018-11-14
Opinions
11-14-2018
Is Dartmouth President Racist?
Stated differently, Mexicans, Africans, Italians, and other nationalities and races are inferior to the Chinese in these regards. Are the two academics going to be accused of racism?
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2018-11-13
Opinions
11-13-2018
Mutual suicide pact of Dems & Reps
Political divisiveness in the nation is a myth. Both parties are in lockstep where it matters. They and their minions are marching off a debt cliff together, with nothing in a democracy to stop them.
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2018-11-13
Opinions
11-13-2018
Lifestyles of Powerful Political Potentates
Leaders Head for a Pacific Island---Don't Expect Them to Hang Around
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2018-11-13
Opinions
11-13-2018
Campaign Signs and the First Amendment
Of all the insults to our intelligence during campaign season, the worst is the political class trying to make us believe that they have a First Amendment right to clutter street corners and other public places with their ugly campaign signs.
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2018-11-13
Opinions
11-09-2018
Camel Turds for Climate Hypocrites
I was flipping through TV channels recently and came across a show on Discovery or National Geographic about the swankest hotels in the world. The featured hotel on the particular episode was a hotel in Morocco that was preparing to host a United Na
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2018-11-05
Opinions
11-05-2018
Under Armour Proves My Point
I mentioned in my commentary that a telltale sign of lousy leadership is when a company says it's going to hire a hotshot HR person to address workplace harassment issues. That's exactly what Under Armour is going to do.
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2018-11-05
Opinions
11-05-2018
America Imports China's Cultural Revolution
China's Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution took place from 1966 to 1976, led by a woman (Mao's wife) and comprised mostly of idealistic youth lacking in wisdom and judgment but overflowing with sophomoric bromides about social relations and so
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2018-11-01
Opinions
11-01-2018
Minorities and women don't have unconscious biases
My, oh my, have times changed. In the early eighties, I went on retreats with black women to have open discussions about our respective views on race and gender. It quickly became apparent that black women had as many biases about white men as whit
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2018-10-28
Opinions
10-28-2018
'The Facebook Dilemma' Review: A Message That Can't Be Ignored
An unrelenting 'Frontline' documentary wants you to know that Facebook is not your friend.
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2018-10-31
Opinions
10-29-2018
Useless Idiots on the Khashoggi Killing
Dear Thinker: I recently wrote that American journalists didn't seem to have a clue about the complexities of Muslim politics or the history of the Middle East in their coverage of the Khashoggi killing, thus playing into the hands of the regional a
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2018-10-28
Opinions
10-28-2018
A Swart on America's Obsession with Race
Is America obsessed with race? Is the world obsessed with race? Have humans been obsessed with race ever since hominoids divided into tribes? Do government racial classifications worsen the obsession? Is it foolhardy to write about race? Am I a
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2018-10-22
Opinions
10-22-2018
Brilliant Advice on Investing (and Life)
Anthony Deden is a very erudite, private, and successful head of an investment firm. He doesn't tweet, isn't on Facebook, avoids publicity, rarely follows the news, and thinks that the financial press is worthless.
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2018-10-18
Opinions
10-18-2018
German Insanity Coming to America?
The following article boggles the mind, at least what's left of mine. It's about what has happened in Berlin as a result of Germany allowing thousands of Arab and Kurdish asylum-seekers into the country, putting them on the dole, and not allowing the
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2018-10-17
Opinions
10-17-2018
Proof Found of Elizabeth Warren's Heritage
Elizabeth Warren announced yesterday that she shares 98% of her genes with chimpanzees...President Trump immediately announced that he'd give a million bucks to the National Zoo if she could verify this with a genetic test.
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2018-10-15
Opinions
10-15-2018
Trump Territory Then and Now
If you want to understand why President Trump is popular in some quarters, then join me for a recap of a recent visit to Trump territory. Along the way, we'll go back in American history to see that there is nothing new about fake news, populism,
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2018-09-24
Opinions
09-24-2018
Income and Poverty in the USA
The Census Bureau has published its latest report on income and poverty: "Income and Poverty in the United States, 2017
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2018-09-24
Opinions
09-24-2018
Outstanding Journalism: 400 Murders a Day in Latin America
The following front-page story appeared in yesterday's Wall Street Journal. Wow! Yikes! It provides sobering stats and sickening anecdotes on the murder rates in the Caribbean and in six Central and South American countries. In those countries, t
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2018-09-22
Opinions
09-22-2018
Invitation: Best Free-Market Conference Ever
You are cordially invited to a learning opportunity that comes along only once in a lifetime--and there is no seminar fee for attending.
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2018-09-22
Opinions
09-22-2018
The Truth About Polygraph Tests
They're junk science, inadmissible in court, and about as reliable as a pack of Tarot cards [or Scientology's E-meter]
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2018-09-21
Opinions
09-19-2018
Google Won't Understand This Satire
We fear that Google is developing a worldview--a uniformity and conformity in viewpoints, values, beliefs, and politics. It's gotten so bad that, unlike just about every other major corporation, Googlers talk openly about their political views--
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2018-09-21
Opinions
09-18-2018
The Great Human Contradiction
Some observers say that there are also parallels between cults in general and religion, but I'm not about to go there. I will say, though, that there are parallels between cults and politics, in the sense that members of political parties are ofte
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2018-09-13
Opinions
09-13-2018
No Left Wings at WSJ, Barnard, and Buffalo Wild Wings
About ten years ago, I counted the use of the adjectives "right-wing" and "left-wing" in the media and academia and found that the former adjective was used ten times more than the latter.
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2018-09-11
Opinions
09-11-2018
A Simple Explanation for Nike and Kaepernick
The media and Wall Street are bewildered over Nike running ads featuring National Anthem-kneeler Colin Kaepernick. He may be a mediocre professional football player and sub-par thinker, but he's an all-star in getting publicity for his social-just
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2018-09-10
Opinions
09-10-2018
Silly, shallow debates on silly, shallow cable news
When there's a lull in the game, I take a break from baseball for a few minutes of partisan yelling.
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2018-09-10
Opinions
09-10-2018
Media spin on Serena losing US Open?
Almost everything today has racial and gender overtones, including sports. So how will the media spin what happened at the US Open this afternoon?
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2018-09-03
Opinions
09-03-2018
Free Laundries in Schools. Insanity?
Please help me. I think I'm going insane. Or maybe it's too late. Or maybe the world is insane.
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2018-09-03
Opinions
09-03-2018
Starbucks Less Healthy than a Snickers Bar
Below is an article about a Starbucks Frappuccino having considerably more sugar and calories than a Snickers Bar, an article of interest to me for two reasons: one, I used to work for the maker of Snickers, M&M Mars; and two, I've been saying for m
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2018-08-27
Opinions
08-27-2018
Pouring ketchup on the heads of Arizona students
Below my signature is a WSJ editorial about how Arizona teacher unions and their dumbbell supporters want to emulate NJ and other states by taxing the "rich" and giving the money to "education." Geez, I escaped from NJ in 1992 and moved back to Ari
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2018-08-22
Opinions
08-22-2018
Fake news is as old as Homo sapiens
I've been working on a commentary about fake news with a similar theme as Harari's new book. But since Harari is far more gifted thinker and writer, I can now delete the piece.
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2018-08-22
Opinions
08-20-2018
Guys & Gals Are Different After All
Gender Is a Construct--Except When It's Not - A foundational tenet of academic feminism holds that alleged differences between males and females are socially constructed.
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2018-08-07
Opinions
08-07-2018
Heather Mac Donald on Chicago Carnage
Below is Heather Mac Donald's take on last weekend's carnage in Chicago, where 74 people were shot and 11 killed by gangbangers. Sounds like Mexico or Nicaragua. Even downtown and the Miracle Mile have not escaped marauding teenage gangs.
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2018-07-28
Opinions
07-28-2018
Why Democracies Fail
There is no need for you to read history, political science, sociology or philosophy to understand why democracies fail. All you need is to understand the intelligence of your fellow voters. And for that, all you need is to read some sample headlin
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2018-07-26
Opinions
07-26-2018
Trump Normal or Abnormal?
I've had the misfortune of knowing a lot of powerful people in politics, government, business and the media. In almost all cases, they were people whose public persona had little relationship to their true nature.
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2018-07-25
Opinions
07-25-2018
Dueling Letters to the Editor
Below are two letters to the editor in response to a recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal about the folly of investment funds taking into consideration political and social issues in their investment decisions.
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2018-07-13
Opinions
07-13-2018
Finally, an academic gets it
As recently as the 1990s, Harvard sociologist Michèle Lamont found that working-class men in the New York City area held generally positive attitudes toward immigrants, describing them as "family oriented" and "hard workers, just like us."
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2018-07-03
Opinions
07-03-2018
Trump's Supporters: Beasts of Burden
Lower-middle-income workers comprise the majority of Trump supporters.
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2018-06-23
Opinions
06-23-2018
Tucson, city of paradoxes
My Commentary in Arizona Daily Star - The following is from the electronic edition. Also appeared in the print edition with a large photo. Local TV station wants to interview me. Not sure I want to go down that road again. All reader emails are in
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2018-06-19
Opinions
06-19-2018
Are Libertarians Good Neighbors?
This question comes to mind because of the problem between the most libertarian member of Congress, Rand Paul, and his neighbor in Kentucky.
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2018-06-19
Opinions
06-19-2018
Excerpts from Inspector General Report
I'm speed-reading the inspector general report. Pasted below are excerpts of instant messages between FBI agents. Putting aside the political implications, it's astonishing that FBI agents, or employees of any large organization, would engage in su
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2018-06-19
Opinions
06-17-2018
Great Letter About the Imaginery Social Security Trust Fund
Since its inception in 1935, all funds collected that weren't disbursed to beneficiaries each year were converted into federal IOUs known as special-issue Treasury bonds. By law, the fund could do nothing else.
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2018-06-15
Opinions
06-15-2018
Apple Isn't the Apple of My Eye
Despite my dislike of Apple Stores, I went to one the other day with my wife, because she needed a new battery for her two-year-old iPhone...For most electronic gizmos, installing a new battery is as easy as walking into a store, buying a battery, an
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2018-06-03
Opinions
06-03-2018
What Does Litter Say About Us?
Litter says a lot about us. It says something about class, race, ethnicity, and even political ideology. It speaks volumes about our sense of community, or lack thereof. It's also an example of the Tragedy of the Commons.
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2018-05-28
Opinions
05-28-2018
Colleges Bend the Rules for More Students, Give Them Extra Help
With an influx of students classified as disabled, schools move to accommodate their needs
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2018-05-21
Opinions
05-21-2018
Free-Market Intellectual Escapes Echo Chamber
A noted free-market intellectual, Glenn Hubbard, dean of the Columbia Business School, has escaped from the economics echo chamber and admitted that prevailing dogma has holes in it. Now we need some noted left-liberals to escape from their echo cha
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2018-05-14
Opinions
05-14-2018
Throw Capitalism into the Dustbin of History
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2018-05-02
Opinions
05-02-2018
Arizona Teachers Demonstrate in Red on May Day
Here in Tucson, hordes of striking teachers are standing on street corners in red shirts today, apparently oblivious to the irony of demanding on May Day that the "wealthy" be taxed to pay for the 20% increase promised by the governor. They either d
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2018-04-29
Opinions
04-29-2018
Glaring Omission in WSJ China Essay
Here is a 2,155-word commentary from this weekend's Wall Street Journal on the success of China's political model, which blends authoritarianism with economic progress and what the author, a Cambridge professor of politics, calls national dignity.
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2018-04-28
Opinions
04-28-2018
Tarred and Feathered for Economic Heresy
Would free-market libertarians and conservatives tar and feather someone--figuratively speaking, that is--for the heresy of agreeing about economics with the president of half-socialist France?
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2018-04-18
Opinions
04-18-2018
A Jewish-Like Homeland for Seminoles
What do you consider your homeland?...You probably consider it to be the locale where you were born and spent your formative years.
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2018-04-13
Opinions
04-13-2018
The Creepy Business Models of Google and Facebook
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's recent testimony in Congress proved one thing: that members of Congress are so idiotic that they can even make android Zuckerberg look good by comparison.
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2018-04-13
Opinions
04-13-2018
The USA and Russia: A New Guinea State of Mind
Until the middle of the 20th century, remote tribes in the jungles of New Guinea were still largely untouched by civilization and living as they always had. That is, they were engaging in tribal warfare, stealing each other's womenfolk, and having
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2018-04-06
Opinions
04-06-2018
Dogs Have Better Medical Care than Humans
Even in lower-income parts of town there is an abundance of veterinarian clinics, animal hospitals, kennels, and pet stores, which sell expensive pet supplies and all-natural pet food and treats. No processed fast-food for pets. No fat-laden Domino
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2018-04-03
Opinions
04-03-2018
Who Is Responsible for the Opioid Epidemic?
The opioid epidemic has killed tens of thousands of Americans and devastated families and communities, yet no one is responsible for it.
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2018-03-28
Opinions
03-28-2018
Free-Market Thinkers Have Stopped Thinking
Anthropologists say that humans became human about 200,000 years ago. Evolutionists say this was the result of a million years or so of evolution. Creationists say it was the result of creation. For purposes of this commentary, it doesn't matter
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2018-03-16
Opinions
03-16-2018
Conservative Erectile Dysfunction
I don't have a rooster in the ongoing cockfight between liberals and conservatives. But I do pay attention to both liberal and conservative media.
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2018-03-14
Opinions
03-14-2018
A Political Test for Libertarians
Libertarians embrace civil liberties more than liberals, markets more than conservatives, and freedom more than just about anyone... Yet they can't get elected to public office in meaningful numbers. It's the same with independents.
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2018-03-07
Opinions
03-07-2018
Gov. Ineptitude Score: Florida 17, Iraq 110,000
Americans are understandably sickened by the massacre of 17 people in Florida and want something done to prevent such school massacres from recurring.
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2018-02-21
Opinions
02-21-2018
Federal Agency Wastes $500 Million
On February 19, I published a commentary about how the federal government couldn't account for $21 trillion and how the General Accounting Office concludes year after year that the nation's books are "not trustworthy" and not in compliance wi
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2018-02-20
Opinions
02-20-2018
The Feds Misplace $21 Trillion and a School Shooter
A February 13 story in City Journal details how the $21 trillion was misplaced. It seems that when federal agencies can't balance their books, they just plug in a number to make them balance.
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2018-02-16
Opinions
02-16-2018
A School Shooting: Pull Out the Old Scripts
Strangely, not one of them questioned why a school would have 4,000 students or wondered how a school of that size could ever be anything but a big bureaucracy that follows the rules but misses important nuances, variables, signs, and clues.
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2018-02-12
Opinions
02-12-2018
The Enlightenmnet Is Working
Steven Pinker's article below continues the theme of his earlier fact-laden book, "The Better Angels of Our Nature," which detailed the tremendous progress around the world due to the Enlightenment, as measured by key indices.
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2018-02-06
Opinions
02-06-2018
A Surreal Scene from American Healthcare
The first impulse is not to ask how the problem might be solved without the use of force. In healthcare this means that the first solution to the problem of the uninsured is to force everyone into a "same size fits all" program that is controlle
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2018-01-30
Opinions
01-30-2018
Minnesota Plundered by Vikings
Ah, nothing like the Super Bowl to test if anyone in America will stick to political principles...Will liberals who blather about caring for the little guy over big corporations watch a game played in a stadium that was built with a $500 million taxp
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2018-01-22
Opinions
01-22-2018
He Who Reads History Is Doomed
Thanks to social media and the duopoly of Google and Facebook, they have the attention span of fruit flies, but, thankfully, without the same urge to procreate. As with the huuuge fruit fly in the Oval Office and the smaller ones at the top of the D
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2017-11-22
Opinions
11-22-2017
The Most Ignorant College Teacher of All Time
Benjamin Fong is on the faculty of the Barrett Honors College at Arizona State University (ASU), which means that this Arizonan helps to pay him through my state taxes. But I'm more embarrassed than chagrined--embarrassed that such a dim bulb tea
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2017-11-22
Opinions
11-22-2017
Sexual Harassment: a Problem of Leadership, not HR
During much of my corporate career, I was a human resources executive for large companies, where I fired scores of jerks and creeps for sexual harassment, long before harassment became headline news.
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2017-11-14
Opinions
11-14-2017
Searching for a Doctor, Hair Stylist, and Auto Mechanic
By definition, a consumer market doesn't exist when someone other than the consumer pays a service provider. In medical care, the payer is typically not the consumer, or patient. Rather, the payer is Medicare, Medicaid, ObamaCare, or an employer
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2017-11-09
Opinions
11-09-2017
Torture by Smartphone
My latest torture by smartphone began with the installation of a new garage door opener at my new house in Tucson...The opener is Wi-Fi enabled and designed so that the garage door can be opened and closed remotely via a smartphone. It's similar t
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2017-10-19
Opinions
10-19-2017
Hispanic Hokum and Hypocrisy about White Privilege
The most mindless are the parrots who self-identify as Hispanic or Latino, such as un-funny comedian George Lopez, who recently insulted an audience at a charity event with a diatribe about white privilege. Other Hispanic celebrities, as well as pse
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2017-10-08
Opinions
10-08-2017
Hooray Peggy Noonana and Holman Jenkins
I never cared for Peggy Noonan's politics, thinking or writing but have to admit I was wrong after reading the commentary below. When I had my newspaper column, I wrote something similar about the kinds of people and depravity that parents allow int
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2017-09-27
Opinions
09-27-2017
Trump vs. Tattooed Millionaires
The article below is spot on, especially the sentences highlighted in the third paragraph about football players of yesteryear being blue-collar and not making much money, just like their fan base in working-class neighborhoods, such as my boyhood ho
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2017-09-22
Opinions
09-22-2017
The Asian Skunks at the Diversity Party
Once again, they've debunked the diversity dogma that prevails at universities and elsewhere, including the canard that minorities are held back because of white privilege, which is itself a canard.
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2017-09-11
Opinions
09-11-2017
Two Compelling Articles: Why Entitlements Keep Growing, and Growing, and . . .
Why American Students Need Chinese Schools
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2017-08-15
Opinions
08-15-2017
Cognitive Dissonance and the Statue of Robert E. Lee
When the news broke about white supremacists inciting violence over the removal of the statue of Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville, Virginia, I was reading one of the most thought-provoking books on human nature that I've ever read--namely, the New
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2017-08-15
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08-11-2017
Americans Want LIberty & Freedom - Hahaha!
The more I've studied evolutionary psychology, the more convinced I've become that these statistics mirror human nature, or if you will, the genetic hard-wiring of Homo sapiens.
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2017-08-15
Opinions
08-10-2017
Reagan's Economic Policies Then vs. Today
Cutting taxes in the manner suggested by Messrs. Gramm and Solon is highly unlikely to bring back 1980s growth rates.
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2017-08-15
Opinions
08-08-2017
Asians vs. Blacks and Hispanics
Perhaps you've been following the lawsuit by Asians against Harvard and other universities for discriminating against Asians by holding them to far higher admission standards than blacks and Hispanics. Below is an article on a related issue at New Y
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2017-07-13
Opinions
07-11-2017
Make Gravel out of Plymouth Rock
As seen in the news, there is a movement to tear down monuments to the
Confederacy and to change the names of university buildings that were named after slave owners. The proponents of this movement argue that it is inappropriate for a society to h
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2017-06-07
Opinions
06-07-2017
Single-Payer for Food, Shelter, Clothing and Transportation
The non-thinking of many highly educated people is sobering...Case in point: The Wall Street Journal ran a letter to the editor yesterday, written by a physician from Berkeley, Calif., who spoke of the efficiencies and wonders of a single-payer syst
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2017-06-05
Opinions
06-05-2017
Black Racists versus White Trash
Perhaps you've watched the YouTube video of the "students" at Evergreen State College screaming racist slurs about whites, as they tried without success to form intelligent thoughts in a meeting with the college president.
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2017-06-05
Opinions
06-05-2017
An Environmentalist Applauds Trump
Twenty-five years ago I founded and headed a large and influential environmental grassroots group in metro New York. One of my biggest challenges was to keep my board of directors and rank-and-file from embellishing, exaggerating and distorting the f
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2017-04-30
Opinions
04-30-2017
History of Korea as the War Drums Beat
Santayana's warning about not learning from history is valid up to a point. As is the case of North Korea today, a point is sometimes reached in which the history of who did what to whom doesn't matter.
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2017-04-30
Opinions
04-30-2017
Astonishing Explanation for Campus Snowflakes
In a letter to the editor in the April 27^th edition of the Wall Street Journal, a faculty member of Northwestern University explained why snowflakes behave the way they do on college campuses. The letter is pasted at the end of this commentary.
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2017-04-13
Opinions
04-13-2017
Millennials, Mortgages and Government Grizzlies
Working sheeple are being devoured by the very same grizzlies that they
elected to protect them.
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2017-04-09
Opinions
04-09-2017
Emotion Trumps Reason in Trump's Missile Attack
It was a sure sign that emotion had once again trumped reason when both the left and the right agreed that Trump had a moral imperative to attack the Syrian air base. The implication was that the United States should intercede with force whenever bar
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2017-04-05
Opinions
04-05-2017
A Dago's Perspective on Diversity and White Privilege
If you are a member of the campus thought police and offended by the word "dago," too bad. Here are some other offensive synonyms for "Italian:" wop, greaseball, greaser, goombah, mobster, and garlic eater.
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2017-03-27
Opinions
03-27-2017
Trump is in a fiscal hole but wants to keep digging
That particular chapter of the "replace" saga, however, is chicken feed compared to finding a coherent majority on measures to "replace" the /$4 trillion /of revenue loss from the corporate and individual tax cuts promised by Trump and embraced widel
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2017-03-28
Opinions
03-28-2017
Bill Gates, Hypocrite of the Year
Sure, they'll kill jobs. Like Microsoft Excel, they'll also create
new ones.
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2017-03-28
Opinions
03-28-2017
NFL Announces Raiders Move to North Korea
Scottsdale, Ariz. - National Football League bigshots, meeting here to drive drunk and get in fights in Old Town nightclubs, in the longstanding tradition of college and professional football players who visit this resort city, announced today that t
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2017-03-27
Opinions
03-27-2017
Letter to Governor Doug Ducey about drug legalization
As reported by Mr. Will, you justify your opposition to marijuana legalization by noting that you are "the son of a cop and the father of three teenage sons." With respect, how many people, including cops, are gunned down by sellers of beer and
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2017-03-27
Opinions
03-27-2017
Michelangelo and ObamaCare Reform
It was almost a certainty that ObamaCare would not be replaced or
reformed enough to restore a consumer market in medical care/insurance,
one in which the consumer is at the top of the pyramid instead of the
bottom.
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2017-03-27
Opinions
03-27-2017
Two Great Takes on Putin
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2017-03-23
Opinions
03-23-2017
The Science of Fat vs. the Science of Global Warming
For over a half-century, the government and those in the medical and science community who fed at its richly nutritious teats of grants and subsidies had declared that it was a scientific fact that saturated fats were a primary cause of heart disease
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2017-03-18
Opinions
03-18-2017
The rest of the story about immigrants revitalizing cities
The following Bloomberg article is about a neighborhood in St. Louis that is a couple of miles from my boyhood home, a neighborhood that is being revitalized by Bosnian immigrants. A former German neighborhood, I used to ride my bike there as a kid (
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2017-03-16
Opinions
03-16-2017
Facts about Medicaid that will blow your socks off
The first is an excerpt from a commentary by Nick Ebertstadt. The excerpt explains how Medicaid fuels the horrible opioid epidemic.
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2017-03-15
Opinions
03-15-2017
The Truth about Losing "Healthcare"
Media reports say that 20 million Americans will lose their "healthcare" under the Republican plan to replace ObamaCare, as if healthcare is like a cellphone, wallet, or item of clothing unintentionally left somewhere or stolen by someone.
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2017-03-13
Opinions
03-13-2017
Why Trade Deficits Are not Bad
As the following WSJ editorial explains, a trade deficit is not ipso
facto bad. It's only seen as bad because the word "deficit" has a
negative connotation. If the word "benefit" were used in lieu of the
word "deficit," there would be no negative
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2017-03-09
Opinions
03-09-2017
Brilliant: Why few women are in positions of power
The discussion is brilliant, direct, politically-incorrect, and spot-on--and it took place on a college campus. It's also fairly long, because, to avoid being typecast as a Neanderthal male, it takes more than sound bites to debunk the canards, nost
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2017-03-09
Opinions
03-09-2017
Political Realities of Replacing ObamaCare
Below is the Wall Street Journal's lead editorial of today on the political realities of replacing ObamaCare. It is spot-on in its assessment that the Ryan plan is about the best that can be achieved politically, and that failure to enact it will le
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2017-03-09
Opinions
03-09-2017
Poor Productivity Is the Pink Elephant in the Economy
Trump is another president in a long line of presidents with a magical
plan to restore the economy to high growth, especially for the working
class. But other than some temporary blips, the nation hasn't seen
sustained high growth since the eco
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2017-02-20
Opinions
02-20-2017
Retiring Baby Boomers Face Crushing Debt
When I was in corporate life, boomers would come to me and request a contrived hardship withdrawal of their 401(k) funds, which they then used to buy an expensive German car or some other extravagance, resulting in a tax penalty. I knew what people
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2017-02-17
Opinions
02-17-2017
Politically-Incorrect Harvard Commencement Address and Other Stuff
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2017-02-13
Opinions
02-13-2017
Two Interesting Articles on the Mexican Economy
The first describes how Trump's comments about trade with Mexico and NAFTA have shrunk investments in Mexico, lowered forecasts for growth of the Mexican economy, and weakened the peso, thus making Mexican exports cheaper and pushing Mexico to increa
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2017-02-13
Opinions
02-13-2017
Trigger Warning: See what's okay on college campuses
You no doubt know by now that the leftists at the University of California-Berkeley rioted to stop Milo Yiannopoulos from speaking. He is a gay conservative, a jerk, a lousy public speaker, and not very learned. But he is a genius, an intellectual,
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2017-02-09
Opinions
02-09-2017
Audi deserves to be keyed
It would be wrong to vandalize a car by running a key along the side, even a car manufactured by a German company that fouled the airwaves during the Super Bowl with agitprop about equal pay for women. But it's not wrong to verbally key the ignora
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2017-01-31
Opinions
01-31-2017
Working Stiffs Stiffed by Nixon, Reagan, and now Trump
He appealed directly to white Southerners and ethnic working-class Northerners, largely ignoring the left-leaning media, academia, and racial minorities. And he imposed a 10% tariff on imports.
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2017-01-27
Opinions
01-27-2017
U.S. Healthcare Costs: What's the truth?
Below my signature is a Wall Street Journal blurb that compares life expectancies and costs for selected drugs and medical treatments between the U.S. and selected countries. The stats suggest that Americans pay through the nose for medical care yet
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2017-01-23
Opinions
01-23-2017
The Dystopian Vision of George Soros
Soros is just another alpha male in a long line of big chimps on the left and right who want to remake society and the world in their own image instead of leaving people alone. An egotistical busybody and bully, in other words.
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2017-01-16
Opinions
01-16-2017
Do You Agree that Libertarians are Fruit Loops?
The final straw was a noted libertarian saying the following about foreign policy:
"The United States should observe good faith and justice toward all nations and cultivate peace and harmony with all, should not have hatreds against some na
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2017-01-11
Opinions
01-11-2017
How History Will See Libertarians v. Laura Ingraham
Actually, their mortal sin is that they believe in non-aggression in personal and national affairs, in people owning themselves instead of being owned by the state, in being able to keep the fruits of their labor instead of having the fruits expropri
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2017-01-10
Opinions
01-10-2017
Russia's Lies about America Are a Casus Belli
Something has to be done about Vladimir Putin directing his spies to undermine American democracy by spreading lies about our presidential candidates. If this isn't a casus belli, I don't know what is.
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2017-01-02
Opinions
01-02-2017
A Fool in the Crossfire over Russia and Israel
Only a fool would step into the crossfire between the warring tribes known as Democrats and Republicans on the two burning issues of the day: Russia's hacking and the U.N. resolution on Israel.
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2017-01-02
Opinions
01-02-2017
Death by Smartphone
My wife and I are avid participants in one of the most dangerous sports nowadays: We walk.
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2016-12-19
Opinions
12-19-2016
America's imperialism 1830 to 1910
Below is a review of a new book that I'll be buying. Of course many flag-waving nationalists foam at the mouth over any suggestion that the Shining City on the Hill has been imperialistic.
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2016-12-16
Opinions
12-16-2016
A National Tragedy
Below is a heartbreaking front-page story from today's Wall Street Journal on the family and social havoc caused by the epidemic of opioid addiction. I've written previously about how this epidemic and drug use in general have contributed to declini
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2016-12-14
Opinions
12-14-2016
Crybabies Snivel to the WSJ about Student Loans
Oh my, another great injustice in the USA, as described in the article below. This time it's an electrical engineer and his hair stylist wife in their sixties who think it's unjust that they have to pay off their student loans, unlike other borrowers
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2016-12-12
Opinions
12-12-2016
Speech Codes
When I read the following, I thought the Dutch had lost their minds. . .
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2016-12-12
Opinions
12-12-2016
Cognitive Bias
Kahneman has shown that humans aren't as rational, logical, and reasoned as they think. (I'm a noted exception. Haha!) This can be seen by anyone who observes TV shows, commercials, the mainstream media, talk radio, elections, Congress, presidents
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2016-12-06
Opinions
12-06-2016
Connecting the Dots on the Declining Work Ethic:
Video Games, Student Debt, Drugs, and Welfare
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2017-01-29
Opinions
01-29-2017
Holman Jenkins Gives NY Times What It Deserves
In his column below, Holman Jenkins of the WSJ masterfully skewers the NYT and other parishioners at the Church of Climatology for claiming that climate change has lowered the value of hoity-toity homes along coastlines.
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2017-01-29
Opinions
01-29-2017
Was the price of your turkey set like this?
The other day I sent an email with the subject line, "Chicken S**t Price-Fixing," with a WSJ article attached about the way that chicken prices are set. Below is a follow-up article from the WSJ, which, like the first article, is a turkey of an arti
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2016-11-23
Opinions
11-23-2016
Chicken S**t Price-Fixing
I had to read the following WSJ article three times to make sure I wasn't hallucinating. It disabused me of three notions: one, that we have a market economy; two, that price-fixing is illegal; and three, that prices are set by supply and demand an
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2016-11-18
Opinions
11-18-2016
Do we want these jobs back?
I gave a talk the other night about growing income inequality in the USA. The next day, the Wall Street Journal published the article below my signature about electronics work outsourced to contract manufactures in China by Apple and other American
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2016-11-17
Opinions
11-17-2016
The Forgotten Word in the Presidential Race
A very important word was not mentioned once throughout the long and nauseating presidential race--not once in the torrent of inane campaign commercials, not once in the hundreds of silly interviews conducted by the sophomoric media, not once in the
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2016-11-10
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11-10-2016
What the election means to me
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2016-11-01
Opinions
11-01-2016
The Beaver Street Divide in America
Beaver Street runs through downtown Flagstaff, Arizona, a high-country town at 7,000-foot elevation and towered over by the 12,000-foot Humphrey's Peak. A couple of blocks of the street are a microcosm of the political divide in America.
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2016-10-25
Opinions
10-25-2016
Sobering article about the new economics
The article below compares the rise and fall of textile manufacturing in Lowell, Mass over a century ago to the rise and fall of the city of Dongguan in China. A big difference is that the growth and decline of Dongguan happened at warp speed compar
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2016-10-25
Opinions
10-25-2016
Children of the Revolution: Bernie Sanders' alt-left
The article pasted below is insightful but very long. It describes the alt-left, or the millennials who supported Bernie Sanders and comprise a large and growing wing of the Democrat party. To save you time, I've pasted a two-paragraph excerpt imme
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2016-10-10
Opinions
10-10-2016
The 2016 Election's Over----The Battle For A Grand Realignment Begins
Despite Donald Trump's game display of counter-punching last night, the 2016 election campaign is over. The establishment media has destroyed his candidacy-----not by refuting a single issue in his indictment of the status quo but by destroying the e
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2016-10-09
Opinions
10-09-2016
Give 'em the boot
McCain is airing an ad that claims that his opponent walked out of a constituent meeting (sans cowgirl boots) when she didn't like questions about her support of ObamaCare. The commercial goes on to say that McCain didn't walk out of the Vietnam
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2016-10-06
Opinions
10-06-2016
Photo & Commentary: Trump Supporter's Home
Imagine living in the home in the photo and driving by the HUD homes every day. That could change one's politics.
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2016-10-04
Opinions
10-04-2016
Doctor exposes NFL's pink ribbon marketing ploy
The author of the following, a cancer doc, is going to get hammered for criticizing America's favorite fall and winter pastime of watching 15 mins. of actual playing time set amidst three hours of commentary, commercials, replays and Gatorade chuggin
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2016-10-04
Opinions
10-04-2016
A New York State of Mind about Corruption
I landed at the Buffalo airport on Sept. 23, just as a story was breaking about massive corruption associated with economic redevelopment projects in the Buffalo region and elsewhere in the state. Curiously, the scandal was barely mentioned in the na
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2016-09-23
Opinions
09-23-2016
Five reasons for not voting this November
On a personal note, a better use of my time over the decades has been to influence public opinion by publishing hundreds of commentaries in newspapers and professional journals, which have been read by millions of people and no doubt changed the mind
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2016-09-20
Opinions
09-20-2016
Trump Debates Milton Friedman on Trade
A lot of the benefits of trade are counterintuitive. A rule of politics is that the more that the right public policy is counterintuitive, the greater the opportunity for demagogues to get elected by advocating the wrong policy.
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2016-09-20
Opinions
09-20-2016
Fraying Social Fabric Explains Trump
Below my signature is an excellent and sobering front-page story that appeared in yesterday's WSJ. It details the social and economic decline of the white working class in Reading, Penn., including drug abuse, broken families, medical problems, and
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2016-09-19
Opinions
09-19-2016
Trump's Homerun about the Fed and Strikeout about Ford
Donald Trump was bound to eventually hit a homerun if he continued to wildly swing his policy bat. That was the case with his recent comments about the Federal Reserve in an interview on MSNBC. But he also struck out over his comments about Ford Mo
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2016-09-15
Opinions
09-15-2016
America's Wage Disadvantage and What to Do about It
The United States has a huge disadvantage in labor costs relative to much of the world, especially compared to China, the Subcontinent, and Latin America, all of which have substantially lower labor costs. Japan and Europe have a similar disadvantag
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2016-09-02
Opinions
09-02-2016
Hispanic Homicide Rate 298 Percent Higher than Asian Rate
And Other Facts about Homicide Rates
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2016-08-31
Opinions
08-31-2016
Pot Roasts Running for Office
Winston Churchill said that democracy is the worst form of government, except for all others...Whether Churchill was right or wrong, campaign commercials now running 24/7 are certainly the worst form of advertising, even worse than commercials about
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2016-08-23
Opinions
08-23-2016
The Impossibility of an Informed Electorate
A well-functioning democracy depends on a well-informed electorate. But is it possible to have a well-informed electorate once a nation gets to the size and complexity of the United States?
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2016-08-04
Opinions
08-04-2016
Is Trump a psychopath?
In the 1970s, Robert Hare identified twenty characteristics of a psychopath and created the Psychopathy Checklist, which became the basis for contemporary research on the psychological disorder. His book Without Conscience became a classic on the di
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2016-07-22
Opinions
07-22-2016
Abnormal Thoughts about Curb Cuts
On my daily walk this morning, I once again noticed that parks, streets, and other public places in my hometown of Scottsdale, Ariz., are not as well-maintained they as used to be. That's a red flag for a city of 230,000 that is largely dependent
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2016-07-05
Opinions
07-05-2016
A Diverse Conversation the Day before Dependence Day
The conversations between the CNAs are often politically-incorrect and come without trigger warnings. They are a refreshing change from the sanitized social commentary in academia, in government, in the media, and in big corporations.
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2016-07-02
Opinions
07-02-2016
Israel Has Gone Missing!!!
Iran must've finally wiped Israel off the map. What else would explain why Israel isn't mentioned by all the self-appointed experts on the Middle East in all their bilious blabber about what should be done about evil incarnate ISIS?
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2016-07-02
Opinions
07-02-2016
Gadhafi, Napolitano, Clinton, Reagan, and Trump
This morning I read a commentary by conservative commentator Andrew P. Napolitano about the report of the House Select Committee on Benghazi. The commentary, which is pasted below, is a discouraging example of how the masses are played by the two pa
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2016-06-30
Opinions
06-30-2016
All the News That's Unfit to Print
Three recent articles in the New York Times reminded me of why I no longer read that newspaper regularly...The articles were so New York. The subject matter was silly, pretentious, elitist, leftist, and, of course, obsessed with race and class.
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2016-06-06
Opinions
06-06-2016
Letter and Article on a Universal Basic Income
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2016-06-02
Opinions
06-02-2016
Voting for the guy in a thong for president
The hilarious but serious commentary below explains why it might be better to vote for a libertarian in a thong than to vote for Donald or Hillary. Picture either one of them in a thong.
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2016-05-26
Opinions
05-26-2016
Homeruns in Today's Wall Street Journal
Today's WSJ opinion pages stayed away from the Journal's war mongering and is better for it. You will find pasted below my signature the following:
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2016-05-20
Opinions
05-20-2016
Does Anybody Still Care About Free Speech?
Below are four letters to the editor from today's WSJ, in response to a recent commentary by Michael Bloomberg and Charles Koch about the importance of free speech on campuses. The third one, from some brainwashed moron at Duke University, defends s
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2016-05-11
Opinions
05-11-2016
Why the USA and the rest of the West is unhappy
The masses in the West are unhappy, despite living in climate-controlled abodes and having more calories than ever, more gadgets than ever, more sports venues than ever, more leisure time than ever, more lifesaving medical technology than ever, and m
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2016-05-06
Opinions
05-06-2016
Is Trump the Next FDR?
Donald Trump and Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) have some striking similarities...Don't laugh. Don't hang up on me. I'm serious.
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2016-05-02
Opinions
05-02-2016
The Establishment: 245 Million Strong
But who is the establishment, or if you will, the established order? And what are the problems facing the country that the establishment is not addressing?
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2016-04-19
Opinions
04-19-2016
Regurgitating the Canard about Deregulation
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2016-04-15
Opinions
04-15-2016
Republicans withhold a winner about withholding
Democrats would counter that withholding saves taxpayers the time and trouble of paying their taxes separately, and that the elimination of withholding would result in massive nonpayment of taxes.
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2016-04-06
Opinions
04-06-2016
Jimmy Buffet sings about Washington, D.C.
At least Jimmy Buffet had a lick of sense, even after consuming numerous margaritas. Here is what he would have written and sung about Washington...
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2016-04-01
Opinions
04-01-2016
Two great takes on the capture of universities by idiots
The first take is an insider's view of Canadian universities, which, based on the author's description, mirror most American universities, at least in the humanities.
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2016-03-30
Opinions
03-30-2016
Marshmallows, Mortgages and the Media
At Stanford University in the late Sixties and early Seventies, marshmallows were used in behavioral experiments with children.
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2016-03-28
Opinions
03-28-2016
FedEx Founder & CEO on Trade
See the great article below about trade by Frederick Smith in this weekend's WSJ. Too bad this accomplished businessman and staunch free-marketer and classical liberal (aka libertarian) isn't running for USA president.
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2016-03-28
Opinions
03-28-2016
The Source of Our Disgusting Uncivil Politics
Personal attacks, name-calling, vulgarities, accusations of adultery, gross hypocrisy, bitter fights about the meaning of the Constitution, divisive partisan battles between proponents and opponents of a big federal government, ugly stereotypes about
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2016-03-25
Opinions
03-25-2016
The Molenbeek Problem | City Journal
Great commentary on the Brussels atrocity by the great British commentator Theodore Dalrymple. I love the comment about the Belgian government not being competent enough to collect taxes from Muslim immigrants but somehow being able to give them wel
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2016-03-24
Opinions
03-24-2016
Emory University students scared and in pain
Why are they scared and in pain? Because Trump's name was written in chalk around campus. See article at link below.
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2016-03-15
Opinions
03-15-2016
Bernistas, Baristas and Bolsheviks without Rakes and Ambition
How are the poor supporters of Bernie (aka the Bernistas) going to be able to afford pitchforks to overthrow capitalism when they can't even afford rakes?
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2016-03-09
Opinions
03-09-2016
Trump doesn't cotton to unfair trade--or does he?
Although his behavior and orange-tinted hair and skin resemble an orangutan's, Donald the Primary Primate is right to rail against unfair trade practices.
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2016-03-08
Opinions
03-08-2016
Brits vs. Ugandans, and Americans vs. Immigrants
It's sobering that such a work ethic, attitude, and common sense have been lost in three generations of Americans (and Brits). A silver lining with my Mom's dementia is that she doesn't see what's happening to America.
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2016-03-07
Opinions
03-07-2016
A Livable Wage Then and Now
For sure, we know what will not make America great again: the erection of border walls and tariff walls. These will only exacerbate the nation's economic and class problems. Unfortunately, to explain this would require as much time as three epis
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2016-03-04
Opinions
03-04-2016
The Establishment "R" Us
Pundits, reporters, talk-radio hosts, politician wannabees, and the masses have Cliché Reflux Disease. They are repeating, regurgitating, burping, and belching a cliché about The Establishment.
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2016-02-28
Opinions
02-28-2016
What would a sociopathic candidate look like?
According to excerpts from the book, The Sociopath Next Door, a sociopath has:
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2016-02-24
Opinions
02-24-2016
Wonderful letters to the editor
Below are four letters to the Wall Street Journal in today's edition. The first three are in response to a commentary by Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, about the minefield of federal laws and sentencing. I like the third one, which draws an analogy to the
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2016-02-01
Opinions
02-01-2016
The War on Boys and Men: Or Why Young Males Are Effeminate and Slackers
You may know the alarming statistics and trends stemming from the War on American Boys and Men, but let's review them again
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2016-01-19
Opinions
01-19-2016
GE explains the phenomena of Trump and Sanders
This week General Electric announced it was moving its headquarters and 800 jobs from extremely high-tax Connecticut to moderately high-tax Boston, Massachusetts, which seduced the company with $145 million in incentives over 20 years, or a staggerin
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2016-01-13
Feature Article
12 Charts Showing the Real State of the Union
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2016-01-12
Opinions
01-12-2016
Foreign Follies Hatched by Republican Neocons and Obama Liberals
In spite of these documented misjudgments turning out as Goldman predicted two and one-half years ago, Republican pundits and pols keep blaming Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and not themselves for the horrid messes in Libya, Syria, Iraq, and elsew
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2016-01-10
Opinions
01-10-2016
The Legacy of Murray Rothbard
The commentary includes a good history of the old right, which was the opposite of the imperialistic hawks of today's right.
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2016-01-02
Opinions
01-02-2016
Five Surefire Predictions for 2016 that You Can Bet on
On the biggest issues facing the nation, it is almost certain that the following five predictions will come true in 2016
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2015-12-08
Opinions
12-08-2015
Please help me, as I'm so confused about gun murders
In researching murders with guns, I found a chart showing the rates of such murders per 100,000 inhabitants for the 50 states.
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2015-12-08
Opinions
12-08-2015
Joke of the day: Reagan had conviction, and Trump cares about working stiffs
While driving this morning, I checked into talk radio to hear the latest bullcrap from the right and to compare it with the latest bullcrap from the left. Wow, the stench coming out of the radio made my intellect gag.
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2015-12-07
Opinions
12-07-2015
Obama Calls for Auto Loan Debt to Be Forgiven
You might have missed the announcement in the midst of the latest horrendous terrorism news, but President Obama has called for auto loan debt to be paid off by the federal government.
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2015-12-07
Opinions
12-07-2015
The family of the killlers didn't see anything unusual
Family members also said they knew nothing about the stockpiling of guns and bombs, although the killers lived with grandma in a tiny townhouse, where they were stockpiling guns and ammo in the garage, were modifying semi-automatic guns in the garage
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