A few weeks back, David Brooks was telling George Packer that philosophies of limited government were “politically unpopular and fundamentally un-American.” Now we have Mike Huckabee telling the Huffington Post the same thing: The greatest threat to classic Republicanism is not liberalism; it’s this new brand of libertarianism, which is social liberalism and economic conservatism, [...]
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Here’s a good article in the Wichita Eagle on the debate over E-Verify, with particular reference to the state of Kansas, where the legislature recently considered requiring employers to use this system for a federal background check on all new hires. My paper, “Electronic Employment Eligibility Verification: Franz Kafka’s Solution to Illegal Immigration,” is here.
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Recently I blogged about the federal government investigating businesses for keeping the price of milk too high, even though the government’s own policies push up milk prices. Government policies also seem to work at cross purposes with respect to chocolate. The Wall Street Journal reports that the price of a Snickers bar is up 6 percent over last year as a result of rising cocoa [...]
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The Washington Post reports that a local police officer has been convicted of shooting and killing an unarmed furniture deliveryman. The judge handed down a sentence of 45 years imprisonment. But get this: His disability benefits and police pension are not affected by his convictions, county spokesman John Erzen said. So taxpayers must keep paying this [...]
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Today, the Washington Post finally got around to publishing a story about the enviable state of America’s most iconic manufacturing industry — the steel industry. Steel prices are at record highs, surging more than 70 percent in the past year alone. Industry profits have set new records in recent years. Return on investment has been [...]
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As we all know, if you just put the word “defense,” or “homeland” or “security” anywhere in the name of a government program, its fiscal impact is immediately zeroed out. But if this mystical transformation didn’t take place, President Bush’s fiscal legacy would be looking darker and darker each day. Noah Shachtman gives us a [...]
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Gene is too modest to link to it himself (I wouldn’t be!), but George Will’s column in this week’s Newsweek centers on Caesaropapism and, Gene Healy’s new book. Here are the first few paragraphs: Barack Obama recently said, “I believe in our ability to perfect this nation.” Clearly there is something the candidate of “change” [...]
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Today’s Tucson Citizen column by Robert Robb echoes a point I made a couple of weeks ago: it is difficult to argue with the AZ appellate court decision striking down that state’s voucher programs for disabled and foster children. But Robb goes astray when he asserts that: Vouchers are much preferable to tax credits. Good [...]
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America’s supposed hunger epidemic is catching up to crocodiles in the sewers as the most popular urban legend. The difference is that the hunger epidemic is being promoted by the nation’s major media. Under the headline “Going Hungry in America,” Parade magazine (circulation 32 million) claimed: “More than 35.5 million Americans–12% of the U.S. population and 17% of our children–don’t have enough food, according to [...]
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Professor James Duane has posted a terrific lecture about the Fifth Amendment’s safeguard concerning self-incrimination and the risk of “waiving” that right by speaking to the police. If you want to divulge your Social Security number and other personal information to a stranger who telephones your home, that’s your choice. You can choose to ignore common sense [...]
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