Think Tank West

George Will: Conservatives are accused of being a party of “no.” Fine. That is an indispensable word in politics because most new ideas are false and mischievous. Furthermore, the First Amendment’s lovely first five words (”Congress shall make no law”) set the negative tone of the Bill of Rights, which is a list of government [...]

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This one inspired by my razor-sharp colleague Arnold Kling: Mr. President, you say you seek to reform America’s health care sector because it is unsustainable.  You also say that Americans will get to keep what they have.  Aren’t you contradicting yourself? Add it to my list.

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I just caught wind of Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) quip about President Obama’s proposal to have a new government health insurance program compete against private insurers: Having the government compete against the private sector is kind of like my seven-year-old daughter’s lemonade stand competing against McDonald’s. That understates the case.  McDonald’s doesn’t have guns.  It [...]

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How come President Obama can find time to call and congratulate Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa on his reelection (someone who has said that he prefers “a thousand times” to be a friend of Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez than to be an ally of the United States) but can’t find time to meet with, or [...]

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Chief Judge Frank Easterbrook recounts the horrific police attack on Frank Jude in a ruling this month from the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.  By way of background, Jude tagged along with some young ladies to a house party late one evening.  The party was mostly off-duty cops who immediately made Jude feel unwelcome.  Jude [...]

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Here I was, sick with worry that the questions I hoped to pose to President Obama about his health reform plan would never be answered.  Thank God, Matthew Holt stepped up to the plate.  Or the wicket.  Whatever. What follows are some of my questions (addressed to the president) and Holt’s responses (in italics). Mr. [...]

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One year ago today, the Supreme Court handed down its decision in District of Columbia et al. v. Heller. The decision affirmed the Second Amendment as protecting an individual right to keep and bear arms and invalidated the District of Columbia’s draconian gun control regime. The case generated a storm of media attention. The Cato [...]

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President Obama took to the airwaves Wednesday in an effort to promote his plan for a national government-run health care system. He answered questions on rising costs, taxing benefits, and many other issues during an ABC News special on health care reform called “Questions for the President: Prescription for America.” After live-blogging the ABC special, [...]

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A serious institutional crisis is taking place in Honduras as a result of President Manuel Zelaya’s call for a new constitution that would allow for his reelection. Zelaya, a close ally of Hugo Chávez, is barred from pursuing a second term in the general elections in November. Unfortunately for Zelaya, he doesn’t have the backing [...]

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Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who commanded special operations forces in Iraq and this month became the commander of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan, said he wants to avoid more civilian deaths. Concern over civilian casualties makes sense in counterinsurgency, since the local population is the strategic center of gravity. I’ll concede that the infusion of 21,000 more [...]

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