Yearly Archives: 2009

Archive of posts published in the specified Year

When Science Becomes Religion

Boris Johnson, a classically educated journalist and previous mayor of London, responded to the catastrophic climate predictions of James Lovelock: “Like all the best religions, fear of climate change satisfies our need for guilt, and self disgust, and that human

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The Zombie Economy

By preventing assets from reaching their market levels, the administration risks making the recession last longer than it should. The uncertainty in all of the radical bills proposed in the first year has businesses behaving like a deer in the

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Happiness is a Byproduct

Julia Baird writes an interesting piece in Newsweek “Positively Downbeat- Sometimes Happiness isn’t everything.” She argues that our focus on positive thinking has made us gloomy; to overlook problems, unfairness, incompetence and stupidity. And stupidity is certainly not limited to

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Seatbelts vs Airbags

A repeated point in Superfreakonomics is that big expensive problems do not require big expensive solutions. Seatbelts, for example, are one of the most costs effective lifesaving devices ever. At $25 per installation it costs about $500 million to put

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Does a Fish Know He’s Wet?

When Charlie Gibson with ABC News acted ignorant of the booming ACORN corruption story while it was breaking, the pundits on the right were stunned that a major new anchor could be so insulated that he could miss such a

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Victims of the Feminist Revolution

In 1940 55% of college educated female workers in their thirties were employed as teachers.  As opportunities  for women broadened the best and the brightest left teaching and went into other higher paying fields.  The school teaching profession experienced a

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“Laissez-nous Faire!”

Adam Summers from the Reason Foundation writes in the Wall Street Journal, “Ayn Rand and the Economic Crisis”.  Read the entire article here. Adam shares Rand’s thoughts on the economic crisis of 1962. She cast suspicion on both the motives

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Macallan’s 57

Macallun’s Scotch 57 years old in a Lalique decanter with a glass stopper. Only $15,000. Should make a great stocking stuffer.

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The Double Standard of Political Anti-Semitism

Many of my conservative readers and colleagues are a bit dismayed on why the Jews overwhelmingly vote Democrat.  There are many possible explanations, enough to motivate a book by Jewish conservative Norman Podhoretz to title his latest book, “Why Are

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Hidden Inflation

We tend to look at the increase in prices as inflation, but in a situation of fluctuations prices go up and down. What if prices should be going down 3% but instead we see prices increasing 3%.  We see a

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Thinning the Paint

Carrie O’Connell writes in American Thinker “I am not supposed to exist” . A 26 year pro life Catholic woman, Carrie writes how her profile is totally absent from the collection of media stereotypes either in the news or in

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How Much is that Kidney in the Window?

Americans are appalled at the idea of an organ donor market, where individuals can be compensated for donating their organs while they are alive. We fear that the rich will prey on the poor, and that people may even be

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A Paine in our History

Thomas Paine’s ” Common Sense” was credited with turning colonial independence from a debate into a movement. His widely published essay is considered an important document toward the founding of our nation. Less noted is Paine’s “The Age of Reason”

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Cultural Receptors for Anti-Semitism

“Another factor affecting the nature of anti-Semitic manifestations is cultural in a deeper sense. Some societies value individualism more than communalism, some the other way around. In most Western societies and in American society in particular, the ethos at large

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9/11 Aftermath

In the three months after 9/11 there were 1,000 extra traffic deaths in the U.S. We would surmise that the threat of flying caused more people to drive and that driving is much more dangerous than flying.  But the additional

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A One Term President

Obama won by a 7  point spread, a change of a little more than 3.5% would turn the vote against him.  If a third of the votes were independent, and he got most of their support, the loss of those

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Unemployment Hits Double Digits

For the first time in my working career I laid of three people in one day. Over the last year we have laid off about 20% of our whole work force.  We have ceased matching the workers 401k plans for

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The Night Of Broken Glass

November 9 and 10  is the anniversary of  Kristallnacht (literally “Crystal night”) or the “Night of Broken Glass”.  In 1938 “99 Jews were murdered and 25,000 to 30,000 were arrested and placed in concentration camps.  267 synagogues were destroyed and thousands

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