FALSEHOODS in political advertising are widely regarded as a growing menace in our public life and a source of voter anger. So the media were busier than ever this past election season trying to referee truth in politics, while candidates issued what seemed to be unusually numerous, and fulsome, critiques of their opponents’ honesty. But was that enough? Legislators and Read More ›
Most Americans are either bored or disgusted by the failure of Congress and the President to reach agreement on a budget and tax program. But the stakes are enormous and rightly demand more of our attention, not less. The subject ultimately affects not only the stock market, but the whole economy; indeed, the well-being of each American family. Unfortunately, while Read More ›
Let’s not hear any more about “character’, okay? This country is moving to a values neutral, non-judgmental consciousness in which such outdated concepts are irrelevant. “Character” is just another device by which the power elite seek to instill guilt in the masses and bring everyone under the control of old fogies and their retrograde values system. Character is not an Read More ›
Published on May 1, 1991, Centesimus Annus returns to the themes of a lapidary encyclical of 100 years before, Rerum Novarum, which refuted Marxism long before it had refracted into a global plague of tyranny and murder. The critique of socialism, however, did not signify an affirmation of capitalism. The `new things’ to which the Pope devoted his attention more Read More ›
Passions over school reform are running high in this state and could wind up splitting the ever wobbly majority of people who support education. Properly channeled, however, the enthusiasm generated by proponents of two initiatives–I-173, the school voucher proposition, and I-177, the public charter schools proposition–could inaugurate a new age of educational progress. The opportunity is in the hands of Read More ›
Washington Sen. Slade Gorton received headline attention recently when he announced that he would not oppose extension of “Most Favored Nation” (MFN) trading status for China this year. He thereby helped avoid an embarrassing vote in the Senate at a time when Boeing has major Chinese contracts pending and Microsoft has just reached a new agreement on intellectual property rights. Read More ›
Recently in this space I described the effort of Sam Beard, author of “Restoring Hope in America,” to rescue the Social Security system from bankruptcy and provide a real economic future for the American worker. Now touring the United States is another crusader with the nearly identical cause, José Piñera. The main difference between the two is that Beard, head Read More ›
This summer the Congress is expected, finally, to take up the subject of campaign finance reform. If you believe the interpretation put upon this issue by most of the media and the permanent, self-designated “reform” lobby, the only reason to oppose the proposals being made is the self-interest of politicians and their major backers. But this simplistic view increasingly is Read More ›
We are enjoying–maybe even wallowing–in the increasing “peace dividends” from the ending of the Cold War. Yet few in the media or academia are reflecting on what caused the war or how the peace was achieved. In an age that synthesizes victimhood in many ways, it is curious how little attention is paid the hundreds of millions of genuine victims, Read More ›
Why is there so much “mistrust” of government and political institutions? The University of Washington’s Graduate School of Public Affairs has been asking this question in a series of provocative public discussions this winter. Many explanations are offered, including lack of sufficiently stringent ethics reforms or, on the contrary, too many misguided reforms; jaundiced media coverage of politics; the expanding Read More ›