On Dec. 7, 1941, a new phrase entered the American lexicon. “We’re in it.” Now that the ghastly obscenity of terrorism has struck twice at home, it’s time to admit the obvious again. We’re in it, and it’s time to start thinking seriously about defense. The United States can combat terrorism effectively without becoming either a garrison state or enduring Read More ›
It is all too true that Americans have become inarticulate, at least in some respects. Television, families without much parental interaction with children and schools more interested in socializing kids than instructing them have combined to reduce the expressive refinements of, say, 100 years ago. Then, young people were trained to write with a legible hand and high-school students studied Read More ›
President Clinton has vowed to veto Republican attempts to rewrite last year’s crime bill. The President says Republican “block grant” proposals could kill his plan to put 100,000 new police offers on the street. Republicans should welcome this challenge. Block grants will not only give states and communities more discretion about how to spend their money, as many Republicans have Read More ›
Evolution and its moral implications--including the "scientific" basis for rape--come as a package deal
Read More ›It’s time to deregulate America’s telecom infrastructure. And let the creative destroyers go to work. MICHAEL MILKEN IS BACK! Back, so the story goes, from the orgies of ’80s greed, back from the best-selling den of thieves, back from his preening at the predators’ ball, back from soft time at Pleasanton pen, back from prostate cancer and plagues of litigation, Read More ›
Much hype and misinformation has been churned out about cyberspace and the information highway. While the mass media’s coverage of this new medium does not rival that of the O.J. trial, attention being paid to users and providers of computer networks and online services has grown intense during the past two years. Culminating this misinformation glut is legislation in Washington, Read More ›
Since their dramatic election victory last November, Republicans have been urged to avoid getting “bogged down in divisive social issues.” Yet as the controversy over President Clinton’s nomination of Henry Foster for surgeon general has shown, Americans are more concerned about so-called social issues than media coverage and elite opinion would indicate. This is particularly true of abortion, ostensibly the Read More ›
Death and taxes are known as life’s certainties. Far less common, but much more enjoyable to contemplate, is the death of a tax. In fact, a little-known technology may be about to accomplish what generations of Americans have joked and dreamed about — and both the new Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Archer and his predecessor, Chairman Sam Gibbons, Read More ›
This article was first published in Forbes ASAP, February 27, 1995. The article contains letters from various correspondents commenting upon a wide variety of issues raised in the series of George Gilder’s “Telecosm” articles which will be published in 1996 by Simon & Schuster, as a sequel to Microcosm, published in 1989 and Life After Television published by Norton in Read More ›