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Not infrequently I come across items that leave me saying, "Man, I wish I could be more like that." In the hope that writing about such items might engrave them on my soul - and perhaps be of encouragement to others - I have decided to launch an occasional series…
Today the Environmental Protection Agency announced plans to begin regulating poisonous gases which are being intruded into the atmosphere. I hope they mean it. And I hope they begin in their own back yard, by regulating the poisonous gases being emitted by congressmen such as Senator Harry Reid. Senator Reid…
Climate-change gurus and heads of state will be gathering in Copenhagen this week - wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen - to work on damage control. The revelations of data-monkeying by members of the IPCC (International Panel for Climate Control) make climate-change treaties a little iffy these days. Or maybe not. The scientific…
The Economist (November 21st) reports on a meeting of business management experts to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Peter Drucker, who died four years ago. Drucker was the guru of gurus in business management, the queen bee of all modern management theorists, even those who went astray…
So what do you think? Will Tiger's adultery cost him anything more than a brief period of shame and embarrassment, and a few million bucks if his wife decides to divorce him? Will he be any less adored as a celebrity? Any less feted for his athletic greatness? Will any…
This just in: Scientists may have "selectively" used (or not) data in making the case for global warming. Is anyone surprised? Look, when you want to see or do something so that such-and-such is the outcome, you will make choices and follow paths that will get you where you've decided…
Early reports indicate that tonight President Obama will take ownership of the Afghan war. He will ask for more troops. He will promise to train Afghan forces with greater earnestness and speed. He will demand of President Karzai that he get his house in order and take responsibility for the…
The Obama Administration is gearing up for another go at establishing universal standards of educational achievement for America's schools. The present system is too diverse to suit the President and it has not succeeded in lifting the nation's children to the highest places of international achievement. According to The Economist…
I rise today to salute America's two favorite holidays. This is only appropriate, of course, as they are both upon us just now, one today, and one in a month or so. That these are America's two favorite holidays is obvious in a number of ways: heightened economic activity, special…
Looking ahead to 2010, Adrian Wooldridge, writing in The Economist ("The World in 2010" special issue) observes that this is an excellent time for government to be hiring really smart people. After all, nobody else has any money to hire them, and governments in America and elsewhere seem willing to…
Remember that old joke about 500 lawyers at the bottom of the sea? It came to mind yesterday when it was reported that Rhode Island Bishop Thomas Tobin had instructed Patrick Kennedy to cease from taking the Lord's Supper because of his position on abortion. The Catholic Church has been…
Esther de Waal writes, "Who knows the secrets of the world? Not the learned men, but the poets." I note that she didn't include lawmakers in the possible answers. And yet America's lawmakers act as though not only do they and they alone know the secrets of economics, health care,…
No, I haven't read the health care reform bills currently before the Congress, either from the House or the Senate. But what has been reported about them leads me to think the abundance of verbiage is not so much designed to craft a careful law as to cover crafty lawmakers.…
Of course, we cannot really know what's on the heart of politicians, except insofar as it pleases them to reveal their motives in any matter. I can't imagine any politician offering as his explanation for some public policy position that he just likes the feeling of power or that he…
Do not adjust your set. That distinguished young gentleman talking about the need to curtail America's debt is indeed the same President Obama who has spent the first year of his tenure driving that debt through the ceiling. Suddenly Mr. Obama is listening to the voices of sanity and the…