The Euro–South Korea Free Trade Agreement took effect on July 1, 2011, only eight months after the Agreement was approved by legislators of both countries. By contrast, the U.S.–South Korea Free Trade Agreement was first signed on June 30, 2007, and was held up by opposition from congressional Democrats, unions, and environmental organizations. Free … Read more
Facebook can be useful. Browsing through its weekly birthday update, I learned that Nick Tonti-Filippini, a bioethicist who serves on various Australian government committees and teaches at a Catholic institute in Melbourne, turns 55 today. Some of those years must have gone slowly for him, as he is chronically ill. Fortunately, he has the … Read more
There’s little that’s intelligent or informed about Time magazine editor Richard Stengel’s article “One Document, Under Siege” (June 23, 2011). It contains many grossly ignorant statements about our Constitution. If I believed in conspiracies, I’d say Stengel’s article is part of a leftist agenda to undermine respect for the founding values of our nation. … Read more
One of the interesting things about our country, the independence of which the Founders declared 235 years ago today, is that we have been a property-holders’ democracy. This is not something the Founders originally advocated. While they protested taxation by a British parliament in which they were not represented, they did not think that … Read more
“Young people are having sex for the first time at younger and younger ages.” “The average age at which American (British, Swedish, Australian…) adolescents begin sexual activity is 15 (16, 17…).” “HIV/AIDS education needs to take place at correspondingly young ages.” How many times do we read statements like this in news stories and studies? And how … Read more
Last week Energy Secretary Chu announced that the United States will release 30 million barrels of crude oil from the strategic reserve, in coordination with the release of an identical amount by the International Energy Agency. As announced, this is strictly a one-off deal and doesn’t represent a change in policy by either the … Read more
The Supreme Court handed down a big win for American consumers this week, though the case had nothing to do with consumer protection. The court’s decision involved the rules for determining what constitutes a proper class of plaintiffs, representing not just those individuals who have come forward to allege illegal behavior but others who have been … Read more
Is there any nation as contrary in its demographics as Russia? While the world’s population police obsess about the ongoing “explosion” of the human species, Russia is on a depopulation slide and in danger of imploding. Again, while the world’s conscience is stirred by Asia’s 163 million missing females, Russia has a gender deficit … Read more
The Republican presidential field looks less like an assemblage of candidates than a collection of fatal mistakes and irreparable flaws, with occasional embodiments of one or more of the Seven Deadly Sins. Mitt Romney? A flip-flopper who inspired Obamacare. Tim Pawlenty? A too-bashful critic of Romneycare, with a sleepy persona. Newt Gingrich? Serial adultery … Read more
The financial problems of Greece have dominated the headlines for months. The problems are not new. They have been apparent since the end of 2009 when Greece revealed that its budget deficit would be more than three times previous projections. The March 2010 rescue package (E110 Billion) and austerity measures agreed to by European … Read more
One of the arguments for healthcare reform is that millions of Americans with employer-provided healthcare are underinsured. Proponents of this view are saying that people are underinsured if they are paying too many of their healthcare costs out-of-pocket. Quite the contrary, a little reflection on what insurance is and is supposed to do suggests … Read more
Defense Secretary Robert Gates went to Europe recently to announce that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization may have a “dismal future” and that before long, American leaders “may not consider the return on America’s investment in NATO worth the cost.” Why does he make that sound like a bad thing? “Watch out! We may … Read more
The Australian government has halted all exports of live animals to Indonesia. This means that Indonesian abattoirs will have to find other sources of beef and Australian Aborigines will have to find other jobs. The ban was a hasty response to images of appalling brutality in a few Indonesian abattoirs. Animal welfare activists and … Read more
This November the citizens of San Francisco will decide whether to ban circumcision, a practice that dates from antiquity and is embraced by at least three of the world’s major religions. Now, the fact that something stretches far back into human history is by no means a guarantee that it has social value. Slavery, … Read more
And you thought things couldn’t get worse on the housing front. The U.S. housing market is in the worst shape since the Great Depression, and now the Obama administration’s solution is to impose new rules that would banish 60 percent of current homebuyers from the market. The proposed Mortgage Qualification Rules are the result … Read more
Apparently Orson Welles once quipped: “I drag my myth around with me”. Based on the most recent news about the RU486 abortion drug (also known as Mifepristone, Mifegyne or Mifeprex) one can’t help but sense that the proponents of RU486 abortions are going to have to start dragging their myths around with them if … Read more
Nobody is perfect. Anybody can be weak when the opportunity presents itself. Even habitual offenders against prevailing mores can be treated with indulgence; after all, they are only human and besides, they happen to be amusing or admirable in other ways, or they have a difficult background to contend with, or… Some people feel … Read more
A “Woman Screams for Help After TSA Molestation,” and the “Texas Pat Down Ban May Be Back.” Those are just two of the headlines that appeared last week as summer travel picks up—as do concerns over excessive airport security. How much indignity are you willing to endure if told it’s for safety’s sake? Would … Read more
Two books that should top any reading list for progressives who believe in “winning the future” by waging war against its current inhabitants are H. G. Wells’ classic The Time Machine and Nassim Nicholas Taleb’sThe Black Swan. The former’s narrative has entered the culture, especially through a film version that appeared in 1960, starring Rod … Read more
With same-sex marriage, we saw the advent of arguments for “genderless parenting” – the idea that all a child needs is love and it’s irrelevant whether the loving persons are male or female. Now we have “genderless kids.” Kathy Witterick and David Stocker, the parents of Jazz (5), Kio (2) and three-month-old Baby Storm … Read more
