There’s a proposal that the state sell off some of its more valuable real estate holdings to make up for the budget shortfall. For instance, San Quentin State Prison is 275 acres of waterfront land on the north side of… Continue Reading
As if leaving a half-trillion dollar budget deficit for the next administration wasn’t enough. This morning, President Bush signed into law a $300-billion bailout for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. He had threatened to veto the bill because it included… Continue Reading
Some nutjobs in Congress, and some policy proponents, have floated the idea of nationalizing oil refineries. The linked video clip is from FOX News and the interviewer (Neil Cavuto) is far from neutral in his questioning: But then again, I… Continue Reading
I wrote recently about the United States v. Isaacs case and why I thought it should never have been brought in the first place. But there it is, and it’s being tried before, of all the judges in the Central… Continue Reading
Seriously, Pierce Brosnan signing ABBA songs? Someone thought this was a good idea. They can’t possibly have been right about that. The movie theaters are all full of the extended previews for this thing, and Meryl Strep seriously can’t sing.… Continue Reading
The regime in Burma is being astonishingly slow to let in international aid. There are grisly photographs of tens of corpses floating in overflowing riverbanks. It would be inhuman to not want to see aid workers get in there, distribute… Continue Reading
The United States really detained a nice Italian lawyer – a man not of Arabic descent, not visibly Muslim, and in fact quite innocuous and was guilty only of trying to visit his girlfriend. There is no indication that he… Continue Reading
And properly so. Creationism is not science, and no one should award degrees in it. So says a commissioner of higher education in the State of Texas and I’m hard-pressed to find a single reason to disagree. Especially since, if… Continue Reading
The outgoing government officials in Italy seem to have a penchant for spite. Or an extraordinary lack of common sense, or a warped idea of how to balance individual privacy against openness about government activity. Or maybe it’s just an… Continue Reading
After all, it’s important to have an open mind. It’s important to be willing to evaluate new ideas on their face and not discard them out of hand. Skepticism doesn’t mean that you close your mind to different ideas. So.… Continue Reading