Previously, I have commented on Michael Barone’s book, Hard America, Soft America, which portrays the two different worlds occupied by those in our country who are products of the demands of competition (hard) versus those who have avoided or have not been subjected to such rigors in education, employment, and other walks of life (soft). […]
Archives for 2005
The Minutemen Should Be Heeded
Of all the current national policy issues, the one on which I find myself most at odds with the President is immigration, and I believe that those who dismiss the sentiments embodied by the “Minutemen” on the Arizona border do so at their political peril. The issue is often expressed in terms of its implications […]
The Bush Doctrine And History
Those who criticize the Bush Doctrine in dealing with world terrorism and Islamofacsism as well as others who wonder about its place in historical perspective would benefit from a small book by John Lewis Gaddis, Surprise, Security, and the American Experience. Gaddis places George W. Bush in a context that reaches back to John Quincy […]
The New Governing Majority Revisited—Issues Big And Small
It appears that predictions of a new and long lasting Republican governing majority may have been premature and, in fact, if they don’t start acting like a majority party pretty soon on a range of issues, they won’t be one for very long! Of course, in any evaluation of policy priorities, there are big issues […]
A Man For The Ages
To the volumes written and spoken about Pope John Paul II over the past few weeks, there is not much to be added. I will simply make a few personal observations. First, after reading two of his books and closely monitoring his leadership over the 27 years of his papacy, it seems to me that […]
Enlightenment Options
From time to time, I have commented that the Middle East that we are in the process of transforming never had the experience of either a Reformation or Enlightenment and therefore did not have the same cultural reference points as the West for a successful transition to the modern world. As we contemplate a possible […]
Tuition Costs
If you think health care costs are out of control, check out their comparison with college tuition–over the past twenty years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, price growth of 191% for medical care and 289% for college tuition! With the growing trend in deregulation of tuition and costs among the nation’s top state-supported […]
The End Of The Revolution Of ‘94
You might want to mark March 17, 2005 as the end of an era, the day that the spirit of the Contract With America finally died. On that day, the Senate balked at the lightest touching of entitlements by rejecting President Bush’s modest cuts in the runaway growth of Medicaid increases over the next five […]
The Schiavo Debacle
In the tragedy that has played out over the past month in the Terri Schiavo case, one has to look very hard to find any redeeming legacy. However, there is one possible legacy that may assure that this woman will not have died in vain, and that is a heightened sense that there is something […]
A Hinge Point For The Texas Economy
I was struck recently by a small article in the Wall Street Journal by Russell Gold highlighting a turning point in the underlying structure of the Texas economy. Gold reports that, based on current modeling by the Comptroller of Public Accounts, for the first time since the Spindletop gusher over one hundred years ago, higher […]