The recent senseless mass murders in Norway drew the typical reaction from comments in the media that I have seen, to wit: why? Well, I have an answer in the form of a “why” question in response: Beyond motivational evidence available in a criminal investigation, why do we not recognize that, contrary to the influential […]
Archives for 2011
Sweden or Greece?
I won’t waste the time and space to dignify the recent deal reached by Congress and the President on the “debt ceiling crisis”. Suffice to say, it can be characterized as too little, too late, not serious. But let’s move on, because nothing will be settled until after the November 2012 referendum on this regime. Arthur […]
We’re Missing the Point in the Same Sex Marriage Debate
National Review notes that a lot of wealthy Republicans in New York helped to fund the same sex marriage campaign which recently resulted in the adoption of a state law permitting them, and it quotes one hedge fund manager saying, “I’m a pretty straight down the line small government guy, but this is an issue […]
Islamic Voices in the Wilderness
Several months ago, David Brooks raised the question as to whether or not the events of the past year in the Middle East, which seem to represent a yearning for freedom on the “Arab street”, truly undermine the ideas expressed by Samuel Huntington in his landmark 1993 essay, “The Clash of Civilizations” and his book […]
The Education Debate that Has Only Just Begun
In the June issue, I noted that the outcome for Texas public education in the recently completed regular and special legislative sessions could have been much worse, and this includes the state education budget, but there is much more to be done and said on this issue, and I suspect that all we did in […]
Cultural Illiteracy
The great teachers love what they’re teaching, and you can’t love something you don’t know anymore than you can love someone you don’t know.–David McCullough David McCullough is of course a great American story teller, and his recent books on American history and biography–1776, John Adams, Truman–are classics. And I look forward to reading his […]
It’s About Solvency, Stupid
The European governments and bankers must dispense with the notion that Greece has a liquidity problem and deal with the fact that the problem is one of solvency that will require major debt restructuring and major additional austerity measures, while it has no access to the credit markets. Again we see the absolute necessity of […]
Exit Gates
As Robert Gates plans his exit from distinguished service as Secretary of Defense, he has made a number of public appearances involving provocative comments on foreign and defense policy. His remarks in a speech that any President who considers committing significant ground troops to a land war in Asia or the Middle East “should have […]
Cries of Desperation
Everywhere one looks, there is the clash: the risk-takers and the risk-averse, the dynamists and the stasists, the taxpayers and the welfare recipients, the providers and the takers, the rent seekers and the free marketeers, etc., etc., etc. Much of this is playing out in the battles over union “rights”–in the right to work vs. […]
It’s Almost Over
Although Yogi would caution me that “it ain’t over ’til it’s over”, as we enter the last week of the special session of the 82nd Texas Legislature, it appears that our education reform coalition has successfully achieved its top priority for the session, which was the defense of HB 3, the comprehensive public school accountability […]