News and Politics

An excellent letter from the Wall Street Journal (4/2/2003): A Consumer’s Right to Cheaper Goods If Mr. Jenkins does indeed reveal “an indifference to consumer welfare,” as Messrs. Simons and Kovacic claim, it is a perfectly valid point of view, as cold and unfeeling as it may sound. A democratic government has no business giving preference to one group of citizens (consumers) over another (business owners), and to use the coercive power of the state to benefit the former by restricting the property rights of the latter is morally reprehensible. [Read More]

Looks like we in Oklahoma might start treating marijuana with only a modicum of insanity. A bill in the house to treat possession of a ounce or less of pot as a misdemeanor punishable by a fine, has been allowed out of committee and is headed to the full house. The following appeared in today?s Daily Oklahoman: Lawmakers’ plans to decriminalize marijuana possession may not be up in smoke yet. [Read More]

With the Oscar’s finally out of the way, the really important awards have come out: The Golden Raspberry Awards which have been awarding the worst achievements in film for 23 years. This year Madonna and hubby Guy Richie almost sweep the awards with their remake of Swept Away, but worst actor was awarded, sadly, to Roberto Benigni for his miscalculated performance in Pinocchio.

03/24/2003: In response to feedback on this article, I have added some supporting details and conclusions. If this war has done anything, it has brought the nature of the United Nations to the forefront. The anti-war protesters seem to believe that the U.N. is some sort of perfect institution designed to bring peace and justice to the world. This despite a track record of allowing atrocities that is second to none. [Read More]

Something about the announcement of the creation of a military tribunal to try the perpetrators of the September 11th mass murders has not settled well with me. I am not particularly concerned with the punishment of the guilty, being that I generally subscribe to the “Nuke ’em till they glow and shoot them in the dark” theory on the punishment of evildoers. However, the means being used to discover the guilty is something that I have some doubts upon. [Read More]