Originally published in the Portland Tribune, March 14, 2013 – Anti-gun legislation would create more problems than it solves – Even though state Rep. Mitch Greenlick (D-Portland), the chief sponsor of the Ceasefire Oregon-inspired gun control measure known as House Bill 3200, has admitted the proposal is dead on arrival, law-abiding Oregon gun owners have [...]
Originally published in The Oregonian, March 7, 2013 – Needing to catch up on immigration reform – Once upon a time, Oregonians expected to be leaders. The beach bill, the bottle bill, the aerosol spray ban, the initiative and referendum, even the gas tax — all were Oregon innovations. But now that we are about [...]
The National Law Journal reports that the U.S. Department of Energy plans to transfer Hanford waste to New Mexico. Read story here.
The following piece by David R. Henderson, appeared in the Library of Economics and Liberty, March 4, 2013 – One of the most prevalent myths about economic freedom is that it inevitably leads to monopolies. Ask people why they believe that, and the odds are high that they will point to the “trusts” of the late [...]
Thomas Sowell on the politics of the sequester — http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |Back in my teaching days, many years ago, one of the things I liked to ask the class to consider was this: Imagine a government agency with only two tasks: (1) building statues of Benedict Arnold and (2) providing life-saving medications to children. If this [...]
Steven Stanek of The Heartland Institute interviews [here] Jim Huffman on the subject of Huffman’s article “The Disenfranchisement of Rural America” that appeared in Defining Ideas (reprinted here at Northwest Free Press).
Originally published in Northwest Connection, March, 2013 Vulcan First Officer Spock of the Starship Enterprise had a great repertoire of pronouncements, but none more famous than the words he uttered with his dying breath in The Wrath of Kahn: “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.” That’s exactly the Star Trek spin [...]
Originally published in The Daily Caller, March 2, 2013 – With environmental concerns put to rest, will Obama finally approve Keystone? On Friday, with Secretary of State John Kerry safely in faraway Ankara, Turkey, the State Department issued its draft supplemental environmental impact statement (SEIS) on the proposed Keystone pipeline project. The pipeline would bring [...]
Charles Krauthammer explains how the President overreached in his litany of horribles. See video posted here at The Daily Caller.
This week’s Economist lays out the case for allowing the export of natural gas. Read more here.
Originally published in The Wall Street Journal, February 21, 2013 – Law schools are in trouble. Applications are down almost 50% to an estimated 54,000 this year from 100,000 in 2004. Little wonder. According to the National Association for Law Placement, barely 65% of 2011 graduates had landed law-related employment within nine months of graduation, [...]
Originally published in The Daily Caller, February 15, 2013 — Article II, Section 3 of the United States Constitution mandates that the president “shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.” President Obama [...]
Originally published in The Oregonian, February 15, 2013 – Oregon must cap the growth of spending with a constitutional limit – Oregon desperately needs to establish a constitutional limit on the growth of state spending. That’s clear when you compare what the growth of state budgets would have been with a spending cap over the [...]
Originally published in Defining Ideas, February 13, 2013 – Small-town Americans are losing the right to govern themselves and their own communities. Anyone who pays even passing attention to American politics is familiar with the map (Figure 1) of the United States showing states in which a majority of voters favored President Obama (colored blue) [...]
Robert Samuelson writes in today’s Oregonian about the Obama Administration’s law suit against Standard & Poors. If we can prove that S&P contributed to the economic crisis, we should have known enought to take measures to avoid the harm. t’s always easier to blame than to take responsibility
Calvin Woodward reports in the Washington Guardian on the quickening pace of Obama Administration regulations. It’s fast forward in a high speed lane that bypasses Congress. Read story here.
Originally published in The Oregonian, February 8, 2013 – Coping with rising PERS costs and sagging tax revenues – by Dennis Richardson Oregon’s public retirement system and the legislators who must oversee it face a tough dilemma. The system is being squeezed from both sides — spiraling costs and falling revenues. Oregon’s Public Employees Retirement [...]
Originally published in The Daily Caller, February 7, 2013 – Drone policy isn’t the only area where Obama has stretched his authority — Occasionally, even in today’s hyper-partisan political climate, conservatives and liberals find something to agree about. That President Obama might be abusing his authority in ordering drone strikes on American citizens, without congressional [...]
