Walter E. Williams from Creators Syndicate

Unasked and Unanswered Questions for 06/19/2013

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Grutter v. Bollinger was the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the University of Michigan Law School's racial admissions policy. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, writing for the majority, said the U.S. Constitution "does not prohibit the Law School's narrowly tailored use of race in admissions decisions to further a compelling interest in obtaining the educational benefits that ...

Updated: Wed Jun 19, 2013

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Unnecessary Tragedy for 06/12/2013

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Last week a federal judge ordered Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to allow 10-year-old Sarah Murnaghan, who suffers from cystic fibrosis, to be moved to the adult lung transplant list. That gives her a better chance of receiving a potentially lifesaving transplant. Sarah Murnaghan's fate should force us to examine our organ transplant policy.

There are more th ...

Updated: Wed Jun 12, 2013

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Understanding Liberals and Progressives for 06/05/2013

Wed, 05 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

In order to understand the liberal and progressive agenda, one must know something about their world vision and values. Let's examine some of the evidence.

Why the 1970s struggle to ban DDT? Alexander King, founder of the Malthusian Club of Rome, wrote in a 1990 biographical essay: "My own doubts came when DDT was introduced for civilian use. In Guyana, within two years, it had a ...

Updated: Wed Jun 05, 2013

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Americans Deserve the IRS for 05/29/2013

Wed, 29 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Individually, Americans do not deserve to be subservient to such a fear-mongering, intimidating and powerful agency as the Internal Revenue Service; but collectively, we do. Let's look at it.

Since the 1791 ratification of our Constitution, until well into the 1920s, federal spending as a percentage of gross domestic product never exceeded 5 percent, except during war. Today federal s ...

Updated: Wed May 29, 2013

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We Are the Idiots for 05/22/2013

Wed, 22 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Dr. Henry Miller, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, and Gregory Conko, senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, in their Forbes article "Rachel Carson's Deadly Fantasies" (9/5/2012), wrote that her 1962 book, "Silent Spring," led to a world ban on DDT use. The DDT ban was responsible for the loss of "tens of millions of human lives — mostly ch ...

Updated: Wed May 22, 2013

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Hating America for 05/15/2013

Wed, 15 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who are accused of setting the bombs that exploded at the Boston Marathon, attended the University of Massachusetts. Maybe they hated our nation before college, but if you want lessons on hating America, college attendance might be a good start. Let's look at it.

"We need to think very, very clearly about who the enemy is. The enemy is the Un ...

Updated: Wed May 15, 2013

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Honest Examination of Race for 05/08/2013

Wed, 08 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

One definition given for insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results; it might also be a definition of stupidity. Let's look at some cities where large percentages of black Americans live under poor conditions.

Experiencing a violent crime rate of 2,137 per 100,000 of the population, Detroit is the nation's most dangerous city. Rounding out Forbes ...

Updated: Wed May 08, 2013

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Liberal Suffering and Confusion for 05/01/2013

Wed, 01 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The liberal world vision and reality are often at variance, for example, with equal pay for equal work. I've often watched "Lockup," a show that features California supermax prisons, including Pelican Bay and Corcoran. Often, a recalcitrant prisoner must be extracted from his cell through brute force. I've never seen female guards remove a prisoner. If they are part of the process at ...

Updated: Wed May 01, 2013

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Academic Cesspools for 04/24/2013

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Over the past 10 years, I have written columns variously titled "Academic Cesspools," "Academic Dishonesty," "The Shame of Higher Education," "Academic Rot" and "Indoctrination of Our Youth." Therefore, I was not surprised by David Feith's April 5th Wall Street Journal article, "The Golf Shot Heard Round the Academic World." In it, Fei ...

Updated: Wed Apr 24, 2013

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Price Versus Cost for 04/17/2013

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Suppose you buy a gallon of gas for $3. How much did it cost you? You say, "Williams, that's a silly question. It cost $3." That's where you're mistaken, because there's a difference between price and cost. To prove that price and cost are not the same, consider the following. Suppose you live and work in New York City and routinely pay $15 for a haircut. Imagine you were told that th ...

Updated: Wed Apr 17, 2013

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Black Unemployment for 04/10/2013

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

A couple of weeks ago, Black Entertainment Television founder Bob Johnson, speaking at The National Press Club, said the nation "would never tolerate white unemployment at 14 and 15 percent." Black unemployment has been double that of white Americans for more than 50 years. The black youth unemployment rate is more than 40 percent nationally. In some cities, unemployment for black wor ...

Updated: Wed Apr 10, 2013

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Minority Student Needs for 04/03/2013

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Professor Craig Frisby is on the faculty of University of Missouri's Department of Educational, School and Counseling Psychology. His most recent book is "Meeting the Psychoeducational Needs of Minority Students." It's a 662-page textbook covering a range of topics from multiculturalism and home and family influences to student testing and school discipline. There's no way full justic ...

Updated: Wed Apr 03, 2013

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Are We Equal? for 03/27/2013

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Are women equal to men? Are Jews equal to gentiles? Are blacks equal to Italians, Irish, Polish and other white people? The answer is probably a big fat no, and the pretense or assumption that we are equal — or should be equal — is foolhardy and creates mischief. Let's look at it.

Male geniuses outnumber female geniuses 7-to-1. Female intelligence is packed much closer to the ...

Updated: Wed Mar 27, 2013

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Intellectuals and Race for 03/20/2013

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0700

After reading Dr. Thomas Sowell's latest book, "Intellectuals and Race," one cannot emerge with much respect for the reasoning powers of intellectuals, particularly academics, on matters of race. There's so much faulty logic and downright dishonesty.

Many intellectuals attribute the behavior patterns of blacks to "a legacy of slavery" or contemporary racial discrimina ...

Updated: Wed Mar 20, 2013

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Educational Rot for 03/13/2013

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0700

American education is in a sorry state of affairs, and there's enough blame for all participants to have their fair share. They include students who are hostile and alien to the education process, uninterested parents, teachers and administrators who either are incompetent or have been beaten down by the system, and politicians who've become handmaidens for teachers unions. There's another educ ...

Updated: Wed Mar 13, 2013

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Mandated Wages and Discrimination for 03/06/2013

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0800

Let's work through an example. Suppose 100 yards of fence could be built using one of two techniques. You could hire three low-skilled workers for $15 each, or you could hire one high-skilled worker for $40. Either way, you get the same 100 yards of fence built. If you sought maximum profits, which production technique would you employ? I'm guessing that you'd hire one high-skilled worker and p ...

Updated: Wed Mar 06, 2013

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Higher Minimum Wages for 02/27/2013

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0800

In his State of the Union address, President Barack Obama proposed raising the minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $9 an hour. That would be almost a 25 percent increase. Let's look at the president's proposal, but before doing so, let's ask some other economic questions.

Are people responsive to changes in price? For example, if the price of cars rose by 25 percent, would people purch ...

Updated: Wed Feb 27, 2013

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Abraham Lincoln for 02/20/2013

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0800

Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln" has been a box-office hit and nominated for 12 Academy Awards, including best picture, best director and best actor for Daniel Day-Lewis, who portrayed our 16th president. I haven't seen the movie; therefore, this column is not about the movie but about a man deified by many. My colleague Thomas DiLorenzo, economics professor at Loyola University Maryland, ...

Updated: Wed Feb 20, 2013

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Cultural Deviancy, Not Guns for 02/13/2013

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0800

There's a story told about a Paris chief of police who was called to a department store to stop a burglary in progress. Upon his arrival, he reconnoitered the situation and ordered his men to surround the entrances of the building next door. When questioned about his actions, he replied that he didn't have enough men to cover the department store's many entrances but he did have enough for the ...

Updated: Wed Feb 13, 2013

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Women in Combat for 02/06/2013

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0800

A senior Defense Department official said the ban on women in combat should be lifted because the military's goal is "to provide a level, gender-neutral playing field." I'd like to think the goal of the military should be to have the toughest, meanest fighting force possible. But let's look at "gender-neutral playing field."

The Army's physical fitness test in basic t ...

Updated: Wed Feb 06, 2013

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