"Not Yours to Give"  Compulsory Benevolence at Taxpayer Expense  by Joseph G. Lolli  According to the Washington Post, just before the federal lawmakers hightailed it out of town for the holidays, Congress approved the spending of six billion of your tax dollars on "victim compensation" for the families of those killed or injured in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks....

Rules of Thumb For Making Laws - Rule #2 The Road To Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions -- So Consider Unintended Consequences, Measure Results, and Include Sunset Provisions by Pat Pending

Both Sides of the Issue on VET Testing: Correspondence Between The Air Pollution Control District and Stop The VET

Eminent Domain in Kentucky  by Theresa Fritz Camoriano Eminent domain is supposed to be a mechanism by which the government can take private land in order to build roads and similar public necessities.  The property owner is supposed to be paid the fair value of his property when eminent domain is exercised.  However, in recent years, eminent domain laws have been abused and used to take property from one private owner to give to another, to build shopping centers, factories, and so forth.....

Perhaps Linda Daschle’s Position Explains the Bailouts "American and Northwest Airlines and others have received federal tax subsidies as a result of the September 11th atrocities. Boeing received what Senator Phil Gramm recently called the most outrageous, largest example of pork spending he's ever seen in his entire Senate career.  In essence, the federal government is going to enter into long-term leases for Boeing airplanes at above market prices rather than buying the planes outright at much cheaper bulk prices.....

Division and Multiplication  by Gordon Francis Corbett  An epistemological principle says that we learn about the world by distinguishing one thing from another, or one quality from another, by learning their respective characteristics.  Thus, we come to know that a chair is not a dog, and that heat is not cold......

Half a Win Is Better than None (The Emerson 2^nd Amendment Case)  by Sheldon Richman
Fans of the Second Amendment are rejoicing because a federal appellate court has affirmed that the right to keep and bear arms belongs to individuals, not collectives. Anyone who can read plain English already knew that. But now we have a U.S. appellate court saying so. That can't hurt...

"Complicated Tax Cuts Playing Favorites between Rich and Poor"  Why not implement REAL Tax Reform?  By Joseph G. Lolli Every year, American taxpayers face the mid-April ritual of filing their federal income tax returns with dread. The year 2002 will be no different. Is any REAL tax relief on the way????

He Seems Like Such A Nice Guy -  by Barry Bright  It’s getting so that I hope for one or two good movies a year that will actually be worth the trip to the theater. Movies of the caliber of my favorites such as "The Last of the Mohicans"(the early 90s version) or "Gladiator" or "The Patriot" or "Braveheart" are getting fewer and farther in between....

Smart Growth is dumb economic policy

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I don’t care whether it’s fair or not.  We’re going to do it anyway. Louisville Alderman Dan Johnson, regarding a taxpayer-funded arena, as quoted by Ron Gambrell 1/5/02

We are taught that the change from monarchy to democracy is progress; that is, a change from servitude to liberty. Yet no monarchy in Western history ever taxed its subjects as heavily as every modern democracy taxes its citizens…. Democracy has proved only that the best way to gain power over people is to assure the people that they are ruling themselves. Once they believe that, they make wonderfully submissive slaves.

Joseph Sobran