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Public Schools vs. Parents’ Values – Jeff Jacoby "We couldn't run a public school system if every parent who feels some topic is objectionable to them for moral or religious reasons decides their child should be removed," Lexington’s superintendent of schools, Paul Ash, told the Globe. … No matter how a school chooses to deal with sexual issues, it promotes certain values -- values that some parents will fervently welcome and that others will just as fervently reject.… When it comes to the education of children, there is always an agenda -- and those who don’t share that agenda may find themselves belittled, marginalized, or ignored. http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/jeffjacoby/2006/04/28/195371.html

The true cost of illegal immigration 95% of warrants for murder in Los Angeles are for illegal aliens. ... 75% of people on the most wanted list in Los Angeles are illegal aliens. …Over two-thirds of all births in Los Angeles County are to illegal alien Mexicans on Medi-Cal whose births were paid for by taxpayers. http://www.newswithviews.com/Wooldridge/frosty148.htm

Oily Politicians – Thomas Sowell If there is anything worse than partisan demagoguery, it is bipartisan demagoguery. Republican leaders have now joined the Democrats in blaming the oil companies for the fact that prices rise when demand expands more than supply. …Some of the most emotionally powerful political words and phrases are wholly undefined -- "exploitation," "greed," "social justice" and the perennial favorite, "gouging." … Politicians have indulged these spoiled brats for generations. Now, when the chickens come home to roost, they are screaming about high prices and Big Oil. That is world class chutzpa. http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/thomassowell/2006/04/27/195275.html

Oily politicians – part 2 One of the beauties of an economy coordinated by price movements is that nobody has to understand it in order for it to work. …This economic benefit of price-coordinated markets is also its biggest political vulnerability. If people don't understand what is happening, politicians can tell them anything -- and get their support to take actions that look good, even when the consequences will be counterproductive…. In these and other cases, the economics behind the high prices is of far less interest politically than denouncing the sellers for "greed," "exploitation," "gouging" and the whole political vocabulary of undefined rhetoric and unsubstantiated notions. …"Windfall" profits and windfall losses are all part of the same adjustment process. If politicians seize the windfall profits and leave windfall losses alone, what that means over a cycle of years is that the average rate of return on oil production falls below what is needed to attract the investments that greater oil exploration and production require.  http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/thomassowell/2006/04/28/195370.html

Break the oil monopoly - The technology to run cars on alternative fuels already exists. The cost: less than $150 per vehicle. If the government would provide tax incentives – for manufacturers, motorists, maybe both – millions of Flexible Fuel Vehicles (FFV) could be on the roads in short order….In Brazil today, automobiles are running on alcohol made from sugar cane. Consider how many Third World countries might produce similar fuels if they could sell them to eager consumers in the United States. Saudi Arabia's loss could be Haiti's gain….Ideas like these have been developed by the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security (www.iags.org), a small but creative think tank, and by Set America Free (www.setamericafree.org) which former CIA director James Woolsey calls “a coalition of tree huggers, do-gooders, sodbusters, hawks, and evangelicals." http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/cliffordmay/2006/04/27/195343.html

Mad about high gas prices?  Blame big government, not big oil It is precisely the energy bill -- along with international events -- that is causing the prices to increase. http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060425/OPINION03/604250307

It’s hard out here for a pump – Ann Coulter For decades Democrats have been trying to raise the price of gasoline so that the working class will stop their infernal car-driving and start riding on buses where they belong, while liberals ride in Gulfstream jets. …Democrats in Congress promptly introduced an "energy bill" that would put an additional 25-cent-a-gallon tax on gasoline to stop "global warming," an atmospheric phenomenon supposedly aggravated by frivolous human activities such as commerce, travel and food production. …Then there's John Kerry, who favored a 50-cent increase in the gas tax in 1994. If he were a rap artist, Kerry's stage name would be "Fifty Cent a Gallon." .. When the free market does the exact thing liberals have been itching to do through taxation, they pretend to be appalled by high gas prices, hoping the public will forget that high gas prices are part of their agenda. http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/anncoulter/2006/04/26/195264.html

Minimum Wage – Maximum Folly – by Walter Williams Workers earning the minimum wage or less tend to be young, single workers between the ages of 16 and 25. Only about two percent of workers over 25 years of age earn minimum wages. ...Poor people are not poor because of low wages. For the most part, they're poor because of low productivity, and wages are connected to productivity. …In one survey, 90 percent, and in the other 80 percent, of economists agreed that increasing the minimum wage causes unemployment among youth and low-skilled workers. …In research for my book "South Africa's War Against Capitalism" (1989), I found that during South Africa's apartheid era, racist unions, who'd never admit blacks, were the major supporters of higher minimum wages for blacks. Gert Beetge, secretary of South Africa's avowedly racist Building Worker's Union, in response to contractors hiring black workers, said, "There is no job reservation left in the building industry, and in the circumstances I support the rate-for-the-job [minimum wages] as the second best way of protecting our white artisans." Racists recognized the discriminatory effects of mandated minimum wages.  http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/walterwilliams/2006/04/26/194892.html

Why are Jews liberal? – Dennis Prager http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/dennisprager/2006/04/25/194915.html

Law or Lynch Law? – Thomas Sowell A lineup should include not only people suspected of a crime but also other people, so that it tests whether the accuser or witness can tell the difference, and is therefore credible. But the stripper who claimed to have been raped by members of the Duke lacrosse team was presented with a lineup consisting exclusively of photographs of members of the lacrosse team….When a prosecutor acts like he has made up his mind and doesn't want to be confused by the facts, that is when the spirit of the lynch mob has entered the legal system. When this happens on the eve of an election for the prosecutor, it looks even uglier. …The stripper, for example, does not even pay the price of having her name known, while the names and pictures of the accused young men are all over the media.  http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/thomassowell/2006/04/25/194891.html

High gas prices generate more hot air - Carter's windfall profits tax (really an excise tax) decreased domestic oil production by 3 percent to 6 percent, while pumping up dependence on foreign oil by 8 percent to 16 percent. …Oil prices, bloated for now by anxieties over the Middle East and strong worldwide demand, rather than by a '70s-style embargo, will likely abate. But not as far as they might if Congress opened the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to at least delicate exploration, and if California and Florida permitted the expansion of offshore drilling, and if environmental attitudes softened just enough to admit the need for growth in domestic refining capacity to enable the wider provision of what Gov. Schwarzenegger calls "a product that everyone needs" -- gasoline. http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/billmurchison/2006/04/25/194913.html

Greed is good – John Stossel  If pursuing profit is greed, economist Walter Williams told me, then greed is good, because it drives us to do many good things. "Those areas where people are motivated the most by greed are the areas that we're the most satisfied with: supermarkets, computers, FedEx." By contrast, areas "where people say we're motivated by 'caring'" -- public education, public housing etc. -- "are the areas of disaster in our country. . . . How much would get done," Williams wondered, "if it all depended on human love and kindness?" …As economist Adam Smith put it, "It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest." … "In a free market, you get more for yourself by serving your fellow man," said economist Williams. "You don't have to care about him, just serve him. I'd feel sorry for New Yorkers in terms of beef. If it all depended on human love and kindness, I doubt whether you would have one cow in New York." http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/JohnStossel/2006/04/26/195106.html

What’s happening down South? – Michael Barone on Latin America - The Washington Consensus still has more life than a focus on Chavez would suggest, and Latin America is enjoying 4 percent economic growth. So be prepared for disappointments, but remember that we still have many good neighbors to the south. http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/michaelbarone/2006/04/24/194763.html

Random thoughts on immigration – Armstrong Williams http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/Armstrongwilliams/2006/04/24/194767.html

The Contract With America Hasn’t Run Out Of Steam Yet – Star Parker The clear underlying reality is that America's future demands that we continue in the direction of restoring traditional values in our communities and continue to limit the role of government. This isn't about ideology; it's about facts. http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/StarParker/2006/04/24/194772.html

Georgia has decided to deal with illegal immigration http://www.newswithviews.com/Wooldridge/frosty147.htm

Corporate Social Responsibility or Corporate Shakedown Racket? Why do corporate executives participate in this capitalist equivalent of treason?... It boggles the mind to think that any self-respecting business executive would pay lip service to the CSR movers, shakers and spinners, given their basic belief that corporations should become public property, while leaving the financial risks to the private investors.  http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/NickNichols/2006/04/29/195577.html

The One Hillary’s Worried About Is George Allen In California in the early '70s, when everybody was smoking dope, protesting the Vietnam War and waging lovefests, slapping a Confederate flag sticker on your red Mustang and wearing a Confederate lapel pin was most likely the act of a rebel, not a racist. …I also know that if we're going to scrutinize people's high school records as we vet them for public office, nobody gets to run. Why stop at high school? Has anyone talked to Allen's kindergarten teacher? Did he, or did he not, hog the black crayon? http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/kathleenparker/2006/04/28/195595.html

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