Archive
We Can’t Afford Energy Subsidies and Tax Breaks
Last year, the top six U.S. oil companies made $148.7 billion in profits. That works out to about $407 million a day, $17 million an hour, or $283,000 per minute. At that pace, in roughly the amount of time it will take to read this commentary, just these six oil companies will have earned about $3 million in profits. Not revenues, profits.
Let’s Resist Herbicide-Resistant Crops
A Pioneer seed saleswoman introduced the first genetically modified crop to my central Missouri county in the winter of 1996 at a University Extension Soils and Crop Council meeting. She told us that if a farmer planted this genetically engineered soybean, then sprayed the herbicide Roundup all over his field, weeds would die but the soybeans would survive.
The Truth’s Liberal Tilt
When you ask conservatives for proof of the “liberal media bias” they are so concerned about, you often get a response along the lines of, “The media are liberal because we say so! It’s obvious.” So I was happy to find a case where the familiar band of conservatives was saying they had actual proof, hard evidence, of how the media favors the other side over their own.
Remembering Charles Colson
One of the great villains of Richard Nixon’s villainous administration went to his final reward last month. Charles Colson, Tricky Dick’s master of dirty tricks, died of complications after suffering a brain hemorrhage at the age of 80.
Feeding Obesity
Attention foodies: There’s a new craze in Cuisine World, and it’s going 180 degrees in the opposite direction from the much-publicized healthy-eating movement.
Passing the Top Hat
The State of the Military-Industrial Complex Is Strong
What can you do with a bunch of used generals? If you keep them active, they need new assignments. These can be expensive. But if you let them retire with fat pensions, they’ll go to work for arms producers, lobbying for more weapons and more wars. Either way citizens pay through the nose.
The Lineup: Week of May 14-20, 2012
Booth Gunter discusses the grim conditions young inmates endured at a for-profit prison in Mississippi.
No Country for Rich Men
Back in 1863, a short story took the American reading public by storm. Edward Everett Hale’s The Man without a Country told the tale of a poor treasonous soul sentenced to spend the rest of his life endlessly sailing the seven seas, in perpetual exile, as a prisoner aboard Navy warships.
Bank of America’s Healthier Roots
The father of Bank of America wouldn’t recognize it today. The “built-to-last” institution he founded has turned into a “built-to-loot” operation obsessed with short-term gains.
Amadeo P. Giannini built Bank of America into the first nationwide financial institution. The Italian American’s success hinged on his determination to challenge the notion that banks should benefit society’s wealthiest members.
