I’ve always thought of myself as a non-economist who thinks economically. But even right after the death of Milton Friedman — an economist who helped end the draft — I totally missed this angle to the story of Charles Rangel seeking to reinstate the draft. From John Lott (a real economist): “What he fails to [...]

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by Craig Dimitri On Sunday, Senator John McCain appeared on ABC’s “This Week” news program, stating it was vital for the U.S. to increase its troop commitment in order to stabilize Iraq in particular and the Middle East in general. He also stated that the failure of such stabilization efforts would threaten U.S. homeland security [...]

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by Craig Dimitri On Wednesday, November 15, the Washington Post‘s Chris Cilizza reported on The Fix blog, among other things, that Senator John McCain of Arizona has unveiled a new web site, just for his exploratory committee for his nascent 2008 presidential campaign: Posted at 04:09 PM ET, 11/15/2006 McCain Files Prez Paperwork, Thompson Mulling [...]

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by Craig Dimitri There was finally some good news for House Republicans, after the catastrophic losses suffered on November 7. Over the past three days, the Republicans are now assured of at least 200 members in their caucus.  Two experienced incumbents, Rep. Heather Wilson of New Mexico and Rep. Robin Hayes of North Carolina, were able [...]

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By Jefferson Flanders With a doffed cap to Jimmy Cannon, nobody asked me but… SOCIAL ANIMALS, ESPECIALLY PRIMATES, employ varied reconciliation techniques after a fight. Frans de Waal tells us in his latest book, “Our Inner Ape,” that primates have different ways to “kiss and make up”; golden monkeys hold hands, bonobos have sex, chimps [...]

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“The assassination-style killing of Deyda Hydara, the co-founder and editor of The Point newspaper causes great consternation within the journalistic community and has led to considerable mistrust of the government. The delegation is deeply concerned that the official investigation has not produced any tangible results in the period since his killing.The delegation was concerned to [...]

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“The assassination-style killing of Deyda Hydara, the co-founder and editor of The Point newspaper causes great consternation within the journalistic community and has led to considerable mistrust of the government. The delegation is deeply concerned that the official investigation has not produced any tangible results in the period since his killing.The delegation was concerned to [...]

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by Craig Dimitri In a bright spot for Republicans, Rep. Heather Wilson (R) has been officially re-elected to a fifth full term in New Mexico’s 1st CD.  On Friday, the last county in the CD to recount – Bernalillo County – completed its tally.  Madrid gained what I estimate to be about 285 votes in that county, [...]

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Health Millions going to salaries blare the headlines. Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. was stunned when he learned that nearly $1 million of a $1.25 million budget for a children’s health program is going to cover salaries. Now, in the real world, a million dollars is a lot of money. And I’m the first person to [...]

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Friday, November 17th, was a joyous day for Allergan and Mentor Corp. These two companies were finally given the green light from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to sell their silicone-gel implants after a 14-year ban. The silicone-gel implants have been banned from the market since 1992 because they were believed to leak and [...]

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… Well not if you believe the Liberal New York Times newspaper, which is reporting in its editorial that Democratics [are] split on how far to go with ethics law. It sure sounds like Democrats have so quickly forgotten the message the voters sent Congress: Clean up the place! So much for Nancy Pelosi’s promise [...]

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Here’s a story with its up- and downsides. China has admitted “most of the human organs used in transplants here are taken from executed prisoners and that many of the recipients are foreigners who pay hefty sums to avoid a long wait,” according to the LA Times. Some of those foreigners are Americans. My initial [...]

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— OffStumped For All Things Right of Center, Bringing a Right of Centre Reality Check to Indian Politics, News Media Reporting and Opinion through Blogs and Podcasts. —   China’s President, Hu Jintao, is set to make the first visit to India by a Chinese head of state in 10 years. China has expressed guarded support [...]

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The largest and most complex airliner ever built, the Airbus A380, landed safely in Japan on Sunday – way behind schedule. To the dismay of Airbus customers worldwide, the plane is only now completing its final 150 hours of test flights. If all goes well, the plane should be declared officially airworthy by the end [...]

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Blair: Let’s change our strategy–and blame Israel too… “ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — British Prime Minister Tony Blair acknowledged Sunday the West had changed strategy in the fight against terrorism, telling Pakistan’s president that brokering a broad Mideast peace deal was now as crucial as using force to battle militants. Pakistani leader Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who switched [...]

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The letter from the Luembe Community Resource Board of Nyimba district , Zambia, was quite straightforward. They needed funds to pay some volunteer teachers. “As a Board, we strongly request for this help because we fell and accept that the government has failed to send teachers there. On this point , we ask you to [...]

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This article makes a few interesting suggestions. For one, it states the obvious fact that Republicans will be attacking the new House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, a lot in the coming years. The questionable assertion is that, in doing so, the right will be aiming for Hillary. It’s questionable not in that the right wants this [...]

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Yes that does sound contradictory. Unfortunately it is also true. The high global cost of Oil and Gas has provided a tremendous boost to industry in Alberta, the newspapers are full of employment opportunities. There is a job for anyone that is willing to work. This has resulted in a migration of workers from the [...]

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Fresh perspectives on today’s news by: Whymrhymer Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was interviewed on British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) television Sunday morning and when asked about the possibility of a “military victory” in Iraq, he dismissed the possibility . . . at least in any “acceptable” timeframe: “If you mean by ‘military victory’ an [...]

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I just got done reading an article by Mark Seagraves (WTOP Radio) about 478 laptops that have been stolen from the IRS. Mark was able to obtain this information via the “Freedom of Information Act.” At first, I thought “here we go again,” but in reality — there are probably thousands of laptops that have [...]

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While thousands of Germans gathered just south of Berlin yesterday to protest a provocative neo-Nazi demonstration held to glorify fallen Wehrmacht soldiers of the Battle of Halbe, Chancellor Merkel and other government and diplomatic corps officials will be taking part in ceremonies in Berlin today marking Germany’s Volkstrauertag or People’s Day of Remembrance. Similar to Veterans [...]

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It makes me absolutely livid when reporters take a common instance of natural selection and act like it proves Darwin correct on all counts. In this story, called “Darwin Got it Right,” scientists noted that the introduction of a predator made a prey species “evolve” more than once in a year. From the story: “In [...]

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News Item: Russian defector poisoned in London And here we thought the KGB went the way of the Berlin Wall. A former colonel in the Russian Secret Service, who also happens to be a harsh critic of Russian president Vladimir Putin, is being protected by armed guards in a London hospital after attending an arranged [...]

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There is a constant tension in international relations between criticizing a country’s internal policies and asking for its cooperation in dealing with other nations. For example, do we rag on Russia for its impending authoritarianism, or do we ask for help on matters like North Korea? It’s pretty tough to do both. That’s the tradeoff [...]

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By Marvin Ostrega I am a native New Yorker. I hated the traffic. The inconsiderate people. Living one on top of each other. The high cost of living. And the fast paced life. I lived in the borough of Staten Island. When I was growing up there was very few traffic tie ups. The people [...]

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Bobby. A moving look at a brief moment in our nations history. Is it safe to say that this is one of the better movies this year? Undeniably. Even more, easily one of the best films I have seen in a long time. Bobby centers around 22 people at the Ambassador Hotel on June 6th, [...]

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