Freedom and Progress
For more than two centuries, freedom has been the catchword of Western Civilization. What began as an abstraction from the pens of Locke, Sidney, Montesquieu, Beccaria, and others has...
About: Charles Scaliger
Posts by Charles Scaliger
Cap and Trade Passes House Committee
Climate-change legislation has now officially become part of Washington policymaking with the approval on May 21 by the House Energy and Commerce Committee of a new bill designed to...
Credit Card Legislation Clears Congress
Credit card reform legislation that President Obama is expected to sign sometime over the Memorial Day weekend is a mixed bag, to say the least. Offsetting the deluge of...
Credit Card Meltdown Hits Banks
Next up for ailing mega-banks: a credit card meltdown. No surprise here, really; Americans have overused credit cards for years, trusting always in unending economic expansion and plentiful employment...
Social Security, Medicare Running Out of Money Faster Than Expected
Social Security and Medicare, Big Government’s two most cherished social-welfare programs, are running out of money far faster than expected, thanks to the persistent economic downturn. Medicare, which is...
Another Record-breaking Deficit Looms
It’s official: this year’s budget deficit will be one for the record books. The latest figures released by the Obama Administration contemplate a $1.8 trillion deficit for fiscal 2009...
“Prosperity Is Just Around the Corner.” Really?
Back in the bad old days of the Great Depression, the breezy assurance of the Hoover Administration that “prosperity is just around the corner” became, as the years of...
Ron Paul’s Influence Grows
Although he officially abandoned his presidential bid last summer, Texas Congressman Ron Paul’s star continues to brighten. Once shunned by the mainstream media and marginalized by the national leadership...
Duffy Is New Poet Laureate, but No Tennyson
Alfred Lord Tennyson may be turning in his grave. The author of some of the most exalted poetry in the English language, such as “Crossing the Bar” and “The...
North Korean Threat Grossly Overblown
In the midst of an economic crisis and worries over a global epidemic, North Korea’s creaky totalitarian state continues to occupy headline news. North Korea, arguably the last Stalinist...
Demise of Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers May Be Near
The long-running war in Sri Lanka, the impoverished Indian Ocean nation suspended like a tropical teardrop below India’s southern tip, appears to be near an end. The secessionist war...
America’s GDP, Economy Shrink – Again
Despite rosy earnings reports from some closely watched corporations, the Great Recession is far from over, according to the latest economic data from the Commerce Department. America’s GDP, which...
Swine Flu Outbreak May Be Overblown
While it is still too early to claim that the swine flu outbreak is being overblown, events are beginning to suggest that may prove to be the case. As...
Credit Card Crackdown
Next up for the federal government: the credit card industry. Having already thrown trillions in taxpayer dollars at the banking sector, and having moved to nationalize several of the...
Specter of Bank Nationalization Looms
The Obama administration is still thinking bank nationalization. In the latest twist to the saga of troubled American megabanks, the New York Times reported on April 19 that administration...
Guns Easier to Obtain, Time Mag. Complains
Amid the hand-wringing surrounding the 10th anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre in Littleton, Colorado, Time magazine has now weighed in on the allegedly deplorable fact that, in...
Media Bias Against Tax Day Tea Parties
Tax day 2009 has come and gone, and with it the spate of “Tea Parties” held in hundreds of towns and cities nationwide that attracted withering attention from the...
Obama’s Anti-gun Agenda Shelved — for Now
Gun control is off the agenda for now, according to Newsweek. Although the Obama administration is packed with anti-gun stalwarts, from White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and...
Newsweek Celebrates Christianity’s Decline
Ever anxious to create controversy, Newsweek, in its April 13 cover story, has proclaimed “the decline and fall of Christian America.” The number of Americans who consider themselves Christians...
SEC to Target Short Sellers
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) made public on April 8 several alternative plans under consideration for regulating the activities of short sellers. Short selling, the inverse of purchasing...