Ronald Reagan once said, “Facts are stubborn things.” And he is right. Sometimes, the truth becomes almost impossible to ignore. I think we are seeing that now in the national debates over climate change and health care. Yet, even more stubborn than facts are people. I tell the interns at my office when I meet…
Month: September 2009
Plano Lowers the Cost of Living
It is not often that governments voluntarily reduces fees or taxes. So when one does, it is worth taking a closer look. Last month, Plano voted to eliminate impact fees on developers building new homes and businesses. The fees were charged based on the size of the water meter for the project, and typically ran…
Quote of the Day
So long as men accepted the basic affirmations of religion — that there is a God of all people with whom each individual has a personal relationship — our liberties were basically secure. Whenever there was a breach in them, we possessed a principle by which we could discover and repair the breach. But when…
Marxism Isn’t Enough
William F. Buckley Jr.’s first book, God and Man at Yale, examined the anti-Christian and anti-capitalist mindset which, even in 1951, was pervasive among the Yale University faculty. The book caused quite a bit of controversy—not because it wasn’t true, but because the radical liberals/socialists/communists in American academia and other institutions (the press, government, etc.)…
Government is Good, but has its Limits
We tend to have lots of discussions about public policy at my office—after all, that is what we do. As part of that dialogue, an intern recently asked: Is government regulation never a good thing? Even if regulations are designed to reduce pollution or cut down on secondhand smoke in restaurants (nominally good goals, although…