In the coming months, lots of people will be cranking up their computers and burning up the airwaves with commentary on the just-announced departure of Secretary of Defense Robert Gates sometime in 2011. Evaluating his legacy as SECDEF when he ultimately leaves next year will be important for the historical …
Last week we were attacked by the sun. For real. Huge solar eruptions sent a blast of radiation toward Earth. Thankfully, the planet’s natural magnetic shield warded off the worst effects. Life went on uninterrupted. That won’t always be the case. In 1859, Richard Carrington recorded what is now called …
Benjamin Franklin famously said, “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” With America’s stagnant-as-a-swamp economy still stuck at 9.5% unemployment, an unexpected 484,000 new jobless claims, and reports of a slowed recovery, it might be time for old Ben to pull out his …
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) likes to say that Congressional earmarking has become the gateway drug to federal overspending. Is there any better evidence of this theory than President Barack Obama’s $1 billion earmark for a special project in Illinois that was slipped into his failed $862 billion stimulus? According to …
On Wednesday, Gen. Alexander Zelin, the commander of the Russian Air Force, announced that Moscow had deployed a state-of-the-art S-300 (SA-20 Favorit) long- range air defense system in Abkhazia, a region of the Republic of Georgia that Russia has occupied since the August 2008 war. Since then, Russia recognized breakaway …
Last week, Sens. Tom Coburn (R-OK) and John McCain (R-AZ) released a report detailing 100 wasteful economic stimulus projects including $144,541 in stimulus funds to study the effect of cocaine use on monkeys. But that is just the tip of the iceberg. The creative team at Bankrupting America has highlighted …
With the introduction of new legislation to implement the Automatic IRA—a simple, low-cost retirement savings vehicle for employees of small businesses—the effort to enable many more Americans to use a payroll deduction to build retirement security moves to a more active phase. A new bill by Senator Jeff Bingaman (D–NM) …
