Commentary
California
The Conventional Jerry Brown
Common wisdom, embraced by many on the left and on the right, holds that California governor Jerry Brown is a most unconventional politician. Brown’s otherworldly attitude, quick wit, and unpredictable utterances have served him well throughout his long political career. Political observers in Sacramento are still trying to figure him ...
Commentary
What Should Rick Perry Say About Gardasil?
The Republican presidential primaries have been temporarily hijacked by a single incident in Rick Perrys decade-plus tenure as governor of Texas. Despite Michele Bachmanns ludicrous claim that Gardasil causes mental retardation, lets recall that not one single schoolgirl was vaccinated by the offensive executive order: The legislature overturned it long ...
California
Anti-Vaccine Activists Apparently Immune To Science
Yet another study has debunked the notion that vaccines cause autism. Late last month, a committee of 18 highly respected doctors, professors, legal experts and epidemiologists empanelled by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) reviewed more than 1,000 peer-reviewed studies and articles and found no links between immunization and . . ...
Business & Economics
Your Government Still the Main Threat to Your Freedoms
In my years writing for newspapers, I’ve always hated the commemoration ritual. What new insight can we offer about Thanksgiving? What words can still capture the essence of D-Day? And, this weekend, what can we really say that ameliorates the horror of 9/11? Mainly, I hate how commemorations, and national ...
Business & Economics
Union ‘Gut and Amend’ Bills Slice Open CA
Its gut and amend season in the California Legislature. More like shuck and jive and obfuscate. Last week, I received information that another bill had been gutted of its original intent, and new language added to greatly benefit labor unions. By the end of the day, two additional bills were ...
Commentary
Democrats’ Plan B For Medicare: Medicare For All
Last month, ObamaCare was dealt another huge blow. On August 12, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta ruled that the law’s requirement that all adults purchase health insurance was unconstitutional. The court determined that the government isn’t empowered to force private citizens to buy a ...
Business & Economics
Defensive Medicine
The article “Study: Only 1 in 5 medical malpractice cases pay” (Tribune, Aug. 17) reported that “most physicians and virtually every surgeon will face at least one malpractice lawsuit in their careers.” This alarming statistic is an important driver of rising U.S. health care costs. Even though most sued doctors ...
Business & Economics
California ‘Jobs Gap’ Jumps to Record High
California’s “Jobs Gap” with the rest of America jumped to a record high, according to new calculations. In 2010, I devised the “Jobs Gap” to measure how much worse unemployment is in California than the rest of America. The Jobs Gap is calculated by subtracting the national unemployment level from ...
Commentary
Over-The-Counter Remedies That Would Reduce Health Care Costs
Earlier this month, the pharmaceutical company Pfizer announced that it may ask the Food and Drug Administration to allow it to market the cholesterol-lowering statin Lipitor over the counter after its patent expires in November. The FDA has not yet signaled whether it would approve Pfizers proposal. And some doctors ...
Business & Economics
Pension plan embraces absurd double standard
When the taxpayer is backing up the entire liability for the massive pensions received by public employees who are part of the California Public Employees Retirement System, then CalPERS officials are exuberant about the stock market. They insist that a predicted rate of return of 7.75 percent is perfectly realistic. ...
The Conventional Jerry Brown
Common wisdom, embraced by many on the left and on the right, holds that California governor Jerry Brown is a most unconventional politician. Brown’s otherworldly attitude, quick wit, and unpredictable utterances have served him well throughout his long political career. Political observers in Sacramento are still trying to figure him ...
What Should Rick Perry Say About Gardasil?
The Republican presidential primaries have been temporarily hijacked by a single incident in Rick Perrys decade-plus tenure as governor of Texas. Despite Michele Bachmanns ludicrous claim that Gardasil causes mental retardation, lets recall that not one single schoolgirl was vaccinated by the offensive executive order: The legislature overturned it long ...
Anti-Vaccine Activists Apparently Immune To Science
Yet another study has debunked the notion that vaccines cause autism. Late last month, a committee of 18 highly respected doctors, professors, legal experts and epidemiologists empanelled by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) reviewed more than 1,000 peer-reviewed studies and articles and found no links between immunization and . . ...
Your Government Still the Main Threat to Your Freedoms
In my years writing for newspapers, I’ve always hated the commemoration ritual. What new insight can we offer about Thanksgiving? What words can still capture the essence of D-Day? And, this weekend, what can we really say that ameliorates the horror of 9/11? Mainly, I hate how commemorations, and national ...
Union ‘Gut and Amend’ Bills Slice Open CA
Its gut and amend season in the California Legislature. More like shuck and jive and obfuscate. Last week, I received information that another bill had been gutted of its original intent, and new language added to greatly benefit labor unions. By the end of the day, two additional bills were ...
Democrats’ Plan B For Medicare: Medicare For All
Last month, ObamaCare was dealt another huge blow. On August 12, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta ruled that the law’s requirement that all adults purchase health insurance was unconstitutional. The court determined that the government isn’t empowered to force private citizens to buy a ...
Defensive Medicine
The article “Study: Only 1 in 5 medical malpractice cases pay” (Tribune, Aug. 17) reported that “most physicians and virtually every surgeon will face at least one malpractice lawsuit in their careers.” This alarming statistic is an important driver of rising U.S. health care costs. Even though most sued doctors ...
California ‘Jobs Gap’ Jumps to Record High
California’s “Jobs Gap” with the rest of America jumped to a record high, according to new calculations. In 2010, I devised the “Jobs Gap” to measure how much worse unemployment is in California than the rest of America. The Jobs Gap is calculated by subtracting the national unemployment level from ...
Over-The-Counter Remedies That Would Reduce Health Care Costs
Earlier this month, the pharmaceutical company Pfizer announced that it may ask the Food and Drug Administration to allow it to market the cholesterol-lowering statin Lipitor over the counter after its patent expires in November. The FDA has not yet signaled whether it would approve Pfizers proposal. And some doctors ...
Pension plan embraces absurd double standard
When the taxpayer is backing up the entire liability for the massive pensions received by public employees who are part of the California Public Employees Retirement System, then CalPERS officials are exuberant about the stock market. They insist that a predicted rate of return of 7.75 percent is perfectly realistic. ...
