Free Republic

If a recent article in the Washington Post is any indication, the Obama administration may feel pressure from the greens to crack down even harder on American coal, especially given news regarding Germany’s increasing reliance on this fuel. Germany is currently harnessing lignite, or brown coal, to offset its reduced reliance on nuclear power. The Post’s Michael Birnbaum worries that this may lead to increased greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. “Now, U.S. coal is spreading around the world instead, pushing down global prices,” writes Birnbaum. “In Europe, that has raised fears among environmentalists that the cheap natural gas in the United...

On a Sunday afternoon several months ago, I was engaged in one of my favorite religious rituals, watching pro football on television. During a break in the game, I reflexively clicked the “mute” button on the remote control. But my eyes stayed fixed on a startling commercial. The screen showed a balding man with tawny skin and a salt-and-pepper goatee, and seconds later it spelled out his name: Mujahid Abdul-Rashid. The advertisement went on to show him fishing, playing in a yard with two toddlers, and sitting down to a family meal. One week later, again during an N.F.L. game,...

In the current economic climate, politicians and interest groups have encouraged the public to view businesses, especially corporations, as exploitative entities taking advantage of human suffering and even engineering the Great Recession. Thus, increased government intervention is necessary to “tame” the marketplace. Some consider the recent re-election of President Obama a vindication of this perspective. John Mackey, Co-CEO of Whole Foods, courageously shares an opposing view in his latest book, Conscious Capitalism, co-authored by Rajendra Sisodia. “We paint business for what it truly is: heroic,” said Mackey at a recent Cato event. “Business is the greatest value creator in the...

A recent study issued by the Harvard Institute of Politics indicates that 9.7% of Millennials are unemployed. “Furthermore, although 62.9% are currently working, 31.2% of t hose Millennials work on a part-time basis,” states the study. “Over a quarter (27.4%) are currently out of the labor force, whether as full-time students or because of disability, incarceration, or full-time parenthood.” Things look worse for 16-24 year olds and minorities: “Research also shows that unemployment among younger Americans (16 to 24 year olds) is twice as high as the national rate, and for Hispanic and African-American youth, unemployment rates are even higher,...

Many of America’s institutions have been overcome by the liberal establishment and serve as mouthpieces for their agenda, argues author Ben Shapiro in his latest book, Bullies: How the Left’s Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences America. The left has “decided the the political debate is worthless,” he said at a recent Heritage event. “They are not going to debate policy, they are not going to debate what is the best way to solve the nation’s problems, they are not going to provide evidence,” he continued. “They are going to label us morally deficient human beings unworthy of debate.” “We...

Arthur C. Brooks is the president of the American Enterprise Institute, a preeminent think-tank in Washington, D.C. What you may not know about him is that he finished his three degrees via correspondence before he landed a job as a Syracuse University professor. “I possess a 10K-B.A., which I got way back in 1994,” writes Brooks for the New York Times. “And it was the most important intellectual and career move I ever made.” The 10K-B.A. is a Bachelor’s degree that costs approximately $10,000. “I took classes by mail from the University of Washington, the University of Wyoming, and other...

Is a college degree really worth the expense? A recent study, authored by Richard Vedder, Jonathan Robe, and Christopher Denhart, “used employment data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to calculate that the number of college graduates is growing at a rate disproportionate to the number of jobs requiring a college degree,” reports the Chronicle of Higher Education. “They question whether America spends too much on higher education, and ask whether society can afford to subsidize higher education for graduates who end up in jobs they could have landed without going to college.” “The study, from the Center for...

On Monday, during his second inaugural address, President Barack Obama took time to parallel the gay rights movement with the Civil Rights movement. At the core of this civil rights argument is the need for same-sex marriage equality, according to the Associated Press. “Never before Monday had an inaugural address conveyed support for marriage equality, and activists now hope the Obama administration will take concrete steps to follow up, including escalated engagement in pending Supreme Court cases,” reports the AP on January 23. The Supreme Court is expected to hear oral arguments regarding the Defense of Marriage Act and California’s...

In a recent column for The American Thinker, Randall Hoven discusses how the value of teachers’ pensions can rival an American millionaire’s retirement–with less insecurity, of course. “Businesses go bankrupt, governments face default and economic growth slows to a near standstill,” writes Hoven. “Meanwhile, retired public school teachers, who had to work 9 months of the year during their careers, now pull in checks 12 months a year, indexed for inflation and guaranteed by the government, in amounts that often make them millionaires, maybe twice over.” How does Hoven arrive at this “twice over” number? He takes Illinois school districts’...

What if you had to choose between your child learning to read and making ends meet each month? Before child labor laws were passed, the solution for the poor seemed to be to pull kids out of schools and place them to work in factories or other employment. For some today, argues Nicholas D. Kristof in a recent column, the solution may be to make sure their kids don’t learn to read. That way the parents can continue to collect Supplemental Security Income (SSI) checks. “This is what poverty sometimes looks like in America: parents here in Appalachian hill country...

This Christmas Dr. Russell D. Moore might call upon us to think of Joseph, Jesus’ father, and his role in the nativity story. Dr. Moore, Dean of the School of Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, argues that Joseph’s decision to be a father to Jesus reflects God and the way he treats his Christian children. “Joseph acts as a father when he takes Mary into his family, when he takes her as his wife,” said Dr. Moore at a recent Family Research Council event. “He acts fatherly toward Jesus in terms of identity (naming him),” Dr. Moore continues,...

A recent case, Hernandez v. Northside Independent School District et al., highlights the privacy concerns that technology can bring to the modern classroom. In order to register attendance for each student when the bell rings, one magnet school has given all of its students radio frequency identification device (RFID) chipped identification cards. These cards track student movements throughout the building–excluding the bathrooms, of course. One student, Andrea Hernandez, objected to her tagging on religious grounds, citing the Book of Revelation. She could have been expelled for refusing to wear her assigned RFID badge. Instead, according to Jim Forsyth with WOAI...

As the lack of opportunity in America becomes less of an issue of race and more of perpetual class separation, liberal reporters and academics continue to propose the same recycled, progressive policies which have little hope of solving the marriage problem but will undoubtedly bloat federal and state governments. For example, in a New York Times article printed this summer, Jason DeParle cast the growing trend of lower-class single mothers as one of class conflict. “Estimates vary widely, but scholars have said that changes in marriage patterns — as opposed to changes in individual earnings — may account for as...

A number of states have decided to separate their education achievement goals by race as part of their No Child Left Behind waivers. The question remains whether this move marks a “realistic” approach to education, or a major step backward for education fueled by lowered expectations for racial groups. “I put the question of states adjusting expectations based on a student’s ethnicity to Carla O’Connor, an associate professor in the School of Education at the University of Michigan,” writes Emily Richmond for The Atlantic. “O’Connor, who specializes in African-American student achievement and urban education, said the new sliding bar for...

As recently reported by USA Today, one third of millennials have earned four-year degrees. In my previous blog entry I discussed the financial perils facing these students, who often graduate unable to find a job in their major (unemployed or underemployed) and saddled heavily with debt. However, it looks like the job market for those with Bachelor’s degrees is creeping upward somewhat, according to a new report issued by Michigan State University (pdf). “The new college labor market inches ahead with a 3 percent gain over last year across all degrees,” it states. “Strong demand for marketing, finance, human resources,...

President Obama’s first-term Supreme Court appointments make it seem unlikely to conservatives that the president will nominate judges over the next four years known for their judicial restraint. In fact, for progressives, judicial restraint takes on an entirely different description. At least, that’s the impression given by Ian Millhiser at a recent Center for American Progress event, in which he said that the “frivolous” lawsuit against the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, convinced him against judicial activism. “And one thing I will say that that taught me is that judicial restraint is really important and that I think...

One of the major pitfalls in education policy is viewing education as intrinsically valuable in and of itself. This is like saying that a dollar is valuable for being a dollar, rather than what can be bought with said cash. A recent article by Mary Beth Marklein, with USA Today, notes that one third of millennials have earned a four-year degree. This is “up from 28% in 2001 and 2006 and 17% in 1971,” according to U.S. Census data, she reports. “They may live with their parents and they may owe thousands of dollars in student loans, but a larger...

Welcome to a magical world in which the scientific challenges to green energy have been resolved and renewable energy makes economic sense for the United States. Even in such a highly theoretical country, it is unlikely that green energy projects would make much headway due to a ‘green versus green’ regulatory structure where local environmentalist groups battle alternative energy projects, contend two authors in a recent Heritage Foundation presentation of their new book. “Most of the research for this was funded actually by the Department of Energy in a 2010 grant to look at [alternative] energy,” says Ryan M. Yonk,...

Student loans from the federal government cannot be discharged in bankruptcy and have severe consequences upon default. For example, upon default the federal government can garnish your wages and your credit will plummet as your loan account is assigned to a collection agency. With these consequences in mind, the Obama Administration has just recently finished its rules for the Pay As You Earn (PAYE) program. “Today the U.S. Department of Education issued final regulations that will help many more federal student loan borrowers lower their monthly payments and avoid default,” stated The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS) on...

The Nebraska Board of Education is taking the advice of a historian who considers “American Exceptionalism” too political of a term to include in Nebraska social studies. Removing this concept from the curriculum, educators have instead added climate change to the list of geography topics. “I personally would be wary of the term ‘American Exceptionalism.’… It has become extremely politically charged in recent years, and could convey unintended baggage,” Jeremy Stern wrote in an email to the staff at the Nebraska Department of Education, according to World-Herald staff writer Joe Dejka. Dejka reports that “[Stern] suggested something more neutral, such...