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By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON Hurricane Rita smashed into a region that is wealthier, more mobile and much less densely populated than the one devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Most of Rita's victims are by no means wealthy. But they are less likely to live in poverty, more likely to own a car, and less likely to be a member of a minority group than were Katrina's victims, according to an Associated Press analysis of census data. Experts said the wealth and mobility of people in Rita's path combined with a new sense of urgency following Katrina led to...

In Mississippi, Hurricane Katrina was nothing if not equal opportunity in its misery, destroying modest bungalows and $500,000 houses.

http://mises.org/story/1839 Envy Unleashed at the New York Times by George Reisman [Posted on Monday, June 06, 2005] In a front page editorial (Sunday June 5), thinly disguised as its lead news story, The New York Times has unknowingly provided a case study in envy and ignorance. The “article” is titled “Richest Are Leaving Even the Rich Far Behind,” subtitled “Tax Laws Help to Widen Gap at Very Top.” It breathlessly informs readers that “The people at the top of America's money pyramid have so prospered in recent years that they . . . have even left behind people making hundreds...

Let's face i, governments and unions are agents of THEFT and to a large degree, they are the bagmen of the middle class. They distort the markets for labor and trade so that some people are able to TAKE more resources out of the pockets of the owning class than they are entitled to. It makes me sick. Most of the people in the “middle class” in America have no business having what they have. If the just, God-given market forces were left alone, those thieves would be living in the shacks their productivity entitles them to and the wealthy...

London, England, Jan. 15 (UPI) -- Britain's Prince Harry has agreed to apologize personally to the chief rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth. The prince, who is third in line for the British throne, has been dogged by criticism since he was photographed at a party wearing a Nazi uniform. After talking with his father, Prince Charles, the 20-year-old agreed to meet Dr. Jonathan Sacks, Britain's leading rabbi, before or after the Jan. 27 celebration of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the Times of London reported Saturday.

LONDON (AFP) - The 14-year-old granddaughter of famous British actor and film director Richard Attenborough has died in the Asian tidal wave disaster, a family friend said, while his daughter and her mother-in-law are missing. Granddaughter Lucy was among a family group staying the Thai beach resort of Phuket, which was swept by a tidal wave following Sunday's massive undersea quake, said Diana Hawkins, a colleague and friend of the Attenborough family. Two more of Attenborough's grandchildren, Alice and Sam, were safe. "Lord (Richard) Attenborough and his wife, Sheila, have lost three members of their immediate family in the tidal...

Former President Bill Clinton had harsh words for the Bush administration at a fund-raiser Sunday in Las Vegas, arguing that Bush and his supporters are funneling the nation's wealth to the upper class while letting crucial programs suffer. The Bush tax cuts have placed such a burden on the national budget that funds for after-school programs, police officers, benefits for troops and even national security measures have been compromised, Clinton said. "I believe that this is a very important election," Clinton told a crowd of about 350 Democratic loyalists at the Rio. "You've got to understand that the new Republicans...

Now we know why Steve Forbes wants the flat tax. Wealthy individuals such as Teresa Heinz Kerry pay less in taxes, proportionately, than does the median U.S. family......

Let's cut right to the chase: Are you going to lose your overtime pay under the new Labor Department rules? While lawyers, labor leaders and policy wonks pore through the 536 pages of regulations the government released Tuesday, a few clear winners and losers have emerged. If some of the critics are right, millions of U.S. workers are in danger of losing their overtime pay. And don't think the issue doesn't apply to you. If you are suddenly no longer eligible for overtime, what's to stop your boss from working you 60 hours a week? Or 80? So, let's get...

The World's Billionaires, According to Forbes Magazine, Listed by Country Feb. 26, 2004 The Associated Press The ranking of American billionaires as estimated by Forbes magazine, listed by state. Listings include rank, name, age where known, wealth in billions of dollars and source of the money. A number of billionaires share the same rank because Forbes reported their wealth as being identical with each other. The list includes U.S. billionaires living overseas. 514. Marguerite Harbert, Alabama, 80, $1.1, inheritance 310. John Sperling, Arizona, 83, $1.8, Apollo Group 310. Peter Sperling, Arizona, 44, $1.8, Apollo Group 377. Bennett Dorrance, Arizona, 55,...

Beware pickpockets the next time you ride a subway. No, not the suspicious-looking guy sitting next to you, but the guy in Westchester or Long Island sitting on a comfy commuter train whose fare you unwittingly subsidize. That's right. Your hard-earned fares are going to the burbs. Fact is, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority railroads upward of $1 billion from the city subway and bus system to the suburban commuter lines each year. It's another in a long line of indignities that makes one think maybe the five boroughs should secede and form a 51st state. But that ain't happening. So,...

What would you think of a tax system that took money from the poor to give to the rich? That’s essentially what’s happening with our Social Security and Medicare tax system, where low-income workers are dunned to pay benefits for high-income seniors.

Likening tax to Holocaust outrageous THIS is the way things happen in my business. In October, an extremely influential GOP activist and White House insider, Grover Norquist, was interviewed by Terry Gross on her National Public Radio program, "Fresh Air." By December, a portion of that interview was reprinted in Harper's Magazine where, over the holidays, I happened to see it. I am writing about it today because, among other things, Norquist compared the estate tax to the Holocaust. This remark — so bizarre and tasteless that I fell it deserved checking — sent me to the show's transcript, which,...

It is a familiar complaint that newspapers only report the bad news. But that applies to economic news, too -- particularly with a presidential year coming up. By all objective indicators, the news about the American economy has been remarkably good since the summer. But what is good news for ordinary people can be bad news for politicians, just as good health is bad news for morticians. For some strange reason, recent Democratic candidates have been looking for the dark cloud behind every silver lining. They seem to think voters always want to hear the U.S. economy is fundamentally rotten...

Legislators slam A&M over legacy admissions Role of family ties in acceptance called 'institutional racism' By TODD ACKERMAN Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle Blood ties to alumni, sometimes known as the other affirmative action, are the deciding factor in the admission of more than 300 white Texas A&M University freshmen annually, according to data provided by the school. Such students -- known as "legacy admits" -- equal roughly the overall total of blacks admitted to A&M each year. Only a handful of black students a year are admitted because of legacy points. "That's a lot of kids being advantaged because A&M...

Another episode of the CBS sit-com Becker, which stars the liberal Ted Danson playing a doctor in a one-man practice in New York City, airs tonight on CBS. In last week's episode, upset by the closing of a "residential life" home for the mentally- challenged, "Becker" went to see the city's Deputy Director of Social Services, who launched into a lengthy rant about the evils of how tax cuts have reduced the amount of money available to government and will lead to "crappy schools which will turn out yet another generation of voters who are too stupid and greedy to...

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Let me offer my Democratic friends some friendly advice: They will never win the presidency or regain control of the Congress by campaigning to raise taxes, tariffs and special-interest subsidies while opposing a foreign policy that seeks to expand liberal democracy in the Middle East and throughout the Muslim world. Sen. Zell Miller says it best in his new book, "A National Party No More: The Conscience of a Conservative Democrat": The current batch of Democratic presidential hopefuls have managed to combine the foreign policy of George McGovern with the tax policies of Walter Mondale, a prescription for disaster for...

Headline: REPORT REVEALS RED PLOTS Article: Un-American Group Charges Soviets Plan Overthrow of America Sub Title: U.S. Communist Party Reported To Be Acting On Direct Orders From Kremlin To Sabotage Government of the United States WASHINGTON, Mar. 29 (UP) – The house un-American activities committee charged formally today that the American communist party, acting on direct orders from Moscow, seeks to overthrow the United States government as part of an international Soviet conspiracy. In a minutely documented, 26,000 word report to congress, the committee said the American communist movement is only one of 67 similar groups throughout the world which...