Free Republic

The front page of the Washington Post Real Estate section promises a neighborhood that "has a home in every price range." Inside, though, we learn that "Sleepy Hollow includes everything from 'starter houses' costing around $600,000 to multimillion-dollar properties on acre-plus lots." In most of the country that would be considered the wealthy part of town, not a community with "a home in every price range." That's part of the reason that more and more Americans see Washington, D.C., much like the Capitol in "The Hunger Games," as a rich and powerful city increasingly isolated from the country whose production...

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about Westover Vineyards of Castro Valley. Owner Bill Smyth is preparing to shutter his winery because the California Department of Industrial Relations slapped him with $115,550 in fines, back wages and penalties for using unpaid volunteers. Those fees put Westover in the red. Why did the state go after him? Smyth suspected a complaint by a "disgruntled" former volunteer. On Monday, I heard from Scott Cantacessi, whose wife, Kim, worked/volunteered at Westover for 17 years. On her last day, as she was walking to her car, Cantacessi fell and fractured her arm. "I...

While reading the first chapter of Jason Riley's new book, "Please Stop Helping Us," I thought about Will Rogers' Prohibition-era observation that "Oklahomans vote dry as long as they can stagger to the polls." Demonstrative of similar dedication, one member of Congress told Vanderbilt University political scientist Carol Swain that "one of the advantages and disadvantages of representing blacks is their shameless loyalty. ... You can almost get away with raping babies and be forgiven. You don't have any vigilance about your performance." In my opinion, there appear to be no standards of performance low enough for blacks to lose...

The surprising thing about the Supreme Court's decision on police searches of cellphones was its unanimity. Aligned on the same side of a major law enforcement issue were liberal and conservative justices who normally fight like cats and dogs. All agreed that it's intolerable to let cops ransack the voluminous contents of mobile phones. Who could disagree? Well, cops, of course. And the Obama administration. Barack Obama led Americans to believe that he would be far more sensitive to privacy and civil liberties than George W. Bush. But more often than not, he reflexively indulges the demands of law enforcement...

President Obama recently concluded a five-year campus speaking tour in which he explained to students how his financing programs were making college more affordable. Then on Thursday he kicked off a new campus speaking tour to tell students that college is unaffordable, and that the financing program he has championed faces increasing defaults. "We've got a crisis in terms of college affordability and student debt," said Mr. Obama, without a trace of irony at the State University of New York at Buffalo. The same man who three years ago forced through a plan to add $1 trillion in student loans...

This week, President Obama is hitting the road to unveil his plan to "combat the soaring costs of higher education." His three part plan consists of connecting financial aid to school performance, supporting academic innovation, and making college more affordable. His road tour and policy initiatives sound good in the nightly news cycle. They make for great talking points, but President Obama's plan does not address the fundamental reasons behind why tuition is rising. Both sides can agree that rising college costs are a big problem and burden for students. But more college subsidies and government aid will not solve...

It might seem laughable that FEMA – the Federal organization that eventually melted over $12.5 million worth of ice after Hurricane Katrina – has created a website focused on preparing individuals for eventual disaster. Yes, the organization that closed their Staten Island office because of bad weather after Tropical Storm Sandy, is now providing helpful suggestions for emergency preparedness. The project, on its face, is almost as comedic as the Federal Government’s “Feed the Pig” campaign to encourage saving for retirement. My first reaction to the government telling me to spend less money, or prepare better for emergencies, is “you...

<p>The totalitarian urge is ubiquitous in human history, though in the United States this has been more expressed as Nanny State, less Bolshevik Revolution. Familiar examples include dictating our food choices, demonizing smokers and, most forcefully, micro-managing personal energy consumption. These policies all begin with seductive claims that government intrusion will benefit everybody and cooperation will be largely voluntary; but as benign admonitions fall short, pressures via fines and taxes, even criminal sanctions grow more draconian.</p>

White House Budget Director Peter Orszag...has been spending his time recently reading not about spreadsheets, but about psychology. In particular, he has been reading a new book by the economists George Akerlof and Robert Shiller called "Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives The Economy, and Why It Matters For Global Capitalism." ("A White House Seized by the Animal Spirits," TIME A book by two economics professors has the attention of the White House. It implies we're irrational economic animals and the government is the wise zookeeper. First, here's a definition of "animal spirits" as coined by British economist John Maynard...

FDR's dictum "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself" may have been the 20th century's most inadequate piece of economic analysis. Did you ever wonder how acting on such a fantastic premise halts a financial collapse? Or exactly how refusing to be concerned about the financial condition of banks causes them to be solvent? We can safely assume other factors rescue us from recessions and depressions. But what are they? The Obama team tells us the keys are "fiscal stimulus," aggressively easy monetary policy, and more robust regulation. Their argument is rather simple: when we have reacted...

SILVER CITY— The state Game Commission set up an open microphone in an auditorium here Tuesday to hear what people thought of the agency taking a bigger role in the federal government's Mexican gray wolf reintroduction program. The mike was in use nonstop for more than two hours as dozens of people— most of them supporters of the wolf program, along with a handful of opponents— lined up for their allotted three minutes. The wolves were called scourges, treasures, killers and symbols of a healthy ecosystem. Six years after wolves first hit the ground in the Southwest, it was clear...

States seek to lower obesity rates By Andrea Coombes, CBS MarketWatch.comLast Update: 12:03 AM ET July 5, 2002 SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- States reeling from obesity-related health-care costs are looking to cut spending by addressing the source of the problem - their overweight residents.Whether changing vending-machine fare in public buildings or requiring kids to take more physical education classes, states are cracking down on what experts call an "obesity epidemic."In the last 30 years, the rate of overweight children more than doubled in the U.S., with an estimated 13 percent now overweight, according to a National Governors Association study. The...