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"Human activities are not influencing the global climate in a perceptible way. Climate will continue to change, as it always has in the past, warming and cooling on different time scales and for different reasons, regardless of human action. I would also argue that—should it occur—a modest warming would be on the whole beneficial......... We can only trust that reason will prevail in the face of an onslaught of propaganda like Al Gore’s movie and despite the incessant misinformation generated by the media. Today, the imposed costs are still modest, and mostly hidden in taxes and in charges for electricity...

IN THE PAST few years there has been increasing concern about global climate change on the part of the media, politicians, and the public. It has been stimulated by the idea that human activities may influence global climate adversely and that therefore corrective action is required on the part of governments. Recent evidence suggests that this concern is misplaced. Human activities are not influencing the global climate in a perceptible way. Climate will continue to change, as it always has in the past, warming and cooling on different time scales and for different reasons, regardless of human action. I would...

Occasionally I will hear a friend say, as he contemplates the utter wasteland our urban public schools have become, and as he views the deterioration of American society, ‘what this country needs is another depression”. Having been a young child during the ‘Great Depression’, and having therefore the interest in learning all I could about it, I do not agree with the thought. I do not agree that we need to go through another era when millions lived in abject poverty. I do agree with the concerns for our country, as teachers, numbed by classroom experiences and handcuffed by politically...

Before Hurricane Katrina flooded the tear ducts of our politicians and the vaults of our treasury, President Bush had us talking about America’s “ownership society.” This is one of the best things he has done. He did it prominently in his reelection campaign. He did it bravely in relation to Social Security, which risks the outrage of the media and the votes of older people who always vote. If he did it in some ways foolishly, never mind. It showed promise because it had us talking about something central for a change. This question of ownership is at the heart...

On my radio show today, I addressed the topic of military “counter-recruiters.” You know what military recruiters are—the people who go to high schools and colleges and tell young people about their opportunities to serve their country in the military. Well, now there are also “counter-recruiters” who go to these schools and tell young people why they shouldn’t serve their country in the military.

Walter E. Williams John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics George Mason University Walter E. Williams, the John M. Olin distinguished professor of economics at George Mason University, holds a B.A. degree from California State University at Los Angeles and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in economics from UCLA. He has also served on the faculties of Los Angeles City College, California State University at Los Angeles and Temple University. He has received numerous fellowships and awards, including a Hoover Institution National Fellowship and the Valley Forge Freedoms Foundation George Washington Medal of Honor. A nationally syndicated weekly columnist, his articles...

Whatever Happened to Free Enterprise? Ronald Reagan Fortieth President of the United States The following is excerpted from a speech delivered on November 10, 1977, on the Hillsdale College campus as part of the Ludwig von Mises Lecture Series. Originally published in Imprimis in January 1978, the speech was reprinted in Educating for Liberty: The Best of Imprimis, 1972-2002 (Hillsdale College Press, 2002). G overnment, by going outside its proper province, has caused many, if not most, of the problems that vex us. How much are we to blame for what has happened? Beginning with the traumatic experience of the...

Hillsdale College March Imprimis The Threat from Lawyers is No Joke Walter Olson Walter Olson, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, is a graduate of Yale University. He has served as an adviser to political campaigns, testified several times before Congress, and appears frequently on TV shows such as Crossfire and The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. He writes regularly for such publications as the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and Reason, and his books include The Excuse Factory: How Employment Law is Paralyzing the American Workplace; The Litigation Explosion: What Happened When America Unleashed the Lawsuit; and...

Jeb Bush describes the moral cancer eating away at America and suggests that instead of some new “miracle cure,” we need some simple, old-fashioned remedies that we can all apply to heal our nation. His remarks were delivered at Hillsdale’s October 1996 Shavano Institute Seminar, “Educating for Virtue: The New Values Revolution,” in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Broadcaster Paul Harvey told a version of the following story on the radio many years ago: There was an old man who was a great admirer of democracy and public education. So close to his heart did he hold both institutions that he...

Hillsdale College January Imprimis The Liberal Assault on Freedom of Speech Thomas G. West Thomas G. West is a professor of politics at the University of Dallas, and a member of the board of directors and a senior fellow of the Claremont Institute. He received a B.A. at Cornell in 1967, a Ph.D. in Government at the Claremont Graduate School in 1974, and served in Vietnam as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Army in 1969-70. Among his several books are Plato’s Apology of Socrates: An Interpretation with a New Translation, Four Texts on Socrates (with Grace Starry West), and Vindicating...

Imprimis What’s Wrong with the CIA? Herbert E. Meyer Herbert E. Meyer is founder and president of Real-World Intelligence, Inc., a company that designs business intelligence systems for corporations and financial institutions, and of Storm King Press. During the Reagan administration, he served as special assistant to the director of the Central Intelligence Agency and as vice chairman of the CIA’s National Intelligence Council. He is the recipient of the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal, the intelligence community’s highest honor. Prior to his service with the government, Mr. Meyer was an associate editor of Fortune, where he specialized in...

Imprimis William J. Bennett is a distinguished fellow at the Heritage Foundation, co-director of Empower America and chairman and co-founder of K12, an Internet-based elementary and secondary school. He has a B.A. from Williams College, a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Texas and a law degree from Harvard. In 1981, President Reagan chose him to head the National Endowment for the Humanities, and in 1985 he was named Secretary of the Department of Education. In 1989, President Bush appointed him director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. He has written and edited 14 books, two...

January Imprimis Charles Krauthammer, winner of the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for distinguished commentary, writes a nationally syndicated editorial page column for the Washington Post Writers Group. Educated at McGill University, Oxford University and Harvard University, where he received an M.D. in 1975, Dr. Krauthammer practiced medicine for three years as a resident and then chief resident in psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital before moving to Washington, D.C., and launching his journalism career in 1978. Today, in addition to his weekly column that runs in over 100 newspapers, he writes regular essays for Time magazine, contributes to several others including...

November Imprimis Our Responsibility to America Larry P. Arnn President, Hillsdale College The following is adapted from a speech delivered by Dr. Arnn on October 3, 2002, at the Broadmoor Hotel and Resort in Colorado Springs, Colorado, at the 20th anniversary conference of the Shavano Institute for National Leadership. ______________________________________________________ We meet here to celebrate the 20th anniversary of these Shavano National Leadership conferences. Begun by my predecessor George Roche III in 1982, these conferences have played a powerful part in the recent history of our College. Many of you here know how much fun they can be. You...

Three Key Principles in the War Against Terrorism Benjamin Netanyahu Former Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu was born in Tel Aviv in 1949, grew up in Jerusalem, and spent his high school years in the United States, where his father taught history. In 1967, he enlisted in the Israel Defense Forces and served in an elite commando unit. Wounded in the rescue operation of hijacked Sabena Airline hostages at Ben Gurion Airport and later cited for outstanding operational leadership, he was discharged from the I.D.F. in 1972. Mr. Netanyahu received a B.S. in Architecture and an M.S. in Management...

The Assault on the Boy Scouts of America Midge Decter Author and Editor Midge Decter is an author and editor whose essays and reviews, mostly in the field of social criticism, have appeared over the past four decades in a number of periodicals, including Harper's, The Atlantic, The American Spectator, First Things, National Review, The New Republic, and The Weekly Standard. She is a regular and frequent contributor to Commentary. She has published four books: The Liberated Woman and Other Americans; The New Chastity and Other Arguments Against Women's Liberation; Liberal Parents, Radical Children; and An Old Wife's Tale: My...

Bradley A. Smith Commissioner, Federal Election Commission Bradley A. Smith was appointed to the Federal Election Commission in May 2000. Prior to that, he was professor of law at Capital University Law School in Columbus, Ohio. His writings on campaign finance and other election issues have appeared in the Yale Law Journal, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, the Georgetown Law Journal, the Harvard Journal of Legislation, the Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy, and many other publications. He has testified numerous times before Congress, and is a frequent contributor to USA Today and The Wall Street Journal. In...