Free Republic

As in Sophocles’s tragedy Oedipus Rex, we are witnessing a generational drama in which inheritors kill their proverbial father to marry their mother, in this case Mother Earth. The psychology behind this pattern is above my pay grade, but many of the richest people on the planet, and their heirs, now seem anxious to disparage the economic system that created their fortunes. With few exceptions, the new rich, and particularly their children and ex-wives, embrace a racial, gender and environmental agenda that, while undermining merit and economic growth, still leaves them on top of the heap. The ideology of the...

Do monsters get any meaner than Godzilla and King Kong? You bet! Charles and David Koch are ginormous and superbad. Just ask Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid. “When you make billions of dollars a year, you can be as immoral and dishonest as your money will allow you to be,” the Nevadan said February 26 on the Senate floor. “These two brothers,” Reid added, “are about as un-American as anyone that I can imagine.” San Francisco billionaire and Democratic campaign contributor Tom Steyer told Men’s Journal that David Koch is “just a famously evil person!”

It was déjà vu on ABC News as “World News Tonight” repeated a February 24 New York Times attempt to discredit philanthropist Boone Pickens. Reporter Brian Ross even used the same lawyer linked to George Soros, the liberal billionaire who went head-to-head with Pickens in the 2004 election. [...] Ross’s story bashed Pickens for using a tax deduction Congress set up to encourage Hurricane Katrina relief donations – a deduction even ABC had previously encouraged its viewers to use. Ross pointed out that “Congress never specified the contributions had to go to Katrina relief in order to qualify.” That didn’t...

NEW YORK, NY November 17, 2004 —Intel Corp. co-founder Gordon E. Moore and his wife, Betty, have achieved the unthinkable, unseating Bill and Melinda Gates from their usual No.1 perch on BusinessWeek’s fourth annual list of the 50 Most Generous Philanthropists. The Moores, like a growing number of big givers, take a businesslike approach to philanthropy. Rather than throwing money at problems, they try to ensure the most productive use of their dollars by funding projects they believe can produce “significant and measurable” results. This desire for accountability is one of the most important themes in this year’s top 50...

By John Berlau © 2004 Insight/News World Communications Inc. Though President Bush constantly is criticized and attacked by Democratic partisans for pursuing policies that benefit "the wealthy," why are so many of what would be considered America's superrich his political opponents? In addition to the Hollywood mega-elite, which since the death of Sam Goldwyn have opposed the GOP mainly for cultural reasons, billionaire businessmen have stepped forward calling for the defeat of Bush or his policies. Most prominent has been speculator George Soros, who has pledged to raise $75 million to defeat Bush, given millions to Democratic Bush-bashing groups such...