The Injustice of High College Tuition

I met a college student last weekend and promised her I’d put a post online about the outrageously high cost of college tuition.  I’m working on some figures now and hope to post a chart by tomorrow.
Meanwhile the bottom line remains the same.  It doesn’t matter much which inflation indices or economic indicators one looks [...]

Nothing to Fear but Fear Itself – 2009

Nothing to Fear but Fear Itself – 2009
The famous words, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself” come from the first inaugural address of Franklin D. Roosevelt (March 4, 1933). These comments, of course, were made in the midst of the Great Depression. The parallels between those times and [...]

Advice for President Obama: Let America Reach Out to Developing Countries

Advice for President Obama:  Let America Reach Out to Developing Countries
Yesterday I saw a photo of Obama’s face.  His expression looked concerned.  It looked like a man who is truly idealistic and trying hard, but finding all his best efforts frustrated.
That’s probably the case.  Obama seems like a genuine idealist at heart.  Unfortunately, he’s also, [...]

Latest Pope Bashing by the Media

Latest Pope Bashing by the Media
Eager to seize even the slightest pretense for bashing the Pope, news media, European governments, and even medical journals have taken his recent comments about African AIDS completely out of context.
The Lancet even went so far as to accuse His Holiness of “manipulating science” and having “publicly distorted scientific [...]

The Irony of Jon Stewart’s Diatribes Against Wall Street

The Irony of Jon Stewart’s Diatribes Against Wall Street
Lately Jon Stewart, dean of cable television comedy and host of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, has been sanctimoniously criticizing Wall Street for their role in the economic meltdown. Technically, he’s right: greedy financial speculators supported a climate of easy mortgage lending, made loans, [...]

Will Europe Run the 21st Century? – Not With High Taxes!

Will Europe Run the 21st Century? – Not With High Taxes!
Recently I went to a shop in Brussels that specializes in English-language books — seeking recommendations for new works on Europe’s political outlook. Someone suggested a book, “Why Europe Will Run the 21st Century“, by Mark Leonard. Unfortunately, the book looks to me like [...]

Open the Presidential Debates to Third Parties!

Open the Presidential Debates to Third Parties!
A recent Zogby poll showed that most American voters would like to see the Libertarian party presidential candidate, Bob Barr, participate in the presidential debates.
However, the Commission on Presidential Debates refuses to allow this. They require that a candidate meet two inclusion criteria:  (1) that their name appears on [...]

A Trip to Aalst

This weekend I took a day trip to the city of Aalst, Belgium — just a few miles west of Brussels.
I took the trip because someone suggested there was a dance festival in Aalst that day.  But when I arrived no festival was to be seen; so instead I headed on lto the town center [...]

Helping Europe’s Young People

One nice thing with living in Brussels the chance to meet interesting people.
For example recently I met and spoke with someone who worked for a Non-governmental organization (NGO) that advises the EU government on policies that benefit young people (children and young adults). The conversation was most informative and uplifting, even to a degree [...]

Towards Positive US-Iran Cultural Relations

I am a citizen of the United States and a representative of the American Nation of people. The US Government is merely an administrative unit which has vastly overreached its legitimate powers. Unfortunately most Americans — and perhaps most people elsewhere — confuse the US Government with the American Nation. The former is [...]