TrogHeads

Advice to parents: Explore non-college options

2012-01-11T18:36:00.001-06:00

Looking ahead at the next bubble to burst: higher education. Costs keep going up at traditional four-year colleges, in part because professors do not make teaching their prime activity.

While students write poorly, professors prattle instead of teach. Meanwhile, parents pay tuition because it's socially the thing to do—and they've also bought the talk that college graduates earn much more than non-graduates. That's true, but an education economic expert estimates that two-thirds of superior earning comes from the intelligence and character of the earner rather than the degree itself.

by Marvin Olasky

Romney's authenticity problem

2012-01-11T18:23:00.000-06:00

The most persuasive case for Romney has always been that if he's the nominee, the election will be a referendum on Obama. But that calculation always assumed that rank-and-file Republicans will vote for their nominee in huge numbers no matter what. That may well still be the case, but it feels less guaranteed every day.

by Jonah Goldberg

Will college bubble burst from public subsidies?

2011-07-21T13:25:00.001-05:00

We are still suffering from the bursting of the housing bubble created by low interest rates, lowered mortgage standards, and subsidies to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Those policies encouraged the granting of mortgages to people who should never have gotten them — and when they defaulted, the whole financial sector nearly collapsed.

Now some people see signs that another bubble is bursting. They call it the higher-education bubble.

by Michael Barone

The horserace for July 21, 2011

2011-07-21T13:15:00.001-05:00

For all intents and purposes, from here on out, we have to presume Rick Perry is a candidate for the Presidency of the United States until he declares otherwise. I think it is safe to conclude he's in.

As Perry rises, Pawlenty falls as does Bachmann. Cain implodes. Romney stagnates. And then there's the funny tale of Jon Huntsman. It kind of makes me chuckle. There's a lot to get into this week in the horserace for the White House.

by Erick Erickson

Benedict XVI and the future of the West

2011-07-20T08:37:00.001-05:00

Since October 16, 1978, the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican has been given an authoritative interpretation by two popes who, as young men, had both been influential participants at Vatican II. And with that authoritative interpretation, which synthesises the achievements of Catholic intellectual life since the Leonine revival of the late 19th century, a decisive moment has been reached in the history of the Catholic Church: the catechetical-devotional Catholicism of the Counter-Reformation is giving way to what may be called Evangelical Catholicism.

by George Weigel

Can Greeks become Germans?

2011-07-20T08:33:00.001-05:00

Natural resources create corruption, as groups compete for who controls the tap. That is exactly what happened in Greece when it got access to huge Euro-loans and subsidies. The natural entrepreneurship of Greeks was channeled in the wrong direction — in a competition for government funds and contracts.

by Tom Friedman

Ten ways progressive policies harm society's moral character

2011-07-19T17:11:00.001-05:00

While liberals are certain about the moral superiority of liberal policies, the truth is that those policies actually diminish a society's moral character. Many individual liberals are fine people, but the policies they advocate tend to make a people worse.

by Dennis Prager

Why Mike Pence catches conservatives eyes

2010-12-09T12:50:00.001-06:00

To those who say conservatives should set aside social issues and stress only economic ones, Pence replies: Economic problems are urgent, but social problems remain important in a way that blurs the distinction between social and economic issues. With the fluency of a former talk radio host, he says: "You would not be able to print enough money in a thousand years to pay for the government you would need if the traditional family continues to collapse."

by George Will

The case for engaged justices

2010-12-06T10:50:00.001-06:00

Debates about judicial review concern the propriety and scope of judicial supervision of democracy and involve the countermajoritarian dilemma: How to square the principle of popular sovereignty with the practice of allowing appointed judges, accountable to no contemporary constituency, to overturn laws enacted by elected legislators?

by George Will

In entrepreneurship we trust

2010-12-06T10:47:00.001-06:00

There is more than just a purely economic argument to be made for increasing levels of entrepreneurship. A country's ability to foster a climate of entrepreneurship and opportunity has the greatest effect on that country's overall wellbeing. Entrepreneurial societies are by-and-large happier societies in which citizens have high levels of freedom and opportunity to determine the course of their own lives.

by Alan McCormick

The big American leak

2010-12-06T10:42:00.002-06:00

O.K. I admit it. I enjoy reading other people's mail as much as the next guy, so going through the WikiLeaks cables has made for some fascinating reading. What's between the lines in those cables, though, is another matter. It is a rather sobering message. America is leaking power.

by Thomas Friedman

Auburn, Oregon playing in BC-mess Corruption Bowl

2010-12-06T10:36:00.002-06:00

Excuse me for my lack of holiday cheer. It's hard to be merry when the two best players in college football – Auburn's Cam Newton and Oregon's LaMichael James -- have turned the national title game into the Sewer Bowl

by Mike Bianchi

Making parks decent again

2010-12-01T12:29:00.001-06:00

America is filled with parks that are filthy, dangerous and badly maintained. Bryant Park, in midtown Manhattan, was once such an unsavory place. But now it's nice. What changed? It's been essentially privatized.

by John Stossel

Can Republicans talk?

2010-12-01T01:14:00.001-06:00

Neither the Republicans nor the Democrats can afford to have all the tax rates go up in January because they couldn't get together and pass a bill to prevent that from happening. But the nature of that bill matters, not just for politicians but — far more important — for the economy.

by Thomas Sowell

No time to panic

2010-11-27T09:53:00.001-06:00

Stocks are getting ripped by North Korea and Ireland, with all the fears that go along with those two stories. People should not panic. A lot of good news out there is suggesting a strong economy, regardless of what the Fed says.

by Larry Kudlow

This Thanksgiving, serve gratitude

2010-11-25T12:18:00.001-06:00

Our culture offers so much, materially, that it's easy for our children-and for us, too—to take for granted how much we really have. The antidote? Gratitude.

by Rebecca Hagelin

Happy starvation day

2010-11-24T13:02:00.001-06:00

Had today's political class been in power in 1623, tomorrow's holiday would have been called "Starvation Day" instead of Thanksgiving. Of course, most of us wouldn't be alive to celebrate it.

by John Stossel

The pope plays it right

2010-11-24T13:00:00.001-06:00

The Church's position is that the truest notes are those that not only celebrate life and love but cut through the whitewater din of devouring time. As those notes become harder to hear, the answer isn't to stop playing them but to turn up the volume.

by Jonah  Goldberg

Why conservatives are happier than liberals

2010-11-23T12:12:00.001-06:00

Conservative Americans are happier than liberal Americans. Liberals respond this way: "If we're unhappier, it's because we are more upset than conservatives over the plight of those less fortunate than ourselves." But common sense and data suggest other explanations.
by Dennis Prager

Ireland's Paradise Lost

2010-11-22T10:53:00.001-06:00

The island had spent decade after decade isolated, premodern and rural — and then in just a few short years, boom, modernity! There was a time, not so very long ago, when everyone wanted to take credit for this transformation. Nobody tells those kinds of stories anymore.

by Ross Douthat

The TS of A takes control

2010-11-22T00:22:00.001-06:00

Fifty years ago, William F. Buckley wrote a memorable complaint about the fact that Americans do not complain enough. His point, like most of the points he made during his well-lived life, is, unfortunately, more pertinent than ever.

by George Will

Keeping Pelosi wrong signal after mid-terms

2010-11-19T16:30:00.001-06:00

When the rules of the House of Representatives forced the Democrats to confront a painful choice among their leaders, they did what Democrats are often inclined to do. They changed the rules.

by David Broder

The trap of the Federal Reserve's dual mandate

2010-11-18T15:08:00.001-06:00

In 1977, Congress gave the Federal Reserve a "dual mandate." Although the central bank is a creature of Congress, it is, in trying to fulfill this mandate, becoming a fourth branch of government. If Congress wants to make amends, it should pare the mandate to what it once was.

by George Will

Thoughts at the Alamo

2010-11-18T09:03:00.000-06:00

The proximity of the shrine of Texas liberty and the cathedral church of the archdiocese of San Antonio prompts a reflection on the paradoxes of Catholic history in the New World and the contemporary challenges facing Catholicism on both sides of the Rio Grande, including the question as to whether an increasingly Hispanic Church in the United States, with Mexican-born bishops assuming the leadership of the Church in places like both Los Angeles and San Antonio, challenge its brethren south of the Rio Grande to stop blaming their problems on "El Norte" and to become the protagonists of their own history.

by George Weigel

Obama can't play center

2010-11-17T07:43:00.001-06:00

Should Obama pull a Clinton and "triangulate?" This has been a burning question inside the Beltway ever since the polls showed the Great Shellacking bearing down on the White House.

by Jonah Goldberg

Deficit reduction

2010-11-16T16:24:00.001-06:00

Another deficit reduction commission has now made its recommendations. My own recommendation for dealing with deficits would include stopping the appointment of deficit reduction commissions.

by Thomas Sowell

This raging fire

2010-11-16T16:20:00.001-06:00

The crisis faced by black children cannot be solved without bringing neglectful parents back into the fold.

by Bob Herbert

The vast child-fattening conspiracy

2010-11-12T12:03:00.001-06:00

When it comes to the increasing sex, violence and profanity in entertainment media, the social libertines are indifferent. They insist that children will hardly be warped or ruined by the media they consume. They chortle at the paranoia of Hollywood critics. Their mantra: If you don't like it, just turn the channel. But if the issue isn't indecency, but instead, say, obesity, so many of those titans of "tolerance" suddenly become the censors.

by Brent Bozell