A Proposed California Constitutional Amendment to Resolve the Housing Affordability Crisis The People of the State of California hereby find and declare the following: (a) Whereas, Californians are suffering from an unprecedented housing affordability crisis caused by state and local …
Trump’s Budget Proposal Stakes Unique Position for 2020 Election
President Trump has released his budget proposal for the 2021 fiscal year. The first thing to say about it is this: Having just been acquitted in the U.S. Senate impeachment trial on a strict party-line vote in an election year, …
Court Hinges Privacy Rights on Smartphone Settings
“Yes, compelling someone to reveal information on how to decrypt data is compelling testimony from that person. But obtaining information from a person’s mind is not what happens when agents pick a finger to apply to the sensor.” —Judge Edmond …
Politicians Still Misunderstand High Insulin Prices
In 2015, the Centers for Disease Control ranked diabetes seventh among the leading causes of death in the United States. If current trends continue, skyrocketing death rates and other serious consequences of poorly managed diabetes will continue. Managing diabetes is …
Protestors Rail Against California’s New Restrictions on Freelancers and the Gig Economy
On January 28, hundreds of freelance writers and other independent contractors gathered at California’s state capitol to protest Assembly Bill 5, authored by San Diego Democrat Lorena Gonzalez. Her bill targeted the so-called “gig economy,” specifically the independent drivers for …
Financially Troubled Amtrak Is Taking Taxpayers for a Ride
Last November, several news outlets reported that Amtrak, the nation’s heavily subsidized passenger rail service, was on track to break even for the first time in the company’s history. After nearly 50 continuous years of operating in the red, covering …
Parasite Makes Worthy Run for Best Picture Academy Award
If a subtitled foreign film has a shot at winning Best Picture at the Academy Awards, Parasite might be the one to do it. The dark comedy by acclaimed South Korean director Bong Joon-ho is well-scripted, universally well-acted, and carries …
Our Living Hell with Cancer: What To Take from It
[The following piece was written in observance of World Cancer Day 2020. –Ed.] March 6 of this year marks the 14th year of my wife’s passing from cancer. I want to tell readers how I, at 82, want to die: …
Jojo Rabbit’s Humanism Lifts Parody of Nazi Germany
Some critics dismissed the Oscar-nominated dark comedy Jojo Rabbit for making light of the evil embedded in Nazi Germany when the movie was released in October 2019. Hitler and National Socialism were, after all, existential threats to freedom and liberty …
How California Can Solve the Housing and Homeless Crisis
“Homelessness is a national crisis, one that’s spreading across the West Coast and cities across the country,” proclaims California Gov. Gavin Newsom. “The state of California is treating it as a real emergency.” Newsom wants to spend $750 million to …
The New McCarthyism Has No Sense of Decency
During CNN’s last presidential debate in Des Moines, Sen. Amy Klobuchar said Sen. Joseph McCarthy had “blacklisted people” and that Joseph Welch said to him, “Have you no sense of decency?” If anyone in 2020 found this reference puzzling, it …
U.S. Treasury Secretary Confirms an Inconvenient Truth: Government Has a Spending Problem
It’s not often a cabinet official acknowledges that the U.S. government has behavioral flaws, but that’s exactly what happened on January 23, 2020, when U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin confirmed that the U.S. government has a spending problem. Treasury Secretary …
