Froma Harrop from CaglePost.com Columns by Froma Harrop from CaglePost.com http://rss.caglepost.com/columns.aspx?name=Froma+Harrop Thu, 02 Jul 2009 07:00:00 GMT http://backend.userland.com/rss RSS.NET: http://rss-net.sf.net/ A Health-Care Greeting: Welcome To Wal-Mart Americans agree on health care. Ask them, "Who should pay for it," and they all answer, "Not me." But follow up with, "Who, then?" and you have a fight on your hands. Wal-Mart has greatly improved the quality of the conversation with its newfound sup... http://www.caglepost.com/article/d97000c2-14a3-4712-96a8-33370fd67862.html Thu, 02 Jul 2009 07:00:00 GMT For Straying Pols, It's The Hurt That Matters An open-minded individual, I am willing to support an adulterer for elective office. But my ability to look past marital infidelity depends on how much humiliation was heaped on the wife. The details matter. And measuring their importance is hard to ... http://www.caglepost.com/article/b256ddfd-54f2-421b-8d8b-aae454c07039.html Tue, 30 Jun 2009 07:00:00 GMT Helping Borrowers Save Themselves An 11th Commandment could read: Thou shalt not cheat the meek. Morality is reason alone for a Consumer Financial Protection Agency to shield the little guys from the lending barracudas - as well as from their own bad decisions (some of them, anyway).... http://www.caglepost.com/article/f34c6ef0-e844-40eb-b1ee-aef274d3995a.html Thu, 25 Jun 2009 07:00:00 GMT Timid Obama Succumbs To Old Politics This has been a tough week for the hopeful ones who believed President Obama's vow to break with the old politics. Every day, it seems, the president caved in to another Democratic interest group working against the public weal. Let's start with the ... http://www.caglepost.com/article/ded2961b-b6a3-4319-ab9e-6e7f8e502e3f.html Thu, 18 Jun 2009 07:00:00 GMT Deficit Worry Is The Greenest Shoot Never mind firmer retail sales, rising stock prices and moderating job losses. The greenest shoot is Americans' changing economic fixation. There's less panic over collapsing banks, home foreclosures and the prospect of another Great Depression. Atte... http://www.caglepost.com/article/a269912f-0888-4a28-92ea-f3b5020b2bc9.html Tue, 16 Jun 2009 07:00:00 GMT Sotomayor, The New Yorker While walking recently on a crowded Manhattan sidewalk, I suddenly saw a wall of water crash down from somewhere over our heads. The source was a truck from which a fat hose was pouring water on the flower baskets hanging from posts. The baskets were... http://www.caglepost.com/article/d9c138f1-3348-4d43-9764-d57c130bae4b.html Thu, 11 Jun 2009 07:00:00 GMT True, But So Does El Paso County, Where Medicare Spending Is Half That Of McAllen A Texas-Size Medical Lesson McAllen, Texas, spends more per person on health care than any other metropolitan area in America, except for Miami.. 4 Jun 2009 Motown Wonders: Where Did Our Love Go? The alternative to a government rescue of General Mo... http://www.caglepost.com/article/1496b38a-8d91-4a79-8316-d65602623d41.html Tue, 09 Jun 2009 07:00:00 GMT A Texas-Size Medical Lesson McAllen, Texas, spends more per person on health care than any other metropolitan area in America, except for Miami. Why would this poor border town spend $15,000 a year per Medicare enrollee? Rochester, Minn., home to the famed Mayo Clinic, only spe... http://www.caglepost.com/article/b9cf9041-c4e3-43fe-94c9-a09a6b77ade2.html Tue, 09 Jun 2009 07:00:00 GMT Motown Wonders: Where Did Our Love Go? The alternative to a government rescue of General Motors is the collapse of the industrial Midwest. Nonetheless, there's been a surprisingly large amount of dumping on the Chapter 11 bankruptcy plan. The government-sponsored deal seems to have stirre... http://www.caglepost.com/article/32d2daf6-6525-4784-8666-65b3f29aa721.html Thu, 04 Jun 2009 07:00:00 GMT Toad Hall Madness Fades, But Sadness Lingers The most notable downsizing of the American home has been in its price. The luxury end usually escapes the worst of housing downturns, but not this time. For those seeking a reprieve from teardown mania, this is not a bad development. I refer to the ... http://www.caglepost.com/article/32bc925e-b702-4cfd-b5ef-12f173609904.html Tue, 02 Jun 2009 07:00:00 GMT Sotomayor And Condescending Identity Politics Sotomayor and Condescending Identity Politics Comments Comments Email updates Email updates RSS RSS Feed AddThis Social Bookmark Button If you like Froma Harrop, you might enjoy * A Peek Under the Christmas Tree 2008 Rhonda Chriss Lokeman * What's in... http://www.caglepost.com/article/23f06f5b-18a6-4069-b060-788e3f5094aa.html Thu, 28 May 2009 07:00:00 GMT Obama's Halfway Change On Stem Cell Research President Obama often tries to defuse divisive debates by talking of "false choices." A false choice implies that by restating the argument, both sides can get what they want. On economics, Obama speaks of the false choice between "unforgiving capita... http://www.caglepost.com/article/5e3c5427-3a1e-419c-8676-d5c8c5791786.html Tue, 26 May 2009 07:00:00 GMT Cars: What We Need vs. What We Want The new fuel-efficiency and emission standards may lead to smaller cars with lighter engines. This is not what consumers prefer, auto analysts tell us. They may be right that Americans want big, cheap cars. They also want free gasoline, clean air and... http://www.caglepost.com/article/689916d0-5ca6-42ef-b1f7-5559db811e8e.html Thu, 21 May 2009 07:00:00 GMT New Standards For Credit-Card Decency By the time you read this, the Senate may have passed a bill to put a leash on the nastiest credit-card company tactics. Lenders warn that changing the rules would make it harder for people to get credit. And a good thing that would be. Rest assured,... http://www.caglepost.com/article/f4da1a35-22e3-438a-8cdf-9a584e04d0bc.html Tue, 19 May 2009 07:00:00 GMT Illegal Immigration In Tough Times While the recession has rattled every rung of economic ladder, it has ravaged the bottom bars. Unemployment stands at just over 4 percent for college graduates but at nearly 15 percent for those lacking high-school diplomas. In poor black neighborhoo... http://www.caglepost.com/article/219ad42d-1060-4a5a-9a3a-5a874c4424c4.html Thu, 14 May 2009 07:00:00 GMT Oversharing, Exhibitionism, Loneliness It pains me to take Elizabeth Edwards to task for anything. She is suffering from terminal cancer and from assertions that her cheating husband fathered a child with a party girl. So my first instinct is to totally lay off. The only rap against her, ... http://www.caglepost.com/article/2fa4c356-7e24-4bf3-b4be-84dc332999aa.html Tue, 12 May 2009 07:00:00 GMT Health Care: Will Democrats Ride Camel or Horse? A camel, the old saying goes, is a horse made by committee. We don't want camel health reform. We don't want Washington lawmakers debating whether it should have one hump or two. We want a horse - a sleek machine that performs with efficiency. One ma... http://www.caglepost.com/article/5c053c0c-9bef-4cdb-abe3-a293ebb06a7d.html Thu, 07 May 2009 07:00:00 GMT Better Service In Bad Times? As tornadoes, thunder and lightning rampaged across the Heartland last week, the crowds piled up at Chicago's O'Hare Airport. Every bar stool had someone on it, and restaurant lines stretched down the corridors. This was a bizarro world, where the ai... http://www.caglepost.com/article/c075b37d-7bb9-4a0e-8117-efa0414ad950.html Tue, 05 May 2009 07:00:00 GMT Man And His Self-Interest In a Q&A last year with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, former Pennsylvania Rep. Pat Toomey was asked what book he wanted Barack Obama to read. The Republican quickly recommended the work of Adam Smith, the 18th century economist and philosopher who h... http://www.caglepost.com/article/7999f562-dc2d-4455-86c9-39761c2162f2.html Thu, 30 Apr 2009 07:00:00 GMT Throwing Out Utah Stereotypes SALT LAKE CITY - American flags and lush spring grass lined the long drive of a Mormon meetinghouse here in the desert capital of Utah. Television trucks parking outside. Utahans were gathering last week for the funeral of Bill Orton, a Democrat who ... http://www.caglepost.com/article/45fc82a7-588a-4878-a0f1-67a51181113a.html Tue, 28 Apr 2009 07:00:00 GMT Hounded And Stressed, But Not By Technology Consider Cary Grant in "North by Northwest." Sinister forces may be chasing him for reasons he can't comprehend, but this is 1959, and neither the BlackBerry nor the Global Positioning System chip that goes inside it has been invented. And so the mys... http://www.caglepost.com/article/c4e9645f-d1fd-445e-bf79-63a15e883ab8.html Thu, 23 Apr 2009 07:00:00 GMT Bottom Line For The Already Insured The hardest group to sell on national health reform is those who don't desperately need it. That would include Americans who already have coverage through a workplace, about 160 million in all, and are reasonably happy with their deal. The comfortabl... http://www.caglepost.com/article/5d980149-1604-4993-b02e-3e59508334a3.html Tue, 21 Apr 2009 07:00:00 GMT A State-ly March Toward Gay Marriage This has been a month of forward leaps in the campaign for gay-marriage - or so it is said. The Iowa Supreme Court struck down a ban on same-sex marriage, providing a toehold in the heartland. And the Vermont Legislature legalized gay marriage, marki... http://www.caglepost.com/article/e49c93a8-e887-45ab-a545-472abd016436.html Thu, 16 Apr 2009 07:00:00 GMT Economic Anxiety: Like Rats In A Cage One day last week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average shot up 246 points. On CNBC, Jim Cramer punched the Sousa March button. NPR's "Marketplace" boomed, "We're in the Money." Yeah! Happy days are here again. Right? And just when the Prozac started to ... http://www.caglepost.com/article/c0460db2-d8db-408b-8e84-1ea9baa3b115.html Tue, 14 Apr 2009 07:00:00 GMT Let's End Energy Policy Whipsaw Seems a lifetime ago that the price of crude approached $150 a barrel, but it was only last summer. Remember how people went nuts? Santa Barbara County voted for oil drilling off California's spectacular coast. Santa Barbara of all places, epicenter ... http://www.caglepost.com/article/6e82c584-9be4-4333-9a73-b2132bb6af49.html Thu, 09 Apr 2009 07:00:00 GMT A Nation of Unwed Drudgery A neighbor in her 30s, a very fine woman, recently had a child with her boyfriend. They live together. The boyfriend's mother and father enjoy being grandparents. The boyfriend gets to have a son, as well as live-in female companionship. How eager he... http://www.caglepost.com/article/3e2e832f-b110-492c-b966-0516c8f3d3a1.html Tue, 07 Apr 2009 07:00:00 GMT Centrist Dems: Dogged If They Do, Dogged If They Don't There's trouble around the Democratic campfire. The party has the White House and solid congressional majorities. But what it doesn't have is everyone on the same page, strumming the same chords, singing the same tune. Liberals who kept the fires bur... http://www.caglepost.com/article/8a19890b-24a3-40e8-8744-8815b598f95f.html Thu, 02 Apr 2009 07:00:00 GMT Socialism for Any Occasion Many conservatives think they've found a winner in tarring President Obama and his allies as "socialists." Earnest attempts to explain why "it isn't so" are futile, as is asking people what the heck they mean when they say raising taxes is "socialism... http://www.caglepost.com/article/b4dbe034-f93b-4ee3-97d7-3f6f9dd925e3.html Tue, 31 Mar 2009 07:00:00 GMT Springtime For New England Republicans? There was a time when New England sent lots of Republicans to Washington. These were fiscally conservative but socially liberal "Rockefeller Republicans," also found in the Northwest, Midwest and Mid-Atlantic states. As the party turned socially cons... http://www.caglepost.com/article/24db972c-9416-4b1b-9df4-2034f0cb5aab.html Thu, 26 Mar 2009 07:00:00 GMT Economy and Health Care Are Married The Duke basketball coach and most other Americans believe that President Obama is unwisely diverting his attention from the sick economy. In the case of Coach Mike Krzyzewski, the unhappiness is part personal. Obama recently took time out of his bus... http://www.caglepost.com/article/1ba94b4f-3465-4ede-b570-4e994dcb17be.html Tue, 24 Mar 2009 07:00:00 GMT GOP's Sliding Scale for Self-Discipline In his essay "Why the GOP Can't Win With Minorities," conservative scholar Shelby Steele almost nails the half-question in the title. An African-American, Steele contrasts the "moral activism" of liberals with conservative calls for personal discipli... http://www.caglepost.com/article/fd636cd5-77d9-41b3-b929-eb29299b4553.html Tue, 17 Mar 2009 07:00:00 GMT Obama Takes a Dive on Earmarks President Obama has vowed to curb the number of earmarks, also known as pork, in future spending bills. A commendable promise, had his number been zero. Unfortunately, the president wants to deal with an unsavory dish by cutting the portion size. Ear... http://www.caglepost.com/article/905df421-3fdb-444d-9985-e15397bd488c.html Thu, 12 Mar 2009 07:00:00 GMT Don't Surrender To Recession Stress Do recessions make people sicker? Some studies say yes, some say no. The better question might be, "How is this recession affecting health?" Not in a good way, comes the answer. This recession - depression? - seems different. This recession is messi... http://www.caglepost.com/article/f207325f-9556-4a22-a682-d435ee3c813b.html Tue, 10 Mar 2009 07:00:00 GMT Rich Shouldn't Get Overwrought Amid pleas to spare the rich, the right is accusing the Obama administration of waging vile class warfare. They envision wooden carts carrying the wealthiest 2 percent to the guillotine. Are the critics right? Only in the tumbrels of their mind. What... http://www.caglepost.com/article/89e76783-9389-4a76-a816-9e237faef102.html Thu, 05 Mar 2009 08:00:00 GMT Canada Profits From Bizarre U.S. Bans When a pizzeria closes, the pizzeria down the block usually sees a surge in business. That principle applies to commerce in the larger North American neighborhood. Whenever the United States locks the gate on a plausible economic activity, Canadians ... http://www.caglepost.com/article/d0d53f40-fc8b-4043-bdcb-071a2c4f96b5.html Tue, 03 Mar 2009 08:00:00 GMT GOP Keeps Avoiding Its Fiscal 'Principles' How big should government be? The answer is: As big as it has to be - and for small-government types, no bigger than it has to be. The whole debate about the proper size of government is a blind alley leading into a dead end. Government must grow at ... http://www.caglepost.com/article/5102eb56-536b-47a3-a569-a3cc46414aec.html Thu, 26 Feb 2009 08:00:00 GMT Let Bankruptcy Courts Change Mortgages Let bankruptcy courts modify the terms of home mortgages, says President Obama and legislation now before Congress. Banks don't like the idea, but it's a good one, possibly even for them. We are talking about Chapter 13 bankruptcies, in which trouble... http://www.caglepost.com/article/8b59187b-d92f-425f-bfe0-8c3c7cc094bd.html Tue, 24 Feb 2009 08:00:00 GMT Latino-American Dream On Hold Open most any urban newspaper to the foreclosure notices, and you'll find the list heavy with Hispanic names. Times are tough for Americans of every demographic, but for Latinos they are grimmer still. Is this the end of the Latino-American Dream? Th... http://www.caglepost.com/article/aa4373d5-6f35-41aa-afd5-2073fe3b7e7c.html Thu, 19 Feb 2009 08:00:00 GMT Will Obama Cross The 'Reefer Rubicon'? The War on Drugs is ridiculous, behold the storm over Michael Phelps' partaking of marijuana, an illegal substance that at least two presidents have used. It is tragic, witness the raging gang violence along the Mexican border. Whether the Obama admi... http://www.caglepost.com/article/a99a9542-b0cf-42ed-9300-25c63a2847d8.html Tue, 17 Feb 2009 08:00:00 GMT The Old Folks Are Doing OK "Round up everybody that can ride a horse or pull a trigger," John Wayne says in "Chisum." "Let's break out some Winchesters." That's how I feel every time someone calls for "saving" Social Security. Conservatives have been likening it to the Bernie ... http://www.caglepost.com/article/e45bbb4a-3b78-4f8e-b081-9697ed644d12.html Thu, 12 Feb 2009 08:00:00 GMT GOP On Stimulus: First, Do Harm Barack Obama never guaranteed he would end partisan rancor in Washington. He said he'd try. The assumption was that Republicans might want to work with Democrats to reach shared goals. Passing a stimulus plan to stop the economic freefall would seem ... http://www.caglepost.com/article/3c0762e8-421b-4ebf-a108-1c7d08351810.html Tue, 10 Feb 2009 08:00:00 GMT Raining Scams In The Sunbelt PALM BEACH, Fla. - Oh, it's another sun-blessed, balmy day in Palm Beach County. Were it not for the foreclosures, collapse in tourism and Madoff scandal, all would seem perfect. Did I mention retailing? Dior on Worth Avenue vanished the day after Ch... http://www.caglepost.com/article/b49d7e6e-f019-44bd-a66a-9c0747a7d4a3.html Thu, 05 Feb 2009 08:00:00 GMT Daschle Was Too Compromised For The Job Tom Daschle's withdrawal from consideration as future secretary of Health and Human Services had to happen. So seemingly strong on health-care policy but weak on ethics, the man President Obama had picked to remake the American health-care system had... http://www.caglepost.com/article/9d474d86-bd18-44b8-aea0-641c13b2a250.html Thu, 05 Feb 2009 08:00:00 GMT Daschle Is Too Compromised For The Job Where did Tom Daschle get the idea that he didn't have to pay his taxes? The question sets off wild mood swings about the man President Obama has picked to remake the American health-care system - his apology notwithstanding. On one hand, the former ... http://www.caglepost.com/article/5e2b51dd-30f0-47ae-8072-fb3004240eda.html Tue, 03 Feb 2009 08:00:00 GMT Sports Man Therapy For Tough Times I envy Sports Man. He can rise above his own problems by focusing on the triumphs or setbacks of The Team. Last October, the stock market was tanking and so was Sports Man's beloved Red Sox. Did Sports Man worry that his dreams of easy living were be... http://www.caglepost.com/article/8ff7dfa9-3f92-4f00-8ef1-c169596bd4a4.html Thu, 29 Jan 2009 08:00:00 GMT Getting Off the Dog Track I know a lot of greyhounds. A greyhound track operates near my house, and many of its retirees end up in the neighborhood. Something you notice about these dogs: Greyhounds are built for speed, but once they move into a comfy home, they're in no hurr... http://www.caglepost.com/article/8696b09e-6b03-4437-a400-59c1185cc6d3.html Tue, 27 Jan 2009 08:00:00 GMT Gilded Age For Institutions Also Over Mark Twain was thinking big in 1874 when he moved into his new 19-room mansion in Hartford, Conn. The Missouri-born writer was not one to economize. Following the success of "Tom Sawyer" in 1881, he hired none other than Louis Comfort Tiffany to "do"... http://www.caglepost.com/article/ca10cd71-3d52-4e34-9600-98bfb4a8254c.html Thu, 22 Jan 2009 08:00:00 GMT Why Health Reform May Happen Let the name-calling begin. A national health plan is again proposed, and its foes are trying to deal it death by unflattering labels. The old favorites include "socialized medicine" and "government takeover of health care." Some 61 percent of Americ... http://www.caglepost.com/article/07bdc3dd-3c9b-4d09-b0bc-2f0efda57591.html Tue, 20 Jan 2009 08:00:00 GMT In Speech, Obama Won't Do An Fdr Even in this awful economy, the voters seem content to toggle between the two main political parties. If Republicans aren't doing the job, then let Democrats try. Barack Obama? He seems competent. There's little agitation for a radical third-party re... http://www.caglepost.com/article/b332bd04-c170-480b-b230-e978e30f61b6.html Thu, 15 Jan 2009 08:00:00 GMT Taxes Will Have To Be Raised, Eventually During the presidential campaign, Barack Obama portrayed his tax plan as a way to help "spread the wealth around." That was an unfortunate choice of words, though not as silly as the "conservative" formulation that raising taxes "punishes success." T... http://www.caglepost.com/article/859f6509-3c03-4369-8b09-0e6353fa0c80.html Tue, 13 Jan 2009 08:00:00 GMT Onus Now On Dems For Ethical Government There are those who regard politics as sport and those who see it as an adjunct to government. They frame things very differently. When New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson exited as commerce secretary nominee, the sports fans saw a dropped ball by an oth... http://www.caglepost.com/article/7b7574cd-2815-45cd-a688-4e9ff934076d.html Thu, 08 Jan 2009 08:00:00 GMT The Mortgage Thieves Return First come the shady operators, then comes the collapse, then comes the bailout, then come the shady operators. That, too often, is the sad history of financial meltdowns and their cleanups. The closing days of the Bush administration offer the famil... http://www.caglepost.com/article/8d4586d9-918b-4d47-a012-93fd075df196.html Tue, 06 Jan 2009 08:00:00 GMT What Israel Still Must Do Everyone knows what must be done if there is to be a lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Israel's forceful response to rocket attacks from Gaza does not change that. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert recently spelled out what his countr... http://www.caglepost.com/article/792aa101-2e3e-44be-b3cb-aad70c3639e1.html Mon, 05 Jan 2009 08:00:00 GMT Offshoring Is One Sure Thing Barack Obama's pick for commerce secretary, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, vows to create millions of technology jobs that can't be outsourced. Sounds good, particularly in this melting economy. On the other hand, Richardson supports expanding the ... http://www.caglepost.com/article/14424452-47bd-48b8-ac0e-f2ebacd2e7aa.html Mon, 05 Jan 2009 08:00:00 GMT Bubble Bourgeoisie Learns To 'Do-It-Yourself' "Doing it yourself these days?" asks the Depression-era ad for bleach. It shows pampered hands wading in a tub full of laundry. There's more doing-it-yourself in this Great Recession, as well. The economic downturn has stripped the bubble bourgeoisie... http://www.caglepost.com/article/fd499df6-8781-43c5-b362-64dd765d1bac.html Fri, 26 Dec 2008 08:00:00 GMT Welcome To 'Nepotism Nation' Suppose in 2002 the Kennedys (or another "political dynasty") had a son or daughter or cousin they wanted to slip into Illinois' contested U.S. Senate seat. You know the arguments: powerful family, name recognition, can raise bags of money. Done deal... http://www.caglepost.com/article/13583398-193b-460e-bcb5-eed73890a82d.html Tue, 23 Dec 2008 08:00:00 GMT No Con Hurts Like An Affinity Con Losing money doesn't feel very good. Losing it as victim of a con feels even worse. And being conned by a trusted friend multiplies the hurt. But there's a special department of psychic pain for having experienced all of the above while fancying ones... http://www.caglepost.com/article/27b7d129-816b-4b27-bb1c-7b25c34b808a.html Thu, 18 Dec 2008 08:00:00 GMT America Must Take The Cure Al goes to the doctor. Al: "I'm still short of breath. I know you told me to quit smoking, and honestly, I've tried. But kicking the habit is really stressful. Doc, can you help me?" Doctor: "I understand. Let me find a way to help you continue smoki... http://www.caglepost.com/article/ca10332a-ed88-4a54-9d16-7b845c606755.html Tue, 16 Dec 2008 08:00:00 GMT A Senate Seat Is Not A Kennedy Heirloom Have New York Democrats lost all self-respect? Their excited talk of whether Caroline Kennedy is "interested" in Hillary Clinton's Senate seat makes you wonder. The late John F. Kennedy's daughter has made at least one feeler phone call to New York G... http://www.caglepost.com/article/f283c0d3-72f7-4e58-aa6f-624956b0d828.html Thu, 11 Dec 2008 08:00:00 GMT Democrats Must Break With Rangel Company gives $100,000 to congressman's pet cause. Congressman protects company tax loophole worth tens of millions. Bam! Company gives pet cause another $100,000 check. Sounds like old times in the Republican Congress of former House Majority Leader... http://www.caglepost.com/article/8203a374-1696-4e1a-8cd7-d9e446aa3250.html Tue, 09 Dec 2008 08:00:00 GMT Booze Or Drugs, Prohibition Makes No Sense WASHINGTON, D.C. - America ended Prohibition 75 years ago this week. The ban on the sale of alcohol unleashed a crime wave, as gangsters fought over the illicit booze trade. It sure didn't stop drinking. People turned to speakeasies and bathtub gin f... http://www.caglepost.com/article/1b3cb2e3-2da6-4e1a-bb05-b9ae887335e5.html Thu, 04 Dec 2008 08:00:00 GMT Big Three Auto Firms Will Need Music, Too The American "love affair" with cars is close to dead, then-Ford Motor chief Bill Ford lamented six years ago. "In California, people used to write songs about T-Birds and Corvettes," said Henry Ford's great-grandson. "Today, they write regulations."... http://www.caglepost.com/article/55b61a26-365b-4c79-9be2-d4c6803c1b82.html Tue, 02 Dec 2008 08:00:00 GMT Health Care Reform Must Start Now This would seem a heckuva time to unfurl a national health plan. Washington has big fires to put out in the financial markets. Taxpayers, meanwhile, face a zillion-dollar bill for economic stabilization on top of already soaring deficits. Can we affo... http://www.caglepost.com/article/91247bb9-fa01-4eb6-b82a-c29939b9c775.html Thu, 27 Nov 2008 08:00:00 GMT Giving Thanks For The Leftovers Thanksgiving is upon us. This is the time for expressing gratitude. But what does one do on Thanksgiving this year, smack in the middle of perhaps the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression? You give thanks, dummy. And you marvel that whi... http://www.caglepost.com/article/1efecb42-0dc6-4ce1-9108-bd4d221bfff2.html Tue, 25 Nov 2008 08:00:00 GMT Keeping Cool Over Joe Lieberman You don't have to venture too far left in the Democratic Party to find people who dislike Joe Lieberman. But wander yonder into the liberal blogosphere, and the feeling more approximates detestation. The left wanted the Connecticut senator's scalp - ... http://www.caglepost.com/article/e6332049-18e2-4b1a-a8b4-83842b19db8a.html Thu, 20 Nov 2008 08:00:00 GMT Palin's Next Career Move Sarah Palin should have run up the white flag of surrender and kept the clothes. They were gorgeous, and there really was no reason to give up the $150,000 wardrobe unless she planned to run again under the Wal-Mart Mom persona. Surely she knows that... http://www.caglepost.com/article/61e97e40-ae97-4113-89f7-05718a7464a3.html Tue, 18 Nov 2008 08:00:00 GMT America Doesn't Need 'Rebranding' I'm delighted that Barack Obama has been elected president and that foreigners are delighted, too. But I never viewed eliciting delight from non-Americans a reason for choosing a president, including one of color. No other people so fervently seek th... http://www.caglepost.com/article/56e1d7d2-da85-4a9c-8c8f-9dadb10570cc.html Thu, 13 Nov 2008 08:00:00 GMT Unions' Creepy Push Against Secret Ballot The first campaign promise Barack Obama should break is to push through the Employee Free Choice Act. That harmless sounding piece of legislation would let union organizers do an end run around secret-ballot elections: Companies would have to recogni... http://www.caglepost.com/article/1bd9f17a-e65f-482b-8468-280b91ae57ef.html Tue, 11 Nov 2008 08:00:00 GMT The Landslide That Doesn't Feel All Liberal The young and minority voters who swept Democrats to triumph call this the start of a new day. The many not-young whites who also backed Barack Obama might frame it a bit differently. To them, it's a hopeful return to an older day. Do not dismiss the... http://www.caglepost.com/article/2f1f1c0a-f654-466c-9fd2-f865773e0c0f.html Thu, 06 Nov 2008 08:00:00 GMT Helping The Right 'Homeowners' The Treasury Department is working on a $40 billion, $50 billion - who's counting anymore? - plan to guarantee perhaps 3 million "at-risk" mortgages. Now that the Wall Street players have been taken care of, the time has apparently come to bail out s... http://www.caglepost.com/article/b56e77c4-9279-447a-bae3-4859e2fcdf7b.html Tue, 04 Nov 2008 08:00:00 GMT Greenspan Should Have Stuck With The Clarinet The 1949 movie of Ayn Rand's novel "The Fountainhead" ends with Patricia Neal elevating to the top of a new skyscraper to greet its godlike architect, Gary Cooper. He is the archetypal Rand hero, an individualist who triumphs over the tradition-bound... http://www.caglepost.com/article/3e29dc8c-08e6-4bff-b9be-81586c685638.html Thu, 30 Oct 2008 07:00:00 GMT Newspaper Endorsements Still Count Do newspaper endorsements influence voters? I refer to the candidate picks printed on the biodegradable news products that digital and cable commentators dismiss as "old media" but talk about nothing but. They do, according to Brown University econom... http://www.caglepost.com/article/bbc287f5-8847-4ae9-ae2c-5cd66b092b25.html Thu, 30 Oct 2008 07:00:00 GMT Palin Drove Stake Into Centrist Hearts John McCain's top adviser complains that the media apply a double standard when they cover his candidate. "They think they're on the level with McCain, that he's not the old McCain," Mark Salter tells The Atlantic, "but he is the old McCain. He just ... http://www.caglepost.com/article/7b8dfe26-2d32-4780-ba65-5b051ccfcb03.html Thu, 23 Oct 2008 07:00:00 GMT This Year's Hanging Chad Once again in Ohio, the presidential polls are tied and its 20 electoral votes up for grabs. Such scenarios generally don't lend themselves to gentle politics. Ohio Republicans have been raging at what they claim is a raft of phony voter registration... http://www.caglepost.com/article/f7876445-3d06-4c0c-ba22-a9993387fbc8.html Tue, 21 Oct 2008 07:00:00 GMT Katrina For The Rest Of Us For a while, I had expected to emerge mostly unscathed from the eight years of George W. Bush. I managed not to be in New Orleans right after Hurricane Katrina awaiting rescue by a blundering federal agency. I had held on to my medical coverage and s... http://www.caglepost.com/article/62fee069-ed6f-472c-867a-278b4e353350.html Thu, 16 Oct 2008 07:00:00 GMT The Price Of Extinction What price would you place on the beautiful, musical and probably extinct ivory-billed woodpecker? Of course, all the world's gold couldn't bring the bird back. But suppose you could time travel back 60 years to the shrinking Southern swamps, where t... http://www.caglepost.com/article/57562122-d111-45ee-ab27-46d40207a59e.html Tue, 14 Oct 2008 07:00:00 GMT McCain Economics Still Bush League Take a great nation with a fabulous work ethic and inventive people. Turn its $236 billion budget surplus into an estimated $482 billion deficit, and nearly double the national debt to $10 trillion. 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For example, a Wall Street Journal editorial lum... http://www.caglepost.com/article/9da42ce8-5538-41d1-b529-e7aa98baeb70.html Fri, 03 Oct 2008 07:00:00 GMT Newman Embraced Ordinariness WESTPORT, Conn. - With his global fame, devastating blue eyes and career of playing lovable anti-heroes, Paul Newman could have gotten away with anything. He could have been a jerk. But he wasn't. That may sound like a backhanded compliment, but in a... http://www.caglepost.com/article/334343d4-628c-4cec-a4e6-4334a3d9c901.html Tue, 30 Sep 2008 07:00:00 GMT Louisiana Politics: Undone By The Wind BATON ROUGE, La. - I assume that someone has removed the crushed blue Hyundai from the parking lot of Jimmy Swaggart Ministries. Two days after Hurricane Ike, the car was there with a tree trunk still embedded in its roof. And Ike was a pussycat next... http://www.caglepost.com/article/7ed1ff2f-a651-403b-9fbe-3aeafea74824.html Thu, 25 Sep 2008 07:00:00 GMT Wall Street Did What Came Naturally Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, the Wall Street executives you see hanging their heads have been called many things, chief among them "greedy." But in deciding their guilt, you must consider mitigating circumstances. Compare these two sets of circu... http://www.caglepost.com/article/021d066d-5d93-490b-84d2-b89654812597.html Tue, 23 Sep 2008 07:00:00 GMT McCain And The Meltdown "The fundamentals of our economy are strong," John McCain said as Wall Street went into white-knuckle panic over diving investor confidence. Does he believe that? It doesn't really matter, because the Republican has outsourced his economic policy to ... http://www.caglepost.com/article/8a558485-e307-4794-91ed-5f324d290eff.html Thu, 18 Sep 2008 07:00:00 GMT Golfing Gets Stuck In The Sand Golf is a contemplative game. It is a sail through a quiet afternoon - mild exercise in the fresh air. The National Golf Foundation reports that 17 million fewer rounds were played in 2006 than in 2000. The big reasons: Golf costs too much money and ... http://www.caglepost.com/article/c6fd0eee-3304-4e6d-b7ff-bc7f51a722aa.html Tue, 16 Sep 2008 07:00:00 GMT GOP Back On The Polarization Trail "We grow good people all across America, with honesty, sincerity and dignity." No, Sarah Palin didn't say that. She said, "We grow good people in our small towns" and listed the above virtues. Her speechwriter's strategy is clear - to revive the "us"... http://www.caglepost.com/article/c1f67021-056b-4af1-842a-d1756bb5de9c.html Thu, 11 Sep 2008 07:00:00 GMT Immigrants And The Safety Net The conservative economist Milton Friedman famously said, "You can't have free immigration and a welfare state." He was right. You can't flood our labor markets with illegal workers paying little in taxes - and provide good government benefits for ev... http://www.caglepost.com/article/271b51c8-3fdd-4060-86bf-33172bc7a91d.html Tue, 09 Sep 2008 07:00:00 GMT Don't They Have Birth Control Up In Alaska? I had dinner last night with a Republican-leaning independent who was despondent over John McCain's choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate. She had been looking forward to supporting McCain as a fiscal conservative with a deep understa... http://www.caglepost.com/article/323f3321-e58f-43ce-98f0-3169f33a4aea.html Thu, 04 Sep 2008 07:00:00 GMT Blue Dogs Have Their Day Hmmm, suppose there were a liberal Democrat as president but a more conservative Democratic majority in Congress. That could happen. As Democrats scoop up seats in traditionally Republican districts, they add members quite unlike their old-time lefti... http://www.caglepost.com/article/87142496-6dee-4de4-b546-22583bc5a59b.html Wed, 03 Sep 2008 07:00:00 GMT Hillary Can't Fix What Her Party Broke DENVER - Hillary Clinton just gave the last major speech of her 2008 campaign. Or perhaps was it the first of her 2012 campaign. She said vote-for-Barack enough times and at enough volume to protect her from accusations of trying to sabotage Obama's ... http://www.caglepost.com/article/1791bb07-2b9d-441f-bd5e-63d74cfcfa0f.html Thu, 28 Aug 2008 07:00:00 GMT Parties Afraid To Face Population Explosion DENVER - There's a burning concern in the American West - almost an obsession - that Democrats will not touch in their convention here. Nor will Republicans in St. Paul. It is the U.S. population explosion. The West is feeling the brunt of it, as flo... http://www.caglepost.com/article/c8cba650-8b13-4e31-9431-eb546a1120eb.html Tue, 26 Aug 2008 07:00:00 GMT Even Health Care Can Be Outsourced Is "medical tourism" - Americans' going abroad for cheaper treatments - good or bad? The answer is "yes." It's both. But one thing is for sure: Medical tourism is here to stay. A new study by the Deloitte consulting firm forecasts that the number of ... http://www.caglepost.com/article/706b1cbf-c958-440f-89c2-1fe5843f989d.html Thu, 21 Aug 2008 07:00:00 GMT It's No Longer Just About Hillary After hearing her name placed in nomination at the Democrats' convention next week, Hillary Clinton will no doubt urge her followers to support Barack Obama. What good that gesture will do for the Obama candidacy remains to be seen. Clinton has alrea... http://www.caglepost.com/article/a3c94cbe-db07-4689-9c72-110697fe03e2.html Tue, 19 Aug 2008 07:00:00 GMT Dry Eyes Follow Edwards' Downfall It's hard to recall a political burial as fast and cold as that of John Edwards. After all, the former North Carolina senator had been a serious contender for president until a few months ago and possibly for VP until last week. Had his cheesy affair... http://www.caglepost.com/article/7a49f6dd-1253-4749-825f-74ea5a722855.html Thu, 14 Aug 2008 07:00:00 GMT Sex, Etc. And The City I'm not a big fan of the nanny society's limits on freedom, except when I am. That's the dilemma for me, and for everyone. Reason magazine recently ranked "the worst nanny cities in America" by assessing their laws regulating sex, tobacco, alcohol, g... http://www.caglepost.com/article/55c1980c-2b45-41a7-99f8-8ecd99e88420.html Tue, 12 Aug 2008 07:00:00 GMT A Nation of Whiners? Perhaps You won't hear me straining to defend Phil Gramm, the Texas Republican whose penchant for grating commentary sunk his 1996 bid for the presidency before the New Hampshire primary. It was really just a matter of time before the former senator, serving... http://www.caglepost.com/article/7780048b-659c-43fc-8838-83f5ec531be7.html Thu, 07 Aug 2008 07:00:00 GMT Offshore Drilling: Candidates Concur On Bad Idea In a rare burst of bipartisan consensus, Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama have agreed on a dreadful proposal: Open more of America's fragile coastlines to offshore oil drilling. How is it awful? Let me count the ways. 1. It will do nothing for toda... http://www.caglepost.com/article/7e37bf57-804c-44ee-975e-1db4b3596593.html Tue, 05 Aug 2008 07:00:00 GMT Could a VP Romney Be Health-Care Tsar? We who obsess over universal health coverage may soon confront a startling development: The only candidate on a major-party presidential ticket to have proposed and implemented a universal plan could well be a Republican. I speak of former Massachuse... http://www.caglepost.com/article/b270cae1-b212-4c1e-a8eb-c52f2cccaa6e.html Thu, 31 Jul 2008 07:00:00 GMT Live Man Dying Fascination with Heath Ledger no doubt swells the mobs going to see "The Dark Knight," the new Batman movie. Ledger's brilliance as the psycho Joker has spawned speculation that the actor's own descent in drug madness had fueled his demonic performan... http://www.caglepost.com/article/b999c73e-6eab-4060-978c-5478655f2704.html Tue, 29 Jul 2008 07:00:00 GMT Memories of The McCain That Was Too bad there's no time-traveling on Election Day. The more moderate John McCain of eight years ago would make a very attractive candidate, and Barack Obama eight years from now could offer an impressive track record. Of course, we can time-travel in... http://www.caglepost.com/article/a6a1ee3c-bdff-4fb6-901b-f02cf075d946.html Thu, 24 Jul 2008 07:00:00 GMT Tomatoes And Their Bad Rap "Which office do I go to to get my reputation back?" former Labor Secretary Ray Donovan famously asked after being indicted for mob-related larceny and fraud, and then acquitted of the charges. Vegetables can have the same problem - or to be (SET ITA... http://www.caglepost.com/article/b7ef083a-6bad-40a2-a594-1efba25cee15.html Tue, 22 Jul 2008 07:00:00 GMT

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