Someone said recently – and I thought it was a strong point – that you can test a person’s “fascist factor” (my words) by bringing up the smoking issue (nazi vs free) with that person and listening to their reaction/opinion. I think it’s true. My personal experience is that people who are fascist on this [...]

Once again, John Stossel cuts through the crap. (Bill) Gates spoke at Harvard recently, urging graduating students to take on the “world’s deepest inequities [including] world hunger … the scarcity of clean water … children who die from diseases we can cure”. …He told the grads, “The market did not reward saving the lives of [...]

Lesley Stahl interviews Lou Dobbs. Writes Charles: “No wonder millions of Americans have utter contempt and distrust for the mainstream media and its callous corporate oligarchs who try to pass off feel-good fluff for hard-hitting investigative journalism. Hurray for Lou Dobbs standing up for principle and integrity!” Stahl: “I’m sitting here thinking to myself…….this man [...]

Someone posed a question somewhere about the burdensome Sarbanes-Oxley: Who (besides government) wanted it and why? He couldn’t believe that accounting firms could make the case strong enough to get this piece of law through the pipeline. The political truths are numerous, however, in a nutshell, one big thing to focus on is that the [...]

From the University of Oregon comes this: A psychologist and two economists have conducted a study that proves that we, as good little citizens of the regime, are made happy by the extraction of our wealth in the form of taxes. In fact, this particular form of theft sets off the firing of the little [...]

Another anti-violence measure coming from the bureaucrats: Kids at Kilmer Middle School in suburban Washington, D.C., are under a zero-tolerance touching policy. They’re banned from poking, prodding, hugging — even high-fiving. Surely all middle school violence will therefore end immediately. Done deal.

…is Saginaw. Such people in the conveniently-located armpit of the state are looking to ban toy guns. The banners-to-be are an anti-crime group called Parishioners on Patrol. No kidding.

Readers are telling me they enjoy my cheap-but-great wine blogs, so I will keep doing them. I oftentimes complain (as many do) about the lack of good California wines at low prices. I’ve mentioned that Ironstone is one of the great CA vineyards offering terrific wine at even better prices. Ironstone bills itself as “a [...]