Thirty years ago, George and Sharlee McNamee purchased a beachfront house in California, hoping to create a home in which to spend their retirement. Over the years, the McNamee’s made various improvements to their beach property, installing picnic tables for entertaining and a shade to
President-elect Barack Obama has said he favors a single-payer health care system such as the one Canada has now. But the inefficiency of the single-payer system often leaves Canadians facing life-threatening waits for care. Lindsay McCreith from Ontario is one example. When his doctor told
The city of Los Angeles passed a $7 billion bond measure to refurbish public schools on Election Day. “Measure Q,” the fifth education-related bond measure since 1997, will go towards renovating buildings and creating new preschools and adult education centers. Figures on LA’s total per pupil
Today's economy faces a long list of problems. We hear daily about high gas prices and inflation, of a battered stock market, of a growing number of people unable to afford their mortgages, even of banks failing and huge companies facing bankruptcy. What explains this
A group of college presidents has sparked debate by signing a petition urging the drinking age be lowered to 18, the legally recognized age of adulthood. They argue that “twenty-one is not working” because it has “not resulted in significant constructive behavioral change among our
The Wall Street Journal recently ran an excellent editorial examining the bad business and corruption that arises "when you combine private profit with government power." Created by an act of Congress in 1938, Fannie Mae is a government sponsored enterprise (GSE) that owns or guarantees
The New York Times reports that in a recent speech, Randi Weingarten, the new President of the American Federation of Teachers, offered her “new vision for schools in the 21st century”. “[I]magine a federal law that promoted community schools — schools that serve the neediest children
Put down that salad! Have you considered the dignity of the vegetables you’re about to crush into easily-digestible pieces? Have you no concern for their inherent worth as living beings? Have you made sure to carefully justify the moral necessity of harming those plants for
A recent news article describes a new law in France which, if passed, will make it illegal to promote “extreme thinness.” This ban outlaws images of excessively skinny models in the media and on websites that incite people to severely restrict the amount they eat.
An article in the latest issue of the Undercurrent examines the cultural vilification of Big Pharma. The piece argues that pharmaceutical companies deserve their profits because they invest a tremendous amount of time and energy researching and developing their products. In this post, we look