Entries

Arnold Kling Against The Stimulus

In The American F or a Stimulus, Against Pelosi’s Bill If you follow the news media, you may think that the economics profession is divided into two camps: the majority, who favor the stimulus bill; and a minority, who are against any stimulus. In fact, there are many …

Written by David Frum on Monday February 23, 2009

Misremebered Reforms

Former White House Social Security guru and current Hudson Institute senior fellow Chuck Blahous has a new paper on the lessons that should be learned from the 1983 Social Security reforms, and some lessons that were learned that probably shouldn't have been. Here's the abstract: The 1983 …

Written by Andrew Biggs on Sunday February 22, 2009

Anti Social Promotion

“No, it’s on us – we need to get these seniors up and outta here and graduated in June, ” said one of my school’s administrators when I asked her if I should automatically fail any student missing over ten days per quarter. I thought this was district policy; …

Written by Thomas Gibbon on Sunday February 22, 2009

Brave New Blog

Capitalism and the internet have largely defeated Big Brother’s forces of information control. As our eyes bulge at the all you can eat data buffet, though, can society muster the discipline to eat the veggies that make government of , by , and for the people possible, or will we …

Written by John Murdock on Sunday February 22, 2009

False Advertising

Obama's budget plan calls for reducing the huge federal deficit - now almost 10% of GDP - to 3% by the end of his first term. How? By reducing defense expenditure and raising income taxes on the rich. These advertised numbers do not add up. Reality check: 1) The 3% deficit target for 2013 …

Written by David Frum on Sunday February 22, 2009

A Eugenic Question For Benedict

If it ever were possible to shape babies in the womb to make them healthier, stronger, more intelligent, less vulnerable to depression or neuroses, or more beautiful - why would that be a bad thing? If it's not an offense against human dignity to repair a cleft palate after birth, font …

Written by David Frum on Saturday February 21, 2009

China Over A Barrel

If the world is to sustain open trade -- and progress to the even freer trade we need for future prosperity -- China will have to change its ways. With global markets tanking and unemployment soaring, Canadians are pinching their pennies. But as National Post contributors explain in a new …

Written by David Frum on Saturday February 21, 2009

Obama and Terrorism - What the Families of Victims Say

On January 22, 2009, President Obama issued an executive order that will close the facility at Guantanamo Bay one year from now and suspend all military tribunals in progress. Since that order was issued, on behalf of FrumForum.com, I have interviewed relatives of Americans murdered by …

Written by Elise Cooper on Friday February 20, 2009

What Do Women Want? A Gentleman

On campuses across the nation, young women are enthusiastically taking the stage throughout the month of February chanting a four-letter word for women’s body parts, recreating child rape and degrading men as part of The Vagina Monologues. Chapters of the Network of enlightened Women …

Written by Karin Agness on Friday February 20, 2009

Decapitating Stereotypes

When Aasiya Hassan suggested to her husband in 2001 that he should start a TV channel dedicated to correcting stereotype views of Americans towards Muslims, she had no idea she would someday be its most newsworthy item. Her hubby, Muzzammil Hassan, agreed, and founded Bridges TV - a small channel …

Written by Peter Worthington on Friday February 20, 2009

The Nyu Clown Show

If history repeats itself first as tragedy and then as farce, NYU is looking like a clown college right now. A group that calls itself Students for Radical Change has barricaded itself in the third cafeteria of the campus student center in a lame attempt to update the far-left's "glory days" of …

Written by John Avlon on Friday February 20, 2009

On The Afghan Front Line

Benjamin Collins served three tours in Afghanistan rising to the rank of Captain with US Special Forces. He has since left the army to launch a new business. Ben will be writing a regular series about his memories of his Afghan service. The Obama administration is dramatically increasing …

Written by Benjamin Collins on Friday February 20, 2009

Why I'm Not Scared of Bank Nationalization...

... because I don't think the Democrats want the government to keep the banks. On the other hand, I think they do want the government to keep the healthcare system. So that's the one to watch.

Written by David Frum on Friday February 20, 2009

A Better Souvenir From Canada For Obama

President Obama visited Canada yesterday. During his first official foreign trip, he discussed the environment, trade, and other issues with Prime Minister Harper. Health care wasn’t on the agenda. That hasn’t prevent commentators on both sides of the 49 th parallel from …

Written by David Gratzer on Friday February 20, 2009

Are Republicans Hypocrites...

... if they help their constituents take advantage of stimulus funds they voted against? So argues Josh Marshall . It might equally be asked: Are Democrats hypocrites if they enjoy the safety and security of the United States after voting against the military appropriations that defend it? Or if …

Written by David Frum on Friday February 20, 2009

The Big Sort

My column for this weekend's National Post discusses the two most important books on US politics I read this year, Andrew Gelman's Red State, Blue State, Rich State, Poor State and Bill Bishop's The Big Sort. Good news: If you havenÕt already read any of the half-dozen books published about …

Written by David Frum on Thursday February 19, 2009

The Riddle of the Sands

The Riddle of the Sands is often described as the first spy novel in English. It certainly gives Kim a run for hte money. And much more than Kim [see my review here ] it does seem to have gathered in one place the essential elements of the genre. (The elements are bolded below.) Our …

Written by David Frum on Thursday February 19, 2009

Red State, Blue State, Rich State, Poor State

My column for this weekend's National Post discusses the two most important books on US politics I read this year, Andrew Gelman's em> Red State, Blue State, Rich State, Poor State

Written by David Frum on Thursday February 19, 2009

Five Germanies I Have Known

Fritz Stern is truly a great historian. His 1963 book, The Politics of Cultural Despair , brilliantly studies the dangerous intellectual prehistory from which Nazism emerged - shedding light on the haunting question of how the Nazi movement could have captured the loyalties not only of brutes …

Written by David Frum on Thursday February 19, 2009

Far From the Madding Crowd

Thomas Hardy's Far From the Madding Crowd takes its title from a stanza of Thomas Gray’s “Elegy in a Country Churchyard”: Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife, Their sober wishes never learn'd to stray; Along the cool sequester'd vale of life They kept the …

Written by David Frum on Thursday February 19, 2009