News Archives - Page 211 of 356

ACLU Sings Harmony with Violent Lyricist

By ACRU Staff|2014-03-14T10:25:19-04:00March 14th, 2014|

This column by ACRU Senior Fellow Robert Knight was published March 13, 2014 on The Washington Times website.

In a case of attempted murder headed for the New Jersey Supreme Court, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) wants violent lyrics written by the accused to be protected as “free speech” and barred from the courtroom.

Vonte L. Skinner, whose conviction for attempted murder was overturned in August 2012, had sheets of rap lyrics in his car during his arrest for a 2005 shooting that left an acquaintance paralyzed from the waist down.

The lyrics, written some months or years before […]

Governed by Rules, Not Men

By ACRU Staff|2014-03-13T21:03:47-04:00March 13th, 2014|

This column by ACRU Policy Board Member and Professor of Economics Dr. Walter E. Williams was published March 12, 2014 on Townhall.com.

What kind of rules should govern our lives? I’d argue that the best rules are those that we’d be satisfied with if our very worst enemy were in charge of decision-making. The foundation for such rules was laid out by my mother. Let’s look at it.

My mother worked as a domestic servant. That meant that my younger sister and I often lunched at home by ourselves during our preteen years. Being bigger and stronger than my sister, I seldom divided the food […]

On Track to Restart the Cold War

By ACRU Staff|2014-03-13T14:50:22-04:00March 13th, 2014|

This column by ACRU General Counsel Peter Ferrara was published on March 12, 2014 on The American Spectator website.

On economic policy, President Obama has consistently and thoroughly followed just the opposite of everything Reagan did. And that is why he has consistently and thoroughly gotten the opposite of Reagan’s results.

Reagan slashed tax rates, with the top income tax rate reduced from 70% when he entered office to 28% when he left. (Federal tax revenues doubled during the 1980s.) Early in his first year, Reagan led Congress to cut federal spending by nearly 5%. Early in his first year, Obama […]

ACRU: IRS, U.S. Court Overreached on Obamacare Exchanges

By ACRU Staff|2014-03-11T14:42:44-04:00March 11th, 2014|

WASHINGTON, D.C. (March 11, 2014) — In a brief filed Monday at the Fourth District U.S. Court of Appeals, the American Civil Rights Union (ACRU) argues that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has ignored Congress on Obamacare and violated the constitutional separation of powers.

Even though the Affordable Care Act (ACA) makes tax subsidies available only to individuals purchasing insurance through state exchanges, the IRS issued a rule opening subsidies to people who buy on federal exchanges. A U.S. District Court upheld the rule, ignoring the ACA’s clear language, according to the ACRU’s brief filed in conjunction with the Pacific Justice Institute […]

Riding the Rails to Insolvency at High Speed

By ACRU Staff|2014-03-11T10:29:01-04:00March 11th, 2014|

This column by ACRU Senior Fellow Robert Knight was published March 7, 2014 on The Washington Times website.

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) says in a new report that the light-rail “Purple Line” expanding Washington, D.C.’s rail system further into the Maryland suburbs will cost $1 billion more than originally estimated.

Well, of course it will. Only suckers believe in initial estimates on any government project.

Remember the Big Dig? The Central Artery/Tunnel Project in Boston, on which construction began in 1991, was supposed to be completed in 1998 at a cost of $2.6 billion.

The price tag ballooned to a shocking $15 […]

Obama Democrats Versus Kennedy Democrats

By ACRU Staff|2014-03-10T15:47:37-04:00March 10th, 2014|

This column by ACRU General Counsel Peter Ferrara was published on March 10, 2014 on Forbes.com.

In promoting his economic program in the early 1960s, President Kennedy told the American people,

“It is a paradoxical truth that tax rates are too high today, and tax revenues are too low and the soundest way to raise the revenues in the long run is to cut the tax rates….[A]n economy constrained by high tax rates will never produce enough revenue to balance the budget, just as it will never create enough jobs or enough profits.”

Kennedy added,

“Our true choice is not between tax reduction, […]

Solutions to Black Education

By ACRU Staff|2014-02-27T17:10:53-05:00February 27th, 2014|

This column by ACRU Policy Board Member and Professor of Economics Dr. Walter E. Williams was published February 26, 2014 on Townhall.com.

A fortnight ago, my column focused on how Philadelphia’s schoolteachers have joined public-school teachers in cities such as Atlanta, Detroit, Los Angeles, Columbus, New York and Washington in changing student scores on academic achievement tests. Teachers have held grade fixing parties, sometimes wearing rubber gloves to hide fingerprints. In some cases, poorly performing students were excused from taking exams to prevent them from dragging down averages. As a result of investigations, a number of schoolteachers and administrators have been suspended, […]

The Period of No Global Warming Will Soon Be Longer Than the Period of Actual Global Warming

By ACRU Staff|2014-02-25T11:53:07-05:00February 25th, 2014|

This column by ACRU General Counsel Peter Ferrara was published on February 24, 2014 on Forbes.com.

If you look at the record of global temperature data, you will find that the late 20th Century period of global warming actually lasted about 20 years, from the late 1970s to the late 1990s. Before that, the globe was dominated by about 30 years of global cooling, giving rise in the 1970s to media discussions of the return of the Little Ice Age (circa 1450 to 1850), or worse.

But the record of satellite measurements of global atmospheric temperatures now shows no warming for […]

America's Constitutional Crisis

By ACRU Staff|2023-03-10T08:04:38-05:00February 25th, 2014|

This column by ACRU General Counsel Peter Ferrara was published on February 21, 2014 on Forbes.com.

President Obama famously has a pen and a phone. And if he had the same powers that Hugo Chavez had, that would be all he would need to impose Hugo Chavez’s programs on America, unilaterally by decree. President Obama is telling us by his words, and his actions, that he thinks he has at least some of those powers. He is telling us by his words and his actions that he will not obey the law, and follow the Constitution he is sworn to uphold by […]

Positioning the Coming Myths

By ACRU Staff|2023-05-23T09:50:46-04:00February 25th, 2014|

This column by ACRU General Counsel Peter Ferrara was published on February 19, 2014 on The American Spectator website.

Personal matters have led me to spend more time in Southern California recently. There my eyes have been opened to new developing trends in American culture with political implications.

On my last trip a few weeks ago, I discovered that California Hispanics, who have effectively been convinced that Barack Obama is America’s first Hispanic President, have been telling their fellow citizens that Obamacare is the greatest thing that has happened to them in a long time. That is because Obamacare enabled the poor for the first […]