I have written before about the amazing saga of the new span for the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge, now 24 years and $6.4 billion in the making...with no end in sight. A full account of its background can be found here. The “signature design” never before built and of dubious seismic stability in one...
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I suspect that most readers of The Beacon tend to favor personal freedoms to a sufficient degree that they will immediately agree with the title of this post. If we want to live in a free country, freedom has to mean that we are free to make choices that others, including others in positions...
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The Spring 2013 issue of The Independent Review—the Independent Institute’s flagship scholarly journal, edited by Robert Higgs—is hot off the press. Below you’ll find links to articles and book reviews that address a host of intriguing questions: Why have domestic police agencies across the United States resorted increasingly to “no-knock” raids and other military-type...
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Joining those mourning the passing of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela recently, Sean Penn called him “a great hero to the majority of his people.” But how would he know? The final nail was driven into the coffin of independent journalism in Venezuela last week with the forced sale of the last remaining television network...
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The U.S. military is increasingly putting a feminine face forward in its ads and PR (for example, the bright smiling faces flanking Mrs. Obama at the Oscars). The Navy’s outreach to women proclaims: What’s it like being a woman in today’s Navy? Challenging. Exciting. Rewarding. But above all, it’s incredibly empowering. That’s because the...
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Earlier this week, I posted about the recent Court of Appeals decision finding that Obama violated the Constitution when making “recess appointments” when the Senate was not in recess. Well, over at Breitbart, there is an article on the response from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). At base, the NLRB has decided to...
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Among the celebrants at the inaugural balls will be top contributors to the President’s reelection campaign, but their real celebration will be April 15, when they continue to be the beneficiaries of a “tax loophole” Obama pledged to close in 2008—but that remains gaping wide open despite his rhetoric about now making “the rich”...
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The IRS is my shepherd; I shall live in want. It maketh me to lie down with expensive accountants; it leadeth me to consort with disreputable lawyers. It crusheth my soul; it leadeth me in the paths of avoidance and evasion to preserve my wealth. Yea, as I walk through the valley of the shadow of...
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A venerable guide in political analysis is “follow the money.” Not many people need to be taught this idea; indeed, in popular journalism and political discourse, it is taken for granted. So, the standard way to discredit one’s political enemy is to expose that he is being bankrolled by a nefarious interest group or...
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Welcome to the 21st century Hotel California. The number of Los Angeles Unified School District teachers warehoused in administrative offices, also referred to as “rubber rooms,” for alleged misconduct has doubled in the past 18 months to nearly 300 according to the LA Daily News. The cost is staggering: $1.4 million a month just...
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