Sour grapes are spoiling the federal anti-discrimination system.
Posted inJune 1981
Reagan’s Dr. Strange Love
Every so often a certain kind of person involved in public affairs arouses within those who disagree an emotional response so strong, so angry, that you get a little curious about what it is that causes all the snorts and sighs when his name comes up. One of those people in Washington right now is […]
Posted inMagazine
Who Will Catch the Falling Star?
In the aftermath of the attempt on Ronald Reagan’s life, people rediscovered the back of their newspapers. The front pages were crammed with diagrams of brains and photos of Jodie Foster’s midriff and instructions on how to buy handguns. You had to flip way to the back if you wanted to read about anything besides […]
Posted inMagazine
“…And if this just another job, then by God, I’m a sorry suck-egg mule!”
In the stone buildings of Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, near the track on which the young Jim Thorpe set his records as a student at the Carlisle Indian School, officers on their way to the top attend the Army War College. The students wear civilian clothes to de-emphasize difference in rank and to foster an “academic” […]
Posted inMagazine
Washington’s Real Estate Secrets
It’s easy to get lost in Washington, and the easiest place is around the Mall, where partial rotaries and unmarked ramps give driving a distinct Alice-in-Wonderland quality. Many of the unmarked ramps lead to the Virginia bridges, and even native Washingtonians fear these roads. The attrition rate for tourists is especially high. Like medieval sailors […]
Posted inMagazine
How Big Labor Brings Home the Bacon
On Symphony Road in Boston’s Fenway district, a contractor is gutting an old building to make apartments for the poor. The renovation is costing $23,000 per unit, and the finished apartments will rent to eligible families for $225 to $375 per month. About a block away, another contractor is fixing up a similar building for […]
Posted inJanuary 1981
Rooting for Reagan
One morning in the first week of October, several of Jimmy Carter’s top political advisors picked up their telephones and asked to be connected to prominent reporters and editors around Washington. As each waited for the voice at the other end, rage—genuine or calculated for the occasion—boiled toward the surface. The Carter staffers were fed […]
Posted inUncategorized
How to End It: Natural Gas
Where do you always find something? In the last place you look. Till you look in that last place, it’s “lost.” Natural gas has been “lost” for years. The best of all possible fuels, clean and cheap, natural gas was supposed to be as lost as the Seven Cities of Gold. No amount of looking […]
Posted inMagazine
New Hope for the Hard-Core Rich
It somehow seems unjust that those who acquire great wealth can also lose it. Or at least it seems unjust to the wealthy, who come to the government demanding bailouts.