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America’s momentous birthday

I consider it an incredible blessing to have witnessed two of America's great milestone birthdays: the 200th celebration in 1976, when I was a rising second grader, and now the 250th anniversary as an older, seasoned adult. Looking back to 1976, as a kid, I enjoyed the fireworks and the parades I watched on television, and for me, this was a time of innocence when I began to learn about our country's principal ideals of freedom, individual liberty, opportunity and democracy. Although the suffering of Native Americans was glossed over in school, and the contributions and ...

My job doesn’t get to decide the tides

Last year, the waves lapping on the beach convinced a mountain girl that the sea has its own charms. This year, the waves reminded me that parts of me that I feared had sailed away were actually just in murky depths, waiting to be stirred up and brought forward by the tides of ...

NYC mayor ignores economic lessons

Last week, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced a citywide freeze on rents. The response from economists can be summarized as "oy." Economists are famous for arguing "on one hand" this and "on the other hand" that. Nonetheless, there are few issues that enjoy a broader consensus ...

Autonomous vehicle laws kill

Car accidents kill 100 Americans every day. But now an amazing solution is available: self-driving cars. Robotaxis like Google-owned Waymo, for example. Passengers who try them, like them. Wherever robotaxis are allowed, ridership increases fast. Two years ago, there were 50,000 trips per ...

Supreme court’s birthright citizenship mistake

The Supreme Court has now settled, at least for the foreseeable future, one of the most contentious questions in American immigration law: A child born in the United States is a U.S. citizen, regardless of whether the child's parents entered the country legally or came solely to give birth. ...

Founders could define right from wrong

Two hundred and 50 years ago, self-evident truths meant something. Today, for some, things appear far less self-evident and truth has become subjective. Freedom from tyranny was the object of the Declaration of Independence. Today, freedom has been transformed into license, the right to do ...