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Ditching net zero

What a difference a few years make. Not long ago, politicians said climate change was going to kill us, so we must move to "net zero" emissions. This is theoretically possible. Since vegetation removes carbon, we could get to net zero by burning fewer fossil fuels. Governments ...

What if we treated factories like data centers?

When American manufacturing was truly coming into its own in the early 20th century, workers sometimes labored 12-hour days seven days a week and risked life and limb working near dangerous machinery, while factories blackened the skies of American cities. Yet some of the same people who ...

Is this nation going bankrupt?

Thank God, no, we aren't going bust as a nation, despite our gargantuan $40 trillion national debt. The rapid pileup of debt under Republicans and Democrats alike is certainly a disgrace and worrisome. When I came to Washington in the mid-1980s, our debt hit $1 trillion for the first ...

Those who build, politicians who take

There's an old saying: Those who can, do; those who can't, teach. A similar idea underscores the debate over wealth taxes in California and elsewhere: Those who can, build companies. Those who can't, devise ways for the government to take shares in what others have built. This new ...

Back to school 2026-27

When I attended a much different public school in suburban Maryland, there was a public service announcement on TV that asked: "It's 10 o'clock. Do you know where your children are?" I was usually in bed at that hour on "school nights," but that question might be put a different way today: ...

When it comes to writing, I'm not done yet

Over two decades ago, I wrote the opening page of my first novel to lose myself in another world, one of my own creation. I couldn't control the hatred, war and tragedy that abounded in the real world, but I could ensure justice prevailed and love triumphed in the fictional world I ...