Column

In the past week, The New York Times has ridiculed Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Gov. Chris Christie for having "fed panic" by ordering quarantines for health workers arriving from Ebola-plagued countries. NBC News' Brian Williams opened his broadcast last Friday announcing that the Obama administration was trying "to restrain the Ebola panic."

Dr. Seymour Fein, retiring chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Media Research Center, presents an overview of conservativsm, progressivism, and the political landscape as his term ends.

Do you all realize what a major deal it is that liberal comics are now openly ridiculing President Obama — and not just for his mannerisms and the like but based on his abject policy failures?

Mirabile dictu! Fully 28 profs and former profs from the Harvard Law School have taken a stand for freedom and for the rule of law. They are on the side of the Constitution and simple fairness. As Ivy Leaguers go, their stand took courage.

First, the mayor of Houston flagrantly violated clergy's First Amendment rights, when she subpoenaed sermons, and she still refuses to rescind her mandate. And now California government officials are forcing churches and other faith-based organizations to fund abortions. What's next?

In this year's midterm elections, New Hampshire's Scott Brown is taking on the slickest Democratic politician since John Edwards.   Incumbent Sen. Jeanne Shaheen presents herself as a regular mom who "rearranges the dishes in the dishwasher if it is packed by someone else" -- as she told The Boston Globe when she ran for governor.

So as to give some perspective, I'm going to ask readers for their guesses about human behavior before explaining my embarrassment by some of my fellow economists.

The Food and Drug Administration can make two types of errors. It can approve a drug that has dangerous unanticipated side effects, or it can reject or delay approval of a drug that is safe and effective. Let's look at these errors, because to err on the side of under- or over-caution is costly.

There had never been a case of Ebola in the U.S. until a few months ago. Since then, thousands of people have died of the disease in Africa, and millions upon millions of dollars have been spent treating Ebola patients in the U.S. who acquired it there, one of whom has died. But the Obama administration refuses to impose a travel ban.

So, here we are roughly 500 days after the IRS was caught red-handed using fear and intimidation to target and wage war on conservative groups, including tea party patriots, pro-Israel advocates and Christian organizations. And still we the people haven't seen a single email implicating any IRS official.

On Monday, The Washington Times reported on the Homeland Security Inspector General's finding that detention facilities for illegal border-crossers are teeming with diseases because the guests don't know how to take medicine or use toilets. By Tuesday, there were more than 1,000 comments. That's a lot of comments. Articles on ISIS usually get between five and 100 comments.

Three points need to be made about Monday's decision by the Supreme Courtnot to decide whether the equal protection clause of the Constitution grants people of the same sex the right to marry.

Rush Limbaugh was right in saying that Attorney General Eric Holder's resignation is not in any way a simple bon voyage. Rather, it is a deliberate ploy to maneuver him into an even greater place of influence, possibly even the Supreme Court.

It's been a year and a half since Edward Snowden revealed to the world just how much private information the National Security Agency has been collecting on just about everyone. The massive spying operation raised privacy and Constitutional concerns and set off alarms with reports that some employees had used the system to keep tabs on their love interests.