Some Odds and Ends
Townhall.com / Walter E. Williams / May 13, 2015
Occasionally, I wonder whether I'm alone in some of my wonderings. Look at the claim that conservatives or Republicans have launched a war on women as a part of their overall mean-spirited agenda. In the case of mistreatment of women -- or of anyone else -- assault, rape and murder are about as horrible as it gets. But I would be willing to bet a lot of money that most of the assaults, rapes and murders of women are done by people who identify as liberals or Democrats, particularly in the cases of murderers. Most crime, except perhaps white-collar crime, is committed by people who v**e Democratic. Therefore, it's not surprising that former Attorney General Eric Holder, President Barack Obama and their liberal Democratic partners want to end laws that prevent felons and ex-felons from v****g. Felons and ex-felons are seen as an important part of their party's constituency.
What about diversity? Diversity is nothing less than a craze on most college campuses. Despite budget squeezes, universities have created diversity positions, such as vice chancellor for equity, diversity and inclusion; director of diversity and inclusion; manager of diversity recruitment; associate dean for diversity; and vice president of diversity. Some diversity chiefs -- such as the vice chancellors of diversity at the University of California campuses in San Diego and San Francisco -- have annual salaries that top $250,000. That doesn't include the millions of dollars spent staffing and equipping diversity offices.
The original motto of our nation, E Pluribus Unum -- meaning "out of many, one" -- was proposed for the first great seal of the United States by John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson in 1776. It recognizes the diversity of the American people. You can bet that the campus call for diversity is everything but a patriotic celebration of America. If anything, it's a condemnation and criticism of the United States and Western values. The academic vision of diversity calls for the celebration of people based upon their race, religion, g*****lia and sexual behavior. And the last thing academic diversity means is diversity in thought, opinions and political affiliation. Taxpayers and irresponsible donors foot the bill for this deviancy.
Intellectuals argue that diversity is necessary for academic excellence, but what's their evidence other than plausibility? Here's what they need to explain. Japan is a nation bereft of diversity in anything. Close to 99 percent of its population is of one race. Whose students do you think have higher academic achievement -- theirs or ours, who are diversity-rich? According to the 2009 Program for International Student Assessment, the academic performance of U.S. high-school students in reading, math and science pales in comparison with their diversity-starved counterparts in Japan.
I also wonder about sex e******y. The Army's physical fitness test's minimum requirement for 17- to 21-year-old males is 35 pushups, 47 situps and a 2-mile run in 16 minutes, 36 seconds or less. For females of the same age, the minimum requirement is 13 pushups, 47 situps and a 19:42 2-mile run. In "Defense Department 'Diversity' Push for Women in Land Combat" (
http://tinyurl.com/axn9l93), Elaine Donnelly, director of the Center for Military Readiness, points to U.S. Army studies showing that women are twice as likely to suffer injuries and are three times more undeployable than men. Women are less likely to be able to march under load; that's marching 12.4 miles in five hours with an 83-pound assault load. They are also less likely to be able to crawl, sprint, negotiate obstacles and, worse yet, move a wounded comrade weighing 165 pounds while carrying that load. So here's my wonderment: Should male soldiers sue the Department of Defense for sex discrimination, or should everyone have to live up to the same standards? Or should sex ine******y be the official standard for our military?
Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University.
Cronyism in the "Short Sale" Market
Townhall.com / Ken Blackwell / May 13, 2015
In the classic 1976 movie Network, there is a famous scene where a character played by the late Peter Finch shouts, Im mad as hell and Im not gonna take it anymore! I feel that same sentiment is growing throughout America, as the cost of our debt and regulatory state has exploded.
In the era of Obama, we are now pushing our way far beyond the current 101% debt-to-GDP ratio, which is a dangerous and job-destroying level of borrowing on behalf of the welfare state. As the Federal leviathan in Washington, D.C. continues to grow, power is shifted into the hand of bureaucrats at regulatory agencies who invent new ways to regulate American businesses.
Many of these laws are passed not in the best interest of the American people, but are instead pushed through a complex process of special interests lobbying for their best interest. Our government is for sale, and there is no better example of this than the tremendous influence a handful of wealthy investors have over investment regulations.
There are the obvious examples, such as far-left environmentalist billionaire Tom Steyer, who has received more than a billion dollars for a light rail project, which personally helped his hedge fund. However, beyond pay-to-play, there is a more advance version of financial corruption that can happen in the "short sale" market.
If you're not familiar with that term, is a strategy used by hedge funds and other large investment banks to study investment opportunities and profit from businesses which are likely to drop in value. The investor borrows money to make that bet, then makes money when paying off the loan is less than the return. It may sound like a wild form of gambling, but it is legitimate. After all, capital follows the path of least resistance and great opportunity. And capital needs that information about investment opportunities, while these tactics by hedge funds can keep stocks from becoming overvalued.
However, no marketplace is perfect, and there is always the opportunity for fraud. Instead of allowing the markets to run their course and using data to study market trends, a handful of elite investors use their political connections to use the media and politicians to drive a stock price down.
The most outrageous example I have followed in the news is from William Ackman, the founder and manager of Pershing Square Capital Management, an $18 billion dollar hedge fund.
Ackman has sunk his teeth into Herbalife, a company which sells health and weight loss products through an independent sales team. He bet a billion dollars he can publicly attack them hard enough to put the company out of business. Herbalife employs people who may be your neighbors or friends to sell their products to supplement their income. Ackman is trying to discredit this process by referring it as an "illegal pyramid scheme," which is an effort to get his powerful allies at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate and harass the successful company.
Ackman has personally lobbied his friends in Congress, such as Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) to investigate Herbalife, and just Markey's public comments alone hurt the company's finances. In addition, Ackman's minions have worked behind the scenes to have community organizations make wild accusations claiming Herbalife is taking advantages of minority customers. Sometimes, regulatory agencies have received piles of nearly-identical letters from concerned citizens who do not remember writing them!
For his questionable tactics, Ackman is now under investigation by the FBI. But more should be done to keep these types of shady operators far away from real entrepreneurs and job creators. This and other cronyism will certainly be an important issue for 2016 Republican p**********l candidates to debate.
Ken Blackwell
Ambassador Ken Blackwell is a best-selling author and a visiting professor at the Liberty University School of Law. He is a contributing editor for Townhall.com, and a public affairs commentator for the Salem Radio Network. His commentaries have been carried in major newspapers and web-sites across the United States, including The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The New York Times, The Washington Post , Investor's Business Daily, and FoxNews.com.