However little president Obama knows or cares about economics, he knows a lot about politics - and especially political rhetoric. 'High-speed rail' is simply another set of loft words to justify continued expansion of government spending. So are words like 'investment in education' or 'investment' in any number of other things, which serves the same political purpose.

All of us should be on guard against beliefs that flatter ourselves. At the very least, we should check such beliefs against facts.

How much more of an injustice is it that people who work get more money than people who don't work?

The black family survived centuries of slavery and generations of Jim Crow, but it has disintegrated in the wake of the liberals' expansion of the welfare state.

You may have the right to live anyway you like, but you don't have a right to have other people like it. Respect it or pay for it.

Wishful thinking is not idealism. It is self-indulgence at best and self-exaltation at worst. In either case, it is usually at the expense of others. In other words, it is the opposite of idealism.

Policies are judged by their consequences but crusades are judged by how good they make the crusaders feel.