Free Republic

We hear claims that the U.S. needs to make transformative changes so our society will be better (in the eyes of intellectuals, anyway) almost every day. One such claim comes in a new book by an economics professor who argues that lucky people are taking too much of “our” wealth and that’s causing bad consequences for America. Naturally, government can fix that supposed problem. The author, Robert Frank is an economist who has spent decades thinking about the role of luck in our society. More than twenty years ago, he co-authored the book The Winner-Take-All Society, arguing that we have...

It can be easy to be jaded about the Beat writers in San Francisco, but even the most indifferent literary snob would be hard-pressed to walk away from "Beat Memories: The Photographs of Allen Ginsberg" at the Contemporary Jewish Museum without feeling fuzzy inside. Organized by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and running through September, "Beat Memories" is a collection of about 80 photos taken by Ginsberg and his friends in the 1950s, 1960s and 1980s. Nearly every image is notated with the wobbly handwriting of Ginsberg, who added paragraph-length captions to the images in the 1980s...

If Herman Cain has been harshly criticized for his 9-9-9 plan, which includes a 9% national sales tax, should we expect Robert Frank to come under fire? After all, on Morning Joe today, the Cornell University professor proposed a progressive consumption tax that could go to . . . 100% on the rich. Frank's notion is that the very high rates would discourage the rich from building "mansions" [a term he used multiple times during his appearance]. And the taxes thus collected could go for things he thinks we need. For example, Frank incredibly claimed that in the US, "we...

Download The U.S.S. Ronald Reagan (anthem), in MP3 format.  This was composed by Dr. Robert Frank for the crew of the USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76) featuring Erick Reich, tenor.  Read the full story here.