We were stuck in Chicago O'Hare. Our connecting flight to New York had been delayed by several hours. What made it all unbearable, however, was Cornel West. The television monitors are inescapable these days. We're not sure when it happened, but there's hardly a corner of the waiting area to hide ...read more

We're mad as hell this morning...and more than a little sad...and it's not just this relentless Seattle grey... Yesterday, we gave our take on how college has thrown a monkey wrench into the wealth-creation machine that used to be America. One Whiskey Shooter responded: "Gary, "You put it so clearly and so well ...read more

College is not necessary for most people. It never was. In fact, the preoccupation with college has left America bereft of its former ability to create wealth. An unhealthy cultural myth has flourished that says everyone must go to college and get an advanced degree, even if it's something for which ...read more

Today, we relented and stopped into a Starbucks this morning for a sandwich and coffee. A realization hit us. We'd been in Seattle -- the home of Starbucks -- for two weeks, just a block south of a Starbucks. Yet we hadn't taken advantage of it! We had never commandeered a ...read more

What to make of Occupy Wall Street... We found the following in our inbox today from the National Inflation Association: "The Occupy Wall Street movement is gaining tons of momentum and is likely to continue picking up steam in the weeks and months ahead. Americans are angry, but they aren't exactly sure ...read more

To hear the latest batch of political salesmen tell it, China is a drug pusher in a schoolyard full of American schoolkids. The cheap goods the Chinese export market provides the American consumers may feel good, initially, but they are surely destroying America...causing manufacturers to shut down in the U.S. ...read more

Looks like the U.S. government dodged a bullet today, thanks to the FBI... Rezwan Ferdaus of Massachusetts was arrested this morning. He was accused of plotting to blow up the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol using remote-controlled aircraft armed with explosives. According to the FBI, they've thwarted another dastardly plot. Except that once ...read more

With gold making its expected pullback we needed a chuckle so we checked the New York Times and found this article from yesterday... No one I spoke to would venture a guess as to how high gold would rise before it hit its peak. But most stressed that people forgot that ...read more

A regular Whiskey bar patron writes: I truly do enjoy your insights on the Whiskey & Gunpowder posts. These ideas are very much in tune with what is going on. But why do you and others insist that Social Security is somehow an entitlement? No matter what the immoral politicians did ...read more

There is little more dangerous than an earnest do-gooder with brains and ability...and a head full of bad theory... The belief in a flat earth, for example...or in a universe that revolves around that flat earth...or a belief that a flexible currency, government spending and progressive taxes all together produce prosperity... We ...read more