He should know

The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority is being sued for alleged discrimination by a group of current and former black employees, including the former director of the agency’s Office of Equal Opportunity.

—Plain Dealer, Aug. 5, 1999

Go to school or go to jail? I’m thinking, I’m thinking

Vice President Al Gore yesterday promised that if he is elected president, he would make it illegal for children to drop out of high school…

He made it clear that compulsory graduation from high school would be only the beginning of his “revolutionary” push for more education.

—Washington Times, Aug. 13, 1999

More funding for patronizing government programs!

You [American Indians] have suffered from neglect, and you know that doesn’t work. You have also suffered from the tyranny of patronizing, inadequately funded government programs, and you know that doesn’t work.

—President Clinton, remarks to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation Community, July 7, 1999

Why not let them invest 12.4 percent of their income in stocks and bonds for retirement?

Former senator Bill Bradley (N.J.)… told union workers that “one of my absolute key objectives is to make sure that more Americans, working families in America, get on this prosperity train.”

—Washington Post, Aug. 20, 1999

As long as they show the Earth right‐​side up

Vice President Gore, known for his love of science education, refused yesterday to take a clear stand on whether public schools should be required to teach evolution and not creationism.

—Washington Post, Aug. 27, 1999

And the nominees for most irrelevant comparison are…

Scott Simon: The National Endowment for the Humanities has plans to create a passel of centers to document the cultural heritage of this nation, region by region… NEH Chairman Bill Ferris has been on Capitol Hill this week lobbying Congress for start‐​up money… Mr. Ferris, how much money are you asking for?

Mr. Ferris: These are challenge grants, which means that each of the institutions will have to match $3 for every dollar we give them. So… that will be a $50 million commitment that the Endowment will raise. And the nation will match it three‐​to‐​one with 150. So it’s a $200 million gift to the nation for the next century.

Simon: I think that’s still below the price of a single B‑2 bomber.

—Weekend Edition, National Public Radio, Sept. 18, 1999

Maybe he could lecture at the Brooklyn Museum of Art

President Clinton ended a small but increasingly nasty controversy over plans to have him give the annual Jefferson Lecture, an honor traditionally reserved for well‐​known figures in the humanities, with a simple: No thanks.

William R. Ferris, the chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, had invited the president to give the prestigious lecture…

A Clinton speech would have broken a 27‐​year tradition of evenings with intellectuals such as Robert Penn Warren, C. Vann Woodward,… [Gertrude Himmelfarb, Forrest McDonald, Bernard Bailyn] and Sidney Hook.

—Washington Post, Sept. 22, 1999

But they can’t choose schools, just Internet sites

“Decisions about children and the Internet should be made not through one‐​size‐​fits‐​all government mandates but by the people who care most about the children and know them best—and that’s their parents,” said [People for the American Way] President Carole Shields. “Armed with real information, parents will be able to make choices that reflect their children’s needs and their family’s values.”

—Press release, July 29, 1999

Family values in the drug war

A senior Energy Department official and his wife… were arrested this week on charges of growing and possessing marijuana after their 16‐​year‐​old daughter, armed with photographs of the plants, went to police.

—Washington Post, Sept. 4, 1999

The magic of the market

Long growth and low unemployment are even fostering tolerance and diversity in the work force.

At Whirlpool Corp.‘s air conditioner plant in La Vergne, Tenn., Muslim employees are now being permitted to maintain rigorous religious practices on the job. And staffing service firms are trying to hire more disabled people.

“Growth has done more for social diversity than a century of legislation could have,” [Ohio State University economist Stephen] Mangum said.

—Los Angeles Times, Aug. 30, 1999

This article originally appeared in the November/​December 1999 edition of Cato Policy Report.