About: Mitch Kokai

Within a tongue-in-cheek column about his efforts to run as an Emily’s List political candidate — a tough task for a man — Joel Stein of TIME offers a particularly interesting observation about campaign messaging. I was not allowed to use the word liberalitarian since introducing new words is something political campaigns don’t approve of.Continue Reading

As the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to consider the fate of the federal health care reform law, Jim McTague of Barron’s offers a preview. On Day 1, the court will hear arguments on whether a case can be brought at all. Tax lawyers argue that a law called the Tax Anti-Injunction Act forbids the federalContinue Reading

A new book from Barron’s options editor Steven M. Sears, excerpted in the latest issue, offers this assessment of financial regulations: The market will, of course, recover from its excesses, and it will, of course, fail again. The birth of every bull market will always occur in every bear market. Laws will always be passed.Continue Reading

David Bass reports for Carolina Journal Online on the Republican primary challenge Rep. Renee Ellmers faces in North Carolina’s reconfigured 2nd congressional district. John Hood’s Daily Journal digs into the details of government privatization efforts.

Former John Locke Foundation Shaftesbury Society speaker Max Borders wants you to have a chance to read his new book Superwealth this year. If The New York Times can trot out billionaires with guilt complexes, maybe someone out there will listen to a middle-class guy with a well-considered, well-researched case for why we should: 1.Continue Reading

A blurb in the latest National Review assesses the president’s approach to tax “loopholes.” President Obama has the odd habit of decrying “loopholes” in the tax code while proposing to create new ones. He did so in his recent State of the Union speech, and in February while announcing his new corporate-tax plan — whichContinue Reading

Many parents worry about the impact of college on their children’s core values. James Lileks addresses that concern in his latest “Athwart” column for National Review: As for upending the Etch A Sketch of a freshman’s belief system, parents are right to worry. Oh, the school looks like a place of gravity and tradition, whatContinue Reading

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel gets it — at least when it comes to the unsustainability of public-sector union contracts. An Atlantic profile explains: One day at a firehouse (I agreed not to disclose which one), Rahm gets into a vigorous discussion of pensions, the most burdensome issue for cities and states across the country. TheContinue Reading