Yearly Archives: 2002

Liberal Massachusetts and Conservative Colorado

Although Massachusetts and Colorado may not quite be exact ideological polar opposites among American states, they do come pretty close. As one of the few states in which Republicans enjoy a distinct advantage in registration, Colorado forms an important piece of … Continue reading

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Too Close to Call in Colorado

This morning’s Boston Globe poll showed our “English” measure in Massachusetts still enjoying a very comfortable lead of some 27 points among voters, virtually unchanged from its 28 point lead a month earlier in the same poll. To date, we … Continue reading

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Habla Usted Ingles?

Habla Usted Ingles? by Ron Unz Wall Street Journal, Thursday, October 31, 2002 It’s fair to say that when arguably the most liberal Democratic state in the U.S. has abandoned bilingual education, it is indeed an idea whose time has … Continue reading

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“To Undo My Mistake”

One of the rarest characteristics of any prominent individual, especially in the fields of politics, education, or the media, is the willingness to admit a mistake. To read the speeches or media commentary of our national leaders is to be … Continue reading

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The Problem with Bilingual Education

“The Problem with Bilingual Education,” by Ron Unz New York Times (Letters), Sunday, October 27, 2002 In his defense of bilingual education programs (“The Voters’ Prerogatives and Bilingual Education,” Lessons column, Oct. 23), Richard Rothstein implies that previous generations of … Continue reading

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“Our Supporters Are Vicious Liars and Race-Baiters”

Given the abysmal standards of modern political campaigning, it is certainly quite rare for major newspapers to bother devoting their lead editorials to stinging denunciations of a particular advertising campaign, using words like “lies,” “ugly distortions,” “reprehensible,” “false and inflammatory … Continue reading

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Hate Crimes Rising in Colorado

As Stalin, a leading authority on such matters, once observed, “A single death is a tragedy,  million deaths is a statistic.” This important but subtle distinction between major tragedies and mere statistics certainly arises during any examination of our decade-long … Continue reading

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Spending Millions for Racial Segregation in Colorado

An otherwise rather bland and boring—though hard-fought—election season has now been enlivened by a rather unusual spectacle. A billionaire heiress from Fort Collins, Colorado has decided to spend millions from her personal fortune funding the most intense political advertising campaign … Continue reading

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With a Whimper But Also Some Bangs

Divisive American initiative measures, especially those touching on controversial ethnic issues, almost inevitably follow a consistent pattern. First, for a year or more, the two sides wage a ferociously contested political campaign, frequently with massive funding and the political establishment … Continue reading

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The Best Conservative Governor in America

The September 2, 2002 of National Review carried a cover story that tellingly revealed the utter decrepitude of today’s mainstream conservative movement. Entitled “The Best Governor in America,” the piece highlighted Colorado’s Bill Owens, a relatively obscure first-term governor from … Continue reading

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Rita Montero vs. the Human Vampires

About a month ago, a prominent former political figure in Colorado who is openly sympathetic to our “English” initiative invited me to his home to meet with a group of his friends and discuss the details of the issue. These … Continue reading

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How the Shefa Fund Changed America

Today’s Boston Globe carried a short piece buried on page B3 that might signal the most important change in American political campaigning in one hundred years. Some months ago, the political campaign committee organized to defeat our proposed “English” initiative … Continue reading

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The Most Spanish-Speaking City in America

One subtle aspect of the political world is that lies are frequently more revealing than truths. When a politician tells the truth, he may be doing so for a wide variety of possible reasons. Perhaps he is an honest person, … Continue reading

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Got English?

Got English? by Ron Unz vs. Gully Stanford Denver Rocky Mountain News, Saturday, September 14, 2002 Amendment 31 would transform how students who don’t speak English are educated in Colorado, requiring that they take special classes taught in English. Some of them … Continue reading

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Running on English, Winning on English

Although Americans frequently condemn the bipartisan cowardice and outright dishonesty of our elected officials, there is an obvious excuse for such failings. Politicians live in a hyper-Darwinian world, in which their survival is tested ever two or four or six … Continue reading

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Far Too Small a Sample Size

Late Wednesday night, I returned to the Bay Area on a midnight flight from two exhausting days in Denver. Much of the time spent there was rather run-of-the- mill and typical, with an hour-long televised debate on our “English” initiative … Continue reading

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Options and Threats

Last week, I distributed a column reviewing the financial and accounting tricks that have played such a major role in recently erasing some seven trillion dollars of value from our capital markets. This piece generated a great deal of response, … Continue reading

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Taking Stock

“Taking Stock” by Ron Unz The Los Angeles Times, Sunday, August 25th, 2002 PALO ALTO—Regulators looking at how stock options are accounted for have seen cause for concern. I see opportunity. It’s true that when actual expenses don’t appear on an … Continue reading

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Initiatives have broad-based support

Initiatives have broad-based support by Ron Unz Denver Post (Letters), Sunday, August 25, 2002 Re ‘The Millionaire’s Club; Why leave ballot initiatives to the rich?’ Aug. 18 Perspective. I must respond to Daniel A. Smith’s rather ignorant piece criticizing our … Continue reading

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Question 2 and Amendment 31

One of the more underreported aspects of America’s nationwide system of state ballot initiatives is their tremendous diversity across our different states and regions.

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Options and Perpetual Motion

Options and Perpetual Motion by Ron Unz Wall Street Journal (Letters), Thursday, August 15, 2002 In his Aug. 8 editorial page commentary, “The Real Value of Options,” Harvey Golub, the former CEO of American Express, argued that the issuance of stock options … Continue reading

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Wealth and Stupidity

Just over twenty years ago, at the dawn of the 1980s, a conservative theorist named George Gilder published a million-copy international best-seller entitled Wealth and Poverty, providing an intellectual case for the superiority of free markets and entrepreneurial capitalism over … Continue reading

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A National Problem and a Colorado Solution?

This Monday, we watched as the Colorado Secretary of State accepted our petitions containing the signatures of some 140,000 registered voters in support of our initiative to replace bilingual education with English programs. With just 80,000 valid signatures being necessary, … Continue reading

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Harvard’s Gary Orfield and Academic Fraud

In any society or intellectual movement there always exist those realities, often embarrassing ones, that are widely acknowledged in private but remain unspoken in public. Since these are exactly the sort of truths that seldom appear in published books or … Continue reading

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Lau vs. “Lau”

Little Linda Brown of Topeka, Kansas probably ranks as the most prominent plaintiff of an eponymous Supreme Court decision in 20th Century American history, with Ernesto Miranda of Phoenix a close second (and Jane Roe disqualified from the running as … Continue reading

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