Author Archives: Bill Hobby

For more than twenty years parents of students in property-poor school districts have challenged the way Texas pays for its public schools. Now come the wealthier school districts challenging the system because it takes tax money away from them and … Continue reading →

Because to many people politics has come to be irrelevant. Politics has come to be seen as more about ideological issues than about making our lives better. Occasionally a writer comes along who expresses our frustrations so well that a … Continue reading →

Want to do something TODAY to prevent crime? Something that doesn’t require any more laws, policing, courts, or prisons? Convenience store owners and other businesses, along with the help of law enforcement, can do just that, according to a year-long … Continue reading →

State governments are not very glamorous institutions. Governors don’t meet with Gorbachev. State senators don’t meet with Saddam. State representatives don’t get to decide if we are going to trade with China and Mexico. On the other hand, Presidents and … Continue reading →

Two weeks ago in this space I pointed out that, on some guncontrol issues, the National Rifle Association cannot make up its mind. Sometimes the NRA is for criminal record checks and waiting periods to screen out felonious prospective pistol … Continue reading →

The shocking news that a college president in Rochester, NY, has worked for the CIA has started the latest wave of controversy over “political correctness” on the nation’s university campuses. Apparently co-operating with your government gets you in a world … Continue reading →

What is the National Rifle Association’s position on pistols? Do they want people to have to wait a few days to buy a pistol? What about criminal background checks on gun buyers? What is the right answer? That depends on … Continue reading →

By the end of this decade Texas will be the home of two incredible new scientific machines that will advance human knowledge in very different ways, both seeking to get a little closer to the moment time began. A new … Continue reading →

“Pain is a more terrible lord of mankind than even death itself,” Albert Schweitzer once said. Prolonged pain destroys the quality of life, erodes the will to live, and sometimes drives people to suicide. One of the most common causes … Continue reading →

On July 1, a month and a half from today, the Governor’s Task Force on Revenue will report on the condition of the state’s finances and recommend changes in the state’s taxes. Nobody knows what those recommendations will be, but … Continue reading →