Jan Larson
Jan A. Larson is currently employed in private industry in Texas. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Nebraska, a Master of Science degree from the University of Kansas and an MBA from Colorado State University. He is a contributing columnist on a number of news and opinion websites.
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Articles by Jan Larson
January 22, 2007
So the House Democrats finished their "first 100 hours" law passing party in only 43 hours. Hopefully they will all take the remaining 57 hours off considering that the hours spent were a waste of time.
Touting their magnanimous commitment to the "little man," they stabbed that man in the back b...
January 16, 2007
When I was growing up in rural Nebraska, I was forced into involuntary servitude on my father's farm. From the time I was old enough to contribute to, rather than hinder, my father and uncle's efforts on the farm, I was not asked if working for them was something I wanted to do. I was simply told ...
January 08, 2007
I'm generally an optimistic person by nature, but as the 110th Congress convenes, I find there is little reason for optimism.
I don't know if I've deluded myself or whether my inherent optimism has clouded my judgment in the past but I am now becoming resigned to the idea that enough Americans ar...
December 23, 2006
As the year comes to a close, it is time to reflect on the people and events that shaped 2006. In no particular order, I'm going to focus on the losers of 2006 - the people that made life worse for themselves, the people around them or for civilization in general.
Al Gore. Al Gore is really in ...
December 18, 2006
Children the world over fall asleep on Christmas Eve hoping that Santa will grant their Christmas wish. I have Christmas wishes too and although I am sure that most will not come to be, that doesn't stop me from hoping, that just maybe, some might come true.
I wish that Americans would come to r...
December 11, 2006
The Christmas Season is the time when millions of shoppers pour into their neighborhood Wal-Mart store seeking that very special gift for a friend of loved one. It also marks the season when demagogues ramp up their anti-Wal-Mart rants.
Is Wal-Mart really a scrooge to its employees?
The anti-...
December 04, 2006
Let's assume that the six Muslim imams that were recently escorted off a U. S. Airways plane in Minneapolis were 100% innocent of any wrongdoing, had no intention of causing harm to anyone, were simply going about their business of returning to their homes after attending a conference and were, sadl...
November 26, 2006
Recent comments by Rosie O'Donnell equating radical Islam with Christianity and Elton John advocating the banning of all religion were viewed as outrageous by most clear-thinking people.
There is simply no logical explanation for the equating of people that would blow themselves up and take other...
November 18, 2006
There were two very enlightening programs televised last week, "Exposed: The Extremist Agenda" on CNN's Glenn Beck show and an examination of filmmaker Wayne Kopping's "Obsession: The Threat of Radical Islam" [1] hosted by E. D. Hill on Fox News.
Both of these programs should be required viewing...
November 12, 2006
What must it feel like to step into the batter's box at the World Series? What thoughts would be running through the mind of an "average guy" as he was getting ready to run downfield on the kickoff of the Super Bowl? I will never experience either of those, but last week I did get to experience wh...
October 28, 2006
In a little over a week, the great mid-term election of '06 will be history. I, for one, will be glad to change the subject. I will also glad that the incessant phone calls pleading for donations will stop (at least for a while), the smear attack ads will cease and the pundits will move onto other...
October 23, 2006
In the recent Bill O'Reilly interview with President Bush, O'Reilly was questioning the president on the subject of Iraq. I found the he president's position on the importance of finishing the job in Iraq to be quite profound. He said (paraphrasing) that if Iraq were to be abandoned and left to fa...
October 16, 2006
In one of my favorite Seinfeld episodes [1], George concludes that every decision that he has ever made has been wrong. Jerry suggests that if everything George does is wrong, the opposite must be right. George embraces "the opposite" approach to his life and, miraculously, everything turns around...
October 08, 2006
Mark Foley, Cynthia McKinney, Patrick Kennedy, Tom Delay, William Jefferson. The list goes on. Another day in Washington - another member of Congress in trouble.
Is this simply because in any group of 535 people there will be some that are stupid, criminal or perverts or is there something uniq...
October 04, 2006
As reported in the online version of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer [1] a recent poll indicated that upwards of one third of Americans believe the Bush administration assisted with and/or took no action to stop the attacks of 9/11.
A USA Today story [2] indicated that over 40% of Americans believ...
September 23, 2006
The conventional wisdom in the past year or so has been that the Democrats will make significant gains in representation in both the House and Senate in November, primarily due to the public's dissatisfaction with progress in Iraq and secondarily due to high gas prices and border security issues.
...
September 16, 2006
Double standard - any code or set of principles containing different provisions for one group of people than for another.
- dictionary.com
If we agree that it is wrong to categorize people into groups based on generalities such as race, ethnicity, disability or gender, rather than treat each as ...
September 11, 2006
If you are like me, you probably find yourself saying, "If it were up to me, I would ..." quite often as you go about your daily business.
If it were up to me, no one would ever drive (1) and talk on a cell phone, or (2) below the posted speed limit (conditions permitting) ever again.
Jimmy Ca...
September 02, 2006
Sometimes an event occurs that is so incredibly astonishing that leaves one speechless. At other times, the course of events is so predictable that only the densest among us is surprised. This week featured a number of such "astonishing surprises."
The U. N. imposed deadline for Iran to stop en...
August 26, 2006
As the November election approaches and Democrats from John Murtha to John Kerry to Howard Dean to Ned Lamont claim that the Bush administration's policies to combat terrorism and to conduct the war in Iraq have failed, we still don't know what exactly the Democrats would do. While Democrats consta...
August 21, 2006
The school year has barely gotten started, but the teachers in my local Texas school district have already taught students a valuable lesson. You can get your way if you scream, cry and hold your breath until you're blue in the face.
(Note: Any teacher who is truly dedicated teacher, capable of...
August 07, 2006
It is likely that few readers have ever heard of Suprabha Beckjord and Madhupran Wolfgang Schwerk. Beckjord and Schwerk have done something that to most people seems absolutely insane. They are just two of a relative handful of people that have completed the Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race. [1] ...
July 29, 2006
The Israel - Hezbollah conflict should be enlightening to Americans and others who can't seem to understand the nature of the threat of radical Islam. Alas, I fear it is not.
As Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice flies around the Middle East calling for an end to the violence, an international ...
July 15, 2006
Once we said, "it's summertime and the living is easy." Far from easy, the summer of 2006 is looking more and more like the summer of despair.
I am, by nature, an optimistic person, but for all but those oblivious to the world around them, there are more that a few reasons to be despondent thi...
July 11, 2006
According to an article in the San Francisco Chronicle [1], the city of San Francisco is poised to become the first in the nation to offer universal health care to all residents regardless of income, immigration status or pre-existing medical conditions.
Since this plan has been hatched in the "C...
July 03, 2006
About the only way I can describe the conservatives that supported the recently defeated "flag burning" amendment is that many sound like liberals.
On this issue, most of the conservative commentary that I've read reads much like it was written by anti-gun, anti-smoking, anti-property rights, tax...
May 06, 2006
The liberal way of thinking is incompatible with the realities of the world. Liberals will never solve problems and, in fact, will cause and perpetuate them because they cannot and do not understand how the world works. This has been proven throughout history.
The liberal view is defined by what...
April 30, 2006
I am reluctant to toss another missive onto the ever-growing pile of gas-related commentary that has accumulated in the past few weeks, but since it seems to be on the top of almost everyone's list of talking points, I just can't help myself.
The foolishness and shallow thinking that has been offe...
April 24, 2006
The debate over abortion has raged for over three decades and there is nothing to suggest that this debate will cease any time soon. Among the places where one would expect to be a venue for vigorous debate on that subject and many others are university campuses. Unfortunately, one professor recen...
April 20, 2006
If you've ever made a contribution to a political party, political candidate or other interest group, you probably know that one donation, no matter how large or small, eventually results in an avalanche of desperate pleas for additional donations.
With the 2006 midterm elections on the horizon, m...
April 10, 2006
The recent demonstrations regarding immigration legislation and the Cynthia McKinney incident have shown that a lot of people really don't know what racism is.
As defined by dictionary.com [1], racism is "the belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a partic...
April 02, 2006
With only two weeks to go until "tax day," have you finished preparing your 2005 return? Maybe you filed your return weeks ago and you're one of the "lucky" ones that got a refund of the interest-free loan you made to the government.
On the other hand maybe you've determined that you're going to ...
March 27, 2006
Events in recent months have shown that France is in the process of committing national suicide.
The latest round of French violence centers on a law that would allow French businesses to fire young workers within the first two years of employment without providing a reason. Current French employ...
March 20, 2006
In a vote last week, Congress authorized government borrowing of an additional $871 billion dollars, thereby increasing the "debt ceiling" to nearly $9 trillion.
The action was necessary to maintain the "full faith and credit" of the United States. In other words, without borrowing more, the gove...
March 13, 2006
Almost no one that can command an audience will publicly state that illegal immigration isn't a problem for the United States, but many of the arguments in the debate are seriously devoid of logic.
Opponents of increasing border security claim that immigrants are hard working, honest people that a...
March 05, 2006
Most athletes have had the experience at one time or another of being in "the zone." It is during these times that everything about the game slows down and even the most difficult actions become easy. The baseball player sees every rotation of the pitch in slow motion and hitting becomes simple. ...
February 28, 2006
Dr. Walter Williams wrote a recent commentary entitled "Bogus Rights" [1] in which he discussed the difference between a true "right," such as the right of free speech and bogus rights such as the "right" to medical care.
There is little question that in our society more and more things are viewed...
February 20, 2006
The Internal Revenue Service reported [1] last week that $345 billion (not a misprint) in taxes owed for 2001 has not been collected. Not to worry, the report also indicates that IRS enforcement efforts will recover approximately $55 billion of this "tax gap." Bully for the IRS.
Even if the IRS ...
February 18, 2006
Politicians at all levels of government typically run for office ostensibly to "serve the people." Once elected, however, it is not uncommon that many legislators find that "serving the people" is not such a bad gig after all. A good many of these faithful solons decide that they really don't want...