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Naturally all Americans want our workers to make good wages. But these unionized Schweitzer workers have been making far higher wages than the average or median in a place like rural Berkshire County where living costs are relatively low. So companies like Schweitzer and General Electric in Pittsfield were finding those wages harder and harder to pay in a competitive global environment. And this story has been repeated over and over across the fruited plain, of how greedy labor unions broke the steel industry and the railroad industry, and now are in the process of milking the auto industry out of business, leaving ensuing generations with nothing. Continue Reading »

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In the 1970s, as America waded through stagflation and Jimmy Carter malaise, Massachusetts suffered as well. A center of Colonial and American economic power and progress for three centuries, The Bay State found itself in an area of the nation that rapidly was losing economic clout to the Sun Belt. But in Ronald Reagan’s economic boom of the 1980s, Massachusetts experienced an economic resurgence by dint of national prosperity, and when he ran for President in 1988, Governor Michael Dukakis touted the ‘Massachusetts Miracle’ in asking for voter approval. Continue Reading »

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That ‘global warming’ alarmist Al Gore and the United Nations are sharing the Nobel Peace Prize is no big surprise. It was about as uncertain as a presidential election in Venezuela. The consequences, however, could be grave for us all if we wander into Gore’s end-of-the-world trap. And with this award, it appears wound up and ready to spring.

We need not rehash all the blatant falsity of Gore’s climate thesis. It clearly is anti-science, anti-common-sense and purely political in nature because, for one thing, it is established fact that our latest 20-year ‘planetary heating emergency’ is nothing more than a 5% replay of the Medieval years, when a much hotter climate extended over four whole centuries, but with no Nobel Al to fret over it. Continue Reading »

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The Environmental Protection Agency soon will issue revised 2008 miles-per-gallon ratings for hybrid cars that are expected to cut mileage estimates for some models by 10-20%. Under the new system, the Toyota Prius, the best-known and fastest-selling hybrid gas-electric car in America, falls from 60 mpg to only 48. Continue Reading »

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My name is Steven Nikitas. I was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts in 1953. Pittsfield is in rural and scenic Berkshire County at the far west end of the state, next to the New York border.

My name is Greek. My grandparents all came from the historic land of Phidias, Aristotle and Aeschylus. I was baptized in the Greek Orthodox Church, and after much of my life away from my faith, I have rediscovered the beauty and profundity of my religious heritage. Continue Reading »

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As you watched Iranian “President” Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaking at Columbia University on September 24, you were struck by a sense of deja-vu. Then it hits you, that this madman is the mirror image of Bob Denver of the 1960s TV sit-com Gilligan’s Island, where a boatload of hapless characters are stranded for several seasons on a deserted island for once-a-week small-screen levity. Continue Reading »