Alan Caruba is a widely syndicated commentator whose weekly column, "Warning Signs", is featured in The National Anxiety Center, a clearinghouse for information about "scare campaigns" designed to influence public opinion and policy. Caruba founded the Center in 1990, having been a business and science writer for many years, in addition to being a public relations counselor who has worked with many leading think tanks, corporations, and trade associations. Alan is founding member of the National Book Critics Circle; he also posts a monthly report on new books at Bookviews. In addition, he is a longtime member of the Society of Professional Journalists, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, and the National Association of Science Writers. A popular guest on radio and television, Caruba is available to address groups on the topics about which he writes, including environmentalism, energy, education, national security and sovereignty, property rights, and Islam. He can be reached at:

Get the Feds Out of Our Schools!: [02/12/08 ] One of President Bush’s legacies that will be judged harshly in the future is his No Child Left Behind (NCLB) program that presumably was going to bring America’s school systems up to a national standard of performance.

The Nausea Factor: [02/08/08 ] There always comes a time at some point in the process by which Americans select the next “leader of the free world” that one experiences the nausea incurred by too much political rhetoric. There is an impolite word for this that begins with the word “bull.”

Does the New York Times Hate Meat?: [02/05/08 ] After a while, one grows accustomed to the environmental rants that appear in The New York Times. This newspaper, so often pointed to as an exemplar of the highest standards of journalism, has been repeatedly revealed to employ fantasists for whom truth and facts are mere impediments to the advancement of their obsessions and agendas.

I’m Fat. You’re Fat. And Your Kids Are, Too. [01/29/08 ] If you want the government, federal, state and local, to tell you what you can and cannot eat, please raise your hand. Apparently no one does except for the various politicians who think they were elected to determine what you should eat and drink.

Green Desperation Time [01/25/08 ] News of a January 31 “teach-in” on more than 1,000 college campuses nationwide strikes me of just one more example of the growing desperation of the environmental movement that has bet its credibility and influence on global warming.

Get the Feds Out of Our Schools! [01/23/08 ] One of President Bush’s legacies that will be judged harshly in the future is his No Child Left Behind (NCLB) program that presumably was going to bring America’s school systems up to a national standard of performance.

No Energy, Please [01/22/08 ] In mid-December, while thousands of people in the Midwest prayed that their power would be restored in order to survive the freezing weather and an ice storm descended on the northeast, it took less than 24 hours for the environmentalists of New Jersey to raise their voices against a proposed offshore natural gas terminal.

Congress Conjures Up an Energy Deficit [01/15/08 ] Let’s understand a simple fact. You cannot squeeze any more energy out of a gallon of gasoline than already exists. If you mix it with an additive which itself provides less energy, what you get is less energy.

The Challenge of 2008 and Beyond [01/01/08 ] The beginning of a new year is a good time to consider the many things that differentiate this new century from the last.

I’d like to recommend that everyone read “It’s Getting Better All the Time: Greatest Trends of the Last 100 Years” by Stephen Moore and the late Julian L. Simon. It was published in 2000 by the Cato Institute and is singularly the best reference for anyone and everyone who assumes we have always had electricity, global telecommunications, abundant food, and extraordinary medical treatment.

Stepping Back from the Precipice [12/26/07 ] The end of a year, any year, is a good time to give some consideration to the reason we have arrived at a particular state of affairs and whether a new direction is required. This is particularly true at a time when the campaigns to be the party’s choice for the presidency is more drenched in debate of religious issues and assertions, than in domestic and foreign policy issues.

Saying “No” When Everyone Else Is Saying “Yes” [12/18/07 ] I have been witness to the complete subversion of science in the service of an utterly corrupt new religion called environmentalism.

Global Warming Lies Create a Climate of Crisis [12/11/07 ] The United Nations conference in Bali, attended by some 10,000 participants and observers, is likely to make future generations conclude that ours was deranged to be discussing how humans could have any affect whatever on the climate. They will, in retrospect, agree that the global warming theory was a lie whose agenda was to retard anything that might extend and enhance life on earth.

America's Standing in the World [12/04/07 ] I am already quite sick of hearing Democrat candidates say that we have to “improve America’s standing in the world” as if the whole world holds our nation in contempt or disagrees with our actions.

Never Learning from the Past [11/27/07 ] The libraries of the world are filled with books devoted to history and new ones are published on any almost daily basis, but if their lessons are ignored, it condemns nations and the peoples of the world to horrors that increase with the evolving technology of death.

Loons and Bears Versus Eskimos and Oil [11/19/07 ] “A petition seeking Endangered Species Act protection for a rare loon that breeds in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve has been accepted for review by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service” noted a May 29, 2007 Associated Press article. “Conservationists hope an eventual listing of the yellow-billed loon will curb petroleum development in the 23-million acre reserve that covers much of Alaska’s North Slope..”

Kansas Rules Against Electricity [11/13/07 ] I wonder if the folks at the Kansas Department of Health and Environment think that electricity is made by fairies who live in the garden or that an army of elves produce it?

On October 19, a Washington Post article was headlined “Power Plant Rejected Over Carbon Dioxide for First Time.” Let’s hope it is the last time or those of us around the nation who depend on coal to produce over 50% of the electricity we use are in big trouble.

Eliminate the Gasoline Tax? [11/09/07 ] With the cost of a barrel of crude oil edging toward $100 (remember the good old days when it was only $70?), it’s time to look at the gas tax. In August, the Cato Institute published a “Policy Analysis” that was titled, “Don’t Increase Federal Gasoline Taxes—Abolish Them.”

Friends of the Earth are Nobody’s Friends [11/06/07 ] While most of us spend our time working to pay our energy bills and put food on the table, Friends of the Earth (FOA) spend theirs doing everything in their capacity to insure that the nation and the world will not have sufficient energy to meet the needs of the human family. They may be friends of the earth, but they are no friends of those of us who live on it.

Eating Food Will Kill You [10/30/07 ] It is now a proven fact that eating food—any kind of food—will kill you. No one who has eaten food in the past is alive today and everyone currently eating food will die. Therefore, those noble people who seek to save us from eating every kind of food that the earth provides should be hailed and saluted for their efforts to keep us alive.

Eating Food Will Kill You [10/30/07 ] It is now a proven fact that eating food—any kind of food—will kill you. No one who has eaten food in the past is alive today and everyone currently eating food will die. Therefore, those noble people who seek to save us from eating every kind of food that the earth provides should be hailed and saluted for their efforts to keep us alive.