Kirk W. Kelsen

Kirk W. Kelsen


  • November 19, 2011

    Hydrophophia

    "EU says water is not healthy," declares a British headline. Of course it does. After three years of exhaustive study, a well-pensioned panel of EU scientists has conclusively concluded that water purveyors cannot make the hare-brained claim that th...

  • September 5, 2011

    American resilience and China

    A good friend sent along this remarkable picture of an American soldier who devised a brace for a weapon that now occupies the shortened end of his leg, amputated courtesy an Afghani IED:   Official U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Tim...

  • August 28, 2011

    I Already Own a Bullet Train

    If you're of a mind someday to whisk conveniently between Fresno and Buttonwillow -- and, hey, who doesn't daydream about that? -- California will have you covered.  Traveling 220 miles per hour (mph), you'll get from "nowhere" to "nowhere" in a...

  • August 9, 2011

    Black Swans Coming

    As of Saturday, August 6, Apmex, the world's largest trader in precious metals, suspended the checkout counter until 7 pm EST Sunday, waiting for Asian markets to open.  The implication was that the new prices would be more than a smidge differe...

  • August 2, 2011

    Ceiling Our Fate

    Just either side of the contentious debt limit vote in the House on Friday, the United States Congress addressed among its most footling duties: naming and opening new post offices in Mississippi and New York.  Were anyone in Washington to think...

  • January 18, 2011

    The Great Depression II

    One basis for deciding whether we are in a "recession" or a "depression" is distinguishing how recessions become depressions.  With the hindsight of history, we already know.Parallels between America's current economic crisis...

  • May 22, 2010

    The Speaker Who Won't Speak with the People

    Everywhere we turn, we stumble over Nancy Pelosi. Or rather, we stumble over the micro-regulations Nancy Pelosi adores. These regulations are vast new bureaucratic steps that exact compliance in the most everyday of transactions.In my case, I stumble...