Craig Cantoni

An Environmentalist Applauds Trump

by Craig Cantoni | Jun 2, 2017 | Blog

Twenty-five years ago I founded and headed a large and influential environmental grassroots group in metro New York. One of my biggest challenges was to keep my board of directors and rank-and-file from embellishing, exaggerating and distorting the facts in the heat of battle. “The facts are on our side,” I would say, “so hyperbole and misstatements will only undermine our credibility with the media and the public.” Sticking to the facts resulted in very favorable media coverage, including a New Jersey daily honoring me on the Sunday front page as “Public Service Volunteer of the Year,” and...

Drag a Congressman Down the Aisle of a Plane

by Craig Cantoni | May 10, 2017 | Blog

The United Airlines CEO was another in a long list of business executives who have had to appear before a congressional committee of mostly lawyers who have never run anything. The inquisition is always the same: Executives have to prostrate themselves before the arrogant, self-righteous inquisitors as they accept full blame for whatever went wrong, apologize profusely, and vow that it will never happen again. It is telling that the reverse never happens. Members of Congress who have done far, far worse are not hauled before a committee of citizens to explain their actions and apologize...

Astonishing Explanation for Campus Snowflakes

by Craig Cantoni | Apr 30, 2017 | Blog

In a letter to the editor in the April 27th edition of the Wall Street Journal, a faculty member of Northwestern University explained why snowflakes behave the way they do on college campuses. The letter is pasted at the end of this commentary. In an astonishing display of mental gymnastics, mental yoga, and mental Pilates, Karl T. Muth, Ph.D., explained to intellectual inferiors like me that the cause is capitalistic consumerism. As is the case for healthcare, Muth said, students nowadays expect to be treated like customers and will complain when they don’t get what they want. Well, he...

History of Korea as the War Drums Beat

by Craig Cantoni | Apr 29, 2017 | Blog

Santayana’s warning about not learning from history is valid up to a point. As is the case of North Korea today, a point is sometimes reached in which the history of who did what to whom doesn’t matter. What matters now with respect to N. Korea is what the world is going to do about a madman with the bomb, albeit a tiny one, regardless of how we got to this point. Still, the history of the two Koreas is instructive and important to know. Below are two articles on that history that look at Korea from opposite perspectives. The first is a book review of a book that gives the history of how...

The Great Fallacy of Diversity

by Craig Cantoni | Apr 26, 2017 | Blog

Black college students at Pomona College and Claremont Colleges recently published a manifesto that unwittingly reveals the fallacy of the premise behind racial diversity on campus and elsewhere. The premise is that intellectual life is ipso facto enriched by diversity, a premise that even the Supreme Court has embraced. The manifesto is pasted at the end of this commentary, but it is strongly suggested that you read this critique instead of the actual document, so you can maintain your mental health. If you still insist on reading the manifesto, get a leather belt from your closet to bite...

Dinner for Two Government Bureaucrats

by Craig Cantoni | Apr 20, 2017 | Blog

Scene: Suburban house in metro Washington, D.C. A GS-12 bureaucrat with the FDA arrives home and is greeted at the door by his wife. “Hi honey, how was your day?” asks the wife, who had just gotten home from her job with the Department of Labor. “It was great,” responds the husband. “My food labeling task force has issued the final rule on the posting of nutrition information by pizza joints, other fast-food joints, and vending machine companies, as mandated by Section 4205 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or ObamaCare. The rule takes effect on May 1.” “Ooo, you make me...

Millennials, Mortgages and Government Grizzlies

by Craig Cantoni | Apr 13, 2017 | Blog

You may have heard that millennials aren’t buying homes because they are buried in tuition debt, due to the government driving up the cost of college. You also may have heard that Wells Fargo Bank was exposed and fined for a scam of setting up accounts for customers without their knowledge, in order to meet corporate goals. And like other banks, it gave mortgages to unqualified borrowers during the housing bubble, being encouraged to do so by the government, resulting in a housing crash and a bailout for banks. Hold those facts for a moment as I relate a personal anecdote that, as you will...

Emotion Trumps Reason in Trump’s Missile Attack

by Craig Cantoni | Apr 8, 2017 | Blog

It was a sure sign that emotion had once again trumped reason when both the left and the right agreed that Trump had a moral imperative to attack the Syrian air base. The implication was that the United States should intercede with force whenever barbarism takes place in the world, or more specifically, when photos of barbarism reach the White House and the general public. The missile attack will do nothing to change the course of the conflict, as Bashar Al-Assad is becoming more entrenched, not less, due to Russia and Iran assisting his regime, and to Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the USA...