George F. Will said...

"Football is a mistake. It combines the two worst elements of American life. Violence and committee meetings. "

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1 comments to date. The most recent comments:

David Martin from Chantilly, Va, USA (September 27, 2010)
I have the strong impression that George Will does not actually write the columns that deal with Israel and Palestine. I think that they are actually written by Likud Party flacks working for Benjamin Netanyahu and Will just puts his name on them. At least, I can't imagine how they would be any different if that were the case.

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Your comments about George F. Will

George F. Will graduated from Princeton University with a Ph.D. in 1968 and then taught political philosophy at Michigan State University and the University of Toronto. He began his career in journalism as the editor of the National Review from 1973 until 1976. In 1974 he became part of the Washington Post Writer's Group where he published a bi-weekly column. He became the contributing editor for Newsweek in 1976 writing a back page column. As of today, he still writes both columns. Will also taught at Harvard University in 1995 and 1998.

Will is a founding member of ABC's This Week with David Brinkley and also served as a news analyst for ABC in the early 1980s.

He published two books on baseball: Bunts: Pete Rose, Curt Flood, Camden Yards and other Reflections, and Men At Work: The Craft of Baseball, both which became best-sellers. He also published several on political philosophy, and eleven compilations of his writings for the Washington Post and Newsweek.

Accuracy in Media (AIM) has questioned the ethics of Will's columns, as well as members of The Washington Post who syndicate his column. An example is in an article about the Indian Ocean Tsunami: Will wrote that Catholic priests "roamed the streets" hanging heretics they blamed for the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. However, the charge appears nowhere in recorded history; after notified, Will nor The Post took any action to correct the mistake. Will simply stated that it appeared in a 2005 book, A Crack in the Edge of the World, by Simon Winchester.

George F. Will Poll Results

This poll ran from May 3 to 16, 2010.

Mondo Stars Poll Results

"All taxation diminishes freedom." True 485/57% False 371/43%

Votes: 856

George F. Will, from the op-ed article "The perils of the value-added tax," published in the Washington Post on April 18, 2010. Will wrote:

"Money is time made tangible -- the time invested in the earning of it. Taxation is the confiscation of the earner's time. Although some taxation is necessary, all taxation diminishes freedom. Adding a VAT without subtracting the income tax would constrict Americans' freedom much more than the health-care legislation does. Because the 16th Amendment will not be repealed, adoption of a VAT would proclaim the impossibility of serious spending reductions and hence would be the obituary for the Founders' vision of limited government."

This poll ran from November 30 to December 6, 2009.

Mondo Stars Poll Results

"Cash is the best holiday present." Yes 437/67% No 213/33%

Votes: 650

George F. Will of the Washington Post, from the op-ed article "Economic Boost? Bah, humbug," published on November 29, 2009. Will argues that Christmas gift-giving is "destroying billions of dollars of value." From the article:

"Were it not for sentimentality about sentiments, which are highly overrated, we would behave rationally, giving cash, thereby avoiding value subtraction. We almost do that with wedding registries. And cash for Christmas, or semi-cash in the form of gift cards, no longer seems so tacky. Between 1998 and 2005, gift card sales grew 27 percent a year. They now are about one-third of Christmas spending and rank near the top of lists of preferred gifts."

However, Will acknowledges that buying gift cards puts billions of unused dollars in the pockets of retailers, as many of the cards are never used: "A tenth of gift cards\' values, worth billions of dollars, are never redeemed. The cards are lost Christmas morning in the blizzard of wrapping paper, or just forgotten."