Latest news with #AllysiaFinley
Wall Street Journal
4 days ago
- General
- Wall Street Journal
I'm 88 and Prospering Thanks to Routine PSAs
Regarding Allysia Finley's column 'Biden's Prostate Cancer and the Tyranny of the Experts' (Life Science, May 27): When I was 83, I was worked up thoroughly for a sudden rise in my routine PSA. Regular digital exam and special biopsy led to diagnosis of invasive but confined prostate cancer. Even though I had no symptoms of cancer, and knowing the arguments, I elected to have anti-gonadal and radiotherapy treatments. Whatever complications ensued were managed, and I have enjoyed more than five normal years with no PSA elevation. Without this intervention—and my defying the Preventive Services Task Force guidance—I might have been in the former president's present medical situation. I am still working as a physician, feeling useful and enjoying all there is to enjoy with the functional imperfections of being 88. One swallow doesn't make a summer but one contrary example can defy a rule.
Wall Street Journal
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Wall Street Journal
Why Young Men Should Shirk Manufacturing
The decommissioned aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy in Philadelphia. As much as I admire Allysia Finley 's work, I'm afraid she misses a key point in her column 'A Good Man for U.S. Manufacturing Is Hard to Find' (Life Science, April 7). It's true: We need to revitalize manufacturing in the U.S. and rebuild the Navy and our shipyards. Work in the trades in most cases is well-compensated compared with the wage-earning power of a bachelor's degree in many disciplines. As a longtime conservative, mechanical engineer and former Navy engineering duty officer, I find working with my hands and head most enjoyable and productive. But I can't recommend it to young men today, because working in a factory or shipyard often requires joining a union, which are mostly controlled by left-leaning liberals. My own experience in naval shipyards showed me that a job that could have been completed by a trained electro-mechanic in a few hours took days or sometimes weeks thanks to union trade rules. Ship construction and repairs are chronically late and overbudget as a result. We need to reinvigorate our industrial base, but taxpayer-provided funds should flow only to right-to-work states. Let the bell of freedom ring without the requirement that the hand on the clapper be from the 'Bell Ringing Workers of America.'
Wall Street Journal
24-04-2025
- Health
- Wall Street Journal
Finley Approaches a Slippery Slope on SNAP
Allysia Finley is on a slippery slope when she argues that Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, beneficiaries ought not be allowed to purchase candy or sodas with their food stamps ('Do Food Stamps Make People Fat?,' Life Science, April 21). True enough: Such consumption except in moderation isn't healthy. Why should the taxpayers subsidize it? Also true: The federal government spends almost $2 trillion annually—over a quarter of all federal outlays—on healthcare. Under Ms. Finley's principle it would be appropriate for the government to withhold such benefits for given people unless they adhere to government diktats on such lifestyle choices as individual diets, exercise habits and so forth. More monitoring of Americans in their daily lives would be guaranteed. Thus are we confronted with the age-old conservative principle: More government inexorably yields less freedom. Ronald Reagan was right yet again when he observed that 'the nine most terrifying words in the English language are 'I'm from the government, and I'm here to help.' '
Wall Street Journal
11-02-2025
- Politics
- Wall Street Journal
Republican States Are ‘Wards of Washington'
In her column 'Democratic States Are Wards of Washington' (Life Science, Feb. 3), Allysia Finley writes of certain states' dependence on undisciplined federal 'handouts.' Yet her analysis misses half of the equation: Expenses make sense only when matched with revenues. Public research has repeatedly shown blue-state tax dollars contributed to the federal government subsidize red state receipts from the federal government. Six of the top 10 states receiving the greatest dollar amount of federal grants per capita are red states.
