With the recent publication of the Occupy Handbook, and the warm spring weather reviving the Occupy protesters from their winter hiatus, it is a good time to ask whether the Occupy [Wall Street] movement has a valid moral claim. What is the Occupy movement’s claim? The basic moral claim is that there is too big [...]
Archive | April, 2012
The Devil You Say: ‘If I Wanted America to Fail’
On April 9th, FreeMarketAmerica.org, a project of Americans for Limited Government, released a Doberman of a video that goes straight for the jugular of stealth socialism and totalitarian government, “If I Wanted America to Fail.” Little more than four and a half minutes long, it is powerful, it is unique, it is effective. As of [...]
America Got Its “Cool” President–So What Now?
In an anti-ideological age, you get nothing but double talk from politicians.
Thank You for Sharing, Jon Lovitz
It seems like Hollywood is filled with a bunch of nitwitted, anti-intellectual, group-think liberal socialists. These entertainers have more money than anyone — and good for them — but instead of being in favor of money-making, they’re furiously against it. I’ve never understood this. If you’re sincerely against capitalism, and you denounce “the rich” and [...]
Collectivist Arizona Immigration Law is Anti-Capitalist
Now that the Arizona immigration-control law is at the Supreme Court, it’s time to analyze that law. There are two levels: the philosophic level and the level of Constitutional law. Fortunately, they both point to the same conclusion. The philosophical issue is my main concern. There is no dichotomy between property rights and “human rights”. [...]
Remembering the 1992 Los Angeles Riots
Seeing Reginald Denny being assaulted and mutilated for the color of his skin on live television provided an unforgettable lesson in the politics of race-baiting: that jumping to conclusions may impair government from protecting the public and instead incur looting and killing. L.A.’s riots are a harsh reminder that replacing facts with feelings – which was done by city leaders, the president and a pack of journalists – is a matter of life and death.
Review: Did Muhammad Exist? An Inquiry into Islam’s Obscure Origins
Reading Arthur Conan Doyle’s novel, The Hound of the Baskervilles, one cannot help but marvel at the thoroughness of Sherlock Holmes’s use of reason to piece together disparate clues and evidence and conclude that the least plausible explanation was the most obvious, true one. The legendary, spectral hound that haunted the Dartmoor bogs for two [...]
Obama’s Class Envy via Bad Numbers
With economic “fairness” the central theme of his re-election campaign, President Obama recently pitched his “Buffett Rule” tax hike to a student audience at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. Aimed at those who earn the bulk of their income from capital gains, the plan would double the tax rate on capital gains from 15 [...]
The Freedom to Choose
You have a moral right to choose what will bring you satisfaction, joy, and happiness, as long as you respect the mutual rights of others.
Capital and Cash Reserves
I promise to make this my last post for a while concerning the matter of 100-percent versus fractional-reserve banking. However, in addressing some comments on my recent posts it occurred to me that some very serious misunderstanding is at play concerning the difference between a bank’s capital and its cash reserves. The distinction between these [...]