The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home
When I began to write this review, I hemmed and hawed about where to begin. Flipping through the meaty 764 pages, I was amused to note that the authors began the section entitled, "Using The Well-Trained Mind Without Losing Your Own" with the upfront statement, "This...
Torture in Castro’s Cuba
(Address of Ambassador Armando Valladares', Chief of the United State's Delegation to the United Nations Human Rights' Commission. Geneva, Switzerland, February 23, 1988) Mr. Chairman, I am not a career diplomat, and I am not an expert on the technical aspects of this...
Book Review of The Prime Movers: Traits of The Great Wealth Creators
Over the last 250 years, the quality of life throughout the world has been transformed. Life expectancy has increased from nineteen years in 1750 to seventy years today, and practically everyone today lives better than a king in the 1700s. There has been more progress...
Abolish Antitrust!
Good afternoon.I want to address four issues regarding anti-trust as they apply to the Microsoft case.Anti-trust Paralyzes the Thinking ProcessIn my research on the traits of great wealth creators (The Prime Movers: Traits of The Great Wealth Creators), I identified...
Clinton Tries To Take Credit For Celera’s Achievement
Celera’s achievement rendered the government-funded Human Genome Project obsolete. It demonstrated that the public endeavor was a waste of time, money and resources. Yet, Clinton managed not only to save face, but also to share in Celera’s glory and advance the idea that greater government involvement in science is a good thing.
The “Third Way” Moves Two Ways In Europe
In recent years, the leftist parties of England and Germany returned to power by promising voters that they had turned their back on command and control, tax and spend, economic policies. Instead they promised to "transcend" the old right and left by pursuing an...
Sex and Beer Versus The Government: The Disease of Bureaucracy
Some months ago MSNBC.com reported that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate raising the state tax on a six-pack of beer by 20 cents could reduce the nation's gonorrhea rate by almost 9 percent.1How are beer and a sexually transmitted disease...
The Perils of Gun Ownership?
1. Ted Kennedy, Rosie O'Donnell, Charles Schumer, and Barbara Boxer strongly denounce private gun ownership. However, their bodyguards carry:A. Toy guns with trigger locks B. A tape recorded message that says "Boo!" C. CandyD. Slingshots E. Very heavy purses2. You and...
The Fundamental Cause of Today’s Social Ills
So philosopher Mark Kingwell [Re: Burgled in the World's Best Country, National Post, July 12, 2000] believes that the cause of social ills like "crime and riots and beggars on the street" is the envy created by people experiencing poverty? Leaving aside all the...
The Environmentalist Evil
Environmentalism regards man as a spreading cancer that must be eliminated at any cost. And its leaders mean it. Environmentalism is at root a movement against man. As novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand observed, “… [their] ultimate motive [is]…hatred for achievement, for reason, for man, for life.”
The Three Myths of Antitrust, Part 4: Arbitrary ‘Law’
The antitrust laws and their enforcement are every bit as arbitrary as the "perfect competition" doctrine. Consider only those provisions relating to price setting. If a business sets a price above the prices of its rivals, it can be charged with "intent to...
The Three Myths of Antitrust, Part 3: Perfect Competition
Antitrust law relies heavily on flawed economic theory--particularly its theory of competition. It's a view held explicitly or implicitly by most economists, politicians, and journalists. It's been taught for decades in the universities. Unfortunately, it's also a...
The Three Myths of Antitrust, Part 2: Economic Power vs. Political Power
From the time great business leaders were first maligned as "Robber Barons," socialists have tried to obscure the difference between economic power and political power. They've insisted, against all evidence, that productive giants such as Andrew Carnegie, John D....
The Three Myths of Antitrust, Part 1
Most of you will recall the scandal during the winter Olympics a few years back, when disgruntled skating competitor Tanya Harding hired a thug to take a pipe to the shins of Nancy Kerrigan. Harding was envious of Kerrigan's superior ability and tried to cripple her...
Parents Rejoice! Harry Potter Is Back
MARINA DEL REY -- On July 8, the fourth installment in the adventures of child-wizard Harry Potter will be released. Harry Potter, far from being an agent of the occult as his critics contend, is the kind of hero children should be encouraged to read about and...
NY Times Commentator has a Confused Concept of Censorship
Censorship refers to the government’s forcible suppression of speech, to the imposition of legal penalties on those who would express particular points of view.
What Happened to Our Right to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness?
On Independence Day we commemorate the birth of America as a free nation. But even more than that, we commemorate the birth of Americans as free men. At a single stroke, the Declaration of Independence and its ideals set America free from England, and set Americans...
“Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death!”
Presented at St. John's Church, Richmond, Virginia March 23, 1775. By custom, Henry addressed himself to the Convention's president, Peyton Randolph of Williamsburg. MR. PRESIDENT: No man thinks more highly than I do of the patriotism, as well as abilities, of the...