The essential value of spectator sports lies in their capacity to illustrate, in a dramatic way, the process of human goal-achievement.
Thomas A. Bowden
Thomas A. Bowden, author of The Enemies of Christopher Columbus, is a writer for the Ayn Rand Institute in Irvine, CA. The Institute promotes Objectivism, the philosophy of Ayn Rand, author of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead. Thomas A. Bowden practices law in Baltimore, Maryland.
The Lure of Baseball
Watching sports satisfies a vital human need.
Let’s Take Back Columbus Day
Western civilization did not originate slavery, racism, warfare, or disease–but with America as its exemplar, that civilization created the antidotes.
Columbus Day Celebrates Western Civilization
On Columbus Day, in sum, we celebrate Western civilization as history’s greatest cultural achievement.
Supreme Court Disappointments
America desperately needs a new generation of judges who understand that their function is not to uphold social opinions but to protect our rights.
What About Private Health Emergencies?
Drug companies should never have to look toward Washington, D.C., bowing and begging for bureaucratic permission to save lives–a million lives, or just one.
The Joy of Football
As half the nation eagerly awaits the kickoff of the Super Bowl, the other half looks on in wonderment at what could be so enthralling about grown men running up and down a field carrying an oblong ball. Football fans who cannot articulate why they feel such passion...
Employee Free Choice Act: Organized Extortion Made Possible by Federal Labor Laws
Congress should not only reject the transparent power grab known as the Employee Free Choice Act, it should start hacking at the root of the complex federal regime that denies free choice in bargaining. That means repealing the Wagner Act, so that labor law can recogniz…
Nationalization Is Theft
Nationalization, stripped of all rationalization, is naked theft.
Let General Motors Go Bankrupt
Shifting the financial pain of business failure onto society at large is unjust.
Government Bailouts are Unjust: Let Bankruptcy Courts Take the Wheel
Is General Motors to become a brain-dead patient in a Federal bailout ward, languishing on tax-funded life support beyond all hope of recovery? Not if Congress steps aside and lets the bankruptcy courts do justice through adjudication.
The Supreme Court’s Function is Not To Uphold Social Opinions But To Protect Individual Rights
America desperately needs a new generation of judges who understand that their function is not to uphold social opinions but to protect our rights.
A Proper Public Policy for Dealing with Hurricanes and Other Natural Diasters
The Katrina tragedy and the more recent experience of Hurricane Ike should call into question the so-called safety net composed of government policies that actually encourage people to embrace risks they would otherwise shun–to build in defiance of historically obvious…
Let’s Stop Making Disasters More Disastrous
No longer will government make disasters more disastrous by pretending that citizens have a right to defy the forces of nature at others’ expense.
A Hollow Victory for Homeschooling: California Children Still Considered State Property
Are parents mere drudges whose social duty is to feed and house their spawn between mandatory indoctrination sessions at government-approved schools? Or are they sovereign individuals whose right to guide their children’s development the state may not infringe?
Before and After Hurricane Katrina: How Government Makes Disasters More Disastrous
In a free market–without tax-paid levees, government disaster relief, or subsidized insurance–anyone who contemplates building or buying property in a high-hazard area will need to face hard facts about the local history of natural disasters, the efficacy and cost of …
Your Child Is Not State Property
Education, like nutrition, should be recognized as the exclusive domain of a child’s parents, within legal limits objectively defining child abuse and neglect.
Defining the Right of Self-Defense by Gun
Self-defense was his right, as it is ours. A proper legal system recognizes and protects that right, by permitting private ownership of handguns under appropriate limits.
After Ten Years, States Still Resist Assisted Suicide
Conservatives have no right to force such mindless, medieval misery upon doctors and patients who refuse to regard their precious lives as playthings of a cruel God.
Dr. Jack Kevorkian and The Right to Assisted Suicide
If you have a duty to go on living, despite your better judgment, then your life does not belong to you, and you exist by permission, not by right.
Assisted Suicide: A Moral Right
Conservatives crave to inject religion into the bloodstream of American law, thereby assisting in our own national suicide. However, they cannot succeed without the Supreme Court’s consent. Sooner or later, the Court must confront the main issue, and decide whether an i…
The Joy of Football: The Super Bowl Offers a Too-Rare Celebration of Goal-Achievement
In a world of life-and-death conflicts, spectator sports give us a “time-out”–an opportunity to relax and celebrate human skill, dedication, and success in a spirit of simple joy.
Rights Before Religion: The Individual’s Right to Commit Suicide
Bush administration has no right to force such mindless, medieval misery upon doctors and patients who refuse to regard their precious lives as playthings of a cruel God.
The Faith-Based Attack on Rational Government
America was established for a secular purpose: the protection of individual rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The Constitution neither mentions God (except to forbid religious tests for public office) nor imbues government with any religious purpose…
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