Dr Michael Hurd

Dr. Michael Hurd is a psychotherapist, columnist and author of "Bad Therapy, Good Therapy (And How to Tell the Difference)" and "Grow Up America!" Visit his website at: www.DrHurd.com.

In Search of…the Right Motivation?

Many people assume that they can’t accomplish their goals until they have “the right motivation.” They will even seek psychological help in order to establish “the right motivation” before taking any steps towards a goal. This is a...

Looters In “Public Good” Suits

“They can stoke me with money,” said Senator Ted Kennedy, referring to how the Bush Administration can win his favor. “I’m an easy stoke.” Why can’t we just stoke him? Or, more importantly: stoke his ideas and policies? We should...

Dealing with Terrorism

Q: How are people coping with the aftermath of the events of September 11th, so that the psychological impact of the terrorist events does not overwhelm them? A: In many different ways. At first, some found an oddly kind of pleasant escape in focusing on events in the...

Loving Thy Enemy

From a FoxNews.com report: Shackled, blinded and bound, 30 Al Qaeda and Taliban detainees stepped off a U.S. Air Force C-141 cargo plane in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Wednesday after an all-night flight from Afghanistan, halfway around the world. Sixty gun-toting Marines...

Day of Reckoning

“We will not rest until we stop all terrorists of global reach, and for every nation that harbors or supports terrorists there will be a day of reckoning,” says President Bush. Let’s hope he means it. Until we overwhelmingly smash every government...

Most are thankful to God; I am thankful to man

Most are thankful to God; I am thankful to man

Most are thankful to God. I am thankful to man — specifically, to those individuals who (over the centuries) have created the countless things I need for survival and enjoyment: automobiles, plumbing, mass produced food, medicine, electricity, computers, televisions …

The Creativity-Knowledge Dichotomy

I saw a bumpersticker the other day which said, “Creativity Is More Important Than Knowledge.” What an excellent example of utterly wrong thinking! You can’t separate creativity from knowledge. The two are intertwined. Generally speaking, greater...

George W. Bush is His Father’s Son

[CAPITALISM MAGAZINE.COM] President George W. Bush is his father’s son. In place of principle — right or wrong — we see waffling. His recent approach to the stem-cell research debate illustrates this fact eloquently. The President came up with a...

Relief for America’s Health Care Titanic

Over the past few months, congress has been trying to make it easier for employees to sue their employers if they are not happy with their health insurance plans. Yes, you read that correctly. Liberal-socialist-statists want to hold employers responsible for the fact...

Cells Phones In Cars? There Ought To Be A Law!

New polls are showing increased support for banning the use of cell phones while driving. Here we go again. I have a better idea: why don’t we simply hold people accountable for bad driving? If you drive poorly, then you should be held accountable whether you...

Free Trade with a Slave State?

Q: Should a free country trade with people who live under a dictatorship (e.g. China, Cuba)? And, if not, should the government of the free country restrict such trade with dictatorships? A: If you enjoy living in a free country, then you benefit from that freedom...

McVeigh: King of the Hippie Nazis

Q: You condemn Gore Vidal for claiming that Timothy McVeigh has a sense of justice. You’re wrong. However unfortunate his target due to his ignorance of the presence of the day care center, remember that the Department of Justice and the FBI’s HRT did know...

Self Confidence for Children

Self Confidence for Children

Q : My wife and I want to teach our four-year-old son to have self-confidence. How can we teach him? A: This is too vast a subject to appropriately answer in a short column. I can, however, give you some general principles. Here they are: Make sure you are confident...

Regulating the Regulators

President Bush has ordered all federal agencies, before they issue any kind of regulations, to consider their impact on energy supplies, and to expedite permits so that energy projects don’t get “snarled in bureaucratic tangles as local governments or...

The “Patient Bill of Rights” is Political Window Dressing

The “Patient Bill of Rights” is Political Window Dressing

As a health care provider, here is my proposal for a patient bill of rights: 1. The right to enter voluntary, contractual relationships with doctors — without paternalistic interference on the part of federal and state governments. For example: laws mandating...

Libertarianism: In the Pursuit of No Government

Q: What about the Libertarians? They seek the same role for government as people such as yourself. You cannot complain that there is not a party that is fiscally conservative and socially liberal when the Libertarians are present. A: Yes I can. Because the...

Self Objectivity

Q: You often write that it’s a good idea to identify your objectively positive behaviors each day, so that your morale and self-esteem will build. How can you practically go about doing this? A: The single most effective method I know of is to simply summarize,...

Fear of Failure

Fear of Failure

Fear of failure — you hear psychologists on “Oprah,” and elsewhere, talk about it all the time. What actually is it? Fear of failure is simply what it self-evidently appears to be. It is the fear of not achieving your goal or value in some context...

The Conservative Left and Tax Cuts

The Conservative Left and Tax Cuts

A Fox News liberal-conservative debate the other night was very revealing. The discussion was about tax cuts. The liberal (Mort Kondracke) said that tax cuts “are all about numbers.” The conservative (Fred Barnes) was quick to retort, “It’s not...

The Best Therapy in the World

The Best Therapy in the World

People ask me all the time how they can develop proper tools of self-confidence. Allow me to save you a few steps. THERE IS NO BETTER TOOL OF SELF CONFIDENCE THAN COMING UP WITH A REALISTIC PLAN OF ACTION AND THEN FOLLOWING THROUGH ON IT, OVER A PERIOD OF MONTHS AND...

Friendship is Selfish

Cicero wrote that, “There is nothing more fatal to friendship than the greed of gain.” Although a popular sentiment, it’s a deeply mistaken one. Think about the friends you have. Try to make yourself aware of what you enjoy about those friends...

censor speech

The McCain-Feingold Gag Order

You don’t end bribery and corruption by banning contributions to campaigns. Instead, you simply step up prosecution against bribery and corruption.

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