In his first interview, Ayn Rand Institute’s new CEO, Jim Brown, talked exclusively at his office in Irvine, California with Scott Holleran.
CULTURE
Education at a Crossroads
Teachers’ unions have fought for years to prevent charter schools from being created.
Movie Review: High Noon
United Artists’ High Noon (1952) is a lightning rod of controversy. This compelling movie was made with the best talents and its taut, purpose-driven plot gains and keeps attention. Any honest appraisal must account for its flaws, too. I recently saw it again at...
Mary Tyler Moore: Why So Many Loved Her
You’re gonna make it after all.
Ralph Raico, RIP
I deeply regret the passing of Ralph Raico. In his youth, he was my brother.
Book Review: Nabokov’s Favorite Word is Mauve
Nabokov’s Favorite Word is Mauve is an enjoyable exercise in re-framing what the reader probably already knows about a favorite writer and discovering references, patterns and facts the reader may not know.
The Legacy of Mao Zedong is Mass Murder
According to the authoritative “Black Book of Communism,” an estimated 65 million Chinese died as a result of Mao’s repeated, merciless attempts to create a new “socialist” China.
Progress: Ten Reasons to Look Forward to the Future
While often criticizing government for curtailing our freedom instead of protecting it and businesspeople (or others) for failing to act ethically, I want to focus on the positive in my last post of the year.
Farewell By Dr. Thomas Sowell
Even the best things come to an end. After enjoying a quarter of a century of writing this column for Creators Syndicate, I have decided to stop. Age 86 is well past the usual retirement age, so the question is not why I am quitting, but why I kept at it so long.
Random Thoughts, Looking Back By Dr. Thomas Sowell
Any honest man, looking back on a very long life, must admit — even if only to himself — being a relic of a bygone era. Having lived long enough to have seen both “the greatest generation” that fought World War II and the gratingest generation that we see all around us today, makes being a relic of the past more of a boast than an admission.
Trump is No Ayn Rand Hero
The Washington Post Fails To Do Its Homework on Ayn Rand’s Philosophy: Objectivism
Occidental College Responds to 9/11 Attack on Free Speech
On the 15th anniversary of the worst domestic terrorist attack in history—September 11—a college student’s memorial flag display was destroyed three times.
Random Thoughts November 2016
Have we reached the ultimate stage of absurdity where some people are held responsible for things that happened before they were born, while other people are not held responsible for what they themselves are doing today?
Manorial and Guild Systems: The Institutions and Economics of the Middle Ages, Part 1
Political, social, and economic life in the Middle Ages revolved around two sets of institutions.
Touching The Art: Illustrations of Scenes from Ayn Rand’s Legendary Novel The Fountainhead
A bit about my recent illustrations of scenes from The Fountainhead.
The Ancient Romans: From Rule of Law to Price Controls
The area in which the Ancient Romans did leave a body of thought, and one that has had lasting influence and significance for future generations, especially in the West up until our own time was in the area of law and contract.
Movie Review: The Birth of a Nation (2016)
The controversial film about America’s 1831 slave rebellion undercuts the nature and power of Nat Turner’s story and makes everything seem too pat.
The Lure of Baseball
Watching sports satisfies a vital human need.
The New Black Segregation at California State University is Still Racism
The civil rights movement started out in the 1950s and 1960s as against white-black segregation. And now, half a century later, we’re back to full-fledged white-black segregation at California state schools.
Ludwig von Mises’s Majestic Magnum Opus, Human Action: A Treatise on Economics
Ludwig von Mises’s majestic magnum opus, Human Action: A Treatise on Economics, was published on September 14, 1949. In the nearly seven decades since its appearance, Human Action has come to be recognized as one of the truly great classics of modern economics.
Movie Review: Sully
Clint Eastwood (Jersey Boys, American Sniper, Gran Torino, Invictus) made another little character masterpiece with Sully, starring Tom Hanks as Captain Chesley Sullenberger. Review by Scott Holleran
Celebrating Work: A Crucially Important Value
Work is a crucially important value. When productive, work gives us not only the material means of survival and enjoyment of life, but it is also the main source of self-esteem and provides a central purpose that makes the rest of our values achievable by helping prioritize them.
Despite The Positive Aspects of Capitalism, Anti-Capitalism Still Haunts the World
Let us not forget that over the last hundred years virtually every form of collectivism has been tried – socialism, communism, fascism, Nazism, interventionism, welfare statism – and each has failed. There is only one “ism” left to fill this vacuum in the face of collectivism’s failures.
Witness to the End of Soviet Power – Twenty-Five Years Ago
The Soviet nightmare of “socialism-in-practice” was over.
The FBI Knew Jihadis were Targeting Garland, Texas Free Speech Event
“It’s a whole other thing if you’re encouraging and cheering on the proposed murder of Americans who are standing in defense of the freedom of speech, and then not doing anything about it. Why did the FBI only have one agent there? And not a team waiting for them to shoot back?”
VanDamme Academy: A Documentary Project
This video is a glimpse into the world of VanDamme Academy – a world we hope to share even more, in a full documentary.
Proud To Be An American?
The American Spirit of Independence, Innovation and Benevolence
American Capitalism Means Individualism and Freedom, Not Government Paternalism
Too many in the older generation in America have lost their understanding of what freedom means and why constitutionally limited government is both necessary and desirable. And the vast majority of the young have never been taught in our government-run schools the ideas, ideals, and political institutional foundations upon which this country of ours was created.
Speed Up by Slowing Down
Speed up confusing, bogged-down tasks by slowing down your thinking.
Confusing The Political Corruption of “Crony Capitalism” with The Economic Freedom of Real Capitalism
The good name of “capitalism” has to be recaptured and restored, just as the good name and concept of “liberalism,” rightly understood, should be returned to the advocates of individual liberty and free enterprise.
Fear of Aging
Q: I’m terribly afraid of aging. I’m only in my forties, but I think about it a lot. Is there anything you can do to help? A: You’re aging — we’re all aging — from the minute we’re born. Ruminating about something over which...
Karl Marx’s Communist Theory of the “Injustice” of Capitalism
Nothing that Lenin or Stalin implemented in Soviet Russia or Mao in China, for example, was not called for or implied in Marx’s own writings and arguments.
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