Education is not merely neglected in many of our schools today, but is replaced to a great extent by ideological indoctrination.
CULTURE
Academic Cesspools
A rough rule of thumb to discover modern-day racism is to search a college’s website to see whether it has vice presidents or deans of diversity and diversity programs. If so, keep your money.
The Audacity of Hate: Street Level Anti-Capitalism
It’s not what I signed up for, but I recently got a three hour Marxist lecture while taking a boat ride on the intracoastal waterways of Fort Lauderdale.
The Metaphysical Temper Tantrum of Islamic Terrorism
Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., says it is time for the U.S. to stop being politically correct and focus its search on radical Islamists in Muslim communities. King tells Politico.com that while most Muslims are not terrorists, the international base for terrorism against...
The Purpose of a LePort Education: A Child’s Personal Happiness
Throughout the ages, cultures have held different positions on the core purpose of education. Some have seen education as a means to preparing children for war (Sparta), or preparing them for a monastic life (middle ages), or getting them ready for factory work (late...
Violence and Terror: America’s New Normal?
The violence keeps coming, and it doesn’t become any less tragic. The Boston bombing is the latest example.
Tests and Tiger Moms
Whole generations of black young people can continue to go down the drain because their fate carries less weight than fashionable racial rhetoric.
Is Egoism Obvious?
My book, How to Be Profitable and Moral: A Rational Egoist Approach to Business, has been translated into Finnish and was recently published in Finland. At the book launch in Helsinki, an appreciative reader (of the English-language original) and a business owner...
Celebrity Intellectuals
Michael Moore, Jim Carey, Bad Thinking, and Why “The Balance of Power is the Scale of Peace”
Are We Equal?
Soft-minded and sloppy-thinking academics, lawyers and judges harbor the silly notion that but for the fact of discrimination, we’d be proportionately distributed by race across incomes, education, occupations and other outcomes.
Gifted Hands: The Personal Story of Benjamin Carson
Today, Dr. Benjamin Carson is a renowned neurosurgeon at a renowned institution, Johns Hopkins University. But what got him there was wholly different from what is being offered to many ghetto youths today, much of which is not merely futile but counterproductive.
Review of Free Market Revolution
How Ayn Rand’s Ideas Can End Big Government by Yaron Brook and Don Watkins
Educational Rot: On the Low Academic Preparation of Many Teachers
On the low academic preparation of many teachers.
Abolish Public Schools
The only way to improve our schools is to get government out of education.
It’s Never Too Soon to Repeal ObamaCare
Both sides ignore that ObamaCare is integral to an unmistakable progression in American health care; the law takes us from partial to total government-controlled medicine.
Who Owns Your Life?
One of the most important and far reaching questions in moral philosophy is: Who is the proper beneficiary of an individual’s actions? There are only two possible answers to the question: The individual taking the action, or others. “Others” may mean the community,...
Capitalism is Good in Theory and in Practice
Upon hearing an argument for capitalism, many respond, “That is good in theory, but it would never work in real life.” Such a statement is wrong in both theory and in practice. (And it is actually an example of a fundamental philosophical error–the mind/body...
ObamaCare for Education
Expanding the underperforming K–12 system “down” a year earlier to include publicly funded preschool naturally benefits the education unions. But what about the kids?
The Pacific Railway Act and the Interstate Commerce Act
In 1887, Congress created the first federal regulatory agency by enacting the Interstate Commerce Act. As has often been the case since that time, the act was a response to the problems created by previous government interventions. Under the Pacific Railway Act,...
Supply and Demand in Education
In recent years, it has become increasingly popular to argue that government should be operated more like a business. As an example, a manifesto written by sixteen public school executives explains how to fix public schools: Let’s stop ignoring basic economic...
Education: “The Unfolding of the Human Soul”
The most important thing for a parent to remember is to teach his or her child to think. A reader once wrote me a note in which she elaborated on how she teaches her child to think in all kinds of ways. She discusses moral or other kinds of dilemmas in everyday life....
It’s Good—But Hard—to Be Selfish
Most people think that it is unethical to be selfish. They have been taught that we should always put others’ interests ahead of our own and that pursuing self-interest is immoral. That is why they also think that business—which by definition pursues self-interest:...
The Case for Optimism About America
Dear Dr. Hurd: I have been a fan for years – of your website and your books. I read “Grow Up America!” at in college and it was like spiritual fuel for a frustrated and misunderstood young man. I want to comment on the value of philosophy in moving the direction of...
Income Inequality is Moral
I was listening to the radio on the weekend and heard a leading Canadian socialist, Stephen Lewis, lament about the big income gap between the rich and the poor as one of the worst ills in society today. Reflecting on that and on the exodus of millionaires from France...
Three Reasons to Learn a Formula
At a humor workshop I attended recently, Judy Carter taught us a formula for creating a joke around something mean that someone said to us. The steps were: 1. Remember exactly what words were used, plus the tone and body language, so you can act it out. 2. Backtrack:...
Visiting Nixon’s Birthplace
“I was born in a house my father built.” So said Richard Nixon (1913-1994) about his birthplace in Orange County, California. A recent visit to the home, located on the grounds of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, and museum (which opened in 1990 with...
Giving is Not a Duty
At this time of the year, many of us are giving presents out of benevolence, goodwill, appreciation, and love—I hope. Gifts are a means of showing that we value their recipients in some way, whether friends, loved ones, causes, or charities. Giving gifts out of duty...
Movie Review: V for Vendetta
An allegorical warning against tyranny.
The Bum, the Cop and the Facts
This is about the barefoot Times Square bum bestowed with a pair of boots on a cold November night by a policeman whose act of charity was photographed by an Arizona tourist. The bum, it turns out, was seen last Sunday on the Upper West Side. The new boots, valued at...
Fear: The Great Inhibitor
Fear is the great inhibitor. When rational, fear is life-serving and life-protecting. However, the purpose of fear is avoidance. You rationally avoid things in order to obtain what life has to offer. You avoid an oncoming car when crossing a street in order to survive...
Why Humility is Not a Virtue
According to conventional morality, humility is a virtue. We are taught to think not too highly of ourselves or not to take credit for our achievements. Whatever we accomplish is due to collective effort or the grace of a higher power. A group of Executive MBA...
Envy is Bad For Us
I am writing this post in Finland where I am working for a month. Last week the Finns marked their annual unofficial “National Envy Day” when the Finnish Revenue Service publicized the income taxes and income of every tax-paying citizen. That in itself is a shocking...
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