Colleges and universities will start their fall semester soon. You might be interested in what parents' and taxpayers' money is going for at far too many "institutions of higher learning." At Occidental College in Los Angeles, a mandatory course for some freshmen is...
CULTURE
A nation’s culture is the sum of the intellectual achievements of individual men, which their fellow-citizens have accepted in whole or in part, and which have influenced the nation’s way of life. Since a culture is a complex battleground of different ideas and influences, to speak of a ‘culture’ is to speak only of the dominant ideas, always allowing for the existence of dissenters and exceptions. — AYN RAND
Blame Hezbollah and Iran for Death of Qana Children
Responsibility for the tragic deaths of scores of Lebanese women and children in Qana, Lebanon falls primarily on Hezbollah and its backers, Syria and Iran, not on Israel. To initiate a war against Israel and then use children as shields is so evil and disgusting that...
A “Progressive” Fourth of July Celebration
A demonstration of a newspaper’s hostility to the fundamental values on which the United States was built.
Hating Success and the American Way of Life
The Times shows itself to be the enemy of human success.
In Defense of Pleasure
I read an interesting quote the other day, on a church front, which went something like this: "Those who actually seek out 'pleasure' rarely find it." This is a very appropriate slogan for an organization with a religious point of view. Religion, by its nature,...
Altruism: The Morality of Logical Fallacies
Sacrifice–Sacrifice–Sacrifice. Everyone believes it is the moral thing to do. And no philosopher has been willing to challenge this idea. Except Ayn Rand.
Seattle Public Schools Smear The Antidote for Racism
According to the Seattle Public Schools, if you're an individualist, you're a racist. On a web page that lists various forms and definitions of racism, the school system defines "Cultural Racism" as: Those aspects of society that overtly and covertly attribute value...
The Biggest Scandal in the Duke University Rape Case
The worst thing said in the case involving rape charges against Duke University students was not said by either the prosecutor or the defense attorneys, or even by any of the accusers or the accused. It was said by a student at North Carolina Central University, a...
Justice Delayed for the Lacrosse Players in the Duke University Rape Case
If there is a smoking gun in the Duke University rape case, it is not about the stripper who made the charges or the lacrosse players who have been accused. The smoking gun is the decision of District Attorney Michael Nifong to postpone a trial until the spring of...
Parent Effectiveness Training: The Proven Program for Raising Responsible Children
P.E.T. will be described in terms familiar to everyone, not in technical jargon. Some parents may find themselves initially disagreeing with some of these concepts, but very few will find themselves not understanding them. Since readers will not be able to express...
The Islamist Threat To Civilization
In reacting to the Islamists’ ongoing cartoon Jihad, most commentators have focused on the issue of free speech. This is natural, and necessary, since eradication of free speech is the most immediate risk; and certainly without free speech there can be no defending...
Mao: The Unknown Story
I just finished reading: Mao: The Unknown Story by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday, Knopf, 2005. I do not necessarily recommend this book--not because it is bad--but because the content is so disgusting (though factual). Mao is clearly the worst monster in world history....
Censoring the Danish Cartoons: NYU Chooses Appeasement Over Rights
If NYU seriously believed that there were security risks involved, they ought to have provided sufficient security.
Sudden Jihad Syndrome at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill
"Individual Islamists may appear law-abiding and reasonable, but they are part of a totalitarian movement, and as such, all must be considered potential killers." I wrote those words days after September 11, 2001, and have been criticized for them ever since. But an...
Whitewashing Academic Pathology
Jonathan Kay [National Post, "From The Academy, Portraits In Pathology", March 13] is shamefully generous toward leftist academics such as Ward Churchill and Noam Chomsky who venomously attack the West and Western values. Such creatures are not motivated by a "sense...
A Morality for Success: What Self-Destructive Celebrities Need
The truth is that anyone who wants to achieve success––and then keep it, nurture it, and enjoy it––must practice reason and self-interest as moral virtues.
‘Crash’ Wins ‘Best Picture’
So Crash, one of the most philosophically objectionable movies that I've seen in a long time, won yesterday's coveted Academy Award for "Best Picture." Crash has two major themes: everyone is a racist, doesn't know it, and no one is a hero, even if they perform heroic...
The Jay Bennish ‘Diatribe as Geography’
Bennish is free to let loose his diatribes on his own time, but he has no right to demand a captive audience of high-school students.
Another Academic Casuality: Harvard University Ex-President Lawrence Summers
The resignation of Lawrence Summers as president of Harvard University tells us a lot about what is wrong with academia today. When he took office in 2001, Summers seemed like an ideal president of Harvard. He had had a distinguished career in and out of the academic...
Religious Terrorism vs. Free Speech
Ayatollah Khomeni’s attack on Salman Rushdie and his publishers represents religious terrorism. Americans oppose the Ayatollah’s death-decree, but our government is doing nothing to combat it.
The Cartoon Jihad: Free Speech in the Balance
A battle for Western freedom is being fought overseas. The specific object of the battle is merely a handful of cartoons. The outcome of the struggle, however, will reverberate for years.
Ready to Kill Over Cartoons
Muslim Fundamentalists Islamic Jihad Against Fleming Rose and Jyllands-Posten
Public Schools are Not Accountable to Parents
It’s time to start realizing the full potential of our greatest natural resource by making schools accountable to parents.
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 individual’s right to life includes the right to commit suicide.
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.
“God’s Land”
Some of the most interesting aspects of the war against terrorism are found not in coverage about the war in Iraq, but from coverage of talk in the United States. Consider this recent news report: Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson suggested Thursday that Israeli...
Bill O’Reilly and the Contradiction of the Conservative Movement
The conservative movement favors the expansion of religion/state fusion at home while opposing the inevitable results of religion/state fusion abroad.
“Intelligent Design” Is about Religion versus Reason
What makes “intelligent design” an inherently religious viewpoint is its appeal to a supernatural “designer.”
Riots in France: The Barbarians at the Gates of Paris
Riots that began on the outskirts of Paris have spread into the center of the French capital and to other communities in other parts of the country. Thousands of cars have been set on fire and the police and even medical personnel have been shot at. Like many other...
Villainy: An Analysis of the Nature of Evil (Part 5 of 5)
The morality of sacrifice lives on borrowed time.
Reading vs. Ritalin
There's so much talk of "attention deficit disorder" in children today. The unquestioned, never disputed premise is that brain chemistry causes young people not to pay attention. Yet attention deficits were never such problems in earlier eras. What gives? A major...
Freedom of Religion?
There is no “freedom of religion” to do what it pleases. The only type of freedom relevant to religion is the right to practice religion privately, without imposing force on other people.