Here’s what George Bernard Shaw said about religious fundamentalists: “There are scores of human insects who are ready at a moment’s notice to reveal the will of God on every possible subject.” A few carloads of those insects were swarming...
CULTURE
Trying to Please Everyone
Q: How can I overcome the problem of wanting everybody to like me? A: Imagine for a moment that you were liked by everyone. This would most certainly mean that you’re doing something wrong. Why? Because it would be impossible to please everyone. People, first of...
Conservatives for the Separation of God and Religion
The House of Representatives passed a resolution last month recognizing “the public need for fasting and prayer in order to secure the blessings and protection of Providence for the people of the United States and our armed forces.” On Bill...
The Reagan Legacy
Ronald Reagan was one of our most successful Presidents in part because he fervently believed in, and acted on, a small number of important principles. To be sure, he knew how to compromise to advance his legislative agenda. But in the process he always kept sight of hi…
Introduction to “The Capitalist Manifesto”
An Excerpt from the first draft of the Introduction to Andrew Bernstein’s forthcoming book The Capitalist Manifesto.
Daniel Pipes Visits Hamilton College
On January 27, 2003 the Hamilton College Objectivist Club, Chaplaincy, Hillel, Dean of Students’ Office, Arthur Levitt Public Affairs Center, and government department brought Dr. Daniel Pipes to Hamilton College. Dr. Pipes began his visit with a Q&A...
Twin Disasters: Teacher failure and Student failure in Education
When critics point out the abysmal performances of schools in ghetto neighborhoods, teachers defend themselves by pointing out the disinterested, disruptive, and sometimes dangerous students they have to deal with. But teacher failure and student failure are not...
Roman Polanski and R. Kelly: Pedophilic Celebrities are Above the Law
Polanski plied her with champagne and Quaaludes before raping her in Nicholson’s whirlpool.
Black History Month: Celebrating Race-Based Achievement is Racism
The unchosen physical characteristics that make us automatic members of one race or another must always come secondary to those characteristics that we do choose.
The Immoral Defense of ‘Amateurism’ as the Primary Virtue of College Sports
Consider the following scenario: A junior at a major university is majoring in marketing. She is one of the department’s most successful and intelligent students. All of her professors agree she will rise to the top of her profession someday. Now suppose this...
Drexel University: A Modern Business?
Drexel University is very often accused by students and faculty of being “run like a business” while pointing to its shortcomings and ignorant “customer service” as proof of it. When one hears of so many bad experiences with the Drexel...
Give Minority Youngsters a Lousy Education and Then Admit Them to College By Quotas
It has been said that, when Ronald Reagan was governor of California, someone told him that admitting students to the University of California on individual performance alone could mean that all the students at Berkeley might be Asian Americans. “So what?”...
The State of the Discipline of History
An excerpt from the afterword of the second edition of The Killing of History: How Literary Critics and Social Theorists Are Murdering Our Past.
No Preschooler Left Behind
Thomas Watkins, Michigan’s superintendent of public schools, is on a mission to expand his authority beyond the traditional K-12 boundaries. If given his way, every child in the state–practically from birth–would become the exclusive property of...
The Balkanization of College Campuses
The New York Civil Rights Commission (NYCRC) has put out a report that documents how “little attention has been given to the color-conscious policies of the colleges and universities that permit or encourage, and, oftentimes, fund a balkanized campus...
Achievement
“I do my work”. He who in faith can say That simple phrase, is set upon the way To bend the will of Fortune to his will. The world makes place for him whose strength and skill Rebel at doubt and rankle at delay. The visions that hold true, the dreams that...
Success
If you want a thing bad enough To go out and fight for it, Work day and night for it, Give up your time and your peace and your sleep for it If only desire of it Makes you quite mad enough Never to tire of it, Makes you hold all other things tawdry and cheap for it If...
On An Americanized Islam: Evading the Prohibitions on Usury
If Muslims begin to place success in this world above obedience to Islamic law, either by ignoring Islamic law or by reinterpreting it, that is excellent news for Muslims and good news for us all.
Give Thanks To…
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,...
Heart of a Pagan, Chapter 2: The Coming
Excerpted from Andrew Bernstein’s Heart of a Pagan: The Story of Swoop. Chapter 2: The Coming “Hoppo to the heights now!” Swoop roared that afternoon when he walked into our locker room for the first time. He swaggered through the door and slung his...
Child Sacrifice, Palestinian Style
Israel is criticized for alleged insensitivity to the risks of casualties among civilians, especially children, during counter-terrorist missions. But the tragedy of unintended casualties from justified military actions cannot be compared to a society’s...
Books: Heart of a Pagan, Chapter 1: The Spirit and the Flesh
Adapted from Andrew Bernstein’s Heart of a Pagan: The Story of Swoop.
The Rational Basis of Sex: Sacrifice and Selflessness Have No Role in Sex (Part 4 of 4)
In the healthiest meaning of love and sex, both involve “compromise,” but not of the kind inherent in any moral code of sacrifice or selflessness.
Halloween is Harmless
Church services may run like a B-grade movie, but Halloween is just a little candy, costumes and fun.
The Rational Basis of Sex: Psychological Visibility (Part 2 of 4)
Let us take a closer look at what such admiration consist of by grasping the concept of psychological visibility. Every person holds fundamental ideas about himself. Take Tom who thinks “It’s important to make healthy, honest choices in my life. I want to...
Cognitive Child Abuse in Our Math Classrooms
The test results are in: America’s children are flunking math. In 1996 American high school seniors finished close to the bottom on an international mathematics test. At the end of last year, American eighth-graders ranked below those of Malaysia, Bulgaria, and...
The Lure of Baseball
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.
The Rational Basis of Sex: Common Views About Sex (Part 1 of 4)
What is sex? I can picture asking an adolescent boy this question and he’d say “You don’t know…?!”
Crusading to Keep Kids Clueless: Public Education Monopoly Cracks Down on Home Schooling
The public education monopoly can’t stand the thought of “unqualified” parents teaching their own children. That is why they are cracking down on home schooling, even as a new study shows that thousands of public school teachers themselves are...
Capitalist Principles Would Cure Education Woes
Fundamental problems require fundamental solutions-which can only be derived by thinking in fundamental principles. And that’s precisely what’s absent from discussions on education.
Teachers Who Hate Tests: Part 3
While we ought to learn from our own experiences, it is even better to learn from other people’s experiences, saving ourselves the painful costs of the lessons. In the case of the dominant educational fads of our times, many have been tried out before in other...
Teachers Who Hate Tests: Part 2
One of the objections by the educational establishment to state-mandated tests for students is that this forces the teachers to teach directly the material that is going to be tested, instead of letting the students “discover” what they need to know...
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