Economic freedom, not government interference, is the means of overcoming poverty.
POLITICS
The basic and crucial political issue of our age is: capitalism versus socialism, or freedom versus statism. For decades, this issue has been silenced, suppressed, evaded, and hidden under the foggy, undefined rubber-terms of “conservatism” and “liberalism” which had lost their original meaning and could be stretched to mean all things to all men. – AYN RAND
The Erosion of Property Rights
Imagine you've been enjoying your backyard picnic table and chairs for the past 10 years when suddenly, for no apparent reason, you are served notice from a government agency that you will be fined $6,000 a day unless you remove them. Or, imagine you would like to add...
School Violence Toleration
I'm wondering just when parents, especially poor minorities, will refuse to tolerate day-to-day school conditions that most parents wouldn't dream of tolerating. Lisa Snell, director of the Education and Child Welfare Program at the Los Angles-based Reason Foundation,...
The Intellectual Motor Behind SpaceShipOne
Burt Rutan may be famous for coming up with the ideas for his aircraft literally on paper napkins, but he meticulously assigns them a number. Hence the tiny plaque on SpaceShipOne, lost among the sponsors' logos, which after interpretation reads "Mark 314, Serial...
The Media’s Role
A joke has President Bush and the Pope sailing down the Potomac on the Presidential yacht. The wind blows the Pontiff's cap off and it falls into the water. President Bush orders the yacht stopped, gets off and walks across the water to retrieve the Pope's cap. The...
Unicorns, Jedi, and Plastic Guns
During the recent vice presidential debate, Senator Edwards criticized Vice President Cheney for voting "against banning plastic weapons that can pass through metal detectors." The ban to which Edwards was referring was the Undetectable Firearms Act of 1988. Cheney...
Watch Both Boots
Remember "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth"? Today, it's more like "Blessed are the young, for they shall inherit the debt." The federal deficit this year will hit a record $422 billion, according to the latest projections from the Congressional...
UN Seeks New Environmental Treaty
Forty: That's the number of global and regional legal documents already in existence that dictate what actions can and cannot be taken regarding the world's forests. Forty-one: That's the number the United Nations hopes to reach via a new treaty on forestry...
Invasive Species: The Newest Threat to Property Rights
If you have foreign weeds, grass, trees, or shrubs on your property (and you most certainly do), you're in trouble. Under "Invasive Species" provisions currently sitting in the Senate's version of the Federal Transportation Bill (S. 1072), your property could quickly...
Oracle is Free To Buy PeopleSoft: Chalk One Up for Capitalism
Despite record oil prices, rising interest rates, a flood of earnings warnings and a volatile election less than a month away, stocks have been heading steadily higher ever since they bottomed on August 12, with the beleaguered NASDAQ leading the way. Today's downer...
The Academic Halls of Stupidity: Success Equals Effort
Benedict College in Columbia, S.C., enforces an academic policy that defies belief. Say I'm a freshman taking your class in biology. I learn little from your lectures, assigned readings and homework. I do attend class every day, take notes and manage to average 40...
Too Late for One, SCOTUS Accepts Land Use Case
Finally, the nation's highest court will hear a case with potential to clarify the Fifth Amendment's private property protections. But to what degree the outcome will impact the future actions of the nation's most oppressive land grabber, the federal government, is...
Responsible Voting
Every election year there are great alarms in the media that not enough Americans vote. Supposedly this shows that there is something wrong at the core of our society. In reality, societies where different groups are at each other's throats often have high voter...
Debater vs. Leader
Polls show President Bush lost the first debate against Democratic presidential contender John Kerry. Why? Bush failed to respond to Kerry's assertions. Let's deal with them. Did Bush irresponsibly use the "authority" given him by Congress? The president spent 18...
Opposing Platonic Conservatism: A Matter of Values
Some admirer's of Ayn Rand have concluded that the political values of her philosophy, Objectivism, and the values of Bush conservatives are fundamentally the same. They claim, for instance, that Objectivists and conservatives both value freedom, even though the...
Columbus Day: The Cure for 9/11
On Columbus Day, in sum, we celebrate Western civilization with the utter certainty that it is good according to an objective standard: man’s life. America therefore deserves to prevail against the religious totalitarians who would destroy industrial civilization and return mankind to the Stone Age.
The Good in Price Gouging
As the Sunshine State endures the worst hurricane season in a century, some Florida merchants are also weathering a manmade gale: charges of so-called "price gouging."There are thousands of such accusations, and, egged on by media everywhere, Florida's political...
Capitalist Hawk for Kerry
"A half-battle is worse than none: it does not end in mere defeat--it helps and hastens the victory of your enemies." Ayn Rand John Kerry is despicable, and I will vote for him. Contrary to the position of some Objectivists that President Bush is doing a defensible...
In Defense of Wal-Mart
It's no secret that city planners in communities across the nation have resisted attempts by Wal- Mart to open its doors. Wal-Mart has faced the strongest resistance to its "Super Centers" - its version of one-stop-shopping for food, clothing, electronics and every...
Letters to The Editor: September 2004
September 28, 2004 Why Australia is No Ally to Kerry Australia is a strong ally of the United States. We have a history of fighting alongside American troops in the wars of self interest over the past century (World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War, Gulf War I). We...
The Greatness of Western Civilization
In this age of diversity-worship, it is considered virtually axiomatic that all cultures are equal. Western culture, claim the intellectuals, is in no way superior to that of African tribalists or Eskimo seal hunters. There are no objective standards, they say, that...
The Media That Could Not Shoot Straight
Can Americans now purchase assault weapons? If you listen to some pols and mainstream media, you probably cannot answer that question. In 1994, Congress passed and President Clinton signed a 10-year ban on so-called "assault weapons." In reality, the bill outlawed...
An Intelligent Scheme: Privatizing Social Security, Part 2
Current Senate hearings on "mandatory retirement" may have more than a little relevance to the huge question of how to "save" Social Security. Unfortunately, there is far too little attention being paid to the question of why Social Security requires saving in the...
CBS Demonstrates Modern Journalism’s Pseudo-Objectivity
The feeling in the newsroom must have been exhilarating: in the face of blistering attacks questioning the heroism of John Kerry in Viet Nam made by supporters of President Bush, CBS News would offer damning evidence that would indict the president as a hypocrite....
An Intelligent Scheme: Privatizing Social Security, Part 1
Would you sign a contract that enabled the other party to change the terms of that contract at will, while you could neither stop him nor make any changes of your own? Probably not. Yet that is exactly what happens when you pay money into Social Security. No matter...
Multiculturalism’s War on Education
Back to school nowadays means back to classrooms, lessons and textbooks permeated by multiculturalism and its championing of "diversity." Many parents and teachers regard multiculturalism as an indispensable educational supplement, a salutary influence that "enriches"...
Negotiating with Terrorists
Q: Dr. Hurd, I know you favor a strong stance against terrorism. However, I'm sure you disagree with the policy of the Bush Administration and Tony Blair in Britain to refuse to negotiate with the groups who practice beheading. People are dying in the most brutal...
To Profile or Not to Profile?
Should law enforcement profile Muslims? Amnesty International USA answers emphatically no. It asserts in a report issued last week that "law enforcement's use of race, religion, country of origin, or ethnic and religious appearance as a proxy for criminal suspicion"...
FCC Should Not Regulate the Airwaves
Since the infamous "wardrobe malfunction" at the Super Bowl, there have been strident demands for a crackdown by a tougher, stricter Federal Communication Commission. The FCC's various commissioners now call for the power to regulate cable television, in addition to...
John Kerry’s Blank Resume
If someone applied to you for a job but didn't want to talk about what he has been doing in the last 20 years, wouldn't you be suspicious? Might you not think he was insulting your intelligence by expecting you to hire him on the basis of what he did decades ago? Yet...
Legalize Insider Trading
Martha Stewart's case, despite public perception to the contrary, turns not on insider trading, but on obstruction of justice, lying to investigators. Dean emeritus Henry Manne of the George Mason University School of Law, author of Insider Trading and the Stock...
Regulate Insider Trading
[The views in this article do not necessarily represent those of CM or its editors, but we provide this article as another viewpoint on Insider Trading.] The Washington Post recently reported on the considerable attention the SEC and Justice Department are devoting to...
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