The massive cost overruns on the aerial tram have been a source of much embarrassment to the Portland city council recently, but problems with the South Waterfront project go far beyond the tram. The city also has a major funding shortfall for other infrastructure...
POLITICS
Immigration Plus Welfare State Equal Police State
The implementation of the rights both of the immigrants and of the taxpayers requires the abolition of the Welfare State.
Pay Less, Drive More
Last Wednesday the Bush administration announced new fuel economy standards for light trucks and SUVs. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta asserted that the new regulations, which will affect vehicles sold from 2008 to 2011, will save 10.7 billion gallons of fuel...
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...
Why Are CEOs Paid So Much?
The Coca Cola Co. has instituted a significant new plan for compensating its directors: they will not receive payment unless the company meets its financial targets. But even if other corporations adopted similar arrangements, it would do nothing to dispel the rampant...
The Transformation of “Jihad Jack” and John Walker Lindh
Like the 2002 case of "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh, the current case of Australian "Jihad Jack" Thomas--who was charged with being a terrorist "sleeper" agent, convicted of having received money from al-Qaeda and sentenced to five years imprisonment--raises...
Are Facts Obsolete?
What is more frightening than any particular policy or ideology is the widespread habit of disregarding facts. Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey put it this way: "Demagoguery beats data." People who urge us to rely on the United Nations, instead of acting...
U.N. Security Council’s Toothless Statement on Iran’s Nuclear Program
On Wednesday, the United Nations Security Council issued a toothless statement urging Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment program and threatening to take up the issue again in 30 days, after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) delivers a report on Iran's...
Immigration Quotas vs. Individual Rights: The Moral and Practical Case for Open Immigration
This is a defense of phasing-in open immigration into the United States. Entry into the U.S. should ultimately be free for any foreigner, with the exception of criminals, would-be terrorists, and those carrying infectious diseases. (And note: I am defending freedom of...
America Bows to Islam
Europeans are all too well acquainted with the fear of criticizing Islam. To cite just a few of depressingly many examples: a painter, Rashid Ben Ali, is forced into hiding after one of his shows "featured satirical work critical of Islamic militant's violence"; a...
Canada’s Healthcare System is Bad Medicine
The failure of Canada's experiment with socialist medicine is readily apparent: long waiting lists and wait times for specialized services, conveyor-belt treatment for routine services, chronic shortages of family doctors and hospital beds, gross inefficiencies, slow...
U.S. Shouldn’t Back New Plan for U.N. Human Rights Panel
Franklin D. Roosevelt coined the term "United Nations" in 1942, when an alliance of democracies (with the help of the Soviet Union) was fighting the totalitarian Axis powers. FDR dreamed of a post-war world in which free people would help promote peace and make...
Israel’s Substitute for Victory: Managing Conflict Without Resolving It
As Israelis go to the polls, not one of the leading parties offers the option of winning the war against the Palestinian Arabs. It's a striking and dangerous lacuna. First, some background. Wars are won, the historical record shows, when one side feels compelled to...
Immigration: Pave Your Own Way
There are so many platitudes about immigration--some cloaked in sincerity, and others completely meaningless. The truth really isn't that complicated. The answer is not open immigration, or a closed society. The answer is a free society. A free society is one in which...
Rioting for Ineptitude in France
The students are rioting in Paris, again, and the streets of Dublin are quiet. The dissimilarity flows from the differences in the way the political-economic systems are run in France and Ireland. In France's overly-planned, overly-socialist economy, the unemployment...
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...
Robert Fulford’s Confusions Over Capitalism
As long as people regard altruism as good, they will oppose or feel guilty about capitalism.
Some Thoughts on ‘Just War Theory’ vs. American Self-Defense
If there ever was an event worth two trips to see, it was The Objective Standard's inaugural lecture featuring Dr. Yaron Brook's on the "Just War Theory" vs. American Self-Defense (a lecture based on his now publicly-available article of the same title). Here's a...
Impeach Bush?
Should President Bush be impeached, as some Democrats in Congress are now reportedly considering? Absolutely not. Why not? Clinton lied and he got impeached; why shouldn't Bush? President Clinton committed perjury in a sexual harassment trial. The entire world knew of...
Political Alternatives to Reality
Horrifying stories about the rapes and murders of children, and about judges who go easy on sex offenders who prey on the young, have prompted some state legislatures to tighten up the laws and restrict the sentencing discretion of judges. Few in the media or among...
Introduction: “Just War Theory” vs. American Self-Defense
It has been nearly five years since September 11, 2001--the day that Islamic terrorists incinerated thousands of innocent individuals in the freest, wealthiest, happiest, and most powerful nation on earth. On that day and in the weeks after, we all felt the same...
Why is the Bush Administration Sacrificing Our Marines?
Here is a story out of Iraq that caught my eye: About a dozen Marines are being investigated for possible war crimes in connection with the deaths last year of 15 Iraqi civilians who were initially reported killed by a roadside bomb. The Navy has opened a criminal...
French Student Riots
Student riots in Paris remind us that education at elite academic institutions is not enough to teach either higher morals or basic economics. Not on their side of the Atlantic or on ours. Why are students at the Sorbonne and other distinguished institutions out...
Youth Indocrination Update
Several weeks ago, I wrote about Overland High School teacher Jay Bennish's indoctrination of his geography class. In commenting on President Bush's State of the Union address, he told his 10th-graders: "Sounds a lot like the things Adolf Hitler used to say." "Bush is...
Subscribe for free.
Latest pro-Capitalism goodness sent weekly to your email box.
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.