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
A picture on the front of The Boston Globe's metro section last month showed a group of women waiting to apply for firearm identification cards at the District 14 police station in Brighton. They were in a line, the accompanying story noted, that stretched the length...
The singer. The actor. The empty vessel. Many pundits believe celebrities are frivolously easy targets unworthy of our scorn. They must realize, however, that a single voice of a celebrity reaches more common Americans than a busload of think tank intellectuals. The...
If I were a Hispanic American, I would feel humiliated every time an automated telephone-answering system prompted me to press 1 for English, or 2 for Spanish. I would wince every time an ATM machine invited me to conduct my transaction en Espanol. It would mortify me...
My dog Clancy was an oversized Irish Setter with a blockhead and big paws and strong jaws who our son had rescued from the Humane Society after his friend's mom got rid of him because he had, as they say, some issues. One of Clancy's issues was that he had crashed...
At a recent Stanford University lecture, open source proselytizer Bruce Perens encouraged students to get involved in the open source political movement. A few folks were enthused, but many seemed confused by how a method of software production and distribution can...
In the good old bad old days of corrupt Chicago politics, the voters were urged by city bosses to "vote early and often." Now that's exactly what you can do -- and you might even make some money at the same time. If nothing else, you'll be participating in an...
There are two principles that taken together are the cornerstone of freedom. One is that an individual has a right to his life. The other is that an individual has the right to speak uncoerced. Today, the 2nd right is under threat in Canada. According to Ray Girn,...
Militant Islam keeps on killing, but politicians and journalists still avert their eyes. One terrible example comes from Pakistan, where a sequence of assaults on Christians, both local and foreign, has taken place over the past year: Oct. 28: an attack on St....
Close call, "Middle America." The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Calvin Broadus, AKA Snoop Doggy Dogg, now sees himself as a mainstream commercial entity. That's right, according to the rapper, who says he no longer uses drugs -- "Middle America would...
Depression has been defined as a persistent feeling of learned helplessness. For those who are depressed, this raises the questions: what do you feel helpless about, and why? What needs to change in order for you to feel less helpless? One area to work on is your...
Last weekend's anti-capitalist demonstrations in Washington were every bit what most observers expected them to be: sessions in idiocy, lunacy and general mayhem. As expected, portions of the city were significantly impacted by the demonstrations and despite almost...
At the top of the late great bull market in 2000 investors kept coming up with reasons why stocks weren't really overpriced. I came up with a few juicy theories myself that will live forever in the Rationalizations Hall of Fame. But now, in the bowels of the longest...
Talk about shooting yourself in the foot. Surely most Republicans observed in giddy delight as Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle did his best imitation of Jack Palance on the Senate floor, accusing President Bush of "politicizing" the debate over national security...
Agitated reader: I just can't stomach your narrow minded opinions anymore. What gives the United States moral authority to wage a war against not just a tyrant, but innocent people? Dr. Hurd: What exactly would broad minded opinions consist of? Treating the government...
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 shamefully unqualified...
Consider the following statement issued on September 27, 2002 at a press conference by the leaders of last weekend's "anti-capitalist convergence" in Washington, DC after hundreds of protestors were arrested for acts of violence and disorder, including halting...
The market is in another slump, and investors' savings have once again shrunk. So now is the perfect time to make the case for privatizing Social Security. This is not the conventional view on the subject. In the run-up to next month's elections, Republican...
A reader from a major news network writes in: Reader: Going to war with Iraq is so stupid for so many reasons that I can't take the time to address them all. Needless to say, there is NO evidence of weapons of mass destruction. Dr. Hurd: So it doesn't count that...
Memorials proposed for the World Trade Center site include slabs of stone whose lines would correspond to the shadows cast by the Towers when they were attacked; a well 911 feet deep with two towers hovering above it; and a grass-covered mound 650 feet across. For...
It is time that the United States recognize the true nature of Yasser Arafat and his regime. The PLO has been engaged in a terror campaign against Israel for decades, and today supports fanatical suicide bombers, who deliberately target and murder innocent civilians....
California's Governor Gray Davis has gotten himself some front-page headlines, not only in California but across the country, by signing into law the first mandated provision for paid leave from work (at half pay) for people who say that they have family problems to...
Imagine the following scenario: if on the eve of American independence, the founders had asked the world's permission before they revolted against the English crown. Imagine if the question of American independence rested not in the minds of the patriots, but with the...
Every day I'm bombarded with television commercials from broadband service providers in my area. Companies like BellSouth, Charter, AT & T, and Earthlink are competing relentlessly for my broadband dollars. And there isn't a single thing in any of their television...
If anyone had any doubts about whether Al Gore was going to try to run for president again in 2004, his speech in San Francisco on September 23rd should have put those doubts to rest. The former vice president was in top form, doing what he does best -- making an...
Just before leaving town for the August recess, both houses of Congress saw fit to declare war on the "Corporate Axis of Evil"--Bermuda, Barbados, Gibraltar and a number of other offshore tax havens. Speech after speech in the House and Senate decried the...
Here's what the Harvard University Civil Rights Project's "scholars" said in a July 2001 press release: "Almost half a century after the U.S. Supreme Court concluded that Southern school segregation was unconstitutional and 'inherently unequal,' new statistics from...
For decades, radicals have gobbled up words such as 'peace' and 'progressive' and spit them out as the pillars of anti-American, radical leftist philosophy. Nothing's changed. Pacifists and progressives with the keen ability to convert illogical into something that...
In a commercial that ran during the Christmas-New Years holidays a few years ago, the husband was trying to keep an old car patched up, while the wife wanted him to get a new one. At the end, the wife asks: "Should old acquaintance be forgot?" And she answers...
Do Americans really cherish freedom of association? Are there any justifiable restrictions on freedom of association? In my book, any restriction on one's right to associate freely with anyone he pleases, on mutually agreeable terms, is both offensive and a gross...
A truly civilized, wealth-respecting world would observe capital flight and brain drains, recoil in horror and stop penalizing success. It would cut tax rates and regulation and cease calling wealth-makers as criminals who deserve a noose -- or deportation. But this...
If the Negro cannot stand on his own legs, let him fall.
With the anniversary of the September 11 tragedy, Americans have remembered and lauded our fireman and police heroes, as we should. But now that the commemorative ceremonies are over, it is time to ask ourselves: who are America's greatest heroes?These firemen and...
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