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
While giving a talk in far-off Australia on February 1st, U. S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg may have thought it was safe to take a cheap shot at a fellow American back home. Nor was she restrained by the fact that what she said was a lie. Back in 1997,...
In this modern scientific age, we no longer believe in magic words that can transform a prince into a frog, or vice versa. But there are still magic words that can cause incredible transformations. For example, there are words that can transform the most big-spending...
The demand for slavery reparations got a good airing last weekend at a National Reparations Convention held in Chicago. A formal plan for compensating the descendants of American slaves has yet to be drafted, the Chicago Tribune reported, but among the proposals...
On January 16, President Bill Clinton transmitted to Congress his final budget blueprint for fiscal year (FY) 2002, arguing in the cover letter and commentary against reducing taxes for working Americans. According to the former President, "The favorable long-term...
On Thursday, President Bush sent his tax-cut plan to Congress, and it was met with an immediate chorus of class-warfare yelping from the Democrats. House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt led the pack, complaining that Bush's tax cuts will go to "just the top 1 percent"...
The Federal Reserve Board's recent decision to put downward pressure on interest rates has temporarily quieted those who claimed George W. Bush was exaggerating the possibility of an economic downturn solely to boost his tax cut plan. Many critics, however, continue...
Last October, when President Bill Clinton signed the fiscal year 2001 agricultural appropriations bill (P.L. 106-387) into law, the United States stepped closer to a trade war with some of its largest trading partners. Because of an amendment added in conference by...
It time that we replaced guilt with the desire for justice.
"The plane was above the peaks of the skyscrapers when suddenly, with the abruptness of a shudder, as if the ground had parted to engulf it, the city disappeared from the face of the earth. It took them a moment to realize that the panic had reached the power...
A Libyan intelligence agent is convicted of murder in the bombing of Pan-Am Flight 103 that killed 270 people. On the same day, the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC) reduced interest rates by 1/2 %--for the second time in a month--in order to stimulate the...
If you are looking for male role models, men with spines of steel, men of courage, and men of honor, don't open a newspaper or turn on the TV. All you'll find are louts: -- Our former president figuratively trashes the White House for eight years -- and then literally...
Johnny Cochran and a group of successful trial lawyers plan to bring class-action suits against the federal government and some private companies they say profited from slavery. Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., has already introduced HR 40, titled "Commission to Study...
The death of a distinguished scientist or a leading novelist usually attracts public attention. But the recent death of perhaps the most celebrated figure in academic philosophy--Harvard's Willard Van Orman Quine--attracted virtually none. This lack of reflection on...
In John Ashcroft's confirmation hearings for attorney general, the United States missed a rare opportunity to remedy the disastrous decline in the truth-seeking and justice-dispensing functions of the criminal justice system. When the administration of justice goes...
The 90th birthday of Ronald Reagan may be an appropriate time to reassess the role of his presidency in the history of the 20th century. Some presidents simply happen to be in office when historic events occur, but other presidents make history themselves -- like...
Random thoughts on the passing scene: Merit is its own reward, but it's also nice to get a pay raise. The first big Washington scandal of the 20th century was the Teapot Dome scandal of 1921, which led three members of the Harding administration to commit suicide....
Russia is in the news: a crackdown on the media and the oligarchs; the Kursk submarine disaster; restructuring of the Federation, including the creation of seven federal superdistricts headed mostly by generals; and a change in the way members of the upper house of...
In 1960, the novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand pronounced conservatism dead. The conservatives' refusal to challenge the fundamental ideas behind the welfare state, she argued, would doom them to a policy of appeasement and timidity. Sometimes it may seem as if her...
Mathematicians use the term "rational numbers" for numbers that can form a ratio. By this definition, there is a lot of irratioUality in California, where many people seem incapable of forming a ratio or proportion between different things. California's electricity...
Racial charges by many black politicians, civil-rights spokesmen, self-appointed black leaders and guilt-ridden whites are just plain nonsense. They get away with them because we're ill-informed or are too timid to question their assumptions and assertions. Let's...
Part of the reason U.S. military leaders give away too much is naiveté, not disloyalty. Part of the explanation for such actions is this romantic sense of wanting to give China something in the hopes of developing a friendship. People do really dumb things.
Alan Greenspan's about-face on interest rates and tax cuts might have you wondering if he is simply reacting to his new Commander-in-Chief, or if he is seeing how much he can manipulate the economy. Under Clinton, he was an outspoken opponent of tax cuts--which was...
President Bush should explain to Americans, Congress, and the world why a national missile defense system is urgently needed and how a global missile defense system will help to ensure that no country is held hostage by the threat of attack by missiles carrying...
For decades, Planned Parenthood has been proselytizing that sex education is the answer to unwanted pregnancies and population control. The crusaders first breached the high schools, then poured into the elementary schools. Today, toddlers are taught the mechanics of...
Johnny-come-lately liberals are in an uproar over former President Clinton's peddling of White House pardons: Clinton has no shame! He'll do anything for a quick buck! He disgraced the highest office in the land! This is news? Lost in the hoopla is Clinton's repugnant...
Late in September 2000, the Palestinian Authority kicked off a campaign of organized violence meant to hasten the final "liberation" of Israel from the Jews. The fighting began with mobs throwing rocks and firebombs at Jewish civilians and vehicles. Soon it escalated...
The federal government's persecution of Microsoft is a travesty--the worst combination of third-rate economics and special- interest politics. Last year's ruling against the company may be a victory for envy-driven bureaucrats at the U.S. Justice Department, but it...
There was a moment in the past weeks' confirmation hearings that reveals the root of what's wrong with our government. It was not in the most contentious or well-publicized hearing -- and indeed, it was a case where Senate Democrats, Senate Republicans and the new...
W.E.B. DUBOIS once said that the problem of the 20th century world was going to be the problem of the color line. Like many ringing predictions, it missed the mark by a wide margin. The biggest atrocity of [last] century against any people -- the Holocaust -- involved...
"NOTHING in his life," one character in Macbeth says of another, "became him like the leaving it." It would have been nice to say of Bill Clinton that nothing in his presidency became him like the leaving it. Those of us who spent the last eight years amazed by the...
Most people know by now that morale in the U.S. armed forces has dropped to a level not seen since the days of the Carter administration. Not to worry, say Army officials, we have a quick fix we're implementing later this year--allowing our troops to wear the black...
Classical education depends on a three-part process of training the mind. The early years of school are spent in absorbing facts, systematically laying the foundations for advanced study. In the middle grades, students learn to think through arguments. In the high...
Latest pro-Capitalism goodness sent weekly to your email box.
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.