POLITICS

When Veterans Betray the Chain of Command

The chain of command isn’t just military protocol—it’s the constitutional architecture that keeps American democracy from sliding into chaos. Six Democratic members of Congress just attacked it.

Philosophy and Journalism: Intrinsicism in Reporting

The smartertimes.com [December 20, 2001] makes an interesting point which bears philosophical analysis. Smartertimes.com catches the New York Times labeling conservative groups, such as The Heritage Foundation, as being conservative, while liberal groups, such as...

Was the Baseball Juiced?

Was the Baseball Juiced?

When Mark McGwire had his incredible 70-home run season in 1998, nobody thought that his record would be broken just three years later. Babe Ruth's record of 60 home runs lasted 34 years, until Roger Maris broke it by one home run in 1961 and then held the record for...

Stop Giving America a Bad Rap

Even if you have only a passing interest in today's popular music, I urge you to pay attention to the loathsome record nominated this week by Washington Post staff writer David Segal as the "Best Album" of 2001. It's a stomach-turning example of anti-Americanism...

“Democracy” in America

“Democracy” in America

A student, for an assignment, looked up the word "democracy" in Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 10th Edition. The following definition appears: 1. a: government by the people; especially: rule of the majority b: a government in which the supreme power is...

The Morality of War

Ayn Rand once said, "Wars are the second greatest evil that human societies can perpetrate." Why only second? To understand, we must first do something that few have done since the peace ended on Sept. 11: We must ask what war is. From Webster's dictionary, we get...

Parasite and Host Produce a Second-time Mom

Free-market economists frequently speak of what is seen and not seen when assessing the drivel of government interventionists. While short-term results may benefit some group, in the long run economic meddling invariably hurts everyone, the free-marketers tell us....

Arabs Have Never Accepted Israel

In June of this year, Palestinian television broadcast a sermon in a Gaza mosque in which the imam, Ibrahim Madi, made the following statement: "God willing, this unjust state [of] Israel, will be erased; this unjust state the United States will be erased; this unjust...

The Free-Market’s Solution to Media Bias: FOXNews

Major media people have values unlike most other Americans. Former CBS correspondent Bernard Goldberg documents that in his best-seller, "Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News." Eighty-nine percent of Washington journalists voted for Clinton in...

History Itself Is About to Become History

History is, generally, a subject that studies what happened in the past and determines why it happened. When historians begin to say that nobody can be certain of anything that happened and that anyone's guess as to why it happened is as good--meaning as...

The Myth of the Arab Country of Palestine

A common misconception about Arab terrorism against Israel is that it is committed in an effort to derail the "peace process." President Bush echoed that fiction on Sunday when he commented on a wave of ghastly attacks that had just killed 26 Israeli civilians and...

“We’re Going to Conquer America”

'Muslims make an incredibly valuable contribution to our country," said President Bush shortly after Sept. 11, noting that they are "doctors, lawyers, law professors, members of the military, entrepreneurs, shopkeepers, moms and dads." He later added that "there are...

How Best to Improve School Productivity? School Choice!

How Best to Improve School Productivity? School Choice!

Although it's only seven years since Caroline Minter Hoxby received her Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the brilliance of her subsequent research at Harvard University into the effectiveness and cost of public education has...

Why Christmas Should be More Commercial

Christmas in America is an exuberant display of human ingenuity, capitalist productivity, and the enjoyment of life. Yet all of these are castigated as "materialistic"; the real meaning of the holiday, we are told, is assorted Nativity tales and altruist injunctions...

N.Y. Port Authority’s Forgotten Heroes

"Billy Blazes," a New York firefighter action figure, is one of the biggest-selling items on the Christmas toy market this year. Also high on the holiday gift list: "FDNY" and "NYPD" caps, shirts and sweaters. The two city departments earned global fame -- and a...

Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams: Grace Under Fire

Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams: Grace Under Fire

Someday, many of their critics will apologize. Who am I talking about? Two economists, who happen to be black, Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams. For over 30 years, Thomas Sowell, currently with the Hoover Institution, and Walter Williams, chairman of the economics...

How John Walker Turned into a Taliban Terrorist

It isn't the case that the parents of John Walker -- the Marin County child of privilege turned Taliban terrorist -- never drew the line with their son. True, they didn't do so when he was 14 and his consuming passion was collecting hip-hop CDs with especially nasty...

Value Judgments, Ideology, and Writing Editorials

There's an interesting methodological difference between Ayn Rand Institute (ARI) op-eds and the usual ones you read by non-Objectivists (and boy, there sure are a lot of non-Objectivists around, aren't there?). I can best illustrate the difference by a kind of...

Rocky Mountain Bigot?

Rocky Mountain Bigot?

NBA Denver Nuggets coach Dan Issel, after another tough loss at the buzzer, walked off the court toward the locker room. A fan, however, taunted the white coach, calling out, "Issel sucks." Issel angrily fired back, "Hey, go buy another beer. Go drink another beer,...

Yassar Arafat’s Suicide Factory

In declaring his own war on terrorism last week, Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon made a surprising claim. He said that Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader, "is responsible for everything that is happening here," a reference to the onslaught of four suicide...

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