Ever since President Bush's you're-either-with-us-or-with-the-terrorists speech in 2001, his administration has been regarded as shaping its defense policy according to black-and-white moral judgments. If you haven't already been convinced that that speech was empty...
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
Congressional Constitutional Contempt
Here's the oath of office administered to members of the House and Senate: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign or domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the...
Prestige Versus Education
High school seniors who want to go to a selective college in the fall of 2008 should already be making arrangements to take the tests they will need before they apply ahead of the deadlines for such schools, which are usually in January or February. One of the...
“Open Access” and the Tyranny of the FCC
In January the FCC will auction off the prized 700 MHz spectrum of wireless bandwidth. But instead of offering the spectrum to the highest bidder to employ it however he judges best (for example, a mobile video-on-demand service), the FCC will force the winner to...
The Last Straw for Alfred Nobel: Al Gore Winning a Nobel Peace Prize for Promoting Environmental Hysteria
Alfred Nobel was a Swedish inventor, chemist, industrialist and when he had reached the end of his life of incredible achievement he left a legacy of philanthropy directed toward the awarding, year in and year out, of the greatest possible merit in the physical...
Crime and Rhetoric
Oakland, California, continues to suffer the high crime rate, and especially the high murder rate, which has long afflicted that city. Judging by a recent speech by its current mayor, long-time leftist Ron Dellums, it can look forward to a future all too much like its...
Academic Cesspools
The average taxpayer and parents who foot the bill know little about the rot on many college campuses. "Indoctrinate U" is a recently released documentary, written and directed by Evan Coyne Maloney, that captures the tip of a disgusting iceberg. The trailer for...
Sabotage in Wartime
With all the problems facing this country, both in Iraq and at home, why is Congress spending time trying to pass a resolution condemning the massacre of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire nearly a century ago? Make no mistake about it, that massacre of hundreds of...
Homeland Security or Homeland Pork?
There's big controversy here in Pittsburgh about the mayor taking the city's anti-terrorism van to a Toby Keith concert during the summer. But, really, where would our federally-supplied anti-terrorism vehicle have been that August night if the mayor hadn't taken it?...
The Appeal of Ayn Rand
October 10 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the greatest work of one of America's most controversial and inspiring writers: Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. Rand's novels continue to be wildly popular among the young. Some 22,000 high school and college students this year...
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill: the Untold Story
All that many people know about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas are the accusations against him by Anita Hill during his confirmation hearings in 1991. However, such subsequent events as the "rape" accusations against Duke University students last year and,...
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas: My Grandfather’s Son
It would be hard to think of anyone whose portrayal in the media differs more radically from the reality than that of Justice Clarence Thomas. His recent appearances on "60 Minutes," the Rush Limbaugh program, and other media outlets provide the general public with...
On “Staying the Course” in Iraq
The solution is actual victory in the wider war against Islamofascism. The solution is to bomb Iran–and not just its nuclear facilities–and to crush all the states that sponsor terrorism.
What Is Intelligence?
One of the longest-running controversies in history has been that between those who believe intelligence to be inherited and those who see it as determined by environment. If time has not resolved that question, it has at least led to sharper definitions of the...
Betrayal of the Civil Rights Struggle
Five police "mini-stations" will be located in Detroit public schools this year, primarily due to the merging of students from several high schools on the city's west side. According to a Sept. 1 Detroit Free Press article, armed police officers will patrol the...
Columbia, Duke and the Media
On page 28 of last Sunday's New York Times, right opposite the page where the obituaries were, at the very bottom was a news item almost exactly the size of a 3-by-5 card. It was a fraction of an Associated Press dispatch about Richard Brodhead, president of Duke...
Re-Importing Cheap Pharmaceuticals
The Ayn Rand Institute recently issued a very good press release attacking a bill passed by the House of Representatives that seeks to give Americans the "right" to re-import prescription drugs from countries, such as Canada, where they are sold more cheaply due to...
Who Really Supports Our Troops?
In the aftermath of General David Petraeus's controversial report to Congress on the progress of the troop surge in Iraq, debate over what to do with our troops in Iraq is as strong as ever. And, as always, both liberals and conservatives claim that they, and only...
Global Warming Hysteria
Despite increasing evidence that man-made CO2 is not a significant greenhouse gas and contributor to climate change, politicians and others who wish to control our lives must maintain that it is. According to the Detroit Free Press, Rep. John Dingell wants a...
Law Versus Mob Rule
It is painful -- and dangerous -- how little we learn from history, even when it is recent history. Just a year ago, "rape" charges spread lynch-mob hysteria on the campus of Duke University and in much of the liberal media, while professional race hustlers descended...
Why Did Sicko Fizzle Out?
Michael Moore's Sicko has had a respectable box office performance for a documentary film. But it has drawn only a small fraction of the audience that turned out for his previous film, Fahrenheit 9/11. Sicko opened in a relatively small number of theaters, with a plan...
The Un-American Call for National Service
The lead article in a recent issue of Time magazine makes the case for "universal national service"--which the article describes as "the simple but compelling idea that devoting a year or more to national service, whether military or civilian, should become a...
Photo Op for Terrorism at Ground Zero
Why did Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad want a "photo op" at Ground Zero? Doesn't he hate the United States and everything it stands for? If not, then perhaps he aims at peace more than we assume? As I always say: Look at what people do, not at what they say....
Sicko: What Michael Moore Forgot to Tell You
Michael Moore's comedy-drama Sicko presented a great deal of misinformation--too much to summarize in a short column. Besides, if anyone in the audience really believed that all Cubans receive superb health care when Mr. Moore's cameras are not running, there is not...
“Single-Payer” Health Care Is Anything But Free
Michael Moore's latest movie "SiCKO" sings the praises of the Canadian "single-payer" socialized medical system. Some Americans want a similar system implemented in the United States. Defenders of the Canadian system frequently claim that patients don't have to worry...
Economics and Property Rights
Economic theory does not operate in a vacuum. Institutions, such as the property rights structure, determine how the theory manifests itself. Similarly, the law of gravity isn't repealed when a parachutist floats gently down to earth. The parachute simply affects how...
High-Speed Car Chases By The Police
High-speed car chases by police on highways, or even on residential streets, have become a staple of television news. An estimated 500 people died as a result of high-speed car chases last year. Nearly half the people killed were innocent third parties. The police...
Insulting Blacks
What does it say about blacks who can be taken in by pandering, alarmist nonsense from both whites and blacks as a means to get their votes?
On The Politicization of Healthcare
Open Public Hearing; Endocrinologic and Metabolic Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committees to the Food and Drug Administration; Gaithersburg, Maryland "Good Afternoon. I am Richard Ralston, Executive Director of Americans for Free Choice in Medicine. We are...
The War in Iraq: Worse Than Doing Nothing
On the anniversary of 9/11, we are reminded that the forces of Islamic totalitarianism continue to threaten our lives. What should we do to protect ourselves? Depressingly, today's prevailing answer is to urge some form of "diplomacy"--and rule out as inconceivable...
No “Health Care” in America?
During the first 30 years of my life, I had no health insurance. Neither did a lot of other people, back in those days. During those 30 years, I had a broken arm, a broken jaw, a badly injured shoulder, and miscellaneous other medical problems. To say that my income...
Random Thoughts September 2007
Random thoughts on the passing scene: I can't get as fiercely involved as some other people do in controversies about the origins of human life on earth. I wasn't there. One of the painful signs of years of dumbed-down education is how many people are unable to make a...