My previous columns have attempted to reduce confusion by suggesting operational definitions of discrimination and prejudice. Discrimination was defined as the act of choice, and prejudice was the act of decision-making on the basis of incomplete information. Good...
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
Socialism for the Rich
Although socialism has long claimed to be for the poor, it has probably done more damage, on net balance, to the poor than to the rich. After all, the rich have enough money to leave the country if they think the socialists are going to do them any serious harm. Some...
What to Do About Gasoline Prices
Now that gasoline prices are below $3 a gallon, calls for the government to “do something” to force prices lower have temporarily abated. But it is crucial for us to recognize that no matter what the price of gasoline is, such calls are wrong. All market...
Week in Review: Tolerance for Evil Means Condemnation of the Good
This past week has told us more than we wanted to know about ourselves and about our enemies. There was far more controversy over remarks made by the Pope than over the violence unleashed by Muslims against people who had nothing to do with what the Pope said. That...
Discrimination or Prejudice
In recent weeks, I’ve offered operational definitions for some of the terms used in the discussion of race. The first was discrimination, which can be broadly defined as the act of choice. When one selects one activity, good or person, of necessity he must...
AMA is Wrong About Medicare
The American Medical Association (AMA) is now engaged in an irrational effort to prevent cuts in Medicare payments to doctors. The campaign, which recently included a “fly-in” where AMA members personally appealed to members of Congress in Washington D.C.,...
Conspiracy Theories: Was 9/11 An “Inside Job” and Other Stories
I was recently forced to break off an amicable correspondence of several years because of 9/11 conspiracy theories and this person’s acceptance of them. Our conversations became nothing but this person trying to convince me that the terrorist attacks of 9/11...
Legalize The American Dream: Immigration is in America’s Self-Interest
Illegal immigrants are pouring into the United States. Pro-immigration rallies and anti-immigration rallies alternated with equal fervor this spring, while the number of illegals living in the country continued to grow towards 10 million. Pending legislation threatens...
Children as Bombs
As if things weren’t crazy enough already in the Middle East, here’s the officially sanctioned message in sixth-grade Palestinian textbooks for 11- and 12-year-old kids: “The noble soul has two goals: death and the desire for it.” The goal...
Suicidal Hand-Wringing
When you enter a boxing ring, you agree to abide by the rules of boxing. But when you are attacked from behind in a dark alley, you would be a fool to abide by the Marquis of Queensbury rules. If you do, you can end up being a dead fool. Even with a nuclear Iran...
Cheap Shot Journalism
Recently one of those increasingly familiar New York Times editorials disguised as news stories was headlined “Conservatives Help Wal-Mart, and Vice Versa.” There was a chart with photos of people from conservative think tanks saying things favorable to...
Constitution Day
Each year since 2004, on Sept. 17, we commemorate the 1787 signing of the U.S. Constitution by 39 American statesmen. The legislation creating Constitution Day was fathered by Sen. Robert Byrd and requires federal agencies and federally funded schools, including...
Relativism and Religion vs. the Lives of Americans
With the anniversary of 9/11 approaching, here are a few facts worth circulating…
September 11th: Where Have Our Leaders Gone Wrong?
Our leaders have failed to answer the evil moral ideal of Islamic totalitarianism with a rational ideal of our own.
September 11th: Five Years Later
A true “War of Ideas” would be one in which we proclaim loudly and with moral certainty the secular values we stand for: reason, rights, freedom, material prosperity, and personal happiness on this earth.
What is Discrimination?
There’s so much confusion and emotionalism about discrimination that I thought I’d take a stab at a dispassionate analysis. Discrimination is simply the act of choice. When we choose Bordeaux wine, we discriminate against Burgundy wine. When I married Mrs....
The New Nomenklatura
One of the bitter ironies of the 20th century was that communism, which began as an egalitarian doctrine accusing capitalism of selfishness and calloused sacrifices of others, became in power a system whose callousness toward others made the “sins” of...
How to Solve America’s Terrorism Problem in 5 Easy Steps
Here is how America could solve her terrorism problem in 5 easy steps: 1. Stop sacrificing American soldiers to bring “freedom” to savages in Iraq. Pull our soldiers out of that hell hole, and let the savages have their civil war. ( Iraq is not and never...
An Open Letter to CEOs: Defend the Profit Motive–or Perish
Dear CEO: As a grateful customer of America’s productive businesses–as someone who knows that his well-being depends on yours–I implore you to stop apologizing to your attackers. Stop pledging to “reform,” to become “better...
Will The West Defend Itself?
Does the United States have the power to eliminate terrorists and the states that support them? In terms of capacity, as opposed to will, the answer is a clear yes. Think about it. Currently, the U.S. has an arsenal of 18 Ohio class submarines. Just one submarine is...
Point of No Return?
It is hard to think of a time when a nation — and a whole civilization — has drifted more futilely toward a bigger catastrophe than that looming over the United States and western civilization today. Nuclear weapons in the hands of Iran and North Korea...
A Land Fit for Criminals, Part II
Do higher rates of imprisonment reduce crime? Is crime a result of poverty, unemployment, and the like? Are alternatives to incarceration more effective in preventing criminals from repeating their crimes? Some people would hesitate to try to answer any of these...
A Land Fit for Criminals, Part I
The general mindset of the political left is similar from country to country and even from century to century. The softness toward dangerous criminals found in such 18th century writers as William Godwin and Condorcet has its echo today among those who hold protest...
Are Academic Elites Communists?
Grove City College publishes an excellent newsletter titled “Visions and Values.” Its July 2006 edition features an interview with Dr. Richard Pipes, acclaimed Russian historian and Harvard University professor of Sovietology. The interview was conducted...
Will Cease-Fires Never Cease?
How many cease-fires have there been in the Middle East — or is the number too large to remember? Over the past half century, there must have been more cease-fires in the Middle East than in the rest of the world combined. What will this latest cease-fire do? It...
Israel’s Government Deserves Moral Condemnation
The Government of Israel deserves moral condemnation for its overall response to Hezbollah. The primary purpose and moral obligation of any legitimate government is to protect the lives and rights of its own citizens. Hezbollah, a military wing of the Islamic...
Islamic Totalitarianism: Our Carry-On Luggage Is Not the Real Problem
If termites are weakening a home’s foundation, what do we do? We call the exterminator and eliminate the problem. If armed robbers are at our doors trying to break their way in, what do we do? We defend ourselves to the best of our abilities until the...
Studies Prove: Part II
My late mentor, Nobel Prize-winning economist George Stigler, used to say that it could be very instructive to spend a few hours in a library checking up on studies that had been cited. When I began doing that, I found it not only instructive but disillusioning. A...
The Minimum Wage Vision
There are decent people, without a selfish hidden agenda, who support increases in minimum wages as a means to help low-skilled workers, and there are other decent people, with the identical goal, who strongly oppose increases in the minimum wage. So the question is:...
Studies Prove: Part I
Whenever I hear the phrase “studies prove” this or that, it makes me think back to the beginning of my career as an economist at the Labor Department in Washington. Secretary of Labor Arthur Goldberg was scheduled to appear before Congress to argue in...
A Glimmer of Hope: The Unusual Backlash Against Minimum Wage
It was a common political move when Chicago’s city council voted recently to impose a $10 an hour minimum wage on big-box retailers. There is nothing that politicians like better than handing out benefits to be paid for by someone else. What was uncommon was the...
Israel’s “Obligation” to the U.N.
Secretary of State Rice has stated that Israel has an “obligation” to respond to the U.N.’s demand for a cease-fire in Lebanon. Since when does any sovereign government have an obligation to reply or have anything at all to do with the U.N.? Keep in...
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