Why does peace so elude the Middle East? A recent MSNBC.com news report provides the answer: “Hezbollah [whose attacks on Israel triggered Israel’s recent retaliation in Lebanon] is an Iranian-backed militant Shiite faction which has a free hand in...
POLITICS
The Pretense of Knowledge
One of the great contributions of Nobel Laureate economist Friedrich Hayek was to admonish us to recognize the insurmountable limits to human knowledge. Why? Not even the brightest minds, and surely not the U.S. Congress, can ever have the knowledge to shape an...
Presumed Guilty: How Biased Reporters “Honor Our Troops”
The same newspapers and television news programs that are constantly reminding us that some people under indictment “are innocent until proven guilty” are nevertheless hyping the story of American troops accused of rape in Iraq, day in and day out, even...
Keep Our “Addiction” to Oil, End Our Allergy to Self-Assertion
Politicians and commentators from both parties are decrying our “addiction to oil.” They exhort us to embrace costly programs to reduce our consumption of oil as quickly as possible. The primary rationale for this is national security. Our oil consumption...
A Victory for the Rule of Law
The Florida Supreme Court has just upheld an appellate court decision to throw out a $145 billion verdict in the case of Engle vs. Liggett Group. While the decision is being hailed as a major victory for tobacco companies, it is far more than that. The court...
Back From Vacation
There is nothing like returning home to recover from a vacation. They say traveling is broadening and that has certainly been my experience. My waistline broadens by about an inch a week when I am traveling. The most dangerous mode of travel is the automobile. Every...
The Poverty in Black Education is Not Due to Racial Discrimination or Lack of Money in D.C.
Let’s look at the recent “Nation’s Report Card,” published annually by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics. Nationally, in reading, only 13 percent of black fourth graders, and 11 percent of black...
Bully Boy Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt
A special issue of Time magazine celebrates the historic career of Theodore Roosevelt and the implications of his presidency for the development of American society. In the phony familiarity of our times, where you call people by their first names when you have never...
Universal Freedom on the Fourth of July
It is precisely because our health care is so important to each of us that we need to be especially careful to preserve and protect the rights of physicians and other health care providers.
Is Patriotism Obsolete?
On the eve of a holiday that used to stir patriotic emotions — the Fourth of July — it has been painful to see examples of how little remains of that glue that holds a society together. Perhaps the worst of these signs of national disintegration was the...
On a Deluded America
Diana West has written a fiery op-ed that, on its face, seems to provide a well-needed antidote to the moral platitudes that are preventing America from ridding the world of savage brutes (“Deluded America,” Washington Times, June 23, 2006). Certainly the...
Undermining the Rule of Law to Lynch an Unpopular Group
America is a nation that reveres the fact that ours is “a government of laws, not of men.” Under this principle, members of government can use their power only to enforce known and clearly defined laws. As a result, we do not worry about losing our...
Why I Refuse to Celebrate Canada Day
I refuse to celebrate Canada Day (July 1st)–as a matter of principle. While I recognize Canada as one of the better countries to live in, this relative evaluation doesn’t justify the gross injustices caused by the policies of our three levels of...
Focus Investing: The Warren Buffett Way
An excerpt from The Warren Buffett Way, Second Edition by Robert G. Hagstrom. Status Quo: A Choice of Two The current state of portfolio management, as practiced by everyone else, appears to be locked into a tug-of-war between two competing strategies — active...
Multiculturalism Breeds Terrorism
On June 2, 2006, seventeen Muslims, including five juveniles, were arrested in Canada for planning major terrorist attacks on Canadian soil against innocent people. Because these were “homegrown” Islamic terrorists, blame was rightly directed towards...
Diplomacy Only Encourages North Korea’s Belligerence
After decades of chasing nuclear weapons, North Korea is on the brink of success. Worse yet, it may already have the means of mounting an attack against us. According to news reports, North Korea is about to test-fire a powerful long-range missile capable of...
Economics and Statistics
An interesting question in economics is the proper role of statistics. Ludwig von Mises is my favourite economist, yet he held that statistics have no valid role in formulating or validating economic theory. It’s interesting to explore his reasons. First, Mises...
“Market Failure” Doesn’t Exist
In a recent column in Canada’s National Post (June 10, 2006), “economist” and author Mark Jaccard of Simon Fraser University argued that (alleged) manmade global warming represents a “market failure” that must be corrected by government...
An Energy Lesson from Cuba and China
An unlikely political figure is willing to fight for lower gas prices. His name: Fidel Castro. He’s working with foreign investors, including China, to find oil off the Cuban coast, close to American waters. In contrast, American companies aren’t looking...
Health Care and Political Hypocrisy About Privacy
In response to the National Security Agency’s acquisition of private telephone call databases, a lot of politicians — even those who were given frequent briefings about the program for more than four years — claim to be deeply shocked about this...
Club For Dictators: The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)
Some see it as a NATO counterweight. Others call it a Club for Dictators – or at least near-dictators. Some consider it an anti-American stalking horse for Chinese and or Russian hegemony, with the potential to become “OPEC with nukes.” Whatever: The...
High Gas Prices Courtesy of Environmental Rhetoric
As the price of gasoline and the myriad products that utilize petroleum in their manufacture rises, Americans are going to ask why the Congress has resisted accessing the billions of barrels’ worth of oil and natural gas in our offshore continental shelf. As the...
Reflections on The Death of Terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
I am, of course, delighted by the death of terrorist ringleader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Iraq. I’m glad that he apparently had a chance to suffer before actually dying. I have no illusions that al-Zarqawi’s death will have any major impact on terrorism in...
Letters to The Editor: June 2006
European Governments Have No Right To Take Over Apple’s Itunes Dear Editor: European governments have no right to force Apple to make downloads from iTunes compatible with the products of its rivals. If music listeners don’t like the limitations of...
Reflections on Free Speech and the Danish Cartoons: A Panel Discussion
On April 11, 2006, the University of Southern California Objectivist Club sponsored an event titled “Free Speech and the Danish Cartoons: A Panel Discussion” which was attended by more than 300 people. Many critics on the Left grudgingly uphold the right...
Random Thoughts: June 2006
Random thoughts on the passing scene: When you have 90 percent of what you want, think twice before insisting on the other 10 percent. I have never understood stuttering. Once I heard a well-known economist who stuttered spend 45 minutes singing humorous,...
Iran Diplomacy Works!
Fantastic news recently! It was widely reported Thursday that a diplomatic solution was finally found regarding the Iran nuke situation! Yes, the three years of apparently useless jibber-jabbering by Europeans has finally paid off big-time! (Shame on me for having...
The Death of Zarqawi: A Victory in the War on Terrorism
The killing by U.S. forces of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, is a major turning point in the war on terrorism. The course of history is shaped by major events, and this is one of them. The elimination of one of the world’s most...
Myths, Lies and Downright Stupidity
John Stossel, ABC’s “20/20” anchorman, has a recently released book about the various untruths we accept, many from the media and academic elite. The book is appropriately titled “Myths, Lies and Downright Stupidity.” Being a longtime...
Eminent Domain is Never the Solution
Portland City Commissioner Randy Leonard wants the government to use its power of eminent domain to take property from one set of owners in SE Portland and transfer it to some others, in the hope that they will build an upscale supermarket. Commissioner Leonard...
“Fairness” in Search Results?
In case anyone needed reminding that conservatives are not interested in a free economy: An attorney with a prominent conservative Christian group says he is troubled by the recent announcement that the popular Internet search engine Google has dumped news sites...
Washington’s Failed War in Afghanistan
Unlike the seemingly endless war in Iraq, America’s campaign in Afghanistan is widely considered a success in the “war on terror.” We have nothing more to fear from Afghanistan, our policy makers tell us, because the war accomplished its two main...
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