The resignation of Lawrence Summers as president of Harvard University tells us a lot about what is wrong with academia today. When he took office in 2001, Summers seemed like an ideal president of Harvard. He had had a distinguished career in and out of the academic...
Most talk of addictions as something over which the individual is helpless. Yet how does this explain that so many end their addictions? People quit smoking all the time. People quit alcohol. They quit nail-biting. They even quit heroin and crack cocaine. These are...
Let’s start off with a few quotations, then a question. In reference to the president’s State of the Union: “Sounds a lot like the things Adolf Hitler used to say.” “Bush is threatening the whole planet.” “[The] U.S. wants to...
Let’s face it: Reality can be stressful and can sometimes get very rough. Everyone has an incentive to postpone it. Most of us, however, learn the hard way that postponing reality only makes it far worse than facing it early on. The problem gets more complicated...
Unfortunately, when medical care is made free, the quantity of it that people attempt to consume becomes virtually limitless.
Some of you reading this web site think of yourselves as either Liberal or Conservative. You have views of the world based on personal beliefs, and these beliefs lead you to certain political assumptions. I am neither Liberal nor Conservative and I have political...
According to the University of Washington student government, university alumnus Gregory “Pappy” Boyington is not a person university students should strive to emulate and he should not be honored with a memorial on campus because as a Marine Corps...
John Q. Liberal is a professor at a local college. On Monday he gives a speech in which he denounces capitalism and the profit motive, and praises environmentalism as the highest moral ideal. When his speech is over, he confronts the organizer of the talk....
This rationale and its acceptance by a judge is an illustration of what Ayn Rand, with good reason, used to describe contemptuously as a “collectivist stewpot.”
Where can Americans turn, to witness the spectacle of great leadership?
The first revolt of the American colonists against their British rulers was immortalized by Ralph Waldo Emerson as “the shot heard round the world.” Vice President Dick Cheney’s hunting accident has now become the shot heard round the Beltway. The...
President Bush, during his State of the Union address, said, “America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world.” I decided to check out “addiction” in Merriam-Webster’s dictionary and found:...
Many western intellectuals and politicians claim that the Middle East groups advocating violence are not really religious, but rather political fascists. This directly contradicts the claims made by these groups themselves, who do not separate religion from politics,...
This nation is facing two crises — one phony and one real. Both in the media and in politics, the phony crisis is getting virtually all the attention. Like the French official in “Casablanca,” politicians and much of the media are shocked, shocked,...
John Q. Conservative is a small businessman and lay-minister at a local church. On Sunday he gives a sermon at church. “The Bible tells us we must sacrifice for others,” he tells the congregation. “Sacrifice and doing good to others is the essence of...
Mr. Frum’s ridicule of the imbecile appeasement philosophy guiding our foreign policy is bang on [From Ramallah, Harper’s First Big Test, David Frum, Jan. 31.]. However, by calling Western countries “democracies,” Mr. Frum appears to have...
The American people need protection from crime, private and government.
Listen to many elected officials or union bosses, and you’d think Wal-Mart was a malicious criminal, exploiting workers and pillaging towns for the benefit of greedy shareholders. But if that’s the case, how has Wal-Mart grown from a single shop in a small...
To fathom our government’s contemptible treatment of a handful of unbowed journalists, you must see the roots of that treatment in the moral ideal Christianity bequeathed the West. In the face of the intimidation and murder of European authors, film makers and...
Do people have a right to medical treatment whether or not they can pay? What about a right to food or decent housing? Would a U.S. Supreme Court justice hold that these are rights just like those enumerated in our Bill of Rights? In order to have any hope of...
Looking back at the history of tragic times often reveals that many — or most — of the people of those times were often preoccupied with things that look trivial, or even pathetic, in view of the catastrophe looming over them. Will later generations...
Do Not Apologize for Cartoons of Mohammad Dear Editor: European newspapers must refuse to apologize for running cartoons of Mohammad. But instead of applauding those papers that have stood their ground defending free speech, the U.S. government has shamefully endorsed...
European diplomats, who courted Iran in an attempt to halt its suspected nuclear weapons program, regret that “diplomacy” did not dissuade Iran from its plans. But this failure was foreseeable. Europe’s diplomatic effort was touted as a reasonable...
As millions of Americans watch the Seattle Seahawks take on the Pittsburgh Steelers, every minute of the game will be scrutinized, with slow-motion replays and a torrent of statistics. But, amid the cheers and groans, don’t expect to hear complaints from fans...
We all remember last year’s despicable U.S. Supreme Court 5-4 Kelo v. City of New London, Conn., decision that held as constitutional that the rightful property of one American can be taken and transferred to another American so long as some public purpose is...
The American-endorsed trial of Saddam Hussein is touted as an opportunity to render justice and lay the groundwork for an Iraqi transition from the arbitrary courts of a dictatorship to a proper legal system. But the trial will accomplish neither goal. A trial that...
If one is serious about fighting corruption, the first and most important thing that must be fought is all discretionary power on the part of the government and its officials.
It has been the sincerely felt desire of President George W. Bush that “democracy” take root in the Middle East. The hope is that once the method of choosing their leaders/oppressors changes that liberty and freedom will somehow, inexorably and...
According to college opinion writer Henry M. Bowles, III (“Military has no place at universities,” January 24, 2006) the military should not seek to fill its ranks with men and women of intelligence and ability because “less intelligent people are...
The Forward Strategy of Freedom is impractical and immoral. It is destroying American lives for the sake of strangers while making us more vulnerable to attack. Of course America is safe when other nations are free–free nations do not attack one...
What lessons should we have learned from last summer’s deadly and destructive hurricanes? The primary lesson is that we shouldn’t have much faith in a federal bureaucracy like the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). They amply demonstrated their...
The Jack Abramoff scandal has put political corruption front and center in Washington but this particular scandal, or even this particular kind of scandal, barely scratches the surface of corruption in government. It is not that all members of Congress, or even most...
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