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

How To Make Medical Care Affordable

Rather than create more government subsidies, policymakers should eliminate supply-side regulations that reduce price competition and affordability.

Filtering Out The Best

Filtering Out The Best

Having lost the White House, both houses of Congress, and a majority of the governorships and state legislatures, the Democrats are in an ugly and desperate mood, lashing out without regard to how their words and actions will affect this country's position...

Not Yours To Give

Charity to man's fellow man is praiseworthy, and Americans are the most generous people on Earth. According to a quote by American philanthropist Daniel Rose in "An Exceptional Nation," an article in Philanthropy magazine (November/December 2004), "American private...

Bury the Chains: How The West Ended Slavery

Bury the Chains: How The West Ended Slavery

To me the most staggering thing about the long history of slavery -- which encompassed the entire world and every race in it -- is that nowhere before the 18th century was there any serious question raised about whether slavery was right or wrong. In the late 18th...

Social Security: A Great Moral Failure

Social Security: A Great Moral Failure

In his State of the Union Address, President Bush said that many options were "on the table" to deal with Social Security's problems, and that he "will listen to anyone who has a good idea to offer." But there is one idea he will not listen to: the idea that Social...

Bedroom Economics in Germany

Bedroom Economics in Germany

Now that unemployment in Germany has hit 11.4 percent, it was perhaps inevitable that some politicians there would come up with various quick-fix "solutions" to the huge drain of unemployment compensation on the government's budget. A young waitress discovered one of...

Rewarding the MVPs of the Business World

As millions of Americans watch the New England Patriots take on the Philadelphia Eagles, 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...

The New Right

The evidence of the past two decades is unimpeachable: the political right in America no longer stands for individual rights, limited government and capitalism. The "rightists" now advocate expanding the welfare state, increasing government intrusion into our intimate...

Anti-Intellectualism Among the Academic Elite

Dr. Lawrence Summers, president of Harvard University, has been excoriated for suggesting that innate differences between men and women might be one of the reasons fewer women succeed in the higher reaches of science and math. Adding insult to injury, he also...

Bush’s Betrayal of America: The Iraqi Elections

President Bush claims that holding elections on January 30 will bring Iraq a step closer to freedom, an outcome allegedly vital to America's security. But the Iraqi election will bring neither freedom to Iraq nor security to America. Consider the beliefs of the Iraqis...

Ayn Rand: Hero

Today is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Ayn Rand. Ayn Rand is the author of the famous novels "The Fountainhead" and "Atlas Shrugged." Ayn Rand is, to me, more than merely the author of those great books. She is the one who gave me the idea that human reason is...

Free Elections in Iraq: Victory and Defeat

Free Elections in Iraq: Victory and Defeat

The defeatists have been defeated. Remember all the political outcries that the Iraqi elections should be postponed because it would be impossible to hold elections with terrorism rampant throughout the country? Fortunately, most Iraqis do not see the American media,...

The Mealy Mouthed Media

The Mealy Mouthed Media

The enraged speeches and street disorders across the country that accompanied the inauguration of President Bush may tell us more than we want to know about what is happening to this country. The media dignify these outbursts by calling them "protests" but what are...

Should We “Save Jobs”?

Now that the elections are over, there's little political gain for demagoguery about jobs, but let's prepare ourselves for the next time. Losing a job means a financial crunch and readjustment regardless of the source of job loss. If it's not from an economic...

Western Media: Fourth Estate or Fifth Column?

Western Media: Fourth Estate or Fifth Column?

There are still people in the mainstream media who profess bewilderment that they are accused of being biased. But you need to look no further than reporting on the war in Iraq to see the bias staring you in the face, day after day, on the front page of the New York...

Weaker Than We Think

"On Sept. 11, one in 3,000 New Yorkers perished, but in the same year, over one in 1,000 urbanites were murdered in three major cities in the Western Hemisphere alone," according to Russell Seitz in his article "Weaker Than We Think" in The American Conservative (Dec....

Social Insecurity

Social Insecurity

The latest liberal spin on Social Security is that there is no problem. Of course, there is no problem with any obligation if you are willing to welsh when it comes time to pay it. Politically, the bottom line of this approach is that President Bush's plan is "not a...

Medical Lawsuits

Medical Lawsuits

When a friend told me recently that he was going to undergo a painful medical procedure to see if he has cancer, it reminded me of a time years ago when I faced a similar prospect. The testing procedure in my case would have been both painful and with some risk of...

End Social Security

End Social Security

Throughout the nation, a fierce debate rages over Social Security. One side, led by President Bush, says the system is in crisis and must be saved via "partial privatization." The other side says the system is basically sound and can be saved with a little tinkering....

AFCM Interviews HSA Bank President Kirk Hoewisch

AFCM Interviews HSA Bank President Kirk Hoewisch

The year was 1901 and someone in Howards Grove, Wisconsin, observed that the first automobile to appear in town was driven by a man from nearby Sheboygan. A century later, the town is making its mark on another new vehicle--which has the potential to revolutionize how...

Rational Disagreement

Rational Disagreement

My assistant sorts the incoming mail into various categories, such as "critical mail," "fan mail," etc. But the so-called critical mail is seldom critical. It may be bombastic or vituperative or full of pop psychology, but it seldom presents a critical argument based...

The Race Card — 2005

The Race Card — 2005

The Democratic Party continues to play the race card for political gain. The Reverend Jesse Jackson steamed into Ohio, the so-called battleground state that went for Bush, claiming that Ohioans' votes failed to count. "The playing field is uneven," said Jackson. " . ....

New Year For Choosing a Health Plan

For many workers, the new year initiates a process called open enrollment--when many employees designate a health plan through their employer--that's as comprehensible as the tax code. During the annual cattle call, employees are pummeled with bureaucratic jargon...

Greedy or Ignorant

"The Dog and His Bone" is one of Aesop's many instructive fables. It's about a dog carrying a bone in his mouth. As he was crossing a footbridge over a stream and happened to glance into the water, he saw his own reflection. Thinking it was another dog with a bigger...

Susan Sontag: Not So Judicious

Writer Susan Sontag, one of America's most "celebrated" intellectuals, died a few days after Christmas of leukemia. She was 71. "In my view," she once explained, "the only intelligence worth defending is critical, dialectical, skeptical, desimplifying." An yet, in her...

America The Stingy

America The Stingy

"It is beyond me . . . why are we so stingy, really," said U.N. Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland, after the tsunami in southern Asia. " . . . Christmastime should remind many Western countries at least, [of] how rich we have become. . . . "...

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