 Responsibility without Authority: An "Incredible" Injustice
by JJ Tuan
There is one scene in the movie "The Incredibles" that caught my eye. It isn't one of the action sequences, nor is it a climatic heroic confrontation. Without giving too much of the movie away, it's a rather inconspicuous scene when Mrs. Incredible leaves her preteen son and daughter, Dash and Violet, in a cave befor... (Read more...)
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The Warfare of Politics, Tribalism and the Inauguration
by Steven Thomas Druckenmiller
How the Tribalism of Politics Came to a Head at the Inauguration. (Read more...)
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Machan's Musings - Feminist Fog
by Tibor R. Machan
When questions surrounding male and female attributes are politicized, of course, nothing much good comes of it all. Not only do some of the most vociferous civil libertarians forget their principles—as the feminists forgot theirs because Bill Clinton was a politician they liked—but rational investigation of interesting issues suffers. (Read more...)
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Mises, Friedman and Rand: A Methodological Comparison
by Edward W. Younkins
Three of the most respected and influential free-market thinkers of the 20th century are Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973), Milton Friedman (1912- ), and Ayn Rand (1905-1982). The purpose of this essay is to compare and evaluate the respective methodological approaches of each of these theorists who have influenced the course of history with their ideas. We will see how and why Rand’s realist approach is superior to both Mises’ rationalism and Friedman’s empiricism. (Read more...)
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Machan's Musings - Schools, Government and Creationism
by Tibor R. Machan
The real problem is that government schools exist. The delusion that you can get religion and values out of education is part of what lulls so many people into the misguided belief that government education is just fine. (Read more...)
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Sports and Academe
by Alec Mouhibian
Why academe needs sports like feminism needs breast implants, a fantasy needs an organ, and abstracts need concretes. (Read more...)
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Machan's Musings - Revisiting the Death Penalty
by Tibor R. Machan
What there is no way to guard against is the occasional application of the death penalty to someone who doesn’t in fact deserve it. In short, the probability of a mistake is significant. So no one ought to risk it because it will at times perpetrate a great wrong. (Read more...)
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Wednesday
January 19, 2005 |
Susie the Superstar
by Jennifer Iannolo
Welcome to America, where everyone is a superstar. (Read more...)
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Ashcroft v. Raich
by Jonathan R
In a 1996 referendum, California’s voters passed Proposition 215, codified as the Compassionate Use Act (C.U.A.). The C.U.A. legalized medical marijuana for seriously ill Californians, thus placing state law in direct conflict with federal law, the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act, or the Controlled Substances Act (C.S.A.). The C.S.A. classifies marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug that is unqualifiedly illegal unless part of an F.D.A. study. While we may argue for the relevance of the constitution’s supremacy clause or of individual rights, the instant issue before the U.S. Supreme Court is whether the C.S.A. exceeds the power of Congress under the commerce clause.
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A Cordero Rant: Spanking Little Johnny
by George W. Cordero
In keeping with the tradition that I should always stay about one comment away from being banned from SOLO, or from having a couple of you guys come to Florida just to beat the hell out of me, I have decided to submit this little gem. (Read more...)
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Machan's Musings - What Should We Be Proud Of?
by Tibor R. Machan
I am always hoping people will take language seriously and "being proud of something" very much suggests that you had something to do with bringing it about. Like the firm you built or painting you created or novel you wrote—provided, indeed, that they have merit, are worthy achievements. (Read more...)
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Machan's Musings - Good God, Bad Deeds?
by Tibor R. Machan
(Editor's note: the following will shortly be published in Think, Royal Institute for Philosophy, UK.)
Raised as a Roman Catholic, I was pretty set in my beliefs until I started to listen up in church. At first it was talk of angels that puzzled me, then talk of self-sacrifice that’s rewarded with everlasting salvation (which is a pretty good deal, I gathered, so not unselfish after all). Then I began to think about God’s goodness and all the pretty awful things happening in the world. (Read more...)
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Holiday Reprise: Iran Earthquake - God Dunnit
by David Bertelsen
Editor's note: the relevance of this gem is obvious!
Religion is evil. Some will say that religion is a harmless, nay helpful even, derision that guides people's lives, gives them a moral compass and prevents their otherwise-flawed selves from running amok on libertine sprees of rape, murder and cake-eating. Unfortunately, the consequences in believing instead of knowing are very real. (Read more...)
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George Washington and the "Objectivist Center"
by Adam Reed
The man, for whom the city in which they voted for this bill is named, said 215 years ago, "It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights." That two traitors to this principle should be honored and legitimized - in the name of the woman who gave us unprecedented understanding of Americanism as a body of principles, including this one - is an unspeakable obscenity. (Read more...)
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What Will They Think Of Us?
by George W. Cordero
History is replete with the carcasses of civilizations that had become so morally uncertain that a primitive, but committed foe, was able to vanquish them. The analogies are endless, but in all of them there is a common thread; the more advanced civilization being undermined from within. (Read more...)
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Politics and Sex
by Alec Mouhibian
The sad fact facing us is that everybody’s anti-sex. The Left is anti-sex, what with feminism and all. The Right is anti-sex, what with abstinence and all. The seafood industry is anti-sex, as research shows that people who get crabs in bed are less likely to order them in restaurants. (Read more...)
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Machan's Musings - Senator Boxer and American Democracy
by Tibor R. Machan
For my money, democracy is a minor political virtue. It is completely derivative—based on the far more important principles associated with the American political tradition of the individual’s right to liberty. Democracy follows this right—one is free, so one is free to take part in politics. But what is far more important is what should be part of politics. (Read more...)
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Will It Finally Sink In This Time?
by Lindsay Perigo
(Author's note - I am obliged to Pete for posting the link that inspired this article.)
"God works in mysterious ways" is really a euphemism for "God works in indefensible ways." And that is a pointer to the bottom line reality: there’s no such entity working in any such way; God simply ain’t there. (Read more...)
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A Retroactive Analysis of National Security Casus Belli for the Iraq War: Part 6
by Jonathan R
Did deterrence fail? (Read more...)
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A Retroactive Analysis of National Security Casus Belli for the Iraq War: Part 5
by Jonathan R
How did the Bush administration react? (Read more...)
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Thursday
December 30, 2004 |
Machan's Musings - Death Of An Anti-American
by Tibor R. Machan
Susan Sontag may have been a decent novelists and essayist, a good wordsmith. But her thinking, as illustrated by her response to 9/11, shows that she really was a quintessential anti-American, given her complete rejection of one of the central tenets of American civilization, namely, individualism. (Read more...)
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Thursday
December 30, 2004 |
A Retroactive Analysis of National Security Casus Belli for the Iraq War: Part 4
by Jonathan R
Of course, just two years after the ceasefire, Iraq embarked on another adventure, brutally occupying and plundering Kuwait. Expressing the view of many in 2002-03, Mark Bowden, a veteran military affairs journalist, argues that Saddam’s decision ranks as “one of the great military miscalculations of modern history." (Read more...)
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Wednesday
December 29, 2004 |
Machan's Musings - Taking Stock of America
by Tibor R. Machan
[Editor's note - at the risk of sounding like a cracked record, but just so there's no possibility of a misunderstanding here: my posting this article does not mean I agree with Prof. Machan that the liberation of Iraq is "futile." I couldn't DISagree with him more about that, though naturally I agree with the thrust of the rest of the article. - Linz]
Perhaps with a few more thousand outspoken citizens making it abundantly clear that it is indeed American individualism that requires vigilant defense, the revolutionary vision of the American founders could be rekindled. (Read more...)
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Wednesday
December 29, 2004 |
A Retroactive Analysis of National Security Casus Belli for the Iraq War: Part 3
by Jonathan R
Hawks argued that since Saddam was “crazy,” we “could not afford to trust [his] motives or [to] give him the benefit of the doubt.” For the tyrant was irrational and therefore undeterrable. (Read more...)
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A Retroactive Analysis of National Security Casus Belli for the Iraq War: Part 2
by Jonathan R
But what about Saddam’s well-known collaboration with non-Al Qaeda terrorists? (Read more...)
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