EDITORIAL Showing 1851 - 1900 of 1951
Dealing With Racists in a Free Market
May 24, 2010
Finally, the Rand Paul furor, we have an issue in politics worthy of sustained, serious attention – How should people who act badly be dealt with? More particularly how should people who discriminate based on irrelevancies such as race, sex, national origin, ...
Freedom of Association and Rights
May 22, 2010
A big flaw of the famous 1964 Civil Rights law is that it engages in regimenting who may or must associate with whom in private commerce. Among free men and women no such regimentation by government is permissible even if, to quote one prominent Republican "it ...
Beware an 'American Style' Federalized EU
May 21, 2010
The corrupt, power-hungry EU elites like politicians here in America are always ready to use a crisis to advance their agenda of accumulating power, increasing taxes and controls over local governments and independent citizens. Contrary to their false promises ...
Charles Krauthammer's Fallacy
May 19, 2010
In a recent discussion about the war on drugs Charles Krauthammer, the most avidly conservative columnist in the nation's capital (and who writes for The Washington Post), defended the war by comparing the abuses associated with it – such as police raids on h ...
The Government as Identity Thieves
May 18, 2010
The spotlight remains on the Greek sovereign debt crisis as the riots continue. The terms of the Greek bailout from the IMF and Eurozone countries remain contentious with citizens on all sides. Europeans hate having their governments throw public money away as ...
The New Austrian School of Economics
May 15, 2010
The Austrian School of Economics dates its beginnings back to the publication in 1871 of a slender volume: The Principles of Economics(Grundsätze der Volkwirtschaftslehre) by Carl Menger. The adjective "Austrian" was meant to be derogatory, introduced by eco ...
Hyperinflation or Hyperdeflation
May 14, 2010
James Turk's article Hyperinflation Looms dated April 20, 2010, is based on Quantity Theory of Money (QTM). It draws an analogy between Weimar Germany of 1923 and the United States of 2010. Both precepts are invalid. As far as the QTM is concerned, it suffices ...
Europe's (and our coming) Tragedy of the Commons
May 14, 2010
The gist of the tragedy is that commonly held (important) resources will be depleted and will not be replenished. And this doesn't apply only to how the wilds are being ruined by being held in common but also to national treasuries which everyone in a country b ...
The Charlie Brown Syndrome
May 12, 2010
America is no stranger to the ditches along with the fools who persist in driving us there; and the world of politics is an excellent arena to demonstrate this fact. For over four decades now from 1968 to 2010, the Republican Party hierarchy has been playing th ...
Fed Audit Under Fire
May 11, 2010
It doesn't come as too much of a surprise that the measure to audit the Federal Reserve is coming under continuous fire from the central bank and its cronies. For the first time since the Federal Reserve was created nearly a century ago, they have hired an actu ...
The Fatal Allure of Pragmatism
May 10, 2010
For the country, then, to have developed the pragmatic approach to law and public policy is a tragic contradiction. All of the fundamental ideals and principles that America is known for is rejected by pragmatism and pragmatists. They take them to be myths or, ...
My Pitch for Some Solid Selfishness
May 08, 2010
Hardly anyone will dispute that most folks who chime in about ethics consider selfishness wrong. There have been exceptions in history and some of the most prominent ethical philosophers, such as Socrates and Aristotle, can even be said to have been ethical ego ...
Congress Freezes Its Own Pay
May 05, 2010
Last week Congress did something fiscally responsible. It's not very often I can say that. Granted, it was small in the grand scheme of things, but I was glad to be an original cosponsor, along with Congressman Harry Mitchell of Arizona, of a bill to block the ...
The Folly of Fairness
May 05, 2010
So Bill Gates sold me some software when he was still in that business. He was then immensely rich, certainly compared to me. I was not compared to him. How unfair, you say? But Bill took his gains from this trade and used it to feed starving African children, ...
Egalitarian Straitjackets
May 03, 2010
In numerous areas of human life treating people in nearly exactly the same way may make sense. Thus, for example, when you go to your dentist, you are probably implored to floss – and so is everyone else who visits dentists. Other doctors, too, will prescribe ...
Corporate Socialism
May 01, 2010
The idea that making a profit is somehow ignoble has ancient roots. Partly it stems from the utterly fallacious notion that when someone wins, someone else must lose. So if you go to the mall and purchase a sweater you really like, you must rip off the store wh ...
Potpourri of Volcanic Ash, Goldman Concerns, Chinese Currency Manipulation and More…
May 01, 2010
We truly live in a convoluted and strangely chaotic world. This last week alone has been a mix of all kinds of 'Updates' -worthy matters to discuss, one interlinked with the other. Where should I start??? Goldman Sachs? Eyjafjallajokull (the ominous volcano in ...
Are Regulators Incorruptible?
April 29, 2010
Enthusiasts for increasing government regulations of people in business, including those in the financial markets, never bother to answer the one basic question that any rational person would need to have answered before joining them as champions of their propo ...
Socialism vs Corporatism
April 27, 2010
Lately many have characterized this administration as socialist, or having strong socialist leanings. I differ with this characterization. This is not to say Mr. Obama believes in free-markets by any means. On the contrary, he has done and said much that demons ...
Anti-Libertarian Point Refuted
April 27, 2010
Here we have a blatantly misleading assessment of a free society as well as men and women in such a society. Yes, Honderich is right that no one has an enforceable claim on other people providing food for them. There is in such a country no legal right to be su ...
Saving America from Corporate-Statism
April 24, 2010
As America sinks deeper into the tyranny of bureaucratic corporatism via today's incestuous relationship between Washington and Wall Street, it is understandable why many among the citizenry have become disgusted, and it is gratifying that thousands of Tea Part ...
Skepticism About Government Regulation
April 24, 2010
Indeed, it seems to be common sense to worry about investing government with all the power being advocate for it now by Mr. Obama and Co., since, to put the matter simply, there is no reason to think that those who are the government possess any superior virtue ...
Justice and Commercial Crime
April 21, 2010
No one in his right mind denies that people in commerce can become criminals. That's because people in any walk of life can--it is a basic human capacity not only to do something wrong but to hurt others with it. No other known animal is like us in this respect ...
End the Mandate
April 20, 2010
Congress made a grave error by forcing all Americans to purchase health insurance. The mandate violates fundamental principles of individual liberty, and will lead to further government involvement in health care. It is time for legislation that fights back for ...
Thanking Mr. Obama?
April 19, 2010
When President Obama recently admonished members of the Tea Party, urging that they show him gratitude, that they thank him, he demonstrated quite unambiguously his adherence to the doctrine of statism, one that includes monarchism, czarism, Caesarism, and all ...
HIRE, FATCA, QFFI – Beware of Rampant Laws in Response to Rampant Spending
April 17, 2010
Indeed, over the past few weeks, an amazing sequence of laws, treaties and acts have been put in place to facilitate more deficit spending and more big brother powers. None of these laws enhance your liberties. None of them are aimed at protecting fundamental r ...
Protection Versus Coercion
April 15, 2010
In matters of human conduct it is vital to distinguish between actions that coerce others to do something they must be in charge of choosing either to do or not do, versus resisting their attempts to coerce someone. If I try to make you eat your vegetables and ...
The FCIC: Passing the Buck
April 13, 2010
Last week the federal government's Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission held hearings as part of their continuing investigation into the causes of the acute economic meltdown which occurred in late summer 2008. This bipartisan commission, partly inspired by the ...
Defending Liberty the Best Way
April 10, 2010
When liberty is attacked by its critics and enemies, often defenders pull out the skeptical ploy: "No one can know right from wrong, so no one may force others to comply with any standards of right versus wrong. Who can tell how we ought to act? And if no one c ...
Government and Gasoline
April 06, 2010
As we head into the summer driving season and gasoline prices are again creeping up, the administration has announced plans to explore opening up more off-shore areas for exploration and drilling. On the one hand this can be lauded as a positive step. On the ot ...
So Then Be a Proud Socialist
April 06, 2010
It is disgusting to witness all the dishonesty surrounding the current administration's public policy efforts. Even the new language columnist of The New York Times Magazine is in denial and pretends to consider it some kind of smear - even conspiracy - for tho ...
Jeffersonian Conservatism Versus the Neocons
April 03, 2010
Jeffersonian Conservatism offers us salvation. Its fundamentals of reason, universalized natural rights, and moral idealism are the vital antidotes to reverse the plague of authoritarian statism presently destroying the West. Without its restoration, an alien d ...
The Ethics of Tax Resistance
April 03, 2010
Although there could be variations in how one ought to resist (dodge, avoid, legally contest, etc.) taxation, the answer to whether those subject to the institution are ethically justified in making the effort to resist it is in the affirmative. Yet, as with al ...
Government School Lesson #758
April 01, 2010
The New York Times reports that according to a ruling by a federal judge "a Mississippi school board was grossly discriminatory and mean-spirited when it told Constance McMillen that she could not attend her high school prom with her girlfriend." According to t ...
Healthcare and Economic Realities
March 30, 2010
Those who understand Austrian economic theory know that this new model of healthcare will cause major problems down the road, as it has in every nation that ignores economic realities. The more government involves itself in medicine, the worse healthcare will g ...
Reaching Within
March 30, 2010
Anyone who engages in the practice of psychotherapy knows that it is oftentimes as much a learning experience for the therapist as for the client. Nearly thirty years ago, I conducted a therapy group in which there was a man, a few years younger than I, with wh ...
America Is a Republic, Not a Democracy!
March 27, 2010
We are making slaves out of those who are productive, and rulers out of those who gather together in bumptious mobs. We are allowing the destruction of individual rights to be justified by the might of numbers in pursuit of public handouts. The democratic major ...
What of Pre-existing Conditions?
March 25, 2010
Here is what some would consider a hard case: Someone very ill is attempting to purchase insurance but companies refuse to provide it because they have a pretty good idea that covering the illness will cost very big bucks, way above what the insured and others ...
Healthcare Reform Passes
March 23, 2010
Following months of heated public debate and aggressive closed-door negotiations, Congress finally cast a historic vote on healthcare late Sunday evening. It was truly a sad weekend on the House floor as we witnessed further dismantling of the Constitution, dis ...
Can You Get Out of a Debt Crisis by Piling on Another Layer of Debt?
March 22, 2010
The threat of this happening in other nations is quickly growing in the minds of politicians, investors and citizens around the world. The threat of lost trust, leading to a higher cost of servicing debt and financing deficits, leading to a visible loss of cred ...
Supporting the War Instead of the Troops
March 20, 2010
Last week, Congress debated a resolution directing the President to withdraw our troops from Afghanistan no later than the end of this year. The Constitution gives the power to declare war to the Congress, so it is clearly appropriate for Congress to assert its ...
The William Tell Initiative: For When the Swiss Have Had Enough
March 20, 2010
Switzerland has long been an irritant to pushy governments everywhere. The country's availability and reliability as a place to store wealth undermines the power of foreign governments to exploit their own citizens. That chronic irritation may help explain the ...
Democracy and Liberty
March 20, 2010
The point deserves to be made over and over: majorities have no just authority to trump individual rights! That old dependable standby of the lynch mob is a perfect illustration of this. Just because the whole town wants to hang the suspect, it doesn't follow t ...
The Free Market of Ideas
March 16, 2010
As my career in academia winds down, hopefully not too rapidly, I reflect on just how odd it is that in the United States of America, the leaders of which often boast of being the freest country in human political history, most of education is the province of g ...
Census: A Little Too Personal
March 13, 2010
Yet there are consequences for not submitting to the census and its intrusive questions. If the form is not mailed back in time, households will experience the "pleasure" of a visit by a government worker asking the questions in person. If the government still ...
Texas Textbook Troubles
March 13, 2010
In a free and open society there will be a great variety of ways that people, even the most highly educated ones, will see the country's history, especially when it comes to politics and economics, as well as whatever other disciplines study. Few Americans coul ...
Is Quality Health Care a Fundamental Right?
March 10, 2010
Now the big problem with this is that while respect for another's right to life or liberty requires nothing more from someone than to abstain from killing (or assaulting or kidnapping) that individual while respecting the right to, say, health care requires act ...
Big Lie Theory Flourishes
March 08, 2010
What they say is, well, a big lie, although for The Times it is routine by now, what with the leadership of hyper-Keynesian Paul Krugman on their pages when it comes to political economy. They state, clearly without any hesitation, that "For a quarter-century, ...
Tales of Strong Reforms in Iqaluit – or Possibly Just a Hoax
March 06, 2010
These questions enveloped the recent news surrounding Greek and EU sovereign credit risk. Concerns in this context have dominated financial markets and price action over the past week. The EU, led by Germany and France, has now 'dutifully stepped up to the plat ...
Property Rights and Gun Rights
March 06, 2010
Over the years the distinction between public and private spaces has become obscured. Which is why Starbucks is finding it so difficult to insist that customers do not carry weapons while in their establishment. It is because over the last several decades a doc ...
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