A member gave voice to the way I used to think of it, until about 15 years ago: In a civilized society, the use of force is banned except in emergency self-defense. In other words, gun ownership requires justification. Actions that do not involve force, such as crossing the border or using drugs, do not
This is a column I wrote for Forbes.com in 2013 In Praise of Gold Keynes sneered at it. Preachers damn it. Bitcoin dreams of transcending it. But free men inevitably choose it. Gold. Whenever men have had a free, uncoerced choice of the medium of exchange, gold has won the competition, along with its sister
It was in January of 2006 that Al Gore’s film, An Inconvenient Truth, was released. The film predicted looming climate disaster. What happened? Nothing. This is what I don’t understand about the “common man.” He knows, or should know, that he has been told for either his whole life or the biggest part of it that monstrous,
Ayn Rand wrote, There is nothing so naïve as cynicism. A cynic is one who believes that men are innately depraved, that irrationality and cowardice are their basic characteristics, that fear is the most potent of human incentives—and, therefore, that the most practical method of dealing with men is to count on their stupidity, appeal
As I said in another post, I recommend using New Year’s Eve as a time to review and write down your accomplishments over the year. When I did that, I realized that I wanted to take public note of the fact that in my OCON 2021 talk, I made a sizeable contribution to the cause
Recently there’s been some discussion about the delegation of rights to the government, and some have expressed concern about the need to retain rights (especially the right to self-defense) rather than delegate them. But that is a wrong notion of “delegation.” The meaning of “delegation” is the authorization of someone to act as your agent.
On January 30, 2022, I interviewed Peter Schwartz about the publication of his book, The Tyranny of Need, his expanded version of In Defense of Selfishness: Download audio recording
Recently there’s been some discussion about the delegation of rights to the government, and some have expressed concern about the need to retain rights (especially the right to self-defense) rather than delegate them. But that is a wrong notion of “delegation.” The meaning of “delegation” is the authorization of someone to act as your agent.
As I said in another post, I recommend using New Year’s Eve as a time to review and write down your accomplishments over the year. When I did that, I realized that I wanted to take public note of the fact that in my OCON 2021 talk, I made a sizeable contribution to the cause
Is there any non-Objectivist commentator who is not a Peter Keating? Keating’s psychology is the only thing that can explain the insane view that cozying up to homicidal maniacs, such as the Chinese dictator, is going to “improve relations.” I’ve been politically aware for over half a century, and throughout that time I’ve seen nothing but
