The New Clarion

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In my previous post fisking Jonathan Chait, commenter Michael asks: “How do you reconcile individual rights with something like private discrimination?” “Discrimination”: 1 a : the act of discriminating b : the process by which two stimuli differing in some aspect are responded to differently 2 : the quality or power of finely distinguishing Source. […]

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“Take a look at them now, when you face your last choice—and if you choose to perish, do so with full knowledge of how cheaply how small an enemy has claimed your life.”  — John Galt, from Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand   At New York magazine, Jonathan Chait posts an example of the kind […]

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Some more passing thoughts on OWS: Their primary impetus seems to be that someone read Marx and told them that the rich are taking their wealth from the rest of us. This was untrue in the 19th century when it was written (excepting government-backed monopolies which were anti-capitalist, anyway). And it was a baffling confusion […]

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Lately, there have been some proposals in the political mainstream for a flat tax system. Such proposals are very much worth considering. The current tax code, with its system of deductions and penalties is grossly immoral – the government has no right to reward or penalize our non-criminal behaviors.

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Every hand’s a winner, And every hand’s a loser. –Kenny Rogers, The Gambler Just this morning, the following items came across my radar. Can you detect the basic alternative that is common to all of them? At the New York Times, Eddy Nahmias asks: “Is Neuroscience the Death of Free Will?” (A very good read […]

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“Here is the tragedy of theology in its distilled essence: The employment of high-powered human intellect, of genius, of profoundly rigorous logical deduction—studying nothing. In the Middle Ages, the great minds capable of transforming the world did not study the world; and so, for most of a millennium, as human beings screamed in agony—decaying from […]

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Features distorted in the flickering light, The faces are twisted and grotesque. Silent and stern in the sweltering night, The mob moves like demons possessed. Quiet in conscience, calm in their right Confident their ways are best. The righteous rise With burning eyes Of hatred and ill-will. Madmen fed on fear and lies To beat […]

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1. Peter Hitchens looks at the science fiction world called Japan. 2. A great idea. 3. The Taranto Principle. 4. The Obama administration plumbs new depths in divisiveness using the First Lady as an attack dog. 5. The last time I posted about EMP, the idea was debunked in comments. But if it is really […]

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If you put a link in a comment — which is great, keep it up — we have to approve the comment before it is posted. So if your comment does not appear immediately, that is the reason. We get an awful lot of spam comments here. They make me laugh because they are written […]

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Ideological causality usually operates over the span of years, in a man and in a society. Usually.   Sometimes, however it can cover ground damn fast. From the source: One Oakland police supervisor said that the participants first appeared to him as “freethinking activists” but have since devolved into something more sinister. He said it […]

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When they turn the pages of history When these days have passed long ago Will they read of us with sadness For the seeds that we let grow? — from “A Farewell to Kings“, by Neil Peart of Rush.   In discussing conservatism’s peculiar emphasis on local and state-level power, often under the rubric of […]

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On the OActivists list, Rick Kiessig linked this post at his blog 12 Know More, where he proposes a way to “fit” the idea of individual rights into the prevailing “Left-Right model” of politics.  As readers of my posts will know, I do not believe this is possible, and would lead to the same sort […]

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The Nazis scapegoated the Jews; the communists scapegoated the bourgeoisie; the New Left scapegoats the rich. The Occupy Wall Street noise is an attempt by the Democrats to keep the narrative on point: to keep the American people’s anger directed at the left’s favorite scapegoat, the rich, and to keep the blame away from the Democrats. Unlike […]

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Very quietly, with Obama’s compliant media looking the other way, America is being fundamentally transformed. Congress and the Supreme Court are not involved. Few people are paying attention. The EPA is regulating industry to death. First, check out this video promoting a new book from Encounter. Second, read about the EPA violating property rights in […]

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I heard the clip on the radio. I can’t force myself to watch the video. A smarmy rich liberal asks Obama, “Would you please raise my taxes?” So why don’t these rich leftists start a campaign to get the wealthy to volunteer to give more money to the federal government? They don’t need to wait […]

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Since altruism holds that sacrificing oneself for the sake of others is man’s highest moral duty and any concern whatsoever with one’s self is condemned as selfish therefore evil, I wondered what it would be like to live in a society where the concept trade and all related concepts were outlawed. It would mean I […]

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