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crime \ hate crimes \ justice \ law \ objective law \ racism \ treyvon martin
Hate Crimes Legislation Unmasks Blind Justice
Of course we should all be opposed to racial prejudice, especially to crimes committed on the basis of such prejudice. But are such crimes worse than wrongdoings committed from some other malicious motive?
education \ government \ individual rights \ university privatization
Restore the Separation of State and School
When government involves itself in the production of knowledge, it curtails both our liberty to express our beliefs and our freedom to support institutions promoting what we believe.
individual rights \ majority rule \ Occupy Wall Street
Can We Revive the American Dream through Majority Rule?
The Occupy Wall Street protesters claim that the American Dream has been hijacked by the financiers of Wall Street and other wealthy Americans. Most of the protesters argue that the wealthiest 1% of American society has achieved economic power and political clout that the other 99% lacks. They advocate reversing this balance, which they view [...]
EPA \ regulations \ unemployment
Government: Still Flunking the Unemployment Test
Imagine that you are beginning your first year of college. Things start off well, but then one day you come to class and are dismayed to find your professor asking you to turn in an assignment that wasn’t on the syllabus. After this, the professor adds new assignments and readings with no warning even after [...]
att&t \ facebook \ Google \ internet \ Net Neutrality
A Competition Without Winners
Washington’s latest attempt to put a stop to economic success in the name of “fairness” In an economy characterized by slow growth, one might expect the government to do what it can to help speed the pace of business. In economics, speed is crucial: the rate at which things are made, discovered, invented, and delivered [...]
abortion \ altruism \ conservative \ healthcare \ religion \ republicans
Kansas Conservatives: Enemies of Individual Freedom in Healthcare?
Recently, Kansas has become a center of controversy between conservatives and liberals on the topic of health care regulation. The Kansas state legislature has passed strict regulations on doctors and clinics threatening to prevent them from providing services to patients, thereby severely limiting the freedom of patients to choose services available to them. One would [...]
conscription \ national service \ the draft
Self Before Country
The dangerous moral premise underlying the call for national service The recent debate on government budget cuts has resurfaced discussion on an enduring subject: national service. In a prominent example in Newsweek magazine, General Stanley McChrystal presents his vision of the role national service should take in American culture. He writes: We have let the [...]
deficit \ government spending \ national debt \ Obama
Out with Denial, in with Adult Conversation?
Have Americans actually changed their minds about government spending? A Federal commission recently concluded its work on a proposal to address the nation’s skyrocketing national debt. That debt is the subject of much renewed attention, and is growing at an unsustainable pace which, like reckless credit card use, promises certain and serious economic consequences in [...]
The High Cost of Bad Ideas
Arizona is reportedly researching how much it will cost taxpayers to prosecute every case of illegal immigration under a “zero tolerance” policy. So far, the task appears hopelessly daunting: [T]o prosecute these misdemeanors, Arizona would need to have a federal criminal justice system twice the size of the rest of the country. No one has [...]
drugs \ government \ individual rights \ prohibition \ regulation
Prohibition Déjà vu
On August 19 The Wall Street Journal reported that serious organized crime had spread to one of the most affluent, secure business communities in Mexico. Drug gangs blocked streets, murdered individuals, and kidnapped the mayor of Monterrey—who was later found dead. A similar event occurred in America in February of 1929 – Americans woke to [...]
