True North Reports, a site that provides a conservative look at Vermont’s News, had an excellent article about Senator Bernie Sanders’ hypocrisy when it comes to campaign finance. If you know anything about Bernie, you probably know that one of his pet complaints is about “big money” corrupting our government. For him, the problem nearly begins and ends with money from
Reason and Islam – Quote of the Day
Barry Wood
During one of Yaron Brook’s radio shows earlier this year, a listener in the chat linked to a lecture series by Barry Wood titled “The Battle over Reason in the Islamic World (and How it Was Lost).” I have finally had time to listen to the series, and it is quite fascinating, especially as I have been trying to learn a bit more about Islam since the attack on Charlie Hebdo.
Mr. Wood begins the series by pointing out that Islam had some positive elements that set it apart from
[Video] Smartphone Wars and “Patent Trolls”
I have written a fair amount regarding property rights on this blog. For more than the last 100 years, the progressives and others on the political left have been whittling away at the very of idea of property rights. Today, far from having the freedom to use your property in ways that do not violate the rights of others, property owners often have to beg permission from some government
First Amendment – A Liberal’s View on Free Speech
Source: Wikipedia
Over the weekend I listened to Ayn Rand’s lecture Censorship: Local and Express (you can find this talk embedded below) and later read the text version of it which is included in her book Philosophy: Who Needs It. What first caught my attention was a quote that helped me get a handle on a post I am working on about Senator Bernie Sanders. Today, in light of the attack on the Draw Mohammad event in Garland, Texas on Sunday, I selected one dealing with the First Amendment and free speech.
The
[Video] Free Speech Under Siege
Recently Steve Simpson, Director of Legal Studies at the Ayn Rand Institute, gave a talk at Clemson University about free speech and the threats to it. He discusses not only the obvious attacks on free speech such as the attack on Charlie Hebdo but the less obvious, and to my mind more dangerous, threat posed by the failure to properly defend free speech in the wake of such attacks.
He brings special attention to what those that Salman Rushdie calls the “but brigade,” those people who
Life Imitates Atlas Shrugged, Baltimore Edition
The other day I came across an article by Allen B. West titled “The dirty little secret no one wants to admit about Baltimore.” The article discusses the protests and violence in Baltimore sparked by the death of Freddie Gray while in police custody. Mr. West makes a good case that it is progressive policies that have caused the bulk of the problems facing
Yaron Brook on Leonard Peikoff’s Podcast – Episode 370
Image from http://blogs.shu.edu/
I have more or less dropped for the time being my weekly podcast roundup. There are so many to listen to now, and they tend to cover so many topics that I have not worked out a way that I am happy with writing them up. I wouldn’t want just to give a list of links, and there is just too much ground to cover even to mention all the topics briefly. Once I work out a happy medium, I will resume the roundups.
I did want to share this podcast
Baltimore’s Mayor has a Strange View on Rights
At a news conference in the wake of Baltimore’s Freddie Gray-related protests turning destructive Saturday, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said that she instructed police to give people who “wished to destroy” space to do so.
Source: Baltimore Mayor: ‘We… Gave Those Who Wished To Destroy Space To Do That’
[Updated 2:02pm, 04/28/15]
If there is one thing that I have learned over the time I have been actually paying attention to and studying politics it is
[Video] Yaron Brook Talks Capitalism in Warsaw
Yaron Brook talks capitalism in Warsaw.
Dr. Yaron Brook has been on something of a whirlwind speaking tour over the last week in Europe. One of the seven talks he gave over a six-day period was his Morality of Capitalism delivered in a beautiful venue in Warsaw, Poland to about 200 people.
For those who have watched Yaron’s talks in the past, this one covers familiar ground although I find that each time I listen to the material I notice something different that makes my understanding clearer and a bit more complete. As always,
The Gathering Storm of Statism
James Madison (right) and Ted Cruz.
The other day in my Twitter feed (h/t @AlexisinNH) I came across a link to an opinion piece by Senator Ted Cruz in response to a New York Times editorial, “Ted Cruz’s Strange Gun Argument.”