Image found at http://searchpp.com/police-discretion/
Reason.com ran a piece recently about protests that took place in Nashville, TN and the response of some to the course of action that the police took towards them. In brief, a group of people protesting the grand jury results in Ferguson, MO closed down several highways, including Interstate 24, as well as staging a “die-in” at a local mall. Rather than dispersing the protesters,
An excellent introduction to major topics in Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism presented by Onkar Ghate from 2003. The video includes a Q&A session with Onkar Ghate and Yaron Brook. Topics include: Individualism vs Collectivism, What are rights?, Proper role of government, Egoism vs Altruism, Ethics, Mysticism vs Reason and more.
The Q&A session is particularly interesting. Many of the folks had challenging questions which resulted in some great answers. I was somewhat surprised
Whenever a man is made to act without his own free, personal, individual, voluntary consent—his right has been violated. – Ayn Rand
While I generally try to not write immediately as things get me worked up, tonight I am making a bit of an exception. Just a few minutes ago a post appeared in my timeline showing an image of what is claimed to be thousands of #BlackLivesMatter protesters essentially
The Ayn Rand Institute has been publishing a number of video recently of lectures given on various topics, the most recent being a talk by Adam Mossoff on property rights. In this fascinating talk he discusses how the concept of the right to property arose, reaching its peak in the early to mid 19th century in the United States and how since that time these rights have been protected less and less.
This is an area I have been particularly interested in over the past few years, having come
A question from Politix popped up for me today asking:
Do you wish there were more conservative Democrats and liberal Republicans around?
Here is my response:
I wish there were more radicals, yes radical, not moderate, for individual rights and liberty. When you talk of conservative Democrats or liberal Republicans you are essentially asking for people who believe it is ok to violate your rights, but just a little. This ignores the fact that any violation of rights leads inevitably to further
Politix had another interesting questions today: Is it ok to call undocumented people illegal aliens?
Here is my answer:
Hmmm…
illegal – forbidden by law or statute; contrary to or forbidden by official rules, regulations, etc.
alien – a resident born in or belonging to another country who has not acquired citizenship by naturalization; a foreigner
So, an illegal alien is a foreign born person residing in a country under conditions contrary to, or forbidden by, law. This sounds
The website Politix is sometimes a good source for ideas for posts. Today a question popped up in my email asking about whether the fact the immigration to Mexico is harder than to the United States concerned me, with the possible answers of Yes, No and I’m not sure. When you vote you also have space to either endorse someone else’s comment or to put in a comment of your own explaining your vote.
I voted no, and posted the following:
The United States should be basing its policies, on
I am still reading Auberon Herbert: Selected Writings from a Reluctant Anarchist, in fact I am still in the first essay, The Right and Wrong of Compulsion by the State, and I am finding a great many passages that will likely make their way here in due time. One aspect I like of this essay is that it was
December last year I wrote a blog post in which I made the case that in the last several decades Republicans have more and more become pale versions of Democrats. I pointed out that while, during an election season at least, Republicans often use the rhetoric of protecting rights and limited government when it comes time to actually govern their policies are not very different from those of the Democrats. You can check the original post to see my arguments, which I still stand by.
One of the comments
