 Objectivism and Military Service
by Michael E. Marotta
The military is a proper function of government. Its practice has not been properly defined and articulated in the past. What follows here is one soldier’s viewpoint after five years of part-time service. It is not an integrated philosophical treatise. Ayn Rand identified logic as non-contradictory thinking. I believe that serving in the military is not necessarily contradictory to the virtues of selfishness. (Read more...)
Discuss this Article (6 messages)
 Syriaphobia: the Newest Fad in Collectivism
by Michael E. Marotta
Otherwise good people who advocate for reason and reality react emotionally to the threat of the muscle-mystics. It is one thing to quote Benjamin Franklin and say that those who sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither. It is another thing to choose liberty when your security is threatened. Not everyone has the courage of their convictions. (Read more...)
Discuss this Article (5 messages)
Who Should Vote?
by Michael E. Marotta
If you claim that in a better future those who cannot pay a poll tax will not vote, that is one proposal, in isolation. If you claim that “someone on welfare should not vote here and now” you must accept that in a mixed economy everyone is “on welfare”; and some people “on welfare” deserve to vote. (Read more...)
Discuss this Article (33 messages)
Thursday
September 18, 2014 |
There is no John Galt - and that's worse
by Michael E. Marotta
What you tax you get less of; and what you subsidize you get more of. The brightest people in the world are making video games; and no one is on the Moon. It did not take a genius to figure this out: it is a universal law of human action. There is a destroyer loose in the who is shutting off the motor of the world, slowing the engine of creation, tapping out the extra power of invention. But it is not one person whose name is a question.
(Read more...)
Discuss this Article (0 messages)
 Precious Metals Dealers Embargo Minnesota
by Michael E. Marotta
Effective July 1, 2014, anyone who wants to sell any coin of more than 1% precious metal content must pay 10% of their estimated annual gross income to the state of Minnesota. Like all bad laws, this one achieves the exact opposite of its stated intention. Rather than making Minnesota "safe for bullion" they are preventing all coin sales to anyone from Minnesota. (Read more...)
Discuss this Article (19 messages)
A Culture of Reality, Reason, and Freedom
by Michael E. Marotta
Minarchists claim that a constitutionally-limited government is the best protection for our rights, and therefore our best option for a peaceful world. Free market anarchists disagree with that. Minarchists reply that eventually, the largest private defense agency inevitably will become the new government. Without a historical record, the theoretical arguments could not be resolved. In fact, empirical evidence abounds.
(Read more...)
Discuss this Article (41 messages)
Republicans for Voldemort
by Michael E. Marotta
If Voldemort were a Republican, it would be unnecessary, like "Republicans for Palin." (Read more...)
Discuss this Article (2 messages)
The Market for Citizenship
by Michael E. Marotta
Why is citizenship different from any other service or commodity? Voting shares (citizenship) could be bought and sold repeatedly. The price of a vote would rise close to elections and fall in the off season. People could change "citizenship" i.e., voting rights often, repeatedly, and for a profit (buy low, sell high).
(Read more...)
Discuss this Article (32 messages)
The Common Core Controversry
by Michael E. Marotta
Common Core is not a Federal mandate to make children stupid against the desires of their parents. Common Core was designed according to best practices to provide the best opportunities for all children in school to acquire the basic learning they will need in life. (Read more...)
Discuss this Article (12 messages)
Objectivism as a Strong Undercurrent
by Michael E. Marotta
According to the Ayn Rand Institute April 7, 2008, total sales of Ayn Rand’s works was “over 25 million.” I believe that actual sales are much greater. Message boards for Objectivists and fans of Ayn Rand often carry debates, recommendations, and condemnations about new works such as Lord of the Rings and The Watchmen. That, too, suggests more missing numbers. (Read more...)
Discuss this Article (1 message)
 The Bloodless Corpse
by Michael E. Marotta
The medical examiner did not report the wounds – most likely for the same reason I did not mention them in my incident report. The cause of death remained open.
(Read more...)
Discuss this Article (3 messages)
Why Evidence is Not Enough
by Michael E. Marotta
Confirmation bias and the attribution fallacy suggest what this scientific study verified: people make up their minds first, and choose their experts later. (Read more...)
Discuss this Article (17 messages)
 Cities from Space
by Michael E. Marotta
... "city lights present the space observer spectacular evidence of our existence, our distribution, and our ability to change our environment..." (Read more...)
Discuss this Article (4 messages)
Some Fallacies Underlying Tifft & Sullivan’s "Needs-Based Criminology"
by Michael E. Marotta
Within the last week, there were three armed robberies in our neighborhood, two on the street and another on the campus. We learned in this class that the gunmen were motivated by their needs and that their salvation will come by meeting their needs ... (Read more...)
Discuss this Article (12 messages)
 Conference to ask: Are Liberals Mean?
by Michael E. Marotta
To what extent do non-profit social service agencies and government offices cause harm? How badly do "do-gooders" hurt other people with secondary consequences? (Read more...)
Discuss this Article (16 messages)
Walter Lippmann: chronicler of evil
by Michael E. Marotta
Both Hoover and Roosevelt enacted collectivist responses to the Great Depression. No one seriously advocated laissez faire -- or if anyone did, they were not taken seriously by serious people. So said Walter Lippmann. For admirers of Ayn Rand's works, Walter Lippmann is the epitome of what was right and wrong with liberalism. (Read more...)
Discuss this Article (1 message)
Organized Labor: Fascist Looters
by Michael E. Marotta
During the so-called "Great Depression," labor unions attempted to seize control of the steel mills. The result was a series of pitched battles. One of these was the Chicago Memorial Day Massacre of 1937. (Read more...)
Discuss this Article (0 messages)
 J. R. Simplot: a Legendary American Capitalist
by Michael E. Marotta
In 2006 he was estimated to be the 80th richest person in America, with $3.2 billion. He was 16 when he invested his earnings from a winter in the Idaho desert, buying 18000 acres along the Snake River. He went from onion powder to frozen potatoes and helped revolutionize how we eat.
(Read more...)
Discuss this Article (0 messages)
Praise the Rich
by Michael E. Marotta
The rich pay more than their fair share of taxes. When they give to charity, they eclipse government contributions, Yet, we heap abuse on them, easily, and without fear of retribution. The reason why is specifically that they, too, have accepted the morality of altruism. They ought to reject it -- as should every honest person. (Read more...)
Discuss this Article (20 messages)
Polls Reveal Massive Ignorance and Some Hope
by Michael E. Marotta
The limitations of intellectual activism today are perhaps best understood from this poll by the National Association of Scholars: "Today's College Students Barely More Knowledgeable than High School Students of 50 Years Ago, Poll Shows." We may never defeat mysticism, altruism, and collectivism, but we can find other rational, egocentric individualists.
(Read more...)
Discuss this Article (3 messages)
Saturday
September 10, 2005 |
The Big Apple Versus the Big Easy: A Tale of Two Cities
by Michael E. Marotta
The difference between New York City after 9/11 and New Orleans after Katrina is an undeniable contrast between a city that rose to the sky, because its people could not be held to the ground, and a city that wallowed in a swamp, as long as the red beans and rice were as cheap as music and bourbon. (Read more...)
Discuss this Article (23 messages)
A Healthy Mind In a Healthy Body
by Michael E. Marotta
To me, a good sport demands many skills, rewards individual effort, rewards agility rather than aggression, demands intelligence, insight, and foresight, and rewards memory and integration. A good sport does not penalize for physical size and can be played equally well by men and women together. (Read more...)
Discuss this Article (36 messages)
 Flying
by Michael E. Marotta
Flying an airplane requires the integration of complex knowledge and uncompromising virtues in order to perform an unequivocal task. Flying is a supremely intellectual challenge that earns complete emotional satisfaction -- but only after the fact, because emotions have no place in the process. (Read more...)
Discuss this Article (16 messages)
Numismatics: History as Market
by Michael E. Marotta
For a couple hundred dollars, you can own a coin struck by Philip III of Macedon and believe within reason that it might have been given to Aristotle. However, the Erie Railroad, the New York Central, Bethlehem Steel, and the many Edison Electric companies left us legacies that very affordable. You can buy a mixed lot of common early 20th century stock for about $50 per 100. (Read more...)
Discuss this Article (10 messages)
|
