About
Content
Store
Forum

Rebirth of Reason
War
People
Archives
Objectivism

Articles: Machan, Tibor R.


Friday
July 8, 2011
Commentary
Am I A Corporate Shill?
by Tibor R. Machan
Sanctions: 18Sanctions: 18Sanctions: 18 Sanction this ArticleEditMark as your favorite article
I suppose when you have no arguments it is then tempting to impugn your adversary’s integrity.  It’s a coward’s escape, I believe.
(Read more...)

Discuss this Article (4 messages)


Thursday
June 30, 2011
Commentary
Bad v. Good Pitch to Voters
by Tibor R. Machan
Sanctions: 12Sanctions: 12Sanctions: 12 Sanction this ArticleEditMark as your favorite article
    Do voters actually believe it when candidates promise them health, happiness, vacations, clean air, and all those other goodies while also demanding that they stop being selfish, stop joining special interest groups and dedicate themselves only to the public good? I doubt it very much.  This sort of pitch seems to me to put most reasonable voters on guard. (Read more...)
Discuss this Article (4 messages)


Thursday
June 23, 2011
Commentary
Self-defense vs. Isolation
by Tibor R. Machan
Sanctions: 22Sanctions: 22Sanctions: 22 Sanction this ArticleEditMark as your favorite article

Where the idea comes from is not really relevant--it could be neo-conservatism, imperialism, compassion, whatnot.  But it is right that it should be debated, especially by Republicans who aren’t beholden to the legacy of Woodrow Wilson in matter of foreign relations. Republicans, especially those with conservative leanings who are committed to preserving America’s ideal of using force against other countries only when those countries embark upon an aggressive foreign policy toward American citizens or allies, need to take a renewed close look at their country’s basic principles, including those pertaining to dealing with foreigners.
(Read more...)

Discuss this Article (5 messages)


Wednesday
June 15, 2011
War for Men's Minds
Deciphering Paul Krugman
by Tibor R. Machan
Sanctions: 18Sanctions: 18Sanctions: 18 Sanction this ArticleEditMark as your favorite article
From very early on in the history of human thought it was accepted that logic is the first device to be used in aiming for understanding and in offering criticism—all of Plato’s Socratic dialogues adhere to this.  Students at colleges and universities are constantly chided for being inconsistent. Everyone is, in fact.  Except by serious pragmatists, at least the radical variety of them.  And the reason isn’t very complicated to grasp.
(Read more...)

Discuss this Article (5 messages)


Wednesday
June 8, 2011
Commentary
The Weiner Paradox
by Tibor R. Machan
Sanctions: 12Sanctions: 12Sanctions: 12 Sanction this ArticleEditMark as your favorite article
What is most puzzling about the scandal with Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-New York) isn’t how stupid the man has been and apparently managed to be to the last moment before he came clean (enough).  What is really puzzling is why in the face of repeated scandals and corruption across the world and this country, there are well educated folks who continue to be confident that if only one hands a problem over to politicians and their appointees, all will be fine.
(Read more...)

Discuss this Article (10 messages)


Wednesday
June 1, 2011
War for Men's Minds
Who is Near Socialism Now?
by Tibor R. Machan
Sanctions: 23Sanctions: 23Sanctions: 23 Sanction this ArticleEditMark as your favorite article
But there is a good test for telling if an American statist is in fact nearly a socialist, even a socialist of the Marxist variety.  This is to see if he or she holds that people’s labor belongs to the society or to them--is one’s labor private or public property? (Read more...)
Discuss this Article (49 messages)


Wednesday
May 25, 2011
Commentary
Israel & Obama: What’s Up With That?
by Tibor R. Machan
Sanctions: 12Sanctions: 12Sanctions: 12 Sanction this ArticleEditMark as your favorite article
Whatever one’s view is of Israel it cannot be sensible to demand that the country voluntarily abolish itself.   So then what is this all about?  Is it just some kind of geopolitical gambit to the effect that Israel can be given up, even after decades of “investment” in the country made at the expense of the American taxpayer?  (Not that this could be justified morally but perhaps given the statist nature of most diplomacy it could make some sense.)
(Read more...)

Discuss this Article (41 messages)


Tuesday
May 17, 2011
War for Men's Minds
Some Serious Flaws of Egalitarianism
by Tibor R. Machan
Sanctions: 24Sanctions: 24Sanctions: 24 Sanction this ArticleEditMark as your favorite article
These flaws of egalitarianism ought to be evident to all, especially to those who are familiar with George Orwell’s little story, Animal Farm, or Kurt Vonnegut’s novella, Harrison Bergeron, both of which are excellent depictions of the dystopian nature of any egalitarian political-economic system.  But if that isn’t enough or has escaped the attention of egalitarianism’s champions, there are the zillions of examples from real life.
(Read more...)

Discuss this Article (0 messages)


Tuesday
May 10, 2011
Commentary
Why Can’t I see Bin Laden’s Dead Body?
by Tibor R. Machan
Sanctions: 12Sanctions: 12Sanctions: 12 Sanction this ArticleEditMark as your favorite article
I recall being told by Mr. Obama during his campaign for the presidency and thereafter that he favors transparency on the part of the federal government.  This instance belies that declaration point blank. (Read more...)
Discuss this Article (11 messages)


Thursday
April 21, 2011
War for Men's Minds
Pitfalls of Shared Responsibility
by Tibor R. Machan
Sanctions: 28Sanctions: 28Sanctions: 28 Sanction this ArticleEditMark as your favorite article
There is a different ancient principle that President Obama ought to consider before he imposes responsibilities on  those who didn’t consent to assuming them.  It is “the tragedy of the commons.” (Read more...)
Discuss this Article (0 messages)


Wednesday
April 6, 2011
Commentary
Atlas Shrugged Part I, the Movie
by Tibor R. Machan
Sanctions: 45Sanctions: 45Sanctions: 45Sanctions: 45 Sanction this ArticleEditMark as your favorite article
I saw Part I of the movie a few weeks ago and although it didn’t grab me as did the book when I first read it--how could it have?--it is a very good picture; it’s modern, serious, chuck full of poignant anti-statist and pro-capitalist dialogue (unlike most Hollywood products these days). (Read more...)
Discuss this Article (5 messages)


Wednesday
March 30, 2011
Commentary
The Distraction of Anarcho-Libertarianism
by Tibor R. Machan
Sanctions: 29Sanctions: 29Sanctions: 29 Sanction this ArticleEditMark as your favorite article
The debate between anarchist and minarchist libertarians is largely pointless, a damaging distraction. (Read more...)
Discuss this Article (21 messages)


Wednesday
March 16, 2011
Commentary
Revisiting Public Service Labor Unions
by Tibor R. Machan
Sanctions: 12Sanctions: 12Sanctions: 12 Sanction this ArticleEditMark as your favorite article
So if the controversy were about whether Wisconsin’s and other states’ public union workers should have their right to be members of a labor union legally protected, they would be supported by most Americans.  The fact is, however, that public service union members aren’t at all like private sector union members.  They enjoy a legally protected monopoly.  And that is a violation of the rights of their customers who have nowhere else to go to obtain the service that the public service unions provide.
(Read more...)

Discuss this Article (3 messages)


Monday
March 7, 2011
Intellectual Ammunition
Tunisia’s Free Trade Revolt
by Tibor R. Machan
Sanctions: 24Sanctions: 24Sanctions: 24 Sanction this ArticleEditMark as your favorite article
In many circles it is a prominent mantra that property rights are not human rights.  The rights to private property and to trade it are treated by many political thinkers and jurists as far from binding on us. (Read more...)
Discuss this Article (0 messages)


Monday
February 28, 2011
War for Men's Minds
The Sleep of Reason
by Tibor R. Machan
Sanctions: 38Sanctions: 38Sanctions: 38Sanctions: 38 Sanction this ArticleEditMark as your favorite article
In basic reasoning courses one learns that certain ways of thinking are fallacious, others are sound.  Sadly, most students don’t actually remember much of what they learn here because these courses are taught too early in their college years, just at the time they are still celebrating no longer being in high school. (Read more...)
Discuss this Article (1 message)


Monday
February 21, 2011
War for Men's Minds
Making versus Owning
by Tibor R. Machan
Sanctions: 27Sanctions: 27Sanctions: 27 Sanction this ArticleEditMark as your favorite article
Those who spread the ruse that we cannot own what we haven’t produced hope to persuade us that they, on the other hand, can. (Read more...)
Discuss this Article (4 messages)


Saturday
February 12, 2011
Commentary
Democracy Wont Help Egypt
by Tibor R. Machan
Sanctions: 29Sanctions: 29Sanctions: 29 Sanction this ArticleEditMark as your favorite article
When the mobs in Egypt, who have been treated as a bunch of unruly children by Mubarek’s regime, finally couldn’t take it any more and stood up to the dictator, there is little reason to think they would become a civilized citizenry that renounces the temptation to rule others once they gain power.  Their call for democracy appears to have little to do with the kind of constitutional system that America’s founders favored.  Even their call for freedom seems mostly to be about being free to rule instead of being ruled.
(Read more...)

Discuss this Article (0 messages)


Saturday
February 5, 2011
Commentary
Are our actions mostly motivated unconsciously?
by Tibor R. Machan
Sanctions: 23Sanctions: 23Sanctions: 23 Sanction this ArticleEditMark as your favorite article
The notion that unconscious thoughts thoroughly “permeate our everyday lives” is unjustified. (Read more...)
Discuss this Article (14 messages)


Saturday
January 29, 2011
War for Men's Minds
Obama is a Socialist--A Crazy Thought?
by Tibor R. Machan
Sanctions: 27Sanctions: 27Sanctions: 27 Sanction this ArticleEditMark as your favorite article
       It is not easy to tell what is in someone’s mind, especially not if that someone is convinced that the only way to advance his or her position is to keep its true nature obscure. (Read more...)
Discuss this Article (8 messages)


Friday
January 14, 2011
War for Men's Minds
Krugman’s Incoherent Moral Stance
by Tibor R. Machan
Sanctions: 29Sanctions: 29Sanctions: 29 Sanction this ArticleEditMark as your favorite article
Finally Paul Krugman, Princeton University Nobel Laureate in economic science and columnist for The New York Times, has come clean about his “moral” position (TNYT, January 14, 2011). He has admitted that he doesn’t believe that when you earn something, you own it. (Read more...)
Discuss this Article (10 messages)


Wednesday
January 5, 2011
War for Men's Minds
How to Use the Constitution
by Tibor R. Machan
Sanctions: 12Sanctions: 12Sanctions: 12 Sanction this ArticleEditMark as your favorite article
The plain fact of the matter is that while the U. S. Constitution--specifically the Bill of Rights--contains some very laudable provisions, all of them require a fairly nuanced interpretation and application to contemporary issues (such as government coercing people buy health insurance).  While for some citizens this is all a piece of cake, no problem at all, for others it isn’t a slam dunk by a long shot.  That’s because these folks focus on the fact that the principles incorporated in the Bill of Rights are stated in terms that had a slightly different meaning back when the Constitution was ratified from how we understand them today.  
(Read more...)

Discuss this Article (1 message)


Tuesday
December 28, 2010
Commentary
Krugman’s Trashy Debating Style
by Tibor R. Machan
Sanctions: 39Sanctions: 39Sanctions: 39Sanctions: 39 Sanction this ArticleEditMark as your favorite article
Princeton economics professor and columnist for The New York Times Paul Krugman has always been discourteous to those with whom he disagrees but his latest exhibition of his way of going about debating issues takes the cake. (Read more...)
Discuss this Article (29 messages)


Thursday
December 16, 2010
Commentary
Disgusting Rich Bashing
by Tibor R. Machan
Sanctions: 41Sanctions: 41Sanctions: 41Sanctions: 41 Sanction this ArticleEditMark as your favorite article
 The unabashed demagoguery forthcoming from the likes of Pelosi, Bernie Sanders and their cheerleaders of envy in the media and academy is for me very difficult to stomach. As is the way many in the media cover their blather as if it was just a tad different in content from, say, that of Bill Clinton’s when in fact it is out and out advocacy of tyrannical socialism. (Read more...)
Discuss this Article (5 messages)


Wednesday
December 8, 2010
War for Men's Minds
The Road to Fascism
by Tibor R. Machan
Sanctions: 18Sanctions: 18Sanctions: 18 Sanction this ArticleEditMark as your favorite article
       Now what fascism has but socialism lacks is flexibility. A fascist ruler need not adhere to any system, nor some economic blueprint. Such rulers do whatever they prefer.  Their rule is entirely arbitrary.  They have no restraints that require of them adherents to certain public policies.  They rule by virtue of being, at least temporarily, loved by a substantial percentage of the people. (Read more...)
Discuss this Article (4 messages)


Friday
November 26, 2010
Intellectual Ammunition
Do We Have a Moral Nature?
by Tibor R. Machan
Sanctions: 24Sanctions: 24Sanctions: 24 Sanction this ArticleEditMark as your favorite article
It is often held, by admirers of modern science (which took off around about the 15th century) that if human beings are parts of nature, there can be no room for morality in their lives.  They are then simply complicated machines working as they must, with no possibility that they can make choices, which is an essential part of morality.  Science and morality are, then, often juxtaposed.
(Read more...)

Discuss this Article (37 messages)

Back one pagePage 0Page 1Page 2Page 3Page 4Page 5Page 6Page 7Page 8Page 9Forward one pageLast Page