 Private vs. State Schools & Free Speech
by Tibor R. Machan
One matter that’s often overlooked in discussing all this is the difference between public and private institutions. Public institutions are funded by funds confiscated from all taxpayers, while private institutions are not, which can make a difference in what policies are legally justified at them.
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Wednesday
November 3, 2010 |
Two Cheers for the Gridlock
by Tibor R. Machan
Although I wasn’t thrilled with the outcome on November 2, 2010, that Harry Reid and Barbara Boxer, among others, would be headed back to the nation’s capitol to try to continue to shore up the government’s powers, at least the election had the favorable result of producing a gridlocked regime for a while. I say, let them be bogged own in their partisan bickering. This may have the unintended consequence of making life less regimented for most Americans, even free up our productive energies somewhat. (Read more...)
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Why Obama Doesn’t Seem to Relate--emotionally
by Tibor R. Machan
Nonetheless I have been paying a bit more attention to this
criticism of the President because as I have been following his
efforts to bolster the chances of Democrats to remain in power in
Washington, DC, I have noticed that there is something amiss with how
he comes over emotionally. (Read more...)
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 The Times’ Phony Integrity
by Tibor R. Machan
So what is it with The Times and others who appear to hold that the right of freedom of speech is vital--well, except when hate speech is involved--but the right to private property, which actually supports the former right (because, after all, unless property rights are secure, freedom of speech or religion isn’t either), can be dispensed with? (Read more...)
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Tuesday
September 28, 2010 |
Rejecting Anti-Natural Rights
by Tibor R. Machan
President Obama’s friend and former colleague Cass Sunstein, now apparently on leave from Harvard Law School, would have us believe that our rights are granted to us by government. Sunstein and his co-author Stephen Holmes have argued in their book, The Cost of Rights (W. W. Norton, 1999) that human beings have no rights until government grants them some. As they put it, "individual rights and freedoms depend fundamentally on vigorous state action" (p. 14) and "Statelessness means rightlessness" (p. 19). (Read more...)
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Saturday
September 18, 2010 |
Tea Party Strategy Anyone?
by Tibor R. Machan
The one principle that is truly representative of America as the Founders conceived of it is limited government, limited by the principle of individual liberty. Perhaps turning to this message with a clear emphasis on not trying to impose anything else on the country could be successful. If a Tea Party candidate or leader is pressed for views on matters other than the proper scope of government, the answer should be: “No comment on that since it isn’t a part of politics proper, not in a free country!” (Read more...)
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Thursday
September 2, 2010 |
Revisiting Wealth Redistribution
by Tibor R. Machan
It is time to bring this ruse to an end. Those people’s scam should be shut down. Their phony authority to take from everyone so they can use it as they see fit--in the name that they are the nice guys who redistribute wealth while we the greedy bunch intent on keeping it for ourselves--must be abolished. They should be sent off to join Bernie Madoff by now. (Read more...)
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The Mosque Fiasco
by Tibor R. Machan
There is a time to be righteous, yes, and when some truly despised organization such as those who have made the vile choice to built a mosque near ground zero of all places, then speaking up for their rights is arguably honorable and righteous. But it isn’t if those doing such speaking up forget about all the other rights human beings have that go neglected, unprotected, abused and violated throughout the land, not to mention the globe. (Read more...)
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A Lopsided Warning
by Tibor R. Machan
The greatest and bona fide threat to academic freedom does not come from BP and other big corporations. It comes from governments that are knee deep involved in American higher education and university scientific and technological research across the country. (Read more...)
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Two Insidious Trends in America
by Tibor R. Machan
Two powerful intellectual developments are ruining America. One is egalitarianism, the other pragmatism. (Read more...)
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Risks and Liberty
by Tibor R. Machan
Free men and women are naturally risky types! Freedom is characterized by making it possible for people to make choices, even bad ones, just as in the case of the liberty of the press. Journalists, editorial writers, reporters and the lot who are free to do as they choose can and will do what is risky, and at times what is indeed outright malpractice. (Read more...)
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No Excuse for Coercion
by Tibor R. Machan
For my money coercive force is not only when someone threatens to beat up or kill another unless that other does as told. I start much earlier, when someone presumes to have the authority to entice or nudge his or her fellow human beings to do as told (hoped for)! (Read more...)
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Nasty Effects of Egalitarianism
by Tibor R. Machan
Ideas do have consequences. You come to believe that you are invincible, you will take risks more readily. You believe government will bail you out, cover your debts up to a certain amount, you will borrow more (indeed, your financial advisor will tell you you should). You believe you can't lose at the roulette tables, you will wager more. (Read more...)
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Dealing with Racists in a Free Market
by Tibor R. Machan
Finally, the Rand Paul furor, we have an issue in politics worthy of sustained, serious attention--How should people who act badly be dealt with? More particularly how should people who discriminate based on irrelevancies such as race, sex, national origin, physical impediments, etc., be treated? Should they be punished and forced to do the right thing? Should they be ignored and left to rot with their evil souls. Should they be ostracized and boycotted? (Read more...)
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Freedom of Association and Rights
by Tibor R. Machan
This issue is timely now that Democrats and mainstream Republicans have finally found something with which to demonize Rand Paul, the libertarian Republican who pulled off a win in Tuesday's primary election in Kentucky. (Read more...)
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The Folly of Fairness
by Tibor R. Machan
I just have no clear clue as to what fair trade or even fairness is supposed to be. (Read more...)
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Skepticism about Government Regulation
by Tibor R. Machan
As the question goes, "Who is going to regulate the regulators when they engage in truly dangerous misconduct?" (Read more...)
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 So then Be A Proud Socialist!
by Tibor R. Machan
It is disgusting to witness all the dishonesty surrounding the current administration's public policy efforts. Even the new language columnist of The New York Times Magazine is in denial and pretends to consider it some kind of smear--even conspiracy--for those not among Mr. Obama's fan base to refer Obama & Co. as socialists. Why? (Read more...)
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Is the U. S. Self-Interested?
by Tibor R. Machan
Who can dispute that self-defense is self-interested? Of course, with the prominence of altruism among intellectuals and public figures, it is probably no great surprise that Mr. Obama would reject characterizing American foreign policy as self-interested. "Selfish" has this bad odor about it and has had that since when philosophers, theologians and psychologists have decided that the human self is something malign. (Read more...)
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Peddling the Corruption of Liberty
by Tibor R. Machan
When a human being is free in the most important, political sense, he or she is sovereign. This means that one governs one’s own life—others must refrain from intruding on this life, plain and simple. That life may be fortunate or not, rich or not, beautiful or not, and many other things or not, but what matters is that that life is no one else’s to mess with. One gets to run it, no one else does. (Read more...)
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How about them Philosophical Differences?
by Tibor R. Machan
The little commitment to individual liberty and free market transactions left within the ranks of Republicans just isn't going to give them intellectual--philosophical--leverage against a clever bunch of egalitarians. (Read more...)
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Public Service Work and Unionization
by Tibor R. Machan
America is supposed to be a free country, as are in fact all others supposed to be, and here some semblance of such a country had been attempted. But public service unions, as many other "pseudo-market" agents--companies receiving subsidies and protection from foreign competition--are subverting this attempt. It is high time to put an end to it all. (Read more...)
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Why the First Amendment?
by Tibor R. Machan
All the fuss about the various US Supreme and other court rulings pertaining to campaign contributions would, I believe, subside once the matter were put into the right framework, namely, the exercise of the right to private property. It is not about free speech but about freedom to use what belongs to one as he or she--or they-- see fit. (Read more...)
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Wednesday
January 20, 2010 |
Planners and Earthquakes
by Tibor R. Machan
A massive earthquake is only a reminder of what the Austrian economists taught with their research and theoretical work--the most reasonable economic system is one that lets decisions be made on the ground, among the free men and women who make the market do its work. (Read more...)
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On Uniting the Country
by Tibor R. Machan
On January 3rd, just after Meet the Press, NBC-TV broadcast a radio address by President Obama and while I have become nearly completely pessimistic, even cynical, about expecting anything uplifting from politicians these days--I think there could be some and have been a very few--I listened to the whole message. I never quite foreclose the possibility that people will change course, improve, gain new insights, and otherwise depart from their bad habits. (Read more...)
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