Editor’s Note: Bob Barr’s wide-ranging career has spanned law and politics, and multiple roles, including CIA analyst (1971-1978)..
I received myTNI in the mail today. The look is stunning, far superior to anything I expected, to be quite honest. The layout, graphics,
The scourge of smallpox is ancient—Pharaoh Ramses V is thought to have died of the illness in 1157 B.C. Yet smallpox did not become a major
In the new year of 1803, America consisted of sixteen states. There were no prairie dogs or grizzly bears. No jackrabbits or bighorn sheep..
Children often behave in an irresponsible, irrational, emotionally charged manner with very bad results—valuables broken, someone hurt..
Citizens, candidates, and commentators must make a crucial distinction between true capitalism and crony capitalism. In the former...
As the director of the Business Rights Center at the fiercely pro-capitalist Atlas Society, I shall not be accused, I think, of harboring
Christianity is particularly prone to such nonsense. After all, the Book of Revelation is all about doomsday, though with details from a....
In this webinar, presented on March 25th, 2011, William R Thomas presents his view that goodwill and trust are Objectivist social values. He goes on to discuss the virtues of honesty and integrity as means of earning trust, and presents David Kelley's concept of benevolence, arguing that it is the key virtue for winning goodwill.
Judge others, and prepare to be judged. We live in society, but how can we deal with others in a way that promotes rational, productive
Are you rational? Or do you yield often to vices such as emotionalism, bias, and dogmatism? On October 21st, 2010, William R Thomas lead an
Are you true to your values and your world-view? Integrity is the virtue of acting consistently for the sake of long-range values....
July/August 2007 -- Okay, I know, that’s a cheap pun. But this July–August 2007 issue marks the start of my third year at the helm of The
May 11, 2011 -- Yesterday, May 10, the backdated options witch-hunt began drawing to its close. A three-judge panel from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in the case of Greg Reyes, the former CEO of Brocade, who was convicted of committing securities fraud by backdating options at his company. Coincidentally, Reyes was the first person to be indicted in connection with backdated options, back in 2006. Now his case bodes to be the last resolved, even as he languishes in prison. Unfortunately, the appellate court was not able to consider the most general policy questions in the Reyes case: How did the SEC come to institute an absurd rule of accounting for backdated options? Who made the decision to criminalize violations of that absurdity? And why were only a few people targeted for criminal prosecution in the matter? The legal questions that the appeals court was asked to consider included: Was there a substantive misstatement of the law in Reyes’s trial? Was there prosecutorial misconduct? Was the conviction beyond the pale, given the evidence?
April 2003 -- On April 15th the news is always full of stories about taxpayers standing in long lines at post offices to file their returns on time. Occasionally there are sidebar stories about some proposed tax cut or reform that might help the economy: stories that usually disappear by the next day’s news cycle. But perhaps tax stories would remain in the headlines—and tax policy on the front burner—if they were treated as moral and not merely economic matters. Why should we acquiesce when governments take our money? We’d be pretty upset if thugs stole our wallets at gunpoint or thieves broke into our homes and carried off our possessions. That’s because we understand that the only moral way for individuals to deal with one another is through mutual consent rather than through the initiation of force, with each individual respecting the equal rights of others.
June 2006 -- Starbucks, of all enterprises, is the latest victim of food fascists. It is ironic that the Center for Science in the Public
As the congress debates a new security bill and America faces a terrible and insidious threat, there is no more critical time to recall the
October 2004 -- On Oct. 4, 2004, the 47th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik, humanity again made spaceflight history. SpaceShipOne, desig
July 2002 -- A California court's recent subtraction of "one nation, under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance distorts the ethical foundation of church and state separation. Yes, individual rights require safeguards against intrusive government, but the court's striking of a simple utterance begs the question…which rights are being safeguarded? And for whose benefit? The court decision, and the attitude that enabled it, is antithetical to an environment in which individual rights truly flourish. On the surface, the decision appears to be a victory against compulsory recitation of the Pledge (or a phrase therein). Genuine affection for the Pledge's sentiments must be chosen; forced recitation makes it a meaningless rite. In this regard, the court would have been morally justified in affirming that the Pledge should be voluntary. However, striking phrases from the Pledge, as an attempt to dispel certain ideas from the public domain, minimizes the role of individual learning and choice.
In Homer’s Iliad Trojan prince Hector is slain in combat by the Greek champion Achilles. But blinded by anger, Achilles desecrates Hector’s
Editor’s Note: Bob Barr’s wide-ranging career has spanned law and politics, and multiple roles, including CIA analyst (1971-1978)..
I received myTNI in the mail today. The look is stunning, far superior to anything I expected, to be quite honest. The layout, graphics,
The scourge of smallpox is ancient—Pharaoh Ramses V is thought to have died of the illness in 1157 B.C. Yet smallpox did not become a major
In the new year of 1803, America consisted of sixteen states. There were no prairie dogs or grizzly bears. No jackrabbits or bighorn sheep..
Children often behave in an irresponsible, irrational, emotionally charged manner with very bad results—valuables broken, someone hurt..
Citizens, candidates, and commentators must make a crucial distinction between true capitalism and crony capitalism. In the former...
As the director of the Business Rights Center at the fiercely pro-capitalist Atlas Society, I shall not be accused, I think, of harboring
Christianity is particularly prone to such nonsense. After all, the Book of Revelation is all about doomsday, though with details from a....
In this webinar, presented on March 25th, 2011, William R Thomas presents his view that goodwill and trust are Objectivist social values. He goes on to discuss the virtues of honesty and integrity as means of earning trust, and presents David Kelley's concept of benevolence, arguing that it is the key virtue for winning goodwill.
Judge others, and prepare to be judged. We live in society, but how can we deal with others in a way that promotes rational, productive
Are you rational? Or do you yield often to vices such as emotionalism, bias, and dogmatism? On October 21st, 2010, William R Thomas lead an
Are you true to your values and your world-view? Integrity is the virtue of acting consistently for the sake of long-range values....
July/August 2007 -- Okay, I know, that’s a cheap pun. But this July–August 2007 issue marks the start of my third year at the helm of The
May 11, 2011 -- Yesterday, May 10, the backdated options witch-hunt began drawing to its close. A three-judge panel from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in the case of Greg Reyes, the former CEO of Brocade, who was convicted of committing securities fraud by backdating options at his company. Coincidentally, Reyes was the first person to be indicted in connection with backdated options, back in 2006. Now his case bodes to be the last resolved, even as he languishes in prison. Unfortunately, the appellate court was not able to consider the most general policy questions in the Reyes case: How did the SEC come to institute an absurd rule of accounting for backdated options? Who made the decision to criminalize violations of that absurdity? And why were only a few people targeted for criminal prosecution in the matter? The legal questions that the appeals court was asked to consider included: Was there a substantive misstatement of the law in Reyes’s trial? Was there prosecutorial misconduct? Was the conviction beyond the pale, given the evidence?
April 2003 -- On April 15th the news is always full of stories about taxpayers standing in long lines at post offices to file their returns on time. Occasionally there are sidebar stories about some proposed tax cut or reform that might help the economy: stories that usually disappear by the next day’s news cycle. But perhaps tax stories would remain in the headlines—and tax policy on the front burner—if they were treated as moral and not merely economic matters. Why should we acquiesce when governments take our money? We’d be pretty upset if thugs stole our wallets at gunpoint or thieves broke into our homes and carried off our possessions. That’s because we understand that the only moral way for individuals to deal with one another is through mutual consent rather than through the initiation of force, with each individual respecting the equal rights of others.
June 2006 -- Starbucks, of all enterprises, is the latest victim of food fascists. It is ironic that the Center for Science in the Public
As the congress debates a new security bill and America faces a terrible and insidious threat, there is no more critical time to recall the
October 2004 -- On Oct. 4, 2004, the 47th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik, humanity again made spaceflight history. SpaceShipOne, desig
July 2002 -- A California court's recent subtraction of "one nation, under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance distorts the ethical foundation of church and state separation. Yes, individual rights require safeguards against intrusive government, but the court's striking of a simple utterance begs the question…which rights are being safeguarded? And for whose benefit? The court decision, and the attitude that enabled it, is antithetical to an environment in which individual rights truly flourish. On the surface, the decision appears to be a victory against compulsory recitation of the Pledge (or a phrase therein). Genuine affection for the Pledge's sentiments must be chosen; forced recitation makes it a meaningless rite. In this regard, the court would have been morally justified in affirming that the Pledge should be voluntary. However, striking phrases from the Pledge, as an attempt to dispel certain ideas from the public domain, minimizes the role of individual learning and choice.
In Homer’s Iliad Trojan prince Hector is slain in combat by the Greek champion Achilles. But blinded by anger, Achilles desecrates Hector’s