Category: Politics

Ayn Rand Fan: Congressman Ron Paul

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

An excellent article at LewRockwell.com reminds us that United States Representative Ron Paul of Texas was strongly influenced by the writings of Ayn Rand, as well as other free market luminaries such as Bastiat, Von Mises, and Hayek.
The article consists chiefly of an open-ended interview with Congressman Paul. Here is an excerpt from the editor’s commentary, at the end of the article:

What strikes you first when meeting Ron Paul is his quiet, courteous and gentle manner. It is a peaceful quality. As I talked with him, I began to realize it is a quality of “no force.” There is nothing forceful at all about him. His views are expressed with the strength of the well thought out, cogent argument. Yet, there is not the forcefulness of “you have to think my way” that one often is subjected to in a discussion. You are free to think your way and he is simply saying what he thinks. Don?t mistake that genteel manner for being wishy-washy. He is very clear, direct and resolute when it comes to his principles. Those are non-negotiable. That is where his tough, surety of purpose is foremost.

See the full article for more information about this admirable politician.

Harry Binswanger Endorses George W. Bush

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

Noted Ayn Rand Institute lecturer and Objectivist Graduate Center professor Harry Binswanger has publicly endorsed voting for George W. Bush in this year’s election. From his article “Vote for President Bush” at Capitalism Magazine:

At this late date, after the three debates, the nature of this campaign is set, and the meaning of this election has come into focus for me. The meaning is: independence vs. dependence. The Bush policies favor America retaining its sovereignty–cooperating with allies as and when they are willing–and America on the offensive. The Kerry program favors America surrendering that independence to curry favor with the bribed French and the America-hating despots at the U.N.
At a time when we are at war, after we have experienced an attack worse than Pearl Harbor, the main issue in this election has to be the war. And, appropriately, Bush has made it the main issue–both at the Republican convention and since.
The Bush doctrine, for all its timid, bumbling, and altruism-laced implementation, intends America to act, to use its military might offensively, even when half the world protests against it. Kerry’s “instincts” are to negotiate, conciliate, and retreat.

Read the full article at CapMag.

Jack Wheeler Profile at WorldNetDaily

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

WorldNetDaily has an interesting profile of “Indiana Jones of the Right” Jack Wheeler, who has been a fan of Ayn Rand’s works since the 1960s. The article begins:

Dr. Jack Wheeler, whose death-defying adventures span the globe and whose achievements have inspired wide-ranging acclaim, is one geopolitical expert who doesn’t mince words.
Wheeler’s latest barbs are reserved for the Central Intelligence Agency, which despite common perception, he says, is populated by anything but right-wing operatives.
“Most folks think the CIA is a right-wing outfit,” Wheeler writes on his unique intelligence website, To the Point. “It is not. The CIA has been dominated by incompetent left-wing hyper-liberals for years. The worst mistake of George Bush’s presidency was not replacing Clinton holdover George Tenet as CIA director. This is a guy responsible for the single greatest intelligence failure in U.S. history (being unaware of 9-11), who sweet-talked his way into Bush’s confidence and was able to keep his job because he named the CIA Headquarters after [Bush’s] father.”
Available to subscribers of To the Point, Wheeler’s piece goes on to discuss Tenet’s demise and reminds readers he predicted who the ex-CIA chief’s replacement would be, former Rep. Porter Goss. Wheeler describes how the CIA bureaucracy waged a war against Goss’ confirmation, which took months to be approved.
“The key to understanding this war,” writes Wheeler, “is that the CIA doesn’t simply live in a pre-September 11 world where terrorism is only a ‘nuisance’ ? it is that the CIA lives in a left-wing world, the same left-wing world as the State Department. Both worship at the Shrine of Accommodation, Appeasement and Compromise.”

See WorldNetDaily’s full profile of Wheeler for additional information.

Follow-up Comments from Don Parrish

Posted on by Heather Wagenhals

Don Parrish sent the following comments after we posted his article on “The Case for Badnarik“:

Thanks for a very nice editing job on my article. I was pleased with the result. If I had known that John Hospers was writing the case for Bush, I would have mentioned that my first Libertarian vote for President was in 1972 for Dr. Hospers, a man I admire very much. I met him in 1972 at the first Libertarian convention in Denver.
The last time I spoke to him was a few years ago at a TOC summer seminar. I told him that my favorite speech of his to a Libertarian group was entitled “To Keep Time With” in Dallas in 1974. He smiled at me and informed me it was his favorite speech too!! A kind of magic moment!!
Today I read his excellent, impassioned cry of the heart for Bush. It was vintage Hospers. I would love to team up with him on an attack-a-thon on Kerry! It was very appropriate for you to inform the Atlasphere that you could not get a case for Kerry!
If we were having a public discussion, I would point out that Libertarians who agree with Dr. Hospers should follow his advice if they live in a battleground state, but should follow my advice otherwise. He is emphasizing the short term and I, the long term.
Short term thinking can apply in the battleground states, but it is a waste in the majority of states. Libertarians who live, for example, in California, New York, Texas or Illinois should follow my suggestion and vote for Badnarik because there is nothing that will change the outcome in those states. Voting for Badnarik will have the practical effect of signaling President Bush in his second term to move in a more Libertarian direction.

Columbus Day: A Weapon Against Terrorism

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

Front Page Mag has reproduced Thomas Bowden’s op-ed on Columbus day under the title “Columbus Day: Another Weapon Against Terrorism.” From the article:

We cannot win a war in which Islamic totalitarians loudly proclaim that their way of life is superior–while liberals trot out the cliches of multiculturalism, claiming that there is no objective standard by which to judge a society good or evil, and conservatives downplay the religious motives driving Islamic terrorism, clinging to the notion that religion promotes peace despite blood-soaked centuries of evidence to the contrary.
This moral uncertainty is dividing Americans into two equally ineffectual camps. Liberals, mortified by world opposition, want to demilitarize the conflict in favor of a criminal-justice approach, granting every Muslim killer his day in court. Conservatives, although seemingly willing to address the conflict militarily, wring their hands if a stray bullet chips gold leaf off the dome of a mosque.
Americans can escape this quagmire of moral vacillation only by becoming fully, rationally convinced that our values are objectively worthwhile–that they are worth pursuing, worth upholding, and worth defending, by force if necessary. One way to attain such moral certainty is to understand, with full clarity, why we celebrate Columbus Day.

See the full article for further elaboration.

Free Markets in Space

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

The Houston Chronicle has published a terrific op-ed by Ayn Rand Institute staff writer Robert Garmong titled “Myth of government-only exploration lost in space.” From the article:

On Monday, SpaceShipOne, the first privately funded manned spacecraft, captured the $10 million X Prize by making its second trip to outer space in less than a week. In doing so, it did more than shatter the boundary of outer space: It destroyed forever the myth that space exploration can only be done by the government.
Earlier this year, a Bush administration panel on space exploration recommended that NASA increase the role of private contractors in the push to permanently settle the moon and eventually explore Mars. But it appears that neither the administration nor anyone else has yet considered the true free-market solution for America’s moribund space program: complete privatization.
There is a contradiction at the heart of the space program: Space exploration, as the grandest of man’s technological advancements, requires the kind of bold innovation possible only to minds left free to pursue the best of their thinking and judgment. Yet by placing the space program under governmental funding, we necessarily place it at the mercy of governmental whim. The results are written all over the past 20 years of NASA’s history: The space program is a political animal, marked by shifting, inconsistent and ill-defined goals.

Read the full article for additional information.

Ayn Rand at Saddam's Palace

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

Atlasphere member Robert Begley has ensured that any soldier perusing Saddam Hussein’s former palace in search of Ayn Rand’s writings won’t come up empty handed.
These are — of course — books that should bring hope to any budding democracy.
Also added were books by Edward Cline, Cox and Forkum, Andrew Bernstein and the Arabic translation of the U.S. Constitution.
UPDATE: Joe Kane reports that ALL of the relevant books are currently checked out of the palace library.

What Makes a True Hero?

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

Writing for LewRockwell.com, Charley Reese has some interesting comments on what makes a hero (and what doesn’t), especially during times of war.

The novelist Ayn Rand made an interesting point once. She said the words we use and our moral approval are a kind of currency we use to reward virtue. If we fail to withhold our moral approval from people who don’t deserve it, then in effect we make it counterfeit and thus cheat those people who do deserve it.
In other words, if you’ll smile and shake hands with any lout, bum or criminal, what good is your handshake and smile? If you’re going to call heroes people who just happen to be soldiers, police officers and firefighters, what are you going to call those individuals who do something really outstanding?
Rand said something else interesting once. She said the way to kill greatness was not to attack it, but to simply reward mediocrity. We certainly do that in our society. If you put a chimpanzee on live television 20 minutes a day, five days a week, within a fortnight it would be national celebrity. A young woman who in smarter days would have been called what she is ? a spoiled slut ? achieves worldwide fame just by videotaping herself copulating with some guy.
No nation can do great things once its people lose the ability to define greatness and to distinguish between the truly outstanding and the mediocre. That is just as important as knowing the difference between right and wrong.
I do not intend to imply that people who do the unpleasant jobs, like policing and soldiering, don’t deserve respect. They certainly do. But we should reserve the word “hero” for those who perform extraordinary and outstanding deeds.

See the full article for further elaboration.

The X-Prize: Private Enterprise in Space

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

Glenn Reynolds offers appropriate congratulations to the X-Prize winners for their so-far successful privatization of space exploration:

NASA got us to the moon in an amazingly short time. But its subsequent history demonstrates that command-style economics is a little like steroids in athletics: You get a burst of rapid growth when the drugs first take hold, but after a while you realize that your national testicles are shrinking. […]
I heard someone on one of the cable channels (it might even have been MSNBC!) predicting that more people will travel into space in the next decade than in all of human history to date. That’s probably right — and if it is, it will be because the forces of capitalism have done what they always do, making things cheaper, better, and more widely available.

Reynolds’s full article will be enjoyable reading for any advocate of limited government in space.

Columbus Day Without Guit

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

The Ayn Rand Institute has announced the following upcoming public event:

Columbus Day Without Guilt

In years past, the anniversary of Christopher Columbus?s 1492 voyage was an occasion to honor the explorer?s courage and to rejoice in the spread of Western civilization across a savage wilderness. More recently, however, advocates of multiculturalism have damned Columbus and the New World?s settlers as brutal conquerors who destroyed a pristine Indian paradise. Columbus Day, we are told, should be spent in atonement and repentance?or be discarded in favor of ?Indigenous Peoples Day.?
Unjustified guilt-mongering about Columbus Day improperly blackens the reputation of Western civilization while obscuring the harsh realities of life in the Stone Age, argues attorney Thomas A. Bowden, senior writer for the Ayn Rand Institute and author of The Enemies of Christopher Columbus.
In this myth-shattering lecture, Mr. Bowden re-examines such controversial topics as the morality of displacing the American Indian tribes (did they really own the land?), the fallacies in the treaty/reservation system (was government too generous?), and the infamous ?Trail of Tears? (what caused so many Cherokee deaths on the way west?).
Rejecting as false all notions of racial superiority and collective guilt, Mr. Bowden instead affirms the objective superiority of civilization to savagery. On Columbus Day, he maintains, individuals of all ancestries should guiltlessly celebrate Western civilization?s core values?reason, science, technology, progress, capitalism, individual rights, law and the selfish pursuit of individual happiness here on earth?at a time when those values are under terrorist assault by America?s declared enemies.
THIS EVENT IS FREE TO THE PUBLIC
LOCATION and DETAILS:
Hyatt Regency Irvine
17900 Jamboree Road
Irvine, California 92614
Monday, October 11, 2004
Bookstore opens: 6:30 PM
Presentation: 7:30 PM to 8:30 PM
Q & A: 8:30 PM to 9:30 PM
Reception: follows until 10 PM
For more information:
Phone: 949-222-6550
E-mail: events@aynrand.org

UPDATE: Bowden has also published an op-ed on the topic:

Columbus Day: The Cure for 9/11

On October 12, 1492, Christopher Columbus discovered the New World, opening a sea route to vast uncharted territories that awaited the spread of Western civilization. Centuries later, the ensuing cultural migration culminated in the birth and explosive growth of the greatest nation in history: the United States of America.
On September 11, 2001, that nation came under attack by Islamic totalitarians who hate the distinctive values of Western civilization that America so proudly embraces–reason, science, individual rights, and capitalism–and who targeted the World Trade Center and the Pentagon as symbols of those values.
These attacks could not be dismissed as aberrant acts by a lone band of zealots, not after it became clear how widely that same festering hatred of Western values is felt in the Muslim world, where Osama bin Laden is embraced as a folk hero, terrorists continue to receive help from sympathetic governments, and the United States is perpetually damned as the Great Satan.
America has responded since Sept. 11 with various military and political maneuvers. Notably missing, however, has been any clear principled statement of what we are defending, and why we deserve to win.
Without moral certainty, America cannot prevail.

See the full article for additional commentary on this subject.

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