Politics Archive

The Battle of Chosin Reservoir

November 26, 2011 · Category: Current Events, Intellectual, Politics

This moving message just landed in my inbox, from friend Ross Barlow. Honoring “The Chosin Few” in the Korean War from 27 November 1950 on into December 1950. The battle of Chosin Reservoir. It was intensely brutal combat in temperatures sometimes down to minus-35 degrees in the mountains. A frozen Hell. Honored warriors there were from the US Marines, the US Army, the Republic of Korea (the “ROKs,” South Korea), and the British Royal Marine Commandos. But don’t forget, the ill-equipped (and tyrannically led) communist Red Chinese troops fought bravely against these UN forces, sometimes fighting down ...

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Free Cities Project

September 27, 2011 · Category: Current Events, Politics

This Thursday, September 24th, The John Stossel Show on Fox Business Network will air a show with the theme "What if Libertarians Were in Charge?" The last seven minutes of the show will include a segment featuring Michael Strong and Magatte Wade, discussing how Free Cities will reduce poverty and create jobs, hope, and prosperity in the developing world. The work to develop such cities is being spearheaded by the Free Cities Institute, but on the program Stossel actually refers to it as the "Free Cities Project." So I'm creating this blog post to help point interested parties -- as well ...

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Care about the poor? Fight for their economic freedom.

July 4, 2011 · Category: Current Events, FLOW, Politics

An outstanding video for anyone who truly cares about the quality of life of poor individuals from around the world. Or, for that matter, about their own quality of life.

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Think nuclear power is dangerous? Try anything else.

March 19, 2011 · Category: Current Events, Health, Politics

See the article "How to make a nuclear reactor that can't have a meltdown" for fascinating information about how nuclear power generators can be built -- and have been built -- that have zero chance of a meltdown, even in the worst case scenario. This part is particularly relevant to our conversations today about the dangers of nuclear power: To put it in perspective, in 2008 Next Big Future calculated how many people are killed per terawatt-hour of electricity generated. On average, there are 161 fatalities related to energy generation from coal for each one of those terawatt-hours, which comprise a quarter ...

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Objectivists: Do we have an “unchosen obligation” to respect the rights of others?

February 10, 2011 · Category: Objectivism, Politics

I just submitted the following question on Peikoff.com. It's a question I've had for many years, and the answers I've gotten from various Objectivist thinkers have varied considerably. It seems like a pretty important question, particularly for a philosophy that aspires to be internally consistent: Ayn Rand taught that we have no unchosen obligations. She also taught that we must respect the rights of others. How does one resolve the apparent contradiction? Is it because rights constitute only a negative obligation? Or because we choose to live in society? Or something else? I hope Dr. Peikoff answers it. I would be interested ...

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Bill Whittle on the privatization of space travel

February 10, 2011 · Category: Current Events, Politics

Another outstanding offering from Bill Whittle. I notice he's no longer working under the "Fireball" title, which I think is a good call. There was something gimmicky about that, and distracting about the associated visuals. Thanks to Marsh for the link.

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Bill Whittle: What we believe (the Tea Party philosophy)

December 21, 2010 · Category: Current Events, Individualism, Intellectual, Politics

I just discovered these this morning. (Thanks, Marsh!) I haven't had time to watch them all, but I'm so blown away by the quality of the first one -- and I've found Bill Whittle to be so outstanding overall, in the past -- that I'm going to go ahead and post the full series here. What do you think of his presentations?

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The Singing Revolution: How the tiny country of Estonia overthrew their Soviet occupiers, without killing a single person

February 16, 2010 · Category: Individualism, Intellectual, Politics

I just ordered a copy of The Singing Revolution, a documentary about how the Estonian people organized themselves in the 1980s and cleverly used the cultural power of songs to overthrow their Soviet occupiers. An entire nation was freed from Soviet occupation, without a single person being killed. (Think about that for a moment... Why haven't you heard about this before?) See the trailer here. And more information about the movie (including reviews) is available from Amazon. I originally learned about the movie from my friend Stephen Browne, when he wrote about it on his blog. Commentary on the movie (via Amazon.com) from filmmakers ...

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Do corporations deserve the same legal protections as people?

January 23, 2010 · Category: Current Events, Intellectual, Politics

This is a conversation from Facebook. My philosopher friend Stephan Pernar joined the group called "Corporations are not people." In response I asked: What essential difference does it make whether corporations "are" people, when they are composed of people? Seeking insight into the basis of your position. I'm probably neutral on the subject itself but wary of people "sticking it" to corporations as though that were not "sticking it" to people who own the corporation. He replied: "My main critique is that corporations are pursuing essentially non-human goals (monetary gain) with super human ability. This leads to a dynamic that skews interactions ...

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Marco Rubio looks like a very interesting young politician

January 6, 2010 · Category: Current Events, Politics

Thanks to Andrew for the heads-up about this guy. Judging from this video, he seems to be well-spoken, classy, and promoting values I can agree with.

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