Life, Liberty & The Pursuit of Happiness

What they cannot take away

by Reena Kapoor

People will always respond to Atlas Shrugged and Ayn Rand's ideas. Love her or hate her you cannot deny the power of the questions she raises.  Look at what her book's sales have been doing this past year or more of madness that we've all been witnessing.  Take a careful look at the chart - it's the first cause for hope I've seen in months.  People are still thinking. The human power to think and independence of judgement -- this they cannot take away even as they nationalize, socialize, unionize and tax us out of existence!

Reviled in some circles and mocked in others, Rand’s 1957 novel of embattled capitalism is a favourite of libertarians and college students. Lately, though, its appeal has been growing. According to data from TitleZ, a firm that tracks bestseller rankings on Amazon, an online retailer, the book’s 30-day average Amazon rank was 127 on February 21st, well above its average over the past two years of 542. On January 13th the book’s ranking was 33, briefly besting President Barack Obama’s popular tome, “The Audacity of Hope”.

How the Big 3 got there...

by Reena Kapoor

Institute for Justice rocks - another example...

by Reena Kapoor

Here is another example of how the Institute for Justice (IJ) keeps going and going with their great work! They are one of the most effective, focused and smart libertarian organizations out there.  This example Why won't Boston let Erroll into the City? is also illustrative of the fact that big government IS precisely the problem despite what the great Obama keeps blathering on about, that big government keeps the rich richer (socialism always benefits the entrenched rich much more AND reduces economic mobility by creating monopolies) and is inherently inimical to entepreneurship. Support this cause by sharing and also connecting to this page on Facebook (Let Erroll Drive).

When will we shrug?

by Reena Kapoor

Here is a picture, sent by a friend, from a recent Denver tax revolt...we need more of these, and everywhere. Say "NO" to porculus!

Brilliant Comments worth sharing...

by Reena Kapoor

We love to hear comments from readers and it makes blogging all the more interesting and worthwhile.  But every once in a while, someone posts a set of comments that takes the discussion to a new level.  Such comments were posted by Irfan Khwaja (a professor of philosophy, "best kind" objectivist and a dear friend) in response to Anurag's post on Slumdog Millionaire and the reactions the film evoked.  Irfan's comments are simply too insightful to remain in the comments section so I have pasted them below for your edification. Hope Irfan won't mind us borrowing his content. Here you go:

Happy Birthday Charles Darwin

by Reena Kapoor

Health Clubbed: Daschle's Parting Gift

by Anurag Wadehra

A friend brought this article by Michael D. Tanner of Cato to my attention: Socialized Medicine on the Installment Plan.

This is truly chilling: without a wisp of debate, the government has brought 10 million more under socialized medicine. Chaos and fear has helped the powerful to pull a fast one on the public. Get ready for medical tourism to take off.

Keynesian Mindbender - Paradox of Thrift

by Anurag Wadehra

Now that we are all Keynesian, or at least doomed to fund the ultimate test of his stimulus theory, it behooves all of us to understand what he claims. One way to do so is to read his book The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money which is available for free at Marxists.org. No points for noticing the irony that both Houses of the Congress and the President are following the path laid out by one of the economists loved by Marxists. 

A more pleasant way is to listen to an honest exposition of Keynes by the a self-avowed Keynesian economist  Steve Fazzari. This exceptionally lucid  interview was conducted by the libertarian Russ Roberts of George Mason University. The best part is their discussion on the paradox of thrift. Fazzari uses an example:

Science vs. Faith: Crux of the Matter

by Anurag Wadehra

Following up on Reena's post, I noticed another article by Jerry Coyne in Edge called Does Empirical Nature of Science Contradict Revelatory Nature of Faith? . A lot of smart folks have commented on this debate, but none come close to the crux of the matter as eloquently as the post by Steven Pinker. He correctly identifies and eloquently defends REASON as the root of matter.

Science cannot be walled off from other forms of belief. That includes meaning and morality – reason connects them all. The same standards of evidence that rule out unparisimonious, unfalsifiable, or empirically refuted hypotheses in science also rule out crackpot conspiracy theories, totalizing ideologies, and toxic policy nostrums. Moral systems depend on factual beliefs, informed by psychology and biology, about what makes human beings suffer or prosper. They depend on standards of logical consistency that make it possible to apply the principle of fairness.

Mill's Perspicuous Perspective

by Rakinder Grover

I found a great quote from John Stuart Mill in a comment by Ray Mangum on Roderick Long's blog, the Austro-Athenian Empire:

“The spirit of improvement is not always a spirit of liberty, for it may aim at forcing improvements on an unwilling people; and the spirit of liberty, in so far as it resists such attempts, may ally itself locally and temporarily with the opponents of improvement; but the only unfailing and permanent source of improvement is liberty, since by it there are as many possible independent centres of improvement as there are individuals.”