Showing posts with label reason. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reason. Show all posts

Thorin Klosowski: Carl Sagan's Best Productivity Tricks

How to seek out the truth.   Carl Sagan is a well known astronomer, cosmologist, author, and most obviously, science communicator and host of the show Cosmos. His views on science and general living are simultaneously inspirational and galvanizing. Let's take a look at just a few of his ideas that are useful for all of us. Sagan was first and       ... MORE

Libertarians: Looking For Results Or Self-Congratulation?

by Sheldon Richman.     When I was researching my recent article on Nathaniel Branden, who died last month, I came across an audio file of a talk Branden gave at the 1979 Libertarian Party national convention in Los Angeles. I was at the convention, but I don't remember attending the talk. I might have been busy with other things; on the other hand, I    ... MORE

Behold: The Atheist Ten Non-Commandments

What do you think of these?       What if, instead of climbing Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments from God, Moses had turned to the Israelites and asked: Hey, what do you guys think we should do? Considering the Hebrews’ bad behavior in the Bible, what with the coveting of neighbors’ wives and murdering their own brothers,  ... MORE

Walter E Williams: Should Profiling Be Banned?

Upon further review.        Last week, the Obama administration announced new curbs on racial profiling by federal law enforcement. Before deciding whether this is good or bad policy, we might try to develop a description/definition of racial profiling or any other kind of profiling. A good definition of profiling in general is the use of   ... MORE

Mitchell Feinberg: On The Moral Use Of "Smart Drugs"

Smart is good.  Cognitive enhancement drugs (CEDs), such as Ritalin, Adderall, and Provigil, are most commonly known for their use in treating patients with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). But these drugs, often called “smart drugs,” can profoundly enhance a perfectly healthy person’s ability to sustain concentration and thus     ... MORE

From ListVerse: Top 25 Ayn Rand Quotes

Insights of a philosophic genius.     Ayn Rand, was a Russian-born American novelist and philosopher. She is widely known for her best-selling novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism. She was an uncompromising advocate of rational individualism and laissez-faire capitalism,    ... MORE

Carl Sagan Wanted An Honest Drugs Debate 24 Years Ago

by Matt Ferner.     His questions remain spot on. Carl Sagan, a titan of scientific thought and communication, assumed many different roles in his life -- from science's "gatekeeper," to television star on the original "Cosmos," to marijuana user and advocate. Tom Angell, chairman of Marijuana Majority, recently posted a handful of Sagan's letters  ... MORE

How Should Our Society Deal With People Who Use Drugs?

by Tony Newman.   The war on drugs is a cruel joke. The U.S. spends more than $50 billion a year on the "war on drugs" with the goal of creating a "drug-free society" -- yet there has never been a "drug-free society" in the history of civilization. Virtually all of us take drugs every single day. Caffeine, sugar, alcohol, marijuana, Prozac, Ritalin,   ... MORE

Property Rights and Property Taxes: To Possess Not Own

by Nick Giambruno. Do you really own something that you are forced to perpetually make payments on and which can be seized from you if you don’t pay? I would say that you don’t. You would possess such an item, but you wouldn’t own it—an important distinction.  A ridiculous perversion of the concept of ownership and property rights has   ... MORE

Thomas Sowell: Mob Rule Economics

Maybe low-paying jobs are better than none at all.    While we talk about democracy and equal rights, we seem increasingly to let both private and government decisions be determined by mob rule. There is nothing democratic about mob rule. It means that some people's votes are to be overruled by other people's disruptions, harassment    ... MORE

Paramedics Rush To Child Who Waited in Car 5 Minutes

by Lenore Skenazy.   Boy survives! Mother taken into custody. Playing out an elaborate charade of concern for a child who was obviously in no danger, police arrested a mom who let her son wait in the car while she ran into a Chicagoland Whole Foods for less than five minutes. Then, for reasons known only to those who write and follow protocols    ... MORE

Cops Say Tasering 8-Year-Old For Tantrum Was Justified

by Vincent Schilling.  Two months after an 8-year-old girl was tasered by a Pierre, South Dakota police officer in October of 2013, Hughes County State’s Attorney Wendy Kloeppner released a report which stated “she was satisfied with an independent investigation, deploying a taser was the best viable way to diffuse the situation,” and no charges would   ... MORE

Walter E Williams: Slavery Reparations

Just another hustle.         Calls for slavery reparations have returned with the publication of Ta-Nehisi Coates' "The Case for Reparations" in The Atlantic magazine (May 21, 2014). In making his argument, Coates goes through the horrors of slavery, Reconstruction, Jim Crow and gross racial discrimination. First off, let me say that I agree with reparations  ... MORE