Jun 25, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses
Writes Edwin A. Locke at the Ayn Rand Institute:Monday's Supreme Court pro-affirmative-action decision represents one of the lowest points in American judicial history.
Although the Court's rulings were somewhat convoluted--basically they said race can be used but not too flagrantly--the bottom line is that they affirmed the legitimacy of making race a factor in admission to public universities and by implication to other institutions. This decision represents an enormous betrayal of America's founding principles. We are a nation founded on the concept of individualism, the doctrine that each person is a sovereign entity, an end in himself, possessing the same rights as every other citizen.
The affirmative action ruling undermines the principle of individualism. It asserts that people have special rights because they are members of a racial minority, thus elevating primitive tribalism over individualism. The claim that racial "diversity" is a proper goal of an institution is wrong. The principle should be that the most qualified individuals--without regard to race, ethnicity or any other non-essential characteristic--are selected, whether the institution involved is in the field of education, business or the military. Selecting for diversity means endorsing racism--an ugly doctrine no matter what its purpose. Racism in any form should be abhorred by every American.
Jun 25, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses
Writes CM reader S. Irizarry:General Wesley Clark (a potential presidential candidate) was interviewed on Meet the Press earlier this month. Responding to the interviewer's question as to whether the General supported the Bush tax cut, he had this to say:
Secondly, the tax cuts weren't fair. I mean, the people that need the money and deserve the money are the people who are paying less, not the people who are paying more. I thought this country was founded on a principle of progressive taxation. [MSNBC, June 15, 2003]
The US didn't have a progressive tax initially because it was deemed unconstitutional. That didn't change until 1913. Point 2 of the Communist Manifesto is: "A heavy progressive or graduated income tax."
Jun 24, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses
From Cox and Forkum:
Related Articles: Martha and the Tall Poppies.
Jun 24, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses
As only Mark Steyn can put it:The former Soviet republic of Georgia has had its scientists beavering away on Iraq's nuclear program for several months. Yes, folks, it's WMD all over again! And maybe they don't exist any more than the Iraqi ones do, according to the Dems and the Europeans. But I'm happy to take Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani at his word. He's Iran's former president and now head of the Expediency Council, which sounds like an EU foreign policy agency or a State Department think-tank but is, in fact, Iran's highest religious body. Rafsanjani said last year that on the day the Muslim world gets nuclear weapons the Israeli question will be settled forever ''since a single atomic bomb has the power to completely destroy Israel, while an Israeli counter-strike can only cause partial damage to the Islamic world.''
Oh, my. But what about the Palestinian right of return? [Chicago Times, "May the Ayatollah go the way of Saddam", June 22, 2003]
Jun 24, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses
Writes David Holcberg at the Ayn Rand Institute:According to the Nation's Report Card released on June 20, average reading scores dropped "in virtually every level of expertise among 12th graders since the last exam in 1998 and in 1992." The report also revealed that "among fourth graders, 25 percent of whites, 56 percent of Latinos and 60 percent of blacks lack a rudimentary mastery of skills."
The dismal results are a direct consequence of government attempts to improve elementary and secondary education in America. Such attempts have failed and will continue to fail for a simple reason: the way to improve education is not more government involvement but less--much less.
In fact, education in America will substantially improve only when the government's virtual monopoly on education is replaced by a free market, where bad schools go out of business, incompetent teachers are fired, and worthless curriculums are dumped.
As long as schools and teachers are not accountable to parents but to the government, students will be trapped in our current educational system, with little hope of getting the knowledge and thinking skills they need to succeed in life.
Jun 23, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses
From yesterday's Sun:For six weeks as a delegate to the 59th session of the U.N. Human Rights Commission, I experienced evil and intolerance face to face every day. I am now more convinced than ever that the United Nations and its related entities are fatally damaged and cannot be reformed in the traditional sense. Most organizations go through a restructuring and re-evaluation in order to become more effective and efficient. This will and cannot happen at the United Nations, whether it be the General Assembly, the Security Council, or the Human Rights Commission. Reform at the United Nations is neither workable nor possible because of the principle of sovereign equality that prevails throughout the U.N. structure. Put simply, the current dictatorships that are members are not going to agree to reforms that might exclude their countries from membership in U.N. bodies. [NY Sun, Jun 20, 2003]
