Showing posts with label exceptionalism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label exceptionalism. Show all posts

When American Exceptionalism Was Self-Evident

by Barry Farber.        A journalism professor once insisted that if the headline were good enough you wouldn’t have to write the rest of the story. Shall we try it? Here goes! “The World Has Lost America as a Champion of Freedom.” Our teachers never tried to sell us on American exceptionalism. It wasn’t necessary. It automatically became     ... MORE

'Atlas Shrugged Reimagined By Mickey Mouse'

by Charles Paul Freund.    Brad Bird's Tomorrowland is "the most insidiously political blockbuster ever made," writes Barry Hertz at Toronto's Globe and Mail. Like Ayn Rand, Hertz argues, director Bird "pines for worlds where incredible people can be free to do incredible things, and to hell with everyone else." This is a theme that some of Bird's     ... MORE

Walter E Williams: The Cancer Of Multiculturalism

The false premise of moral relativism.  President Barack Obama surprised many at the National Prayer Breakfast when he lectured us, "Lest we get on our high horse and think this (barbarity) is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ." Obama went  ... MORE

Sheldon Richman: America’s James Bond Complex

A license to kill?      Today, American politicians of both major parties — conservatives, “moderates,” and so-called liberals alike — insist that the United States is an “exceptional,” even “indispensable” nation. In practice, this means that for the United States alone the rules are different. Particularly in international affairs, it — the        ... MORE

Bruce Fein: Ignoring America's True Greatness

Killing America's golden goose.   The United States was founded on exceptional principles that we are ignoring at our peril. The Declaration of Independence explained that individual liberty was the center of our constitutional universe; and, that the United States was formed to protect the unalienable rights of citizens to life, liberty, and the pursuit  ... MORE

Steve Tobak: How To Gain Personal Freedom And Control

My dad was a strict disciplinarian.        I hated that. I hated it so much that I grew up desperately wanting to control my own life. To have the freedom to do what I want, how I want, when I want. But here’s the thing. The pursuit of personal freedom has brought me face-to-face with an interesting dilemma. Turns out, it takes a tremendous     ... MORE

The Land Of The Free Is Now A Nation Of Sheep

by Bill Frezza.        No, this is not another diatribe about the futility of many gun control laws and the geographic correlation between the level of gun crime and the hurdles law-abiding citizens have to surmount to provide for their own defense. Nor is it a rant about the media exploitation of tragedies like the recent Navy Yard shooting.    ... MORE

Thomas Sowell: A Truly Great Phony

Obama's greatness finally recognized.        Many years ago, I was a member of a committee that was recommending to whom grant money should be awarded. Since I knew one of the applicants, I asked if this meant that I should recuse myself from voting on his application. "No," the chairman said. "I know him too — and he is one of the        ... MORE

Is Tiger Woods Smarter Than Phil Mickelson?

by Thomas DiLorenzo.    Pro golfer Phil Mickelson, who just won the British Open, will reportedly pay a 61% tax on his earnings, including 13 1/2 percent to the state of California.  (Medieval serfs paid “only” 40 percent).  He’s ranked as the #2 golfer in the world.  The #1 golfer, Tiger Woods, who is also a native Californian, lives in zero-income-tax  ... MORE

John Harvey: Trusting Your Own Government (Or Not)

The masters who pose as servants.      Earlier this month, Geraldo Rivera asked a caller: "How could you not trust your own government?" Putting aside big and little episodes of untrustworthy government in the history of this country like the Trail of Tears, the internment of Americans of Japanese descent, Kent State, Waco, ... MORE

Barry Farber: American Exceptionalism? Off The Charts!

Why hide from the facts?  More than half of the American population believes the best days of this country are behind us. That might be depressing if America’s best days were less than they truly were. As it stands, it’s about as depressing as Bill Gates crying “Poverty!” if his fortune were to dip from 100 billion dollars down to around, say   ... MORE

Thomas Sowell - Cheap Politicians

We get what we pay for.   Now that the National Football League has apparently learned that it can be costly to hire cheap officials, perhaps the rest of us should learn the same lesson when it comes to government officials, whose bad calls can do a lot more damage. What do we do when we want a better car, a better home or a better bottle of wine?      ... MORE

Richard Rahn: Economic Lessons From The Olympics

Reward, not envy is the American way.  Do you admire what the Olympic athletes have been able to accomplish, and do you think they should be applauded for their outstanding performances? Most people in the world would answer the question in the affirmative. Most people also admire and applaud great musicians and artists. We celebrate   ... MORE

Jonathan V. Last: Go For The Gold! (Pay The IRS)

You win the gold, Uncle Sam collects $8,986. Because conservatives are scrooges, the good folks at Americans for Tax Reform have gone through the fine print to find out what our Olympians will have to cough up to the IRS should they be lucky enough to win any medals in London. Even by the standards of our government, the numbers   ... MORE

Ronald Bailey: Government Did Not Build Your Business

No surprise, Obama is wrong again.   “If you’ve got a business—you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen,” declared President Barack Obama at a campaign stop last week in Virginia. Evidently, the president believes that economic growth and job creation are largely the result of actions taken by benevolent government agencies.      ... MORE

Retaining Harder Than Declaring Our Independence

by Jackie Gingrich Cushman.   We declared our independence from Great Britain 236 years ago next week. It was a declaration long in coming, brought about by the overreaching rule of King George III and Britain's insistence on taxation without representation. The taxation began in the 1760s, the Boston Massacre occurred in 1770, the Boston Tea  ... MORE