Principles in Practice: The Blog of the Objective Standard

Principles in Practice: July 2008

End Censorship on the Airwaves by ARI Media
Creeping Christianity in the U.S. Military by ARI Media
Medicare's 'Free Market' Facade by ARI Media
The Attack on Oil Speculators: Shooting the Messenger by Alex Epstein by ARI Media
With or Without Nukes, Iran Is a Mortal Threat by Elan Journo by ARI Media
Institute Announces Two New Web Sites by ARI Media

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

End Censorship on the Airwaves

Posted by ARI Media at 1:24 AM

Irvine, CA—The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals threw out a $550,000 indecency fine against CBS Corp. for the infamous Janet Jackson "wardrobe malfunction" during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show. The Court ruled that the Federal Communications Commission "acted arbitrarily and capriciously" in issuing the fine.

"In fact," said Don Watkins, a writer for the Ayn Rand Institute, "the government should put an end to the non-objective 'indecency' laws that permit the FCC to dictate what Americans can say and hear on the airwaves.

"The Supreme Court has defined 'indecency' as speech that 'depicts or describes sexual or excretory activities and organs in terms patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards.' But which Americans count—and don't count—as part of the community? Why are they king? And how are broadcasters to divine their supposedly shared standards?

"As the history of the government's anti-indecency regime has shown, these questions are unanswerable. The only way for broadcasters to play it safe is to engage in self-censorship, cutting any material regulators might declare indecent.

"And once the government becomes the enforcer of 'community standards,' no speech is safe. How long until the courts start rubber-stamping the Bible Belt's efforts to suppress the theory of evolution on the grounds that it is offensive, corrupts young minds, and undermines community values?

"It's time for the government to stop telling Americans what we can say and hear on the airwaves, and to protect our Constitutionally guaranteed right to free speech."

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Labels: Individual Rights and Law

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Saturday, July 19, 2008

Creeping Christianity in the U.S. Military

Posted by ARI Media at 9:50 AM

Irvine, CA—An active-duty soldier has sued the Department of Defense, alleging discrimination by the U.S. Army on the basis of his atheism. Specialist Jeremy Hall claims that, for example, he was ostracized by Christian soldiers when he refused to hold hands around the table and join in a Christian prayer at Thanksgiving. His federal lawsuit asserts he was also kicked off the promotion track for lacking religious faith.

"This lawsuit highlights one aspect of the insidious process by which the religious right's 'faith-based' agenda is corrupting American institutions," said Thomas Bowden, an analyst at the Ayn Rand Institute. "In the faith-friendly atmosphere of the Bush administration, religionists are taking big swings at the wall of separation between church and state. The allegations in this suit are consistent with recent controversies over evangelical proselytizing at the Air Force Academy and mealtime prayers at the Naval Academy.

"The military is duty-bound to actively shield its soldiers from ostracism and persecution such as that alleged in Specialist Hall's suit. Servicemen, like all Americans, are legally and morally entitled to exercise freedom of thought, which includes the freedom to accept or reject religion according to their own best judgment.

"In their interactions, soldiers should be required to cooperate based on their common values—a patriotic commitment to America's self-defense and to carrying out the specific tasks that goal requires. Religious dogma only undermines such rational cooperation, as centuries of faith-based warfare and persecution demonstrate.

"The religious right must be put in its place before it irreparably damages the wall between church and state. Americans are entitled to expect that the military, the courts, and the President will unite in protecting the First Amendment rights of all citizens. That means opposing, not promoting, attempts to inject religion into American institutions such as the armed forces."

Labels: Foreign Policy and War, Religion

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Friday, July 18, 2008

Medicare's 'Free Market' Facade

Posted by ARI Media at 10:21 PM

Irvine, CA—Some Republicans are bemoaning the passage of a new law they say undermines allegedly free-market elements of Medicare—in particular, Medicare Advantage, a program which gives seniors the option of receiving their government-financed care through private health plans. They claim that such "free market" elements are crucial to controlling the spiraling costs that are plaguing Medicare.

"The view that programs like Medicare Advantage have anything to do with free markets is a delusion," said Yaron Brook, executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute. "On a free market, each individual is responsible for his own—and only his own—health care. But Medicare Advantage is essentially no different from traditional Medicare: it forces some Americans to bankroll the health-care needs of other Americans. The inevitable result is our current health-care crisis.

"If the government guarantees health care to people, costs have to skyrocket. When someone else is footing the bill for health-care costs, consumers demand medical services without having to consider their real price. The artificially inflated demand this creates sends expenditures soaring out of control. It is irrelevant whether the government finances this spending spree directly, as it does with traditional Medicare, or indirectly, as with Medicare Advantage. In the end, the results are the same.

"The only way to fix the problems caused by government interference in medicine is to eliminate government interference in medicine—not to have some mishmash of government controls and market elements. By returning to a truly free system where each individual is responsible for his own health-care costs, we would unleash the power of capitalism in the medical industry, leading ultimately to high quality, affordable medical care for Americans. Let's start looking at ways to phase out government interference in medicine."

Labels: Business and Economics, Healthcare

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Monday, July 14, 2008

The Attack on Oil Speculators: Shooting the Messenger by Alex Epstein

Posted by ARI Media at 9:24 PM

Irvine, CA—Twelve prominent airline CEOs have just announced a new campaign, "Stop Oil Speculation Now"—the latest call for a government crackdown on the speculators who are allegedly to blame for high oil prices. "As unregulated speculators pocket billions of dollars at your expense, the price of commodities has increased out of proportion to marketplace demands," the group claims. "By adopting common-sense solutions, Congress can dramatically reduce the price of oil and gas, providing immediate relief for businesses and hard working Americans."

"Americans should reject this anti-speculator demagoguery," said Alex Epstein, an analyst at the Ayn Rand Institute. "The speculators bidding up prices today are not thieves who can effortlessly 'pocket billions of dollars at your expense.' They are investors who are risking their own money on their judgment that oil will become scarcer, and thus more expensive, in the future. If they are wrong, and their projections of future prices are artificially high, then they will take large losses. If they are right, then by bidding up prices now based on future projections, they are giving markets a vital warning about future oil supplies, and energy producers a vital incentive to invest in more energy production.

"It should be no surprise that speculators expect higher oil prices—because government policies around the world have given them every reason to be bearish on future oil supply. Eighty percent of the oil reserves in the world are nationalized, and much of the reserves in other countries, including the United States, are cut off from access thanks to environmentalist regulations. Our politicians call oil an 'addiction' and promise to eliminate it—despite the absence of any remotely viable large-scale alternative. Is it any wonder that speculators expect producers to produce less oil while consumers continue to demand more? And, given America's weak-dollar policy, is it any wonder that America's oil prices are increasing far faster than those of other countries?

"All of us, including airline CEOs, should demand that our government do only one thing about oil prices: get out of the market. This means rescinding its restrictions on oil production and scrapping its inflationary economic policies. It is morally unconscionable and economically destructive to demonize speculators for being the bearers of the bad news the government has caused."

Mr. Epstein is an analyst at the Ayn Rand Institute, focusing on business issues.

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Wednesday, July 09, 2008

With or Without Nukes, Iran Is a Mortal Threat by Elan Journo

Posted by ARI Media at 10:07 PM

Imagine that your neighborhood is overrun by a gang. These brutes are wielding crowbars, knives, and pistols in a frenzied spree of home break-ins and mugging and murder. Now suppose the police reveal that their grand strategy for dealing with this gang is to block them from getting submachine guns—as if without such weapons, the gang would no longer bother people.

Would you sleep soundly at night?

Or would you be outraged? Of course you would, because this gang—even without more powerful weapons—is already a serious menace that must be stopped.

Now, what would you say if this ridiculous what-if scenario resembled our actual response to the very real threat from Iran?

Ever since taking U.S. embassy staff hostage in 1979, the Islamist regime in Teheran has led an international spree of bombings, hijackings, and other terrorist attacks on Americans and Westerners. Now politicians and diplomats, who put up with Iranian aggression for years, are loudly promising to block Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons.

On the campaign trail, for instance, the candidates debate how (i.e., with or without preconditions) they'd negotiate to dissuade Iran from pursuing a nuke—on the idea that without such a weapon in Iranian hands, everything will be hunky-dory.

But the uncomfortable truth is that if the mullahs got a nuke, Iran would not suddenly undergo a Jekyll-and-Hyde transformation from a friendly neighbor into a rabid enemy. Iran long ago proved itself a threat that must be stopped; a nuclear arsenal would only make it a far worse threat.

For three decades the ayatollahs of Iran have been using proxies—such as Hezbollah—to carry out murderous attacks. Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps helped create and train Hezbollah, which hijacked a TWA airliner and which kidnapped and tortured to death American citizens. Iran pulled the strings behind the 1983 bomb attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon and later the barracks of U.S. Marines, killing 241 Americans. Iran also orchestrated the 1996 car bombing of Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia, where 19 U.S. servicemen died.

There's more: The 9/11 Commission found that "senior al Qaeda operatives and trainers traveled to Iran to receive training in explosives," and that "8 to 10 of the 14 Saudi 'muscle' operatives traveled into or out of Iran between October 2000 and February 2001." During the Afghanistan war, Iran welcomed fleeing al Qaeda and Taliban fighters. Today, according to the U.S. military, Iran is running training camps near Teheran for Iraqi insurgents, who return to Iraq to practice and train others in their bomb-making skills. There's also growing evidence that Iraqi insurgents get bomb technology from Iran.

What's going on here?

A rational assessment of Iran would have to recognize that the mullahs in Teheran have been conducting a proxy war against America. The inspiration for this war is Iran's jihadist goal of imposing Islamic totalitarianism globally. Iran is a leading sponsor of jihadists and the self-identified role model for exporting its Islamic revolution to other countries. It is the sworn enemy of the West. We should take seriously its call to bring "Death to America!"—because it has already done so.

But too many American diplomats and commentators refuse to judge Iran. Instead, they regard its past hostility as a string of disconnected crises, unrelated to Iran's ideological agenda. They avoid naming the nature of the regime and behave as if its acquisition of a nuclear weapon would be the decisive event. But that particular weapon—despite its power—cannot be the whole story, since we don't worry about other countries, such as France and Britain, having nukes. The rarely admitted difference is that the regime in Iran would eagerly press the launch button.

This fear-the-weapon-not-the-killer mentality refuses to understand the threat posed by Iran right now. This view holds that only the concrete facts about Iran's arsenal have any practical significance, while its abstract, ideological goals and character can be disregarded with impunity. But whether Iran uses one nuke, or attacks with more conventional weapons, its victims are still dead.

Our leaders' narrow concern with Iran's nuclear capability cannot make the regime's longstanding hostility to America go away. Americans should face the real character and conduct of the Iranian regime, before it is too late.

Elan Journo is a resident fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute in Irvine, Calif. The Institute promotes Objectivism, the philosophy of Ayn Rand—author of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead.

Labels: Foreign Policy and War

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Tuesday, July 08, 2008

Institute Announces Two New Web Sites

Posted by ARI Media at 6:58 AM

The Ayn Rand Institute is pleased to announce the complete redesign of its WEBSITE. The site’s new look reflects a reorganization designed to increase ease of navigation. The site has also been supplemented with many new pages of written, audio and video content.

ARI also announces the simultaneous launch of a NEW WEBSITE, dedicated to the work of its new public policy and media center. The Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights, which opens later this year in Washington, D.C., will promote the philosophical case for individual rights and laissez-faire capitalism to the public policy and business communities, the media, the general public and elected officials and their staffs. The Ayn Rand Center’s Web site features topical categories that will make it easier than ever to locate relevant ARI commentaries and materials by Ayn Rand and other authors. And by clicking on a “Participate” button, users can find information on how to support ARI’s activities through personal activism.

Labels: Announcements

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