Articles

Jillian Melchior has written an excellent piece titled " VanDamme Academy Shows Value of Choice" in The Heartland Institute’s School Reform News. Here’s the opening: The VanDamme Academy, a K-8 school in Laguna Hills, California, has an unusual way of giving students a better foundation of knowledge. Founder Lisa VanDamme…

Yaron Brook has an excellent article in Forbes titled “The Right Vision of Health Care.” Here’s an excerpt: Prior to the government's entrance into the medical field, health care was regarded as a product to be traded voluntarily on a free market—no different from food, clothing, or any other important…

The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) has published a first-rate piece on the meaning of jihad: “Jihad Today” by Menahem Milson (Inquiry and Analysis Series, No. 411 , December 20, 2007). The topic of this piece is the concept of jihad—but the author’s abstract theme is that ideas matter. He…

The print edition of the Winter issue of TOS has been mailed, and the online version has been posted to our website. The contents of the Winter issue are: From the Editor Letters and Replies Moral Health Care vs. “Universal Health Care” by Lin Zinser and Paul Hsieh Instrumentalism and…

Dear Subscribers and Friends of The Objective Standard, The print edition of the Winter issue is at press and will be mailed shortly; the online version will be accessible to subscribers beginning December 20. For promotional purposes, we are making Lin Zinser and Paul Hsieh’s “Moral Health Care vs. ‘Universal…

Yaron Brook has an excellent article at Forbes.com titled “Predatory Legislating.” Here’s an excerpt: After months of deliberating over what, if anything, to do about the large number of defaults in the subprime industry and the lax lending and borrowing standards that led to them—the House has passed its answer:…

We at VanDamme Academy love hearing stories about things the students do or say at home that reflect their VanDamme Academy education. I recently asked parents to share some stories from home. Here are a few highlights: Calvin (5): I was talking to Calvin about the upcoming trip to Schoolhouse…

Thomas Bowden has an excellent op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal calling for the recognition of property rights with regard to the ocean floor. Here are the first few paragraphs: The Law of the Sea Treaty, which awaits a ratification vote in the U.S. Senate, declares most of the earth's…

Identifies the ideology of sacrifice behind the Japanese aggression that culminated in World War II; documents America’s recognition of this ideology as the fundamental cause of the Japanese assault on the West; explains how America targeted, dismantled, and discredited this ideology, replacing it with the ideas, values, and institutions necessary for the establishment of a free society; and defends America’s use of the atomic bomb as a profoundly moral way to end the war.

Illustrates the utter insanity of today’s liability law, recounts the roots and original purpose of the law of torts, surveys the missing links and corrupt ideas that led to its destruction, and sheds light on the path to identifying a sound body of principles that will ground this field in the ultimate purpose of objective law: the protection of individual rights.

Surveys the history of government interference in health insurance and medicine in America, specifying the rights violations and economic problems caused thereby; enumerates the failed attempts to solve those economic problems by means of further government interference; and shows that the only viable solution to the debacle at hand is to gradually and systematically transition to a rights-respecting, fully free market in these industries.

Craig Biddle introduces the Winter 2007–08 issue.

Gus Van Horn, one of the best bloggers on the Web, is leading in the final polling of the 2007 Weblog Awards in the “Best of the Top 6751–8750 Blogs” category. Gus deserves this and much more, so vote, vote, vote this year (you can vote every 24 hours), and…

During the question period of the otherwise unremarkable debate between Christopher Hitchens and Dinesh D’Souza on the question of “Is Christianity the Problem?” the following two questions were posed to Hitchens: 1) “What [does atheism] have to offer us as an ethics?” and 2) “What standard [of value] can you…

Roger Scruton challenges Ayn Rand’s concept of selfishness—by committing the very fallacy Rand identified as the cause of confusion on this issue.