Secular and Absolute

I co-authored an article with Craig Biddle called, "George Will: A Conservative 'None' in Need of Ayn Rand's Theory of Rights." Check it out on The Objective Standard blog.

On a related topic, also see Harry Binswanger's excellent and crucially important article called "Capitalism Without God: Freedom Is A Secular But Absolute Value" at the Forbes web site.

Coerced Insurance Is Not Insurance

The "adverse-selection" problem that Robert H. Frank describes in a New York Times article would not be a problem at all in a free market. My article on this is posted at The Objective Standard blog. 

Also, Rituparna Basu wrote a good article on Forbes that is related to the topic of coercing insurers.

Carlotta Nobile Plays Bloch

I just saw the very sad report that the young Italian violinist Carlotta Nobile died yesterday. She was only 24 years old. Apparently, she had been diagnosed with melanoma two years ago, which spread to her brain. How awful.

Below is a video of Carlotta playing the Baal Shem suite of Ernest Bloch.

Obama Gets Rights Wrong

"The promise of America is not a 'right' to have one’s needs such as health care, education, jobs, and housing provided by the government. . . . When the government attempts to provide citizens with goods and services that have to be produced, it does so by forcing some individuals to produce for the sake of others, thereby violating the rights of those who are forced."

Read my entire post at the TOS Blog.