Got Rand?

I'm no fan of Ayn Rand for a boatload of reasons, including the fact that, as a novelist, she was the pits. If you're interested in the lady, this article in The Nation is a must read.

Burqas in France

Best article I've seen in a while, from a Hindu woman. "French lawmakers recently voted for a non-binding resolution condemning the burqa because they see in it not an expression of personal piety—but a message of religious fundamentalism meant to insult French secularism." More...

So much for the vaccination topic

In January the United Kingdom's General Medical Council ruled that physician Andrew Wakefield's 1998 research allegedly linking autism to the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine (MMR) was conducted "dishonestly and irresponsibly." More...

Innate morality

Holy Cannoli: "A growing body of evidence, though, suggests that humans do have a rudimentary moral sense from the very start of life. With the help of well-designed experiments, you can see glimmers of moral thought, moral judgment and moral feeling even in the first year of life. Some sense of good and evil seems to be bred in the bone." More...

Liberty and the Supreme Court

An enlightening piece on SCOTUS. "When America’s Founders thought of liberty, however, their minds did not gravitate to a bill of rights, much less to the Supreme Court as guardian of the lonely dissenter. One reason is that the Founders understood liberty to be mainly a community’s right to govern itself according to laws made by representatives caring for the public weal. Individuals enjoyed the manifold blessings of living in such a regime. Some had the further satisfaction of participating in this collective self-governance by the leave of no man, as equal and independent citizens." More...

Racism and capital punishment

"There are many things wrong with capital punishment in the U.S. (and with capital punishment as such), but the most obvious thing is the blatant racism of it all. A black person in the U.S. is almost 4 times more likely to be executed." More...

Freedom from religion

A useful National Review article for CatNats Pfffters: "Many Americans are puzzled and angry about the judicial assault on religion, morality, and common sense that has been going on for the past few decades. People wonder, for example, how the First Amendment (which guarantees freedom of religion as well as separation of church and state) could possibly require the expulsion of religion from public life, or outlaw prayers at high-school football games and graduation ceremonies. To answer questions like these, one must understand how federal judges got the power to make such controversial political decisions in the first place, and how the judges used that power to bludgeon the American citizenry into believing that their power was legitimate." More...