Free Republic

When folks in Washington want to find out what's on the mind of the American people, they tune in to CNN or Fox News and listen to the best of the Washington talking heads. Not me. I have breakfast at my favorite diner in Eufaula, my hometown in Oklahoma. Last week, the folks at J.M.s Restaurant weren't talking about senators Obama and McCain, or the fact the Iraqi government has al Qaeda on the run. They were talking about energy prices. They were talking about the fact it costs $80 to fill up their cars and $120 to fill up...

The Bush administration on Tuesday released proposed rules administering commercial oil shale development on public lands in Utah, Colorado and Wyoming to provide "critical rules of the road" for investors. The rules would govern lease management and royalty payments should extracting kerogen from rock for further refining into fuel ever prove economically feasible - an open question given the likelihood of carbon taxes, lack of available Colorado River water and a host of environmental protection restrictions. The rules proposed by the Department of the Interior are part of an election-year push by Republicans to support development of oil shale, which...

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - A House Armed Services Committee subcommittee will hear from experts next week to help the nation's military move away from crisis management and develop a "grand strategy" for dealing with international affairs.The Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee meeting is free and open to the public and will take place on Tuesday at 10 a.m. in room 2212 of the Rayburn building in Washington, D.C. Witnesses are Ambassador James Dobbins, Director of the International Security and Defense Policy Center at the RAND Corporation; Dr. Barry R. Posen, Director of the Security Studies Program at the Massachusetts Institute of...

News Release OFFICE OF MEDIA RELATIONS 703-413-1100 x5117 and 310-451-6913media@rand.org FOR RELEASE Tuesday June 10, 2008 Virginity Pledges May Help Postpone Intercourse Among Youth Making a virginity pledge may help some young people postpone the start of sexual activity, according to a new RAND Corporation study. Researchers found that adolescents who made pledges to remain virgins until they are married were less likely to be sexually active over the three-year study period than other youth who were similar to them, but who did not make a virginity pledge, according to the study published online by the Journal of Adolescent...

YET CONGRESS RECENTLY VOTED TO MAKE IT ILLEGAL TO DEVELOP U.S. OIL SHALE RESOURCES With oil prices at an all-time high, Americans are facing escalating gas, diesel, and aircraft fuel increases. Oil prices are projected to increase further. Congress, however, has made it illegal to develop vast domestic oil resources in large parts of the United States. The most startling Congressional prohibition on domestic oil production concerns the recently enacted ban on the development of oil shale resources in parts of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming in the Green River Formation. According to a Rand Study estimate, this reserve contains over...

The Education Next article “Can Catholic Schools Be Saved?” asks the provocative question: Will charter schools finish off inner city Catholic private schools? The author cites a RAND Corporation study that found private schools in Michigan lose one student for every three students charter schools gain. Writing in the latest issue of the Journal of Catholic Education, I detailed a more hopeful example than Michigan: Arizona. Total charter school enrollment is 12.5 percent higher in Arizona than in Michigan, despite the fact that Michigan’s population is 70 percent larger. Catholic education is anything but wilting in Arizona. Between 2004 and...

Businessmen are favorite villains in popular media, routinely featured as polluters, crooks and murderers in network TV dramas and first-run movies, not to mention novels. Oil company CEOs are hauled before congressional committees whenever fuel prices rise, to be harangued and publicly shamed for the sin of high profits. Genuine cases of wrongdoing like Enron set off witch hunts that drag in prominent achievers like Frank Quattrone and Martha Stewart. By contrast, the heroes in "Atlas Shrugged" are businessmen -- and women. Rand imbues them with heroic, larger-than-life stature in the Romantic mold, for their courage, integrity and ability to...

It has been half a century since the publication of Ayn Rand's magnum opus, Atlas Shrugged. That book like no other has inspired millions of readers; motivated individuals to pursue their own happiness and achieve the best within them; influenced philosophy, politics, ethics and aesthetics; and has created the Objectivist movement. The Atlas Society will celebrate this great achievement with an all-day conference and gala concluding banquet in Washington, D.C. and give you any updates on the planned Atlas movie! Our keynote speakers: *John Stossel, ABC News 20/20, author. Dinner Speaker *Charles Murray, author, philosopher and social scientist. Luncheon Speaker....

Ayn Rand said my personal life is a post script to my works/novels : it consists of the sentence "And I mean it ". I have always lived by the philosophy I present in my books - and it has worked for me , as it works for my characters .The concretes differ , the abstractions are the same. But as stated in " The passion of Ayn Rand " - she suggested an open affair with Nath for just a year or so , as she couldnot see herself as an old woman chasing a younger man It is...

Egoism is a state of mind where a person values all things in terms of their value to the self. Egoism and selfishness are virtues, in fact the greatest of all virtues, as they enable life. All living beings are selfish. To survive, they must be. Without fulfilling one's basic needs of water, food, or protection, one would cease to exist. Although selfishness is a necessity, many people hold selflessness as their goal in life, and this altruistic thinking is a dominating and corrosive mainstay of today's society. If one were to give all of his money to charity or...

When I suggest that radical Muslims are the problem and that moderate Muslims are the solution, the nearly inevitable retort from most people is: "What moderate Muslims?" "Where are the anti-Islamists' demonstrations against terror?" they ask me. "What are they doing to combat Islamists? What have they done to reassess Islamic law?" My response: Moderate Muslims do exist. But, of course, they constitute a very small movement when compared to the Islamist onslaught. This means that the American government and other powerful institutions should give priority to locating, meeting with, funding, forwarding, empowering, and celebrating those brave Muslims who, at...

Identifying Key Partners and Audiences A critical part of U.S. network-building efforts, as well as in its broader public diplomacy and strategic communications policy, is identifying key partners and audiences. Difficulties in distinguishing potential allies from adversaries present a major problem to Western governments and organizations attempting to organize support for moderate Muslims. Work done by the RAND Corporation—in Cheryl Benard’s Civil Democratic Islam and Angel Rabasa et al., The Muslim World After 9/11—has begun to lay the framework for identifying ideological tendencies in the Muslim world,1 which is necessary in order to identify the sectors with which the United...

Totalitarian Islam's Threat to the West http://www.aynrand.org/site/News2?JServSessionIdr004=7sd22hq0m1.app7a&page=NewsArticle&id=14313&news_iv_ctrl=1221 Who: Dr. Daniel Pipes, director of the Middle East Forum Dr. Yaron Brook, president of the Ayn Rand Institute Dr. Wafa Sultan, outspoken critic of Islam and author of the forthcoming book "The Escaped Prisoner: When God Is a Monster" What: A panel discussion on the threat of Islamic totalitarianism and how to deal with it Where: UCLA Campus: Moore 100, Los Angeles, CA When: Thursday, April 12, 2007, at 7:00 PM Admission is FREE. Description: From the Iranian hostage crisis to September 11 to the London subway attacks to the Iraqi insurgency--it...

I just finished a (long) article by David Ronfeldt called "IN SEARCH OF HOW SOCIETIES WORK; Tribes — The First and Forever Form" Here, I'll post the Abstract: The latest in a string of efforts to develop a theoretical framework about social evolution, based on how people develop their societies by using four forms of organization — tribes, hierarchical institutions, markets, and networks — this installment focuses on the tribal form. The tribal form was the first to emerge and mature, beginning thousands of years ago. Its main dynamic is kinship, which gives people a distinct sense of identity and...

To defeat the global jihadist movement, the United States should move beyond the boundaries of conventional counter-terrorism and seek to undermine support for Islamic terrorism within Muslim nations, according to a RAND Corporation study issued today. The report says this type of campaign enabled the United States to help nurture opposition to Communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, culminating in the overthrow of ruling regimes and the collapse of the Soviet system. The study by RAND, a nonprofit research organization, says a successful campaign against Islamic terrorism requires: attacking the ideological underpinnings of global jihadism; severing ideological and...

Writer-director Randall Wallace wasn't about to shrug off the chance to adapt Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" for the bigscreen. Wallace, the "Braveheart" scribe known for taking on epic themes, will begin penning the script immediately for Lionsgate. Angelina Jolie has already signed on to star in the film, which is being produced by Howard and Karen Baldwin ("Ray") -- who hold the rights to the classic book -- and Media Talent Group topper Geyer Kosinski. Wallace, who last wrote and directed "We Were Soldiers" for Paramount, said he and his college-age son made a deal last year to read each...

Visionary student architect Howard Roark strives to break away from the classically inspired designs of ordinary architects. His unwillingness to compromise, despite the advice of his ambitious friend, Peter Keating, causes him to be kicked out of school, but earns him a job with Henry Cameron, a talented architect, who also believes that form must follow function. After Cameron is completely destroyed by the system, Roark sets up his own company, but gets only an occasional job. Roark is offered a commission to build a bank building, but when he learns that the bank wants him to add some classical...

Only one prominent intellectual in the last century--Ayn Rand, the great intellectual defender of individualism--has been brave enough to name the moral lesson. Rejecting the morality of sacrifice, she declared that "The purpose of morality is to teach you, not to suffer and die, but to enjoy yourself and live," while in her classic novel The Fountainhead, her hero laments that "The world is perishing from an orgy of self-sacrificing." Ayn Rand remains a controversial figure, scoffed at by both left and right. But this phrase, "perishing from an orgy of self-sacrificing"--could there be a better description of the Palestinians'...

OXFORD, N.C. --A college based on the teachings of philosopher-author Ayn Rand might come to Oxford -- if Maine doesn't get it first. The University of North Carolina Board of Governors, the ruling body for the state's public universities, has received a request for the establishment of Founders College in Oxford. The board has to approve applications for private colleges in the state. Two Duke University professors, Gary Hull and Eric Daniels, are involved with the College of Rational Education Inc., which would operate Founders College under Rand's principles. The author of "Atlas Shrugged" emphasized the rights of the individual...

How the CIA Funds Anti-Bush Propaganda By Bill Gertz The Washington Times | September 14, 2004 The CIA's Counterterrorist Center has spent more than $15 million in the past three years funding studies, reports and conferences produced by former Democratic administration officials and other critics of the Bush administration. The latest effort was a $300,000 grant by the CIA to the Atlantic Council for a study co-authored by Richard A. Clarke, the former counterterrorism official who wrote a best seller accusing the Bush administration of failing in the war on terrorism by invading Iraq.

Skousen, Rand too hot for university library in ManilaWe hear from Mark Skousen that he's none too popular at the University of the Philippines -- or rather, too popular. In an article posted at the Human Events site, he quotes a friend's report on the situation, a former Marxist turned around by a critique of Marx in one of his books.Remember you sent me a box of The Making of Modern Economics?I donated a copy to the libraries of each of the four major universities here. Later, a friend of mine checked the library at the University of the Philippines...

Army Stretched Thin There’s No Easy Way Out for the Nation By Lynn Davis and J. Michael Polich Lynn Davis, a political scientist at the RAND Corporation, was U.S. undersecretary of state for arms control and international security affairs from 1993 to 1997. Defense analyst Michael Polich is a senior behavioral scientist at RAND. The United States faces an enormous challenge in having to provide military forces for sustained overseas operations while protecting the American homeland and standing ready for other crises that may require rapid response. Driven by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the increased operational tempo of...

UNITED NATIONS - Armed conflicts have declined by 40 percent since the end of the Cold War primarily because the United Nations was finally able to launch peacekeeping and conflict-prevention operations around the world, according to a new study. The first Human Security Report paints a surprising picture of war and peace in the 21st century: a dramatic decline in battlefield deaths, plummeting instances of genocide, and a drop in human rights abuses. The only form of political violence that appears to be getting worse is international terrorism, a serious threat but one that has killed fewer than 1,000 people...

...Mr. Schelling's early work was on the most important issue of the Cold War: preventing it from becoming a Hot War. In his classic 1960 book "The Strategy of Conflict," Mr. Schelling, who had spent a year at the RAND Corporation, laid out some important applications of game theory to the issue of nuclear war. In one passage, he discussed the U.S.-Soviet conflict in terms anyone could relate to: a hypothetical duel. He wrote that "if both [duelists] were assured of living long enough to shoot back with unimpaired aim, there would be no advantage in jumping the gun and...

[Commentary on the book, "The Woman and the Dynamo: Isabel Paterson and the Idea of America", by S. Cox] The history of libertarianism has played out in the catacombs of standard American intellectual history. And so, even after an age of feminist theory and history, it is little noted that in 1943 three foundational documents of modern libertarianism were issued, as the journalist John Chamberlain put it, by “three women—Mrs. [Isabel] Paterson, Rose Wilder Lane, and Ayn Rand—who, with scornful side glances at the male business community, had decided to rekindle a faith in an older American philosophy. There wasn’t...

The U.S. Oil Shale Resource Base The term oil shale generally refers to any sedimentary rock that contains solid bituminous materials that are released as petroleum-like liquids when the rock is heated. To obtain oil from oil shale, the shale must be heated and resultant liquid must be captured. This process is called retorting, and the vessel in which retorting takes place is known as a retort. The largest known oil shale deposits in the world are in the Green River Formation, which covers portions of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. Estimates of the oil resource in place within the Green...

WASHINGTON [MENL] -- The United States should brace for the prospect of suicide attacks against mass transit such as those that rocked London in July 2005. The Rand Corp. said in a report that the United States would be next in line for suicide attacks that have already struck Europe and Asia . The report, authored by Bruce Hoffman, said the most likely attacks would be those against mass transit and inspired by the 2001 suicide strikes by Al Qaida in New York and Washington. "It seems very likely that we will see more suicide attacks in the United States...

WASHINGTON, DC, United States (UPI) -- U.S. and coalition troops have have numbered at least 250,000 in Iraq to provide security in the immediate aftermath of the war, the Rand Corp. said. Rand, a major think tank, calculates that for security and stability in the "golden period" immediately following the invasion and the toppling of Saddam Hussein`s regime, the coalition should have deployed 1,000 troops for every 100,000 inhabitants. It bases this on an analysis of previous peacekeeping missions that have been successful - notably, Kosovo and East Timor. "Establishing security in the short-run is critical to avert chaos and...

<p>China's military capability is catching up with that of the United States according to a Rand Corp. study.</p> <p>A Rand report quoted by the Russian newspaper Pravda Thursday said the gap was expected to further narrow in the next few years.</p>

The RAND Corporation today issued the most comprehensive recommendations ever made for the success of an independent Palestinian state. The proposals — including a landmark rail, highway and infrastructure link between the West Bank and Gaza that would open the door to dramatic new development in Palestine — would give Palestinians new access to jobs, food, water, education, health care, housing and public services. Many of the actions proposed by RAND can get underway now to begin improving the lives of Palestinians and begin laying the groundwork to sustain long-term development in a future state. A report produced under the...

Paul Baran and the Origins of the Internet Key Titles by Paul Baran Introduction to Distributed Communications NetworksDigital Simulation of Hot-Potato Routing in a Broadband Distributed Communications Network Determination of Path-Lengths in a Distributed NetworkPriority, Precedence, and OverloadHistory, Alternative Approaches, and ComparisonsMini-Cost MicrowaveTentative Engineering Specifications and Preliminary Design for a High-Data-Rate Distributed Network Switching NodeThe Multiplexing Station Security, Secrecy, and Tamper-Free ConsiderationsCost EstimateSummary Overview In 1962, a nuclear confrontation seemed imminent. The United States (US) and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) were embroiled in the Cuban missile crisis. Both the US and the USSR were in the process...

Libby, Randy and Fundy. Yes, I thought that it would be appropriate to create pet names for those who are either afraid of Christians or social conservatives. Why not adopt “Libby” or “Randy” for the Libertarians/Randians who are in a snit about Republicans and Christians? Remember the Calvin & Hobbes comic strip? A true work of genius. Some of my favorite story lines involved the monsters that inhabited Calvin’s closet and lived under his bed. When Libbies and Randies go into their bedrooms they always check for the Fundy police, knowing that The Christian Coalition stays awake at night working...

A recent RAND report showing that California’s per-pupil spending lags behind the national average has become a key weapon for education interest groups. But there are problems with the report that warrant caution. First, RAND uses comparative data collected by the National Education Association (NEA) and the National Center for Education Statistics. RAND acknowledges that data collected by these organizations often omit significant spending items: “Comparisons with other states provide a valuable but limited perspective. States may put large investments into activities that are not counted in the NEA data or other data. For example, California has directed substantial funds...

Ayn Rand deserves to be taken seriously, because she was right about three things of immense importance: metaphysics, morals and individual liberty. Although many of her characteristic arguments were anticipated by Aristotle, Rand highlighted their relevance to modern life, and made them accessible. And by illustrating key philosophical concepts in superbly titled novels, she has provided millions of readers with arguments, and a vocabulary, that can be used to challenge the errors of conventional morality and collectivist government. The great metaphysical truth that Rand recognised is supremely simple: 'A is A'. This is a shorthand way of referring both to...

RALEIGH -- A key state senator ordered Bibles, hymnals and a cross removed from the Legislative Building's nondenominational chapel but was overruled Thursday when his decision threatened a cultural and political spat. State Sen. Tony Rand last week had staffers box up the religious material because other legislators complained that the chapel's Christian emphasis was inappropriate in a public building used by people of different faiths. Rand is chairman of the Senate Rules Committee and shares oversight of the building with his House counterpart. Senate leader Marc Basnight, also a Democrat, reversed Rand's order after complaints from Republican lawmakers and...

Im a conservative...and still struggle with the idea of whether or not to be a Christian. I find more in common with Ayn Rand's view that "rational thinking" is man's only absolute. Is there anything wrong with this thinking?

February 4, 2005: FINDING RELIGION: Senate Rules Committee chair Tony Rand, D-Cumberland, ordered Christian Bibles and hymnals and a cross removed from the Legislative Building's nondenominational chapel, but was reversed by Senate leader Marc Basnight when the decision became public, The News & Observer reports. Rand, who is also the Senate majority leader, said the items' Christian emphasis is inappropriate in a public building used by people of different faiths. The small, mostly unadorned chapel off the rotunda between the House and Senate chambers is open to legislators, staff and visitors who wish to use it for prayer or reflection....

Raleigh – Jan. 26. As has been reported in the Charlotte Observer, and elsewhere, changes made in the Rules governing the state Senate, upon the opening of the 2005 Session, have raised some eyebrows. Democrat leaders appear to be providing cover for their embattled conservative Senators without causing a revolt among liberals. Maintaining a ban on laptop computers and banning smoking in the Senate Chamber grabbed more attention as Democrat leaders changed the way the Senate does business in fundamental ways. Even greater power over the Senate agenda has been placed in the hands of Rules Committee chairman Sen. Tony...

To call Ayn Rand, the high priestess of the human will, a mere force of nature would to her have been an insult as well as a cliche. But how else to describe this extraordinary, maddening, and indestructible individual? Born a century ago this year into the flourishing bourgeoisie of glittering, doomed St. Petersburg, Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum was to triumph over revolution, civil war, Lenin's dictatorship, an impoverished immigrant existence, and bad reviews in the New York Times to become a strangely important figure in the history of American ideas.

ARI's Dr. Yaron Brock was on the O'Reilly Factor arguing that we are far too soft in Iraq and that we should "turn fallujah into dust". O'Reilly was login the argument and it was great. You've gotta love Libertarian superhawks from the Ayn Rand Institute!

As American post-conflict combat deaths in Iraq overtook the wartime number, the administration counseled patience. "The war on terror is a test of our strength. It is a test of our perseverance, our patience, and our will," President Bush told an American Legion convention. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice embellished the message with what former White House speechwriters immediately recognize as a greatest-generation pander. "There is an understandable tendency to look back on America's experience in postwar Germany and see only the successes," she told the Veterans of Foreign Wars in San Antonio, Texas, on Aug. 25. "But as some...

This is kind of cool ~ a 1954 vision of what a "home computer" might look like in 2004.

In 1974, American author and philosopher, Ayn Rand, was chosen to deliver the Commencement Address to that year's Graduating Class of West Point. The title of the address has come to be known as, Philosophy: Who Needs It? During the course of her speech, Mrs. Rand answered here own question. "Everyone!" She also bestowed on the United States Military, one of the more profound vindications of their existence as has ever been noted. On this Veterans Day, 2004, do let's recall her words, and share her gratitude to the brave men and women who DO NOT sacrifice themselves for...

just some thoughts to think about:

Anti-communist analyst note: [As the presidential candidate John Kerry already twice stated in his "honest" responses during the presidential debates he wants our nuclear research stopped and he wants to send money to Russia to "protect the 'former' Soviet era nuclear weapons" from being 'lost' or 'stolen' by Russian Mafia. Please consider the following article in that light of the fact even though it has been written 10 years ago - it was as important then as it is today.Published with permission given by Inside Story Communications. HM note]. The Plot To Hijack the CIA Is nuclear terrorism about to...

Adolescents who watch large amounts of television containing sexual content are twice as likely to begin engaging in sexual intercourse in the following year as their peers who watch little such TV, according to a RAND Corporation study issued today.In addition, the study found that youths who watch large amounts of TV with sexual content are more likely to initiate sexual activities other than intercourse, such as “making out” and oral sex. These adolescents behaved sexually like youths who were 9 to 17 months older, but watched only average amounts of TV with sexual content, according to the study published...

The Chechens' American friends The Washington neocons' commitment to the war on terror evaporates in Chechnya, whose cause they have made their own John Laughland Wednesday September 8, 2004 The Guardian An enormous head of steam has built up behind the view that President Putin is somehow the main culprit in the grisly events in North Ossetia. Soundbites and headlines such as "Grief turns to anger", "Harsh words for government", and "Criticism mounting against Putin" have abounded, while TV and radio correspondents in Beslan have been pressed on air to say that the people there blame Moscow as much as...

...There is a special reason why you, the future leaders of the United States Army, need to be philosophically armed today. You are the target of a special attack by the Kantian-Hegelian-collectivist establishment that dominates our cultural institutions at present. You are the army of the last semi-free country left on earth, yet you are accused of being a tool of imperialism--and "imperialism" is the name given to the foreign policy of this country, which has never engaged in military conquest and has never profited from the two world wars, which she did not initiate, but entered and won. (It...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

With the general downfall of album oriented rock as a successful money-spinner, the grandiose concept albums that are now Sunday Morning rock show classics are no longer being made and released in large numbers. This comes as no surprise. Getting into a CD like The Wall, Court of The Crimson King, or 2112 doesn't always appeal to a wide audience. 2112 never got the acclaim it really deserved for two reasons. Rush played hard rock at that point in their careers. The sort of music that would headline The Castle Donnington Festival, but would never make the playlist for an...