On August 6, 1945 the American Air Force incinerated Hiroshima, Japan with an atomic bomb. On August 9, Nagasaki was obliterated. The fireballs killed some 175,000 people. They followed months of horror, when American airplanes firebombed civilians and reduced cities to rubble. Facing extermination, the
According to Objectivism, the principle of property rights is a cornerstone of a free society. The right to property is the recognition that human life requires material goods, and that an individual has ownership over the goods he produces. The principle of property, once accepted ubiquitously
In launching Google.cn on January 25th, the beloved search engine caved in to the Chinese government's demand that it block politically "sensitive" content from searches. Now, if a Chinese web surfer wants to learn, for instance, about the 1989 massacre at Tiananmen Square, he will
If your college campus is anything like mine, there are probably at least a few posters around declaring the evils of war and exhorting everyone to work for "world peace." It's not a new call. For centuries, people have worked and prayed for world peace, but
This January, the Islamic terrorist organization, Hamas, won the Palestinian elections by a landslide. It now effectively controls Parliament. President Bush responded to the election by complimenting the democratic process. "You see," he said, in a line quoted by Time Online, "When you give people
Last January, Hamas won an overwhelming majority in parliamentary elections for the Palestinian Authority. The victory of this terrorist organization, whose explicit goal is to wipe Israel off the map, has shocked the world. Why are the leaders of the Western world so surprised by
We at The Undercurrent are writing in defense of the freedom of speech. The violent response to the Jyllands-Posten Mohammad cartoons has placed that freedom under attack. The American media has surrendered to the pressure. We will not. On this special edition flyer, we have printed
To fathom our government's contemptible treatment of a handful of unbowed journalists, you must see the roots of that treatment in the moral ideal Christianity bequeathed the West. In the face of the intimidation and murder of European authors, film makers and politicians by Islamic militants,
Legal and political battle lines have been drawn across the country over the teaching of "intelligent design"--the view that life is so complex it must be the product of a "higher intelligence." The central issue under debate is whether "intelligent design" is, in fact, a
Does morality depend upon religion? Most people believe it does, which is a major reason behind the appeal of the religious right. People believe that without faith in a supernatural authority, we can have no moral values--no moral absolutes, no black-and-white distinctions, no firm demarcation