An objective perspective on politics, history, philosophy, and more.

The Threat to America’s Next Great Leap

Two months ago, chip maker NVIDIA released a promotional video entitled “America’s Next Great Leap: The Age of AI.” Its bright vision of the future is undermined by unchecked presidential power.

Art is not Subjective: Differentiating between Personal Context and the Objective in Art

I will discuss this subject with respect to a single work of art, and relaying my own personal context as well as what I think is objectively conveyed in Bryan Larsen's painting Heroes. You can view an image of Heroes here and purchase it if you like what

Cyberwarfare Waged Against Water Grid in Pennsylvania

Last Saturday, local news site BeaverCounty.com reported an Iranian-linked "hactivist" group claimed responsibility for compromising control systems in the Aliquippa, PA water grid. The attack disabled autonomous control over a pressure regulating pump, forcing operators to take manual control to prevent service disruption. The facility's

One Graph Explains why Price Caps are a Bad Idea

Australia is not immune from the current global energy crisis caused by 3 main factors, the war in Ukraine and the sanctions posed on russia. Another factor is the post covid lockdown economic resurgence, in addition to the over reliance of renewables alongside the under utilisation of nuclear power by

Prisoner of the State: The Tragedy of Zhao Ziyang

There are many lessons we can learn from Prisoner of the State, Zhao Ziyang’s memoirs of the economic reforms which he recorded in secret while under house arrest. One of them is the Kafkaesque experience with his captors, who refused to acknowledge that Zhao was under house arrest while

The Renaissance of Korean Drama

Potentially, motion pictures are a great art, but that potential has not as yet been actualized, except in single instances and random moments. An art that requires the synchronization of so many esthetic elements and so many different talents cannot develop in a period of philosophical-cultural disintegration such as the

Elon Musk, Twitter, and Welfare for Corporate Managers: How Modern Corporate Law Makes You Poorer

Elon Musk's ongoing saga with Twitter is just one more illustration of how government regulations have a very real impact on our everyday lives.

The Myths of "Peak Growth," "Low-Hanging Fruit," and Other Determinist Economic Fallacies

Discussions surrounding economics are always rooted ultimately in morality and other philosophical ideas. Many have written on the ethics of capitalism, and the arguments for individual rights underlying it. Yaron Brook, Ayn Rand, and other Objectivists have written extensively on these subjects, and I highly commend their works to you.

Biden's Ukraine Speech: A Great Start, Followed by Cowardly Retreat

I was pleasantly surprised when I watched President Biden's speech on a live broadcast the other day. He had some incredibly powerful and positive lines - though he likely would have inadequate definitions for some of the terms he used, his use of concepts such as liberalism and

The Partial Re-emergence and Tragic Fall of American Self-Esteem: Two Cheers for Ronald Reagan

The Cold War is perhaps the most tragic and unnecessary conflict since the World Wars. Yet the conflict finally drew to a close during the 1980s, with the ascendancy of Ronald Reagan and his strategy of financially bankrupting the Soviet Union through a renewed arms race. Seeing the inferior economic

Freedom of Contract and the Abortion Debate

Freedom of Contract had a vibrant (albeit not completely consistent) history within American jurisprudence during the so-called Lochner Era, which legal scholars generally regard as lasting from the late nineteenth century until 1937. While never completely consistent in its application, the Supreme Court defended property rights much more consistently than

The App Store Is Under Attack (Not by Hackers)

Governments around the world are enacting new regulation and opening antitrust investigations over the dominance of Google and Apple’s respective app stores. Arguably, these attacks were inspired by Epic Games v. Apple since, in that case, Apple partially won. For those who are unfamiliar, Apple takes a 30% commission