Save Doha
Why America and the world need free trade
M. Harrison

Forget the politicking on the news about tariffs and subsidies. The true advantages of free trade, toward which small political steps as the Doha trade round are vital, are to the long-term financial and social benefit of America and the world. Were free trade effectively implemented, instead of being torpedoed by the demagogic posturing of reactionary Leftists, the progress and development it inspired would improve the lives of millions of people.

Every Country Hates Us!
Why the US should generally disregard world opinion
Justin Hartfield

"Every country hates us!" - A. Liberal

I have heard this statement uttered more times than I wish to recall. It is the battle cry of the Apologist. It is the maxim of people who move through the world with trepidation. It is proudly exclaimed by individuals who take their cues by cautiously following others, making sure to seek their approval before taking their next step.

Before the Revolutionary War, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin and the like did not feel the need to take a poll of the colonial inhabitants asking them if they thought a revolution would be an 'OK' idea. The Founding Fathers knew that they were fighting for a noble cause and that a revolution would be the only way for them to enjoy the liberties they felt entitled to as humans.

Is there a reason for Americans to be patriotic anymore?
The case for true patriotism on America's most patriotic day
Matt Harrison and Justin Hartfield

Is there a reason for Americans to be patriotic anymore? It's a question worth examining.

Certainly, the old excuses that we're taught in elementary school of why "America rules!" are gone. Freest country in the world, you say? Hardly. America's Sarbanes-Oxley act, for one example, is so statist that Europeans, who are used to every conceivable regulatory strong-arm of business, think it's too stifling even for them. Hong Kong and Singapore have freer overall economies, by objective measure, and countries in Europe and elsewhere are freer in certain, specific ways. America outlaws far more nonviolent, personally-questionable activities and expressions, and also incarcerates the highest percentage of its people in the developed world. All this without even mentioning the Patriot Act!

A sensible proposal for American immigration

Living Is Easy With Eyes Closed
M. Harrison

It is believed by many that America's thorny immigration issue is one simply not disposed to compromise. The pundits and activists on either side do little to quash this perception. National-security advocates such as Pat Buchanan argue that any amnesty for employed illegals will invariably harm the Nation's security interests. Their opponents, the liberals who value the cultural diversity that immigration provides, allege that any of the border security measures are invariably racist and/or inhumane. Despite the lack of apparent common ground, however, common-sense and economics can produce some very appealing proposals for the benefit of America and the world exporting its citizens to us.

The New American Dream: A Sensible Proposal for Immigration, Part II (click here for Part I)

M. Harrison

As anyone with a television knows, America is facing quite an immigration crisis. Currently, our immigration policy restricts efficient legal immigration in an astounding variety of ways, even by our federal government's general standard of incompetence. Thanks to Ted Kennedy's 1965 immigration bill (yes, he's that old) and its progeny, American policy has imported millions of immigrants, many of whom we can't even find anymore. Yet at the same time, businessmen, economists and academics are all united in the belief that the country needs more immigrants, especially of the highly skilled, educated variety. Meanwhile, the government lacks even the ability to track many of the immigrants already in the country, yielding little adequate data from which to ascertain even how many illegal immigrants there are, or whether they're working, collecting welfare, committing crime, or anything else, before we ever decide what exactly to do with them.

Rebuttal: Naomi Klein
Solving the problem of African poverty by promoting its cause

Klein's Article

Gordon Brown has a new idea about how to "make poverty history" in time for the G-8 summit in Scotland. With Washington so far refusing to double its aid to Africa by 2015, the British Chancellor is appealing to the "richer oil-producing states" of the Middle East to fill the funding gap. "Oil wealth urged to save Africa," reads the headline in London's Observer.

Here is a better idea: Instead of Saudi Arabia's oil wealth being used to "save Africa," how about if Africa's oil wealth was used to save Africa--along with its gas, diamond, gold, platinum, chromium, ferroalloy and coal wealth?

That's a wonderful idea that would require deregulation, property rights, and a state commitment to free-market principles, all of which are skillfully eluded by your meandering reasoning. More distinctions will follow.