There are many small business owners and entrepreneurs who may be wishing they were dead. Their businesses are being ruined and their lives destroyed. The political lockdowns (not the virus) have hit black business owners hardest: 41% are no longer in business according to an analysis by the National Bureau of Economic Research. The total…
Author: Carl Barney
Evils of Racism
We need to understand that the current lawlessness and the raging, rampaging mobs are a product of their teachers. As author Cynthia Ozick notes: “A vengeful mob is a fearsome thing, but the true monsters are its teachers.” I recommend this brilliant, well-written article, Anti-Semitism and the Intellectuals, because it identifies the source and cause…
The Virus is Still Coming
Don’t be fooled by the media-reported spike in new COVID-19 cases. When you go looking for something, you will find it. Now, testing is more widespread, so new cases are coming to light. What a surprise! Real deaths from COVID are tragic, but it’s mind-boggling how the mad media is peddling false, inflammatory, alarming, and…
Riots, Looting, Mayhem, and Destruction
“Things fall apart; the center cannot hold. Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.” W.B. Yeats wrote those lines in the bleak aftermath of World War I—they resonate today. About 140 cities have been subject to riots, looting, and wanton destruction. Many are calling for police forces to be abolished or defunded. What is going…
Announcement: Mailing List Problem
Dear friends, I apologize for the inconvenience, but I’ve had a minor hiccup with my mailing list and anyone who signed up between May 15 and May 22 was not successfully added to the list, despite the confirmation message you may have seen. If you signed up between these dates, please do so again—the problem…
Victims of the Lockdown
It’s tragic when people die prematurely from any cause, be it heart attacks, strokes, Alzheimer’s, asthma, pneumonia, flu, or COVID-19. Now, illnesses and deaths from COVID-19 have special celebrity (with some justification, but not much—flu is just as deadly, and sometimes more so). The number of deaths attributed to COVID-19 undoubtedly is inflated by the…
Victims of the Virus—or of Sacrifice?
Young people are constantly told to go to college and study hard, and that they’ll get a good, high-paying job if they do. Someone owes these young people an apology. They are faced with the worst job market ever, competing with 33 million unemployed (and counting). All this from a virus that young people statistically…
The Greatest Showman
I love The Greatest Showman, a spectacular movie which I watched last night for the fourth time. Everything about it is perfect. I think it is a great work of art. The story, about love and a great entrepreneur, is captivating. The music and songs delight, haunt, and thrill; they are performed flawlessly, as is the acting. Hugh…
Dr. Leonard Peikoff’s Courses and Lectures
When I studied Dr. Peikoff’s courses almost 40 years ago, I was thrilled by the knowledge and delighted with the clarity, certitude, and wit of his delivery. I had taken hundreds of courses during my life, but none that compared to his. It is through them that I became an Objectivist. They changed my life….
COVID-19: Stupidity, Incompetence, Dishonesty, Evasion
Let me start with three honest, competent, and smart experts—true experts. Dr. Peter Attia, a physician who specializes in the study of longevity, wrote on April 20, “The good news is that [COVID-19] doesn’t look nearly as catastrophic as it seemed in mid-March. . . . The numbers of new cases and new deaths seem…