Q&A med Peikoff.

Q: The question is simple: a mere “Y” or “N” keystroke would suffice. Is sex proper only between two people who are deeply, passionately, romantically in love?
 
A: There is no such thing in regard to philosophic questions as a simple “yes” or “no” answer.

The key to the question lies in the word “deeply.” If this is taken to mean “down to the root of the other person, i.e., down to the very fundamentals of his/her soul,” then proper sex does not require being “deeply in love.” Ideal sex requires it, but sex may be proper without being ideal…

Läs det fullständiga svaret på denna och andra frågor här.

Goda nyheter i Irak? IBD:

Iraqi forces just reported that killings in Baghdad since Feb. 14 totaled 265 — compared with 1,440 who were killed the previous month, an extraordinary decline of more than 80%. Car bombings dropped from 56 to 36.

Killings of U.S. troops in Iraq, meanwhile, are down 60% since the surge began, with 17 U.S. military deaths from Feb. 14 through March 13, compared with 42 over the previous month. This at a time when more of our troops are deployed in dangerous battle zones such as the Baghdad suburb of Sadr City.

Man kan alltid hoppas att det vi ser är ett trendbrott. Själv är jag dock inte särskilt optimistisk.

Global Warming: Environmentalism’s Threat of Hell on Earth. George Reisman:

Environmentalist threats of hell can be expected to become more blatant and shrill if the movement’s present efforts to frighten the people of the United States into supporting its program of caps and reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions appear to be insufficient. Hell is the environmentalists’ ultimate threat.

So let us assume that it were true that global warming might proceed to such an extent as to cause temperature and/or sea-level increases so great as to be simply intolerable or, indeed, literally to roast and boil the earth. Even so, it would still not follow that industrial civilization should be abandoned or in any way compromised. In that case, all that would be necessary is to seek out a different means of deliberately cooling the earth.

Vilka är dessa rationella alternativ? Se här.

Who Is Gouging Whom? David Holcberg:

Last Wednesday 79 members of the House of Representatives introduced a bill instituting criminal and civil penalties on any corporation or individual found guilty of gasoline ”price gouging.” But the real gouger driving up gasoline prices is not the private sector, it is our government.

To ”gouge” means to extort, to take by force–something that oil companies and gas stations have no power to do. Unlike a government, which can forcibly take away its citizens’ money and dictate their behavior, an oil company can only make us an offer to buy its products, which we are free to reject.

Läs resten här.

En känsla för proportioner. Den demokratiske presidentkandidaten John Edwards säger att den globala uppvärmningen kommer att få ett världskrig att framstå som himmelen. Det sägs ju att det snabbaste sättet att förstöra trovärdigheten för sin egen position i en fråga är att överdriva på detta sätt. I så fall säger jag: Kör så att det ryker Edwards! Godspeed!