Month: October 2011

  • The case for evidence-based medicine

    The case for evidence-based medicine

    Few people would openly admit that they prefer irrational treatments and doctors. But most people do in fact advocate irrational health practices – using pseudonyms for “irrational” as “holistic,” “alternative,” “homeopathic” and the deadly “natural.” Medicine requires reason The human body operates according to certain causal principles. If we wish to make a change in…

  • Thoughts upon the death of Steve Jobs

    Thoughts upon the death of Steve Jobs

    To put my view of Steve Jobs in Objectivist terms, I see him as a real-life Howard Roark. Even if he had never been successful, his strength of vision, his uncompromising principles, and his confidence in the power of his ideas make him a hero in my book. But of course it is precisely because…

  • Why is there no mass transit in socialist states?

    Today Sarah asked me why China is only now building subway systems in all its major cities. I pointed out that non-local mass transit is a capitalist phenomena: totally aside from the fact that you need the wealth generated by capitalism to pay for such systems, there is no need to travel in a socialist…