From the Editor, Summer 2011

Welcome to the Summer 2011 issue of the journal for people of reason.

As the cover indicates, we have a few things to say about the situation in the Middle East. Items on this front include my article “The Iranian and Saudi Regimes Must Go”; an interview with author Reza Kahlili, an ex-CIA spy who was long embedded in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards; an interview with historian John David Lewis about U.S. foreign policy and the Muslim world; and related movie and book reviews.

On the domestic front, in “ObamaCare v. the Constitution” Paul Beard presents a compelling legal argument against the Individual Mandate; in “The Government’s Assault on Private-Sector Colleges and Universities” I examine a jaw-dropping saga that is too fantastic for fiction; and, in his delightful interview, Andy Kessler explains why we’d all enjoy a higher standard of living if more businessmen would “eat people.”

Films reviewed in this issue are Iranium, directed by Alex Traiman (reviewed by Daniel Wahl); and Temple Grandin, directed by Mick Jackson (reviewed by C. A. Wolski). Books reviewed include Surrender Is Not an Option: Defending America at the United Nations and Abroad by John Bolton (reviewed by Gideon Reich); The Infidel: Chapter One by Bosch Fawstin (reviewed by Joshua Lipana); Why ObamaCare is Wrong For America: How the New Health Care Law Drives Up Costs, Puts Government in Charge of Your Decisions, and Threatens Your Constitutional Rights by Grace-Marie Turner, James C. Capretta, Thomas P. Miller, and Robert E. Moffit, (reviewed by Jared M. Rhoads); Ethical Oil: The Case for Canada’s Oil Sands by Ezra Levant (reviewed by Andrew Brannan); Anti-intellectualism in American Life by Richard Hofstadter and The Age of American Unreason by Susan Jacoby (reviewed by Burgess Laughlin); the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman (reviewed by C. A. Wolski); Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything by Joshua Foer (reviewed by Daniel Wahl); and Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory by Ben Macintyre (reviewed by Daniel Wahl).

Enjoy the issue, have a wonderful summer, and keep living like you only live once!

—Craig Biddle

About Craig Biddle

Craig is cofounder and editor of The Objective Standard, cofounder and director of education at Objective Standard Institute, and executive director of Prometheus Foundation. He is the author of Loving Life: The Morality of Self-Interest and the Facts that Support It; Rational Egoism: The Morality for Human Flourishing; and the forthcoming Moral Truths Your Parents, Preachers, and Teachers Don’t Want You to Know. He is currently working on his fourth book, “Thinking in Principles.”

View all articles by Craig Biddle →